American Go E-Journal

As noted above (Chinese Taipei Secures Status As Go Superpower), Ondrej Silt of Czechia was the top European at the Korean Prime Minister Cup, placing 5th. Silt only lost to China and Hongkong and finished one SOS-point ahead of Thomas Hsiang from the US. Frédéric Donzet of Paris, France was the best 5D at 8th place and only lost to Japan and Hungary. Among the five-pointers there were many of the usual 6D suspects from Europe, like Dmytri Bogackyj (Ukraine), Csaba Mero (Hungary), Alexey Lazarev (Russia) on places 13-15 and Merlijn Kuin (17th, Holland). Also two 5D’s did well: Vesa Laatikainen (Finland, 18th) – he defeated a Canadian 7D in the last round – and Lucian Corlan (Rumania, 20th). Surprisingly strong was the performance of Lothar Spiegl (Austria) at 12th place he was the best 4D and lost only to China, Czechia and the Ukraine. Janez Janza (Slovenia) at place 19 was the best 3D. Also two shodans from Europe won five games: Ngoc Cuong Nguyen (Luxembourg, 22) and Dmitris Regginos (Cyprus, 24). Other notable European performances came from Martin Reindl 2D of Slovakia who placed 29th and started with a win against 5D from Rumania, and Francois Gonze 1D (Belgium) placed 31stwhile Pablo Morales (Spain) was 32nd. Also noteworth was EJ friend and fellow go editor Mehmet Barsbey 1D of Turkey, who defeated 3-dans from both Argentina and Brazil. results: Click here for results.
– reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent; photo of an unknown PM Cup player by Cuong