American Go E-Journal » Europe

Spain: The La Carboneria, a class C tournament, played on 2/11 in Sevilla, Spain, was won by Raul Aguilera 7k; Result table.
Romania: The 3rd Radu Baciu Grand Prix – stage 2, a class A tournament, played 2/4-5 in Giarmata, Romania, was won by Viorel Arsinoaia 2d. (photo Alice Trifu 5k place 4 of 25 ) Result table.  The TrSeverin- Romanian Cup under 9 kyu, a class C tournament, played 2/3-5 in Drobeta TrSeverin, Romania, was won by Ionut Galbenu 9k; Result table. The Drobeta Tr.Severin- Romanian Cup- preliminaries group C, a class C tournament, played from 1/20-22 in Drobeta Tr.Severin, Romania, was won by Vasile Grecu 15k; Result table.
Italy: The Trofeo Milano 2012 – 1a Tappa, a class C tournament, played on 2/4 in Go Club Milano, Italy, was won by Francesco Marigo 4d. Result table.
The Netherlands: The Club Championship, a class A tournament, played from Jan 2 to Feb 6 in Utrecht, Netherlands, was won by Bram Koster 4d; Result table. The Jubileumtoernooi Seki, a class A tournament, played from 2/4-5 in Voorburg, Netherlands, was won by Zeno van Ditzhuijzen 4d; Result table. As he did last year, Alex Ketelaars 1d ruled and won all his games and so became the 2012 Dutch Youth Champion Under 18. Yuki de Groot (photo at left) won the 2012 Dutch Youth Championship 2012 Under 12.
Germany: The Emder Hausboot-Turnier 2012, a class A tournament, played from 2/4-5 in Emden, Germany, was won by Willem-Koen Pomstra 5d; Result table.
France: The winner of the 27th Antony tournament and then 40th Paris Tournament is DAI Junfu 8D, Paris Go School Club.
Latvia: The Gosente mini handicap tournament, a class C tournament, played on 2/4 in Riga, Latvia, was won by Dmitrij Kravchenko 4k; Result table.
Ukraine: The Winter`s sonata, a class A tournament, played from 1/28-29 in Kherson, Ukraine, was won by Kostiantyn Pozharov 5k; Result table.
– excerpted from reports on EuroGoTV.com 

Poland: Kamil Chwedyna 4d (photo) won the Black Stone tournament, played 1/7-8 in Katowice, Poland. Click here for results. Lithuania: Gytis Vasiliauskas 1d was the winner at the 1/17 Trys Karaliai tournament in Vilnius, Lithuania. Click here for results. Spain: Sabina Rodriguez 9k topped the La Carboneria tournament played 1/7 in Sevilla, Spain. Click here for results. Croatia: Mladen Smud 1k won the Silvester tournament, played 12/31in Velika Gorica, Croatia. Click here for results. Zvonko Bednjanec 3k took first place in the Velika Gorica tournament 1/7 in Velika Gorica, Croatia. Click here for results. Upcoming European Tournaments: France: The 27th annual Antony Tournament, which also this year includes the 40th Paris Tournament (Antony is a Paris suburb) is set for 2/4-5. Romania: the Shusaku Tournament is scheduled for March 30 thru April 1 and features strong Chinese pros as guests, many strong players and, say organizers, “is well known for its parties.”
– Excerpted from reports – including full results — on EuroGoTV

UK: The 2011 London Open – held 12/28-31 in London — was won by YoungSam Kim 7d who won all his games. Lingjun Miao 4d was second came and in third was Yunlong Liu 3d. Click here for a more detailed report and results. Austria: Schayan Hamrah (at left) won the Austrian championship finals in mid-December. Click here for an interview with him. Spain: Alejandro Lopez 5k won the December 28 La Carboneria tournament, played in Sevilla, Spain. Romania: The Cluj-Napoca- City Championship, played December 16-18 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, was won by George Ghetu 3d.  Turkey: Ozgur Degirmenci 2d won the 19th Alpar Kilinc Memorial Tournament, played Dec 17-18 in ODTU/Ankara, Turkey. Switzerland: The 2011 Swiss Go Camp League, played Dec 16-19 in Montbonvon, Switzerland, was won by Semi Lee 4d.
– Excerpted from reports – including full results — on EuroGoTV

