Belgian Go Federation

Het Belgisch Kampioenschap Quick Play 2021 (15 minuten absolute bedenktijd; voorgift - 2) wordt online georganiseerd op 28/11 vanaf 14u.
Gratis maar alleen voor de BGF leden.
Vul het volgende formulier in om deel te nemen: https://forms.gle/PSehdACVgcQuTjb86
Winnaar laatste jaar was Thomas Connor 4-d.

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Le championnat de Belgique 2021 de parties rapides (15 minutes de réflexion sans temps additionnel; handicap - 2) sera organisé en ligne le 28/11 à partir de 14h.
Gratuit mais réservé aux membres FBG.
Veuillez compléter le formulaire suivant pour y participer: https://forms.gle/PSehdACVgcQuTjb86
L'année passée, le vainqueur était Thomas Connor, 4-d.

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Practical information for the participants:

The tournament will be played ON LINE on the OGS server and organized on Discord.
so, if you do not have yet a OGS-account, create one on OGS https://online-go.com/
You will find more practical information on the specific "welcome page" of the tournament on Discord: https://discord.gg/DUVzGz3f
Could you also please complete here https://discord.gg/Mnsvk4pa your "OGS pseudo" beside your name ?

Rules:
- if more than 8 participants: 7 rounds Swiss (each round pairs players with same number of wins; everyone in the same starting group); up to 8 participants: round-robin (everyone meets everyone)
- final standings according to the number of wins (tie-breaker: 1. result of the mutual game; 2. declaared strength)
- 15 minutes per player (no extra time - sudden death)
- Handicap - 2 (reference = ranking - kyu/dan - according to the Belgian rating list, or at a stronger level if you prefer)

PS:
- the games won't count for the ratings
- only a Belgian player may get the title of "Belgian rapid games champion" (and the title will be granted only if there are at least 6 participants).

Belgian team made an impressive start in the 12th European Team Championship: our team, composed by Lucas Neirynck, Jan Ramon, Lucman Bounoider and Gabriel Mercier, won the first 2 rounds, each time by a perfect 4-0 score, against Spain and Denmark.

True, Belgium had been demoted to C-league last year, so that the objective of our team captain, Roberto Martinez, oops, Gabriel Mercier I mean, is to finish at the 1st place this year to re-integrate B-league next year.

Complete results here:
1st round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/782
2nd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/783

Lucas gives this Friday a on-line lesson in English (from 7 PM to 8 PM).
The topic will be the direction of play.
This lesson is free of charge but reserved to our BGF members.

Please register here: https://forms.gle/M8Rj5BbBdWUsmGm1A

Polish Stanislaw Frejlak becomes the new (and 8th) European "home-made" professional by beating in final of the (6th) European Pro qualification tournament Lukas Podpera (CZ, 7-d).

What is this tournament ?
The 16 best European amateurs (according to the EGC ranking list) wishing becoming a go professional player competed in European Pro Qualification, a tournament organised +/- every 2 years.
It is a knock-out tournament in which every round was played as a "best of three".

The 2 great favorites were Frejlak and Podpera.
And they both effectively reached the final.
This final was rather dramatic: Lukas won the 1st game, a very long game (397 moves !), but lost the 2nd one ...by half a point. And the day after, Lukas also lost the 3rd (and decisive) game.
This is very unfortunate for him: he has already reached 3 times the final of a European Pro Qualification, and certainly he also deserves to also become a pro !

NB: "Our" Lucas Neirynck (ranked 13) lost in the 1st round to Frenchman Benjamin Dréan-Guénaizia (ranked 4).

Lucman Bounoider (3-d) won the 35th edition of the Brussels tournament unbeaten.
Silver medal was He Jinming (3-d), with a 4/5 score.
And bronze medal, young Louis Baudaux (1-k), best player with 3 wins. Louis is just 15 years old and our Belgian "rising star" !
There 32 participants, among whom Lucman and Sven Cuyt (who did not play all the rounds) were unfortunately the only Belgian "dan" players to participate ! Another desappointment was the low attendance by the local players. But still, it was an enjoyable event.

Here are the complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=BT&year=2021

Participez à la 3ème saison de la "Belgian Go Master League" (BGML): en ligne, du 1 novembre au 20 décembre !

(Ré)Inscriptions possibles jusqu'au 25 octobre, via ce formulaire électronique: https://forms.gle/C975BXEoS9CJCikD9.

Pour rappel, il s'agit d'un tournoi dans lequel chaque joueur est placé dans une division de 5 joueurs. Chacun affronte les autres joueurs de sa division pendant un cycle (de 2 mois).
À l'issue de chaque cycle, le premier de chaque division est promu dans la division supérieure. Les autres joueurs sont répartis en fonction de leur classement BGF.

