American Go E-Journal » Europe

The 16th Russian Go Congress got off to an exciting start in Saint Petersburg on June 29th and 30th when 18-year-old Mikhail Svyatlovsky, a shodan from Moscow, won the Valery Astashkin Memorial Tournament. The traditional first tournament of the congress is held in honor of Valery Astashkin (1945-2008), the “Father” of modern Russian go. Astashkin (right) and Georgy Nilov were the first to spread and promote go in Russia in the 1970s. Together they published a series of introductory teaching articles in “Nauka i Zhizn” (Science and Life, a very popular Soviet/Russian magazine of the time) that produced hundreds of new players, clubs and tournaments. In 1977, Astashkin initiated the first USSR Go Championship and in 1989 he became the first president of the new USSR Go Federation.

This year’s Valery Astashkin Memorial Tournament attracted 55 players ranging in strength from 5-dan to 20-kyu. Its distinctive feature is a full handicap system, making it especially enjoyable and appreciated by kyu players who get a chance to take on stronger players as well as high dans who can practice their fighting skills. Three young aspiring Russian players topped this year’s event. In addition to winner Mikhail Svyatlovsky, who had already shone in several local and youth competitions, Anton Radyushkin 8k from St Petersburg came in 2nd and in 3rd place was Kim Shahov, a 5-kyu from Moscow who is just 11 years old.

The Congress, which attracts hundreds of players from all parts of the big country, as well as foreign guests, runs through July 7th and includes several go tournaments, including the Russian Team Championship and annual Russian Cup.

– reported by Daria Koshkina, Russian Correspondent for the E-Journal. Photo credits: Astashkin photo from Astashkin family archive;  Svyatlovsky photo by Alexey Kozhunkov.  Click here for tourney results (in Russian, not yet submitted to EGD). 

Super-Go Tournaments between professionals from China and Japan were quite popular back in the 1980s. The legendary Nie Weiping earned his nickname as the “Iron Goalkeeper” when, as China’s last remaining player in the first three Super-Go events, he defeated all the remaining Japanese players, a sequence of 11 consecutive wins. This year France and Germany are attempting to rekindle this national excitement with the Élysée Cup, a friendly online team tournament occasioned by the “année franco-allemande/Deutsch-französisches Jahr” celebrating the French-German friendship. Organized by the French Go Federation and the German Go Federation, the tournament — played on KGS — follows the model of the previous Super-Go tournaments, with each country fielding teams comprised of eight top players each. The two lowest-ranked players begin, with the winner continuing to play the next strongest opponent from the other team until there are no more opponents left. If the last player of a team is defeated it has lost the tournament. In addition to national bragging rights, the winning team will collect 200 Euro. France’s Toru Imamura scored the first win on June 29, defeating Jun Tarumi by resignation; His next opponent will be Lukas Kraemer on a date to be determined. The French team includes Motoki Noguchi 7d, Thomas Debarre 6d, Rémi Campagnie 6d, Benjamin Papazoglou 5d, Tanguy Le Calvé 5d, Antoine Fenech 5d, Frédéric Donzet 5d, Toru Imamura 4d and Benjamin Dréan-Guénaizia 5d (Substitute Player). The German team includes Pei Zhao 6d, Jin Zou 6d, Benjamin Teuber 6d, Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d, Christoph Gerlach 6d, Johannes Obenaus 5d, Lukas Kraemer 5d, Jun Tarumi 5d and Yi Zhang 5 Dan (Substitute Player).
– Jan Engelhardt, German correspondent for the E-Journal

Lukas Krämer 5d, Bernd Radmacher 4d, Marlon Welter 4d and Matthias Terwey 5d have qualified for the final round of the upcoming German Championship. They will join Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d, Johannes Obenaus 5d, Jun Tarumi 5d and Benjamin Teuber 6d in Darmstadt for the July 4-7 final.

In Germany the championship is divided in two rounds, a preliminary and a final round. The top 60 players in Germany are eligible for the preliminary round; this year 16 players from 3-5 dan showed up June 15-16 in Kassel to compete for four seats in the final, where Dickhut, Obenaus, Tarumi and Teuber were pre-seeded, based on the results of the previous championship.

Unfortunately Robert Jasiek 5d – who took first place in last year’s prelim – arrived to late to take part in the tournament due to train problems. After six rounds in a close field nobody was undefeated. Krämer, Radmacher and Welter managed to win five out of six games. The fourth seat is often decided on tiebreakers, and Matthias Terwey 5d must have been quite worried to have lost his first two games against 3-dans, but a winning streak in the following four rounds was enough to secure him a place in the final round. Some of the games will be broadcast on KGS.
– Jan Engelhardt, German Correspondent for the E-Journal. photo: Bernd Radmacher (left), Marlon Welter (right), Lukas Kraemer (middle)