Edinburgh Christmas Open: Yunlong Liu 3d (Stirling) was the best of the 24 players at the 12/3 tournament. West Surrey Handicap Tournament: Ten years after previously winning, Malcolm Hagan won the West Surrey Handicap Tournament on December 3, probably the last ever such event, with just 13 players turning up. Coventry Tournament: Andrew Kay beat Matthew MacFadyen in their third-round game on November 19, increase Kay’s current titles to five. Three Peaks Tournament: Andrew Kay stopped Matthew Cocke’s run of three titles in a row at the Three Peaks Tournament in Grange-Over-Sands, November 12–13, giving Kay four current titles. East Midlands Tournament: Chong Han 5d from Loughborough was the winner in the November 5 tourney, beating Francis Roads, Jon Diamond and Tony Atkins along the way. Wessex Tournament: Yunlong Liu 3d, a temporary student in Scotland, won the 42nd Wessex Tournament on October 30 in Bath, beating defending champion Andrew Kay by two points in the final.
– excerpted from reports in the December 2011 British Go Association Newsletter, which also reported that due to financial reasons the 30-year-old print publication — which appeared six times each year — will be suspended as of the April 2012 edition. “We are in discussion as to whether it will continue as an electronic publication,” the Newsletter added. Publication of the British Go Journal will continue, and you can keep up to date with British go news on the BGA website.

Austria: Schayan Hamrah 2d won the Austrian Championship, played 12/9-12 in Vienna, Austria.

Switzerland: In the 12/16-18 Swiss Go Camp League in Montbonvon, Switzerland, Semi Lee 4d took first place.

Hungary: Rita Pocsai 4d (right) won the Hungarian Championship, played 12/17-18 in Budapest, Hungary. In the fifth Nostalgia Cup, held 12/18 in Budapest, Gergely Meszaros 2k won top honors.

Turkey: Ozgur Degirmenci 2d won the 19th Alpar Kilinc Memorial Tournament, played 12/17-18 in ODTU/Ankara, Turkey.

Romania: Sergiu Dan Iugulescu 2d won the 3rd Radu Baciu Grand Prix, played 12/17-18 in Bucuresti, Romania. ( photo at left: Sebastian State 14k , who was 8th in the B-group )

Italy: In the second Torneo Atomo GO Club tournament, played 12/18 in Bologna, Italy Alessandro Pace 2d won first place.

Ukraine: The Ukrainian Meijin Title Match, played 11/6-12/18 in Kyiv, Ukraine, was won by Artem Kachanovskyi 7d (right ) who lost the first of the best-of-5 match to Dmytro Bohatskyi 6d , but by winning the next three games made it clear who was the undisputed Ukraine Meijin 2011.

– Excerpted from reports – including full results — on EuroGoTV

SPAIN: Joan Pons 2d won the Dec 10-12 Final del Campeonato de Espana 2011 in Spain. In The Legends Cadiz tournament, played Dec 10 in Cadiz, Arturo De Celis 13k took first place.

HUNGARY: Hungarian Schoolkids Championship Preliminary: Zsigmond Tar 17k topped the December 11 Hungarian Schoolkids Championship Preliminary in Budapest, Hungary.

ROMANIA: Romanian Female Championship: Larisa Popescu 3k (photo) won the Romanian Female Championship, played Dec 10-12 in Bucuresti, Romania.

ITALY: Udine Tournament: Andres Saro 5k won the second Udine Tournament, played Dec 11 in Udine, Italy.

PORTUGAL: Li Dong Fang, the only one to win all five matches, won the 2011 Oporto Open, which featured player participation from China, France, and Spain, besides the national representatives from Portugal. Daniel Tome was the best Portuguese player in the tournament. Click here for details.

POLAND: In the Bydgoszcz tournament, played on Dec 10 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Maksym Walaszewski 4k took first place.

