American Go E-Journal » Europe

Chong Han 5d (Loughborough) won his first UK tournament by taking the 8th Nottingham with ease. Also winning three games were Roger Daniel 5k (London), Maria Tabor 6k (Nottingham), David Crabtree 9k (Chester) and Andrew Russell 12k (Birmingham). Mike Charles won the 9×9 prize and Toby Manning the quiz prize. Click here for results.
– Tony Atkins

Go players and wine-lovers alike are rejoicing that the 2011 European Go Congress – the 55th edition — will take place in the city of Bordeaux, France from July 23rd to August 6th. “Aside from the main tournament, the usual side tournaments will be organized, and professional players will be available to give workshops or simultaneous games,” reports main organizer Astrid Gaultier. And for those who might want to take a break from two weeks of go, Gaultier assures that “sightseeing will be organized during the days off.” Nearly 250 have already registered; click here for more info and details.

Dundee won the top division of the British Go Association’s online League Tournament’s second season, edging out the Central London Go Club (GLGC) Team A when Yohei Negi beat Yangran Zhang on December 15th. In Division 2 the Billericay Dickies took top honors, while the GLGC Team B won Division 3 and Edinburgh 3 topped Division 4. The BGA’s League Tournament was originally a team-based go league designed to be played mainly over the Internet to encourage interaction between players in different areas of the country and to encourage online play among members of the BGA. Thanks to its success, the BGA is starting up an individual league in January 2011.
– reported by John Collins

Irish Go Association President Ian Davis 1d beat clubmate James Hutchinson 1k 2-0 on November 27 in Belfast to take his third Irish Championship title. A week later, Willen-Koen Pomstra 5d (r, in red shirt) of the Netherlands won the UCC Cork tournament. The Cork tournament continues to be plagued by natural disasters. Several years ago the playing room was damaged by storm winds, and the entire city was flooded the next year. This year, record snowfall brought the entire country to a standstill. Still, nearly 30 stouthearted go players braved the storm and cold for the December 5 tournament, making it the biggest go tournament to be held in Cork. In addition to the usual Irish and British players, a whole host of nationalities turned out, including five players from the Netherlands, three from Poland, as well as Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Romanian, Zimbaween and Taiwanese players who are living locally. Pomstra snatched the Cork title from three-time winner Wei Wang 6d (l in photo), who has moved to London to study engineering. In second place for the fourth time was Cao Tong-Yu 4d, a local lecturer at the University. The best female player was Karen Pleit, also from the Netherlands. The best kyu player came from Poland, Przemyslaw Dyszczyk who scored 4 wins from 5. All agreed that Justyna Kleczar did a great job organizing her first tournament. Click here for full results; click here for photo album. photo by Rory Wales

Alexandre Dinerchtein 3P has won his first Russian Championship. Playing in the Russian Championships for the first time in several years, Dinerchtein swept the tournament with a perfect 7-0 score. Ilya Shikshin was second with 6-1 and will represent Russia in the 2011 World Amateur Go Championships (WAGC), and Oleg Mezhov took third with 5-2 and will play for Russia in the 2011 Korean Prime Minister’s Cup (KPMC). All three are teachers on Insei-League.com. Dinerchtein had bypassed the tournament in recent years because as a pro he couldn’t win the right to represent Russia in international events like the WAGC or KPMC, but as of 2010 he could play for a place on the Russian team in the European Team Championship. The Russian Championships – held November 27-28 in St Petersburg — also premiered a new type of live broadcast on KGS, with one board each round open for all to watch (check the EuroGoTV3 account on KGS for game records) and the other — commented live in Russian by dan player — limited to members of the Russian Go Federation or Insei-League.com, or those who paid a $15/year fee. “A lot of Russian go fans were very unhappy because it was not possible to access this (commented) game live,” reports Dinerchtein, who suggested the idea. However, with less than 10% of players attending Russian go tournaments members of the Russian Go Federation, Dinerchtein hopes the special access for members to live game will help the Federation to increase membership. “It’s a very bad situation,” adds Dinerchtein.”Go fans like to watch games of top players free of charge, but they don’t want to support the Federation in any form.” He says that he hopes that other countries will also consider this idea as a method of increasing membership. Click here to view the Championship’s deciding game between Dinerchtein and Shikshin, with live commentary (in Russian) by Timur Sankin (SanKingTim on KGS), courtesy of the Russian Go Federation and KGS.

Dimitris Regginos 1d (r) is the 2010 Cyprus Champion, a title he’s held since 2003 when the Cyprus Go Association was formed, with only exception being in 2008. In second place was Argyris Fellas 3k and in third place Nurman Aylanc (l). The Championship was held November 20-21 at the English School Old Boys and Girls Association Clubhouse in Nicosia, Cyprus.
– Nicholas Roussos

Three hundred players from 29 countries — the strongest tournament ever played in Europe – will participate in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship beginning next week. “This is the greatest push ever seen on the European go scene,” says European Go Federation President Martin Stiassny. “Everyone who knows the European go scene and looks at the players in the A League and B League is overwhelmed” by the number of top players. Strong European players are eligible to play in the tournament, which is a 9-round team tournament in three leagues played on Pandanet IGS with the finals set for the 2011 European Go Congress 2011 in Bordeaux, France. The prize pool is 10,000 euros and the first round is set for November 23rd on IGS – where spectators worldwide will be able to follow the games — but before a single stone has been played, Stiassny says that “It’s already a success, with 29 out of 36 possible countries represented.” Click here for tournament info and news, and here for details on how the tournament is organized. THIS JUST IN! (11/20) The Pandanet Go European Team Championship will be played in a special room on IGS called EuropeanTeamChamp. The first games are scheduled for Sunday, November 21 at 8p (UTC+1). Click here for all Round 1 pairings (14 country-matches on four boards).