Belgian Go Federation

The results of the 2022 interclub are in. We had 5 participating clubs this year Antwerpen, Gent, Leuven, Pantin and Phénix.

Phénix was ultimately victorious with Antwerpen and Pantin in second and third place respectively

Detailed results can be found here

After a long period of troubles (Covid...), the traditional Go camp is back ! :)
Our main instructor will be Lucas Neirynck 6d, 11 times Belgian Champion !

WHAT ?
Lessons will be in English (a level above 20 kyu is advisable to fully benefit from the teachings).

WHEN ?
From Friday December 9th (18:00) to Sunday December 11th (18:00)

HOW MUCH ?
Participation fees of 40€ for BGF members, 50€ for non-BGF players, to be transfered on the account of the BGF IBAN: BE24 7755 9621 2238. All included: full pension (2 nights, all the meals, lessons by the instructors).
Participation fees for one-day: 30 € (40 € if non-BGF member).

WHERE ?
Auberge du Tilff Esplanade de l’Abeille, 9 4130 TILFF
The building is an 18th century farm-manor house that can host up to 50 people and is located at the heart of the Ourthe Valley in the Ardennes, not far from Liege/Chaudfontaine. https://aubergedetilff.be/about-us/

Note that you should bring your own bedsheets and towels!

Registration form: https://forms.gle/iFvdQ9KHd4tC83G49
Deadline 28/11/2022

Program for Go camp
Friday: evening, tsumego contest (30 mn chrono)
Saturday: morning, games and commentaries in group the afternoon, theory lesson 1h and small tournament
Sunday: morning, grouped games and commentaries, theory lesson 1h and extra recreative Go activity

Lucman Bounoider (3-d) won unbeaten the 2022 edition of the Belgian Championship of rapid games (15 min per player, sudden death; handicap - 2).
He has already been champion last year and in 2017.

There were only 5 participants (a disappointing figure), but still a fun tournament for everyone - that has been quietly played from home.

On the podium, Lucman got 4 wins, ahead of Jan Ramon (4-d) (3 wins) and Yvan Nollet (4-k) (2 wins).
Michael Silcher (4-k) got 1 win, and Jean-Denis Hennebert (5-k) ended with no win.

On 18/10, Belgian team made a draw (2-2) in the 1st round against Finland: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/903
and lost in the 2nd round (on 15/11) 1-3 to Italia https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/904

After 2 rounds, Belgium is 8th out of 10 teams in B-league. But the competition has only just begun...
https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

We are very happy to announce the birth of a new Go club in the College Matteo Ricci.

Go clubs in schools are not new and this activity is developing progressively and steadily in Belgium.
The club has started a couple of weeks ago and has around 20 players.
Most of the other Go clubs in the secondary education domain are handled by teachers (often math teachers...). Here it's the first time we have a club created by a student: Adam Beguin - who also plays in the Phenix Go club.

We wish the Go club of the College Matteo Ricci to be successful in enlightening the spirit of its players !

Note: by chance, Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionaire (1552-1610) who lived in China has been the first Westerner to report about the existence of the game of go (weichi) !

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As a reminder, the Federation helps the creation of new Go clubs with material and advice.
In the case there is no Go club nearby, if you feel you have the motivation for it, we would be happy to help you to start one. And even if you don't have much time (or are a bit lazy ;)) you may also become a "point of contact". In any case just contact us. ;)

Chinese female 5-d JiaHui Chen won unbeaten the 36th edition of Brussels tournament, ahead of the favourite, Zihan Yan (CH, 6d).
JinMing He (CH, 3d) completed this all-Chinese podium.

Best Belgian players were Sven Cuyt (4th) and Gabriel Mercier (5th), both with 3/5, while last year's winner, Lucman Bounoider ended 6th with a 2/5 score.

There were 52 participants.

JiaHui Chen was the only unbeaten participant. Players with 4 wins were: Renaud Gaban (3-k), Jonathan Pittonet (4-k), Kenny Bebacq (5-k), Thomas Lemaire (8-k), Eric Baijot (10-k), Gaëtan De Menten (12-k), Marie Evrard (14-k) and Léo Guillaume (18-k). Congratulations to them !

Complete results: https://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=T221029O

The Korean Prime Minister Cup is the Korean version