Promoting Go in the UK and beyond

European Go Congress, 26/07/08-09/08/08

The 52nd European Go Congress was held in Leksand in the centre of Sweden. The week started sunny and the congress has had a great holiday atmosphere. 667 players took part in the first week of the main tournament, including some strong Koreans as usual. Lai Yu-Cheng of Taiwan was in first place after the first five games. The Brits were doing quite well with best results in the first week to Helen Harvey and Kath Timmins on 4/5. 96 pairs took part in the Pair Go Championships. The final was won by Daniela Trinks and Lee Seung-Geun, beating Kurebayashi Meien (2 dan pro) and Marc Stoehr by a small margin. It first it was thought the others had won but the live broadcast corrected the counting error on the result. At the rather damp weekend 421 players were also playing the weekend tournament. Winner was Kim Joon-Sang from Korea. Because of the Masters only Europeans near the top were Catalin Taranu and Cornel Burzo with 3 wins. Best Brit was John Cassidy, who lives in Leuven, with 4/5. The Rapid was won for a second year running by Hong Seok-Ui. In the end 718 played in the main event. Open winner was Park Jong-Wook with 9/10. Second with 8/10 was Hong Seok-Ui. European Champion was Catalin Taranu for the first time. He topped the group on 7 wins by 1 sos point ahead of Dinerchtein, Shikshin and Balogh. Brits winning 6 were Paul Blockley, Kevin Cole and Martin Harvey.

European Masters, 02/08/08-03/08/08

Held at the weekend of the EGC in Leksnd, 8 of the top European players were playing the European Masters to determine who would play in pro events in the orient. In the first round the top Russians (Shinshin, Shikshina and Dinerchtein) lost (to Silt, Dickhut and Koulkov) and Balogh beat fellow Hungarian Mero, so it was going to be interesting who won. In round 2 the winners were Koulkov (v Balogh), Dickhut (v Silt), Dinerchtein (v Mero) and Shikshina (v Shikshin). So the final was Dickhut v Koulkov, and it was won by Franz-Josef Dickhut from Germany. Pal Balogh (beat Shikshina) and Ondrej Silt (beat Dinerchtein) were third.

World Amateur Go Championships, 28/05/08-31/05/08

Again 68 countries were taking part, held at the Nihon Kiin in Tokyo. After 2 rounds UK's Matthew Macfadyen had won both games (against Vietnam and Lithuania). Ireland's Ian Davis had lost both games. In round 3 Matthew lost to Jan Hora of Czechia and Ian got his first win against Peru. In round 4 Matthew lost to Australia and Ian to Chinese Taipei. On day 3 Matthew beat Belarus and Cuba to end the day at the bottom of the group of 4 wins. Ian got his second win, against Bulgaria, and lost to Mexico. At the top unbeaten were Sung Bong Ha of Korea and Fernando Aguilar of Argentina who has been known to beat pros in competition. In round 7 Matthew lost to the USA and beat Slovenia in the last round to end on 5 wins in 20th place. Ian lost to Lithuania but beat Azerbaijan in the last round to get 3 wins and 52nd place. Ha beat Aguilar in round 7 and hung on in round 8 to become the first Korean to win the WAGC whilst unbeaten. Second was Guo of China and third Aguilar of Argentina both on 7 wins, the best ever western result. Then on six wins were Hong Kong, Japan and Burzo of Romania , Mozheng Guan of the USA, Balogh of Hungary, Dickhut of Germany, Chinese Taipei.

Hamburg Tournament, 10/05/08-12/05/08

The Hamburg Affensprung (Monkey Jump) was attended by 187 players; it was a major in the Pandanet Go European Cup. It was mostly Koreans who did well this year. Winner was Hong Seul-Ki with 7/7. Second was Minho Lee with 6, and on 5 were Ondrej Silt from Czechia and Lluis Oh from Spain.

Amsterdam Tournament, 01/05/08-04/05/08

Amsterdam, a Pandanet Major in the Pandanet Go European Cup, was held as usual at the European Go Centre. 107 players took part this year in the 37th edition. Winner was the Korean 7 dan from Germany, Hong Seul-Ki. Czechia's Ondrej Silt (6 dan) came second giving him the lead in the Pandanet points table. None of the UK players won more than 3.

Madrid Tournament, 26/04/08-27/04/08

Bled Tournament, 18/04/08-20/04/08

The first event of the new Pandanet Go European Cup season was in Bled in Slovenia. Hungary's Pal Balogh won all six to win. Heading the group on 4 wins was Ondreij Silt. 65 players took part.