Les parties se jouent sur OGS (online-go.com). Les contacts entre les joueurs se passent sur le "Belgian Baduk Café" en mode Discord (invite link: https://discord.gg/ufyEUsEpN9)

Nous avons prévu des adaptations afin de faciliter la prise de contact entre joueurs et maximiser ainsi le nombre de parties jouées; d'autre part, les parties de la 1ère division se joueront dorénavant avec webcam.

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Neem deel aan de 3de seizoen van de "Belgian Go Master League" (BGML): online, van 1 november tot 20 december.

(Her)inschrijvingen mogelijk tot 25 oktober via dit elektronisch formulier: https://forms.gle/C975BXEoS9CJCikD9.

Ter herinnering, dit is een toernooi waarin elke speler in een divisie van 5 spelers wordt geplaatst. Elke speler speelt één partij tegen elke andere speler van zijn divisie, dit gedurende een cyclus (van 2 maanden). Aan het einde van elke cyclus wordt de eerstgeplaatste speler van elke divisie gepromoveerd naar een hogere divisie. De overige spelers worden opnieuw gedistribueerd op basis van hun Belgische rating.

De partijen worden gespeeld op OGS (online-go.com). Alle toernooi-gerelateerde communicatie gebeurt via de "Belgian Baduk Café" Discord server (invite link: https://discord.gg/ufyEUsEpN9)

let op: we hebben enkele aanpassingen voorzien die het makkelijker maken voor spelers om contact met elkaar op te nemen, en zo het aantal gespeelde spellen te maximaliseren; daarbij zullen de wedstrijden van de 1e divisie voortaan gespeeld worden met een webcam.

By Jhen at 20/10/2021 - 15:25 Tournaments Calendar

We invite you to participate at the 35th Brussels Tournament which will take place on 30th & 31th October 2021.

Info: https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/brussels

Dear Belgian Go players,

The next season of Pandanet Go European Team Championship start on mid-October.
This time Belgian Team will play in C-League.
There will be 7 matches all over the year.

If you want to join the Belgian team, please send a message to "secretary at gofed dot be" with your first name, family name, rank and Pandanet User account (you can easily create one on Pandanet server: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/pandanet ).
Gabriel Mercier, the team Captain, will then contact you back as soon as possible.

The 12 top ranked participants will be accepted in the team: with 7 players from last year already in, this leave 5 spots to fill !

Condition to be a member of the Team:
1° Having Belgian citizenship.
2° Agreed to play for Belgium only (cannot change team after season start).
3° Be ready to play a (online) game on one Tuesday evening (usually from 8 pm to 11 pm) every month.
4° Answer this message before 3rd of October (10 pm)

You can contact Gabriel directly through KGS (search for "liusasori" in Belgian Room) or Facebook (on Belgian Go Federation group).

Complete schedule will be send at the beginning of the season so I expect you to put it in your agenda and to free your Tuesdays evening :)

This is a great opportunity to play against other European players without leaving your room !

Please read the info about the matches before season starts:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

With great expectations for this year (we have to come-back in B-league!).
your devoted team captain,
Gabriel Mercier.

For the 3rd time, the final of the Belgian championship was organized as a knock-out tournament with 2 lives.
Lucas won undefeated his 11th title (in 12 participations).
The closest game was against Thomas Connor with a win margin by only 1,5 points.
In the final, Lucas managed to win a dangerous semeai against Lucman Bounoider (3-d).
Thomas Connor won the "little final" and climbed onto the podium.

Here is the final podium:
1. Lucas Neirynck (6d)
2. Lucman Bounoider (3d)
3. Thomas Connor (4d)

Just a reminder.

Traditionally we used to play Go human vs human. And up to a few decades ago, computer Go levels were also too low to provide a sensible help to Go players. But nowadays, the strength of AI Go programs has evolved tremendously, way beyond the level of the world top Go pros players.

So for sure, many of us like to use Artificial Intelligence to analyze games or simply to see moves played by computers. And this is perfectly fine and also a modern and efficient way to progress.

But in a human vs human competition, the hidden use of computers spoils the fun of the suspense of a fair game played between players of sensibly around the same levels.

So, for your information, the Belgian Go Federation has some tools to detect such cheating and for the first time these tools have been used to analyze suspicious games and confirm the use of computer assistance.

The cost to pay if you get caught cheating with a computer is a loss of the game and several months exclusion from competition/Go Federation activities.

So for your own enjoyment and the respect of your opponent, please keep computers aside when you are playing tournament games in which they are not allowed.
Thanks !