– Excerpted from reports – including full results — on EuroGoTV

For once, Cork was not visited by some terrible natural disaster on the eve of its annual tournament, as it has been in recent years. The 2011 UCC Weiqi Tournament was won by Kim Ouleween (left), a professional artist from Amsterdam who’s done some game commenting on EuroGoTV. His 5-game sweep kept the tournament in Dutch hands for the second year in a row. In second place on tiebreak was KGS star Ian ‘Javaness’ Davis, who collected more SOS than Spain’s Matei Garcia. Also winning 5/5 was Thomas Shanahan from Galway. The 23 players were all grateful for organiser Justyna Kleczar’s hard work.

Click here for full results and a photo album
photo: Kim Ouleween (left) Cao Tong Yu (right)

Eighteen-year-old Thomas Debarre 6d (r) won a third French Go Championship October 29-30 at Beire-le-chatel, near Dijon, France. Debarre beat Rémi Campagnie, a young Frenchman who lives in Canada in a final that was commented live on KGS by Fan Hui 2P.
– reported by Alain Cano

SHREWSBURY TOURNAMENT, 2 October:   The winner of this year’s Shrewsbury tournament was Toby Manning, after a long struggle with Baron Allday.   Kathleen Timmins also won three games. Although numbers were down on last year, those present enjoyed the tournament and commented that the shift to Sunday had made travel and parking troublefree.

SWINDON TOURNAMENT, 18 September:  The Swindon Tournament went well and attracted 36 players. Winning again after a gap of six years was Bei Ge (5 dan), who beat Francis Roads in the last round. Francis led the Wanstead club to victory in the team prize. The only other player to win all three games was young Aidan Putman (12 kyu) from Swindon, so a special prize went to Adan Mordcovich (2 kyu) for two good wins.

BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL, CAMDEN, LONDON, 17 September: In an exciting third and deciding game Matthew Macfadyen killed a group early on and held on against everything Nick Krempel could throw at him. Eventually Nick had to resign allowing Matthew to be champion for another year.  The records of all three games are on the BGA website. Guo Juan has kindly commented all three games and has created free audio lectures which are linked from the BGA site.

NORTHERN TOURNAMENT, STOCKPORT, 11 September: Richard Moulds won this year’s Northern tournament. Although there were only 21 players, there were four other prize winners on maximum wins, namely: Ron Bell, Roger Huyshe, James Brownrigg and Brian Timmins. Also noteworthy is the fact that Adan Mordcovich from Wanstead, the youngest player to attend, was placed second overall.

CORNWALL TENZANCE, 10 – 11 September:  Sue Paterson won the Cornish Rapid Handicap on the Saturday and Ian Marsh won the Cornish Open on OURNAMENTS, Pthe Sunday. 20 people took part in all over the weekend that included a teaching session as well as the two tournaments.

BELFAST TOURNAMENT, 27 – 28 August:  Andrew Simons was unbeaten winner at this year’s 22-player Belfast Tournament. Matthew Crosby was second with 4 wins, only losing to Andrew.  Also winning 4 were Poland’s Justyna Kleczar and Marek Gutkowski. Winning 3 to come third was local player James Hutchinson.

MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD, LONDON, 27 – 28 August: In the 13 x 13 tournament Matthew Cocke proved the best of the 8 players.  Silver place went to Francis Roads winning 6 but losing to Matthew. Bronze place went to Henry Manners with 4 wins on tie-break from Xinyi Lu and event arbiter Tony Atkins.  Matthew then went on to collect his second MSO Gold in two days, by winning the 16-player Open. Silver went to Adam Pirani who lost to Matthew in the last round. Equal Bronzes were Francis Roads and Chu Lu from China. Paco Garcia from Spain was fifth.

– as reported in the October edition of the British Go Association newsletter; more information on upcoming UK tournaments is available here.

In a nail-biting game, Matthew Macfadyen beat Nick Krempel on September 17 in London to retain the title of British Go Champion.  “In an exciting third and deciding game, Macfadyen killed a group early on and held on against everything Nick Krempel could throw at him,” reports Tony Atkins. “Eventually Nick had to resign allowing Matthew to be champion for another year.” Game records of the championship match are available in the KGS Archives. Other recent news from the British tournament scene is available here.