European Pair Go Championships, 10/04/08-13/04/08

A total of 30 pairs from 15 countries took part in the European Pair Go Championships held in Cracow in the south of Poland. Winners on 6/6 were Russians Natalia Kovaleva and Dmitrij Surin. This was the third win in row for Natalia and the second for Dmitrij. Second, topping the group on 4/6, were Ondrej Silt and Jana Hricova from Czechia. Also on 4 wins were Ukraine, Romania, Netherlands and two more pairs from Czechia.

Paris Pandanet Go European Cup Finals, 22/03/08-24/03/08

A record 359 took part in the 36th Paris Open. Fan Hui, the Chinese pro living in France, was winner on tie-break on 5/6. Second was Dai Junfu, also from France, third was Cho Seok-Bin, the Korean now in Poland, and fourth was Bao Yun from China. There was a big group on 4/6 including Chinese pro Li Ang. None of the UK players did very well but Catalin Taranu won his demonstration game series against the latest computer program. In the European Cup rankings first was Cho Seok-Bin. Second was Merlijn Kuin and Ondrei Silt was third.

Ing Memorial, Russia, 14/03/08-16/03/08

20 of Europe's top players travelled to Saint Petersburg for the Ing Chang-Ki Memorial. First for a fourth year was Fan Hui (from China but living in France), this time on 5 wins having lost to Svetlana Shikshina. Second on tie-break was Alexandr Dinerchtein who only lost to Surin. The group on 4/6 was Shikshin, Shikshina, Taranu, Lazarev, Balogh and Kulkov.

European Youth Goe Championships, 06/03/08-09/03/08

This took place in Mikulov in Czechia. 101 under-18s and 58 under-12s took part. Winner with a perfect 6 was Artem Kachanovskyj (4 dan) from Ukraine. Second was Thomas Debarre (4 dan) from France, on tie-break from Javier Savolainen (Finland) and Andrij Kravec (Ukraine). Winner under-12 was Jurij Mykhaljuk (2 kyu) from Ukraine with 6 wins; second was Nikita Khabazov from Russia. Vanessa Wong, representing UK, was 13th in the Under-18.

World Student Championships, 29/02/08-02/03/08

16 representatives from several continents took part in the sixth World Student Oza Championships in Tokyo. Winner was Lee Yong-Hee, again from Korea. Another Korean, a Chinese and two of the Japanese took the next places. Best of the three European players was Martin Jurek from Czechia who won two out of four (the others were Manuela Marz from Germany (16th) and Joan Alemany from Spain (13th)).

Irish Open, 29/02/08-02/03/08

The 19th Irish Open was held as usual in the Teachers' Club in Dublin, but this year was part of the Pandanet Go European Cup. There was a record attendance of 56, representing 11 different nations, in the Open. The 29-player Rapid handicap tournament on the Friday evening was won by Dylan Carter (1 dan) on 5/5. He beat previous winner Roman Pszonka (3 dan) into second place in an exciting last round encounter. Third was Julien Renaud (2 kyu) on tie-break from Colin MacSweeny (5 kyu) and Daniel Parschiv (1 kyu). In the Open, also with a perfect 5/5, the winner was Cho Seok-Bin (7 dan). In second place was Ondrej Silt (6 dan) on tie-break from Liang Wenzhi (1 kyu). Terence McSweeney (1 kyu) topped the group on three wins, followed by Wang Wei (5 dan), Noel Mitchell (2 dan), Lukasz Blek (1 kyu), Milan Jadron (1 kyu), Thomas Scholz (1 kyu) and Ian Davis (1 dan). Winning four games were: Edwin Brady (3 kyu), Martin Klemsa (4 kyu), Martin Harvey (5 kyu), Patrick Macek (6 kyu), Pietro Speroni (9 kyu), Richard Brennan (10 kyu) and Colin Lafferty (12 kyu). Teofil Camarasu (18 kyu) won all 5 games. Arthur Cater won the revitalised Giants Causeway event with some igneous play.

Toyota Denso Oza, Amsterdam, 31/01/08-03/02/08

The fourth Toyota Denso European Go Oza was held at the European Go Centre like the previous editions in 2002, 2004 and 2006. 58 players took part in the qualifying stage, the best going forward to join the winners from 2006 in the grouped knockout stages. From the UK David Ward won 1 and Bei Ge 3. Terence McSweeney, representing Ireland, failed to score. In the knockout stage Bei lost to the new professional Diana Koszegi. The group finals were Dinerchtein v Janssen, Shikshin v Burzo, Pop v Van Ziejst. The three group winners (Dinerchtein, Shikshin and Pop) get to play in the World Oza in the summer. Similar events also took place in the USA and elsewhere.

