Belgian Go Federation

The results of the 2020 interclub are in. We had 6 participating clubs this year Ath,Phénix, Hasselt, Gent, Leuven and Pantin. Leuven was ultimately victorious with Phénix and Hasselt in second and third place respectively.

Unfortunately we had to void a large number of matches because the players where not paying members of the federation. This had a large impact on the result, changing the final winner. Hopefully we can work to avoid this in future interclubs.

Detailed results can be found here

The 2nd edition of the Corona Cup was very successful: no less than 400 (!) players participated in this tournament, played on-line due to the Covid crisis (let us hope there will never be a 3rd edition ! ;-).

Like the 1st edition, organized during the 1st lock-down, the Korean ex-insei Kim Young-Sam (8-d) won unbeaten. He confirms more than ever his leading place in the European rating list.

Silver medal was Artem Kachanovski, who was the only top competitor with 5 wins.

Artem ended ahead of four players with 4 wins:
- Ilya Shikchin,
- Lucas Podpera (who organized the tournament),
- Anton Chernykh
- and Kim Seong-Jim (who was beaten by the the other Kim, but also, surprisingly enough, by a mere 5-d).

Our country fellow Lucas Neirynck ends 8th with a 3/6 score.

Complete results here: https://goweb.cz/turnaj/ii-corona-cup-2020-online/

Things are going worse and worse for the Belgian team (Lucas, Lucman, Gabriel, Sven): our guys lost heavily to the Dutch team (0-4), despite the presence of our champion, Lucas Neirynck.
But Lucas was confronted to one of the European legendary player, Rob Van Zeijst (7-d) and lost.
And the 3 other games were imbalanced on paper, with three Dutch 6-dan opposed to our low dan Belgian guys.
(note: Gabriel wrote in the FaceBook page of the BGF (https://www.facebook.com/groups/100421440086165/) that he and Lucman missed opportunities to win their game)

Belgium remains of course at the last place in the B-league. :-(

Results of the round here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/677

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Thomas Connor (4d) won the 2020 Belgian champion of quick (blitz) games with 6/7, ahead of Jan Ramon, 4d (5/7). Marie Jemine (2d) completed the podium (4/7). Four players got 3 wins: Sven Cuyt (1k), Michael Silcher (4k), Guillaume De Keijser (6k) and Jean-Denis Hennebert (4k). Xavier Bael (10k) ended with 1 point.

This edition was played online on OGS go server.

Surpringly, Belgium team, even if "on paper" much stronger than the Swiss team, lost to the Helvetes (Lucas - (!) , Jan -, Lucman -, Gabriel +).

Belgium occupies now the last position in the B-league ! :-(

Results of the round here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/676

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Lucas Neirynck is doing well lately: after his win to Alexander Dinerstein, and shortly after having won his 10th title of champion of Belgium, he became also...champion of France (open, as he has not the french nationality). Lucas lives presently in Paris.
He managed to win (among others) against pro Tanguy Le Calvé and against Benjamin Dréan-Guénazia, a strong 6-d.
Results here: https://cdf.jeudego.org/rondes-et-resultats/

By winning the final against Ali Jabarin (2-1), Ilya Chikchine became European Champion for 2020.
This is already his 7th European title (he was already champion in 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017 and in 2019).
Only Jürgen Mattern (DE) has won more titles (8, in the years '60 and '70) than Ilya.

Complete results of the European Go Championship here: https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2020.html

On 20/10/20, Belgian team (Lucas Neirynck -, Jan Ramon -, Lucman Bounoider +, Gabriel Mercier -) lost to United Kingdom in the 1st round of the new season of the European Team Championship.

Results of the round here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/675

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Nearly all the best European players participated in the 2020 European Championship (among the pros, only Pavol Lisy was missing).

This edition is of course organized on-line to due the Covid-Crisis, in a knock-out formula, with sided players.

We already told you that Lucas Neirynck won twice (once against Dinerstein), but he has been finally beaten by Andrei Kravets in the 1/8 of finals.

The quarters of finals were (winners in 1st place):

Ilya Shikchine - Andreii Kravets
Mateusz Surma - Anton Chernykh (an amateur)
Artem Kachanovskij - Tanguy Le Calvé
Ali Jabarin - Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia (another amateur)

Semi-finals:
Ilya - Mateusz: 2-1
Ali - Artem : 2-1

Final:
Ilya - Ali: 2-1

Complete results: https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2020.html

In the 2nd round of the European Championship, Lucas Neirynck realized the most impressive feat in his life: he managed to defeat a professional player, Alexander Dinerstein.

Alexander Dinerstein became pro in 2002 in the Korean Baduk Association. He has been 7 times European champion (between 1999 and 2009), and is still one of the strongest European players (8th in the last European Rating).

It was a very tight game from the beginning to the end, that Lucas finally won by...1,5 point !
It was also a very high level game: according to the website "AI sensei" (with which you can analyse games with the help of some of the strongest programs), the 2 players made (each) only one mistake of >3 points !

To download the game: see "sgf file" in red here: https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2020.html

In the next round, Lucas will play another pro: Andreii Kravets.

PS: I advice you to look at the spectacular game Lucas won in the 1st round against Sinan Djepov, wherein he managed to survive in the moyo of his opponent before delivering a nice tesuji as "coup de grace".