Condemning the war against Ukraine, the European Go Federation has suspended Russia from the EGF, and canceled all EGF events planned in Russia. Additionally, Russian go players “are not allowed to play under their country’s flag in EGF events,” and will be accepted only as neutrals. “We call for a quick and peaceful end to this aggression against Ukraine,” the EGF said. These sanctions are far-reaching, as Russia has a lot of go players, including at the top level.
The International Go Federation has done the same, but with the inclusion of Belarus, “confirming IGF’s strong condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia with support of Belarus and expressing IGF’s unwavering solidarity with our Ukrainian friends.”
European pro and European Go Journal editor Artem Kachanovskyi, a resident of Kyiv, has posted movingly on Facebook about having to flee the city and not being able to fight since he must take care of his children. He’s also decided not to have any Russian contributors to the EGJ, calling it a difficult decision to make.
Tony Claasen reported on the EGF’s website that he joined an anti-war demonstration with over 150,000 people in Prague before the European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) training camp started there recently. “This war is having a big impact on the social life of every one in Europe,” Tony says, “and now also in the go community as a lot of players from both Ukraine and Russia can not participate in the Camp or in the EYGC.”
AGA president Andy Okun tells the EJ that a Ukrainian go player he met years ago is in Kyiv, and told Andy “Your help is need – the world must know about our war and that the Russia is fascism! For the moment Ukraine need to safe the sky! We hope that World and USA will help us and we will win! Glory to Ukraine and its heroes!”
We’ll pass along more related updates and news as we receive them; please send to journal@usgo.org
Chris Garlock, Managing Editor, American Go E-Journal.
NOTE: Updated with a quote from the IGF and link to their statement.