International Amateur Pair Go Championships, 10/11/07-11/11/07

Korea were again winners of the International Amateur Pair Go Championships in Tokyo. Their pair, students Kim Hye-Lim and Kang Chang-Bae, beat a Japanese Pair in the final. This was less than a month after Kang's win in October's KPMC. Japanese teams came second, third and fourth. Fifth was Taipei and sixth was Russia's Natalia Kovaleva and Dmitriy Surin whose 4 wins was one of Europe's best ever results (Hungary were 4th in 2003). France were 10th, Germany 13th and Finland 16th with 3 wins. Scoring 2 were Austria, Czechia, Spain and Poland. Gunn Larsen and Oystein Vestgarden of Norway won 1 game and the best dressed prize. Other results: US and China won 3, Canada, Thailand and Singapore 2, Costa Rica, Australia, Philippines 1 and Peru 0. There was no UK pair this year.

Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship, 14/10/07-16/10/07

66 countries were represented at the second International Baduk Championships in Suwon, Korea. Winner with a clear 8 points was Korean student Kang Chang-Bae (7 dan). Hu Yu-Qing of China only lost to Korea to come second for a second year running. On 6 wins were Chinese Taipei, Japan, Frank Janssen of the Netherlands, Cristian Pop of Romania, Vietnam, Australia and Ralph Spiegl of Austria. UK's Bei Ge was 19th with 5/8 and Ireland's John Gibson won 3 to come 56th. Bei lost to Belgium, Australia and a 10-year old from New Zealand.

Bratislava Tournament, 05/10/07-07/10/07

127 players attended the Casino Tournament in Bratislava, which this year was part of the Pandanet Go European Cup. Last time's winner Pal Balogh (6 dan Hungary) topped the group on 5 wins to retain the title. Second was Cornel Burzo (Romania) and third was Seul-Ki Hong from Korea. The Korean from Germany, Cho Seok-Bin (7 dan), was again placed fourth by the tie-break, from Silt and Mero.

European Team Championships, 01/10/07-03/10/07

8 teams from 5 countries took part in the European Teams in Leipzig, Germany. A team of German Chinese were winners with 9 points. Second and European Champions were Russia with 8 points. Netherlands were third with 6. In the Pandanet Go European Cup tournament, just before it, winner was one of the German Chinese, Zou Jin, with 4 wins and a triple ko. The Netherlands team took the next four places.

Brno Tournament, 31/08/07-02/09/07

Again the Czech event in Brno was a major in the now Pandanet Go European Cup. 148 players attended (4 more than last year). Cho Seok-Bin (7 dan), the Korean from Germany, was again the winner with 6/6, putting him near the top of the Grand Prix rankings. Hungarian 6 dan Pal Balogh ended second with 5 out of 6. Romanian professional Catalin Taranu topped the group on 4 wins.

World Youth Goe Championships, 06/08/07-12/08/07

The 24th World Youth Goe Championships were organised in Waltham near Boston, MA, USA on behalf of the Ing Foundation. After five rounds the top four players in each of two age groups play knock-out. This year in the seniors three Europeans won 3 games: Artem Dugin (Russia), Dusan Mitic (Serbia) and Artem Kachanovskiy (Ukraine). The Russian made the cut, but lost to China and then Chinese Taipei in the finals stage to place 4th. Ming Sang-Yeon of Korea was the Champion followed by China and Chinese Taipei. In the Juniors the winner was Han Seung-Joo of Korea. China was second, followed by Chinese Taipei and Japan. Playing for the UK, Chin-Yin Woo won 2/5.

European Student Go Championship, 06/08/07-08/08/07

The third European Student Go Championships was held in Stockholm, Sweden, following their Leksand camp. 31 students from 11 countries took part in a six round McMahon. Three players ended on five. After tie-break the order was first Benjamin Papazoglou (5 dan France), second Martin Jurek (4 dan Czechia) and third Merlijn Kuin (6 dan Netherlands). Top female was again the 3 dan from Germany Manuela Marz (formerly Lindemeyer). UK's Vickie Chan (1 kyu) and Xinyi Lu (5 kyu) ended on 2 points each.

US Go Congress, 28/07/07-05/08/07

The 23rd US Go Congress was held in Millersville, Pennsylvania, with nearly 500 in attendance and nearly 390 playing in the US Open. Yongfei Ge (8 dan) from Canada won the Open with 6/6. His wins included beating pro 7 dan Mingjiu Jiang. Mingjiu beat Feng Yun (pro 9 dan) in the final to win the Ing Masters event. Cherry Shen (5 dan) and Eric Lui (8 dan) won the Pair Go and the Youth Pair Go, and Cherry won the Women's.