American Go E-Journal

Davide Minieri 3D took 1st place at the 29th annual Italian Open Championships (pictured), held at the 11th Italian Go Congress, which ran November 28-30 in Milan, Italy. The field of 87 included a large group of participants from Kiev in the Western Ukraine. Four players finished on top with 4 wins each: Minieri (Padova), Vasyl Skochko 4D (Kiev), Giordano D’Obici 1D (Rome) and local strongman Francesco Marigo 4D. Dmytro Korolov 7K and Mykola Antonov 20K from Kiev were the only other undefeated players. Roman Korolov 2K of Kiev topped the 9×9 Tournament, Borys Baydenko 4K took 2nd and Carlo Metta 2K was the 9×9 Italian Champ, finishing 3rd (the highest-placing Italian player wins the championship title). Vasyl Skochko of Kiev took first place in the Lightning Championships, ahead of his countryman Roman Ruzhanskyy 1K, while Davide Minieri placed 3rd to win the Italian title, ahead of Gionata Soletti 2K, the main organizer of the 1996 and 2006 European Go Congresses in Italy. – reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent