OH CHI-MIN SWEEPS BERLIN TOURNEYS: Oh Chi-Min 7D has swept two German tournaments back-to-back. After winning 
the Go-to-Innovation tournament in Berlin on November 21-23, Oh won the ‘Crane’ there a week later. Hong Seul-ki 7D finished 2nd and Zou Jin 6D took 3rd prize in the Innovation and Zou Jin moved up to 2nd in the Crane while Hong took 3rd there. The Innovation tournament is scored with Hahn-rules, which yield better scores for large and consecutive wins, while games with reduced handicaps are possible. These rules enabled some two-digit-kyus to take top places, like Pavel Salom 13k, who placed 5th with 7 wins. Next were Radek Nechanicky 6D, Lukas Podpera 2D and his younger brother Milos Podpera 11k, all Czech players. There were 61 participants; the top board was broadcast by EuroGoTV. In the Crane – where EuroGo TV again broadcast the top board — 171 people took part, and only local youngster August Damm 25k also won all 5 rounds.
– reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent; photo: Oh (l) plays Bernd Schütze 4D in the final round of the Crane. Photo by Sabine Wohnig. Click here for a complete album of tourney photos.
FRENCH AUTUMN GO REPORT: The big go news in France was Fred Donzet 5D’s 8th-place finish in the recent Korean Prime 
Minister Cup (Europeans Perform Well At Korean PM Cup 11/17 EJ). Look for a mini profile on Donzet and his most successful student Thomas Debarre (see below) in a future EJ. The National Youth Congress took place during France’s Autumn School Holiday during the last week of October, with teachers Fan Hui 2P and Noguchi Motoki 7D instructing 45 young students. Fan, one of Europe’s top players, is well-known to EJ readers for his game commentaries, while Noguchi is not only a strong player and teacher, but ALSO a scholar on go and art, “During the Congress’ Youth Championships, Mélissa Héaulmé won Primary Title, the first girl to win a Youth Title in 20 years, while Thomas Debarre won the College Title and Michel Papin won ‘Lycée’ ahead of Julie Antigny, who took silver,” Noguchi reported on French Go Association’s website. Two weeks later, Fan and Noguchi confirmed their top-player status at the “2e Mondial des Yeux de l’ Esprit,” – the French version of ‘Minds Games’ — held November 13-19 in Aix-les-Bains. In Aix, Fan won, handing Noguchi his only loss in a strong field that included Dai Junfu 7D, Li Yue 6D from Barcelona, Zhang Yanqi 5D of China and Peter Brouwer of Amsterdam. Games were broadcast on KGS and EuroGoTV. Also undefeated in the 60-player field were Paul Bivon 2k, Maxime Pages 5k and Frédérik Wilthölter 10k. And finally, in the middle of the Mondial tournament, the finals of the French Team Championships were held in Rennes, with the team from Tours winning the title for the first time. The Team Championships title is called the ‘Maitre Lim Coupe’, or Master Lim Cup, named after the go teacher who’s trained strong Paris go players for over 30 years. As a scholar, Master Lim has contributed to Paris-based go mags like ‘Noir et Blanc’ (black and white) with erudite and creative essays on the history and culture of go. In one, Master Lim imagined go rankings as animal characters, in which a strong kyu might be nothing more than a weasel, but 5D’s were real tigers.
– reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent; photo: Nobuchi Motoki 7d (l) vs Peter Brouwer 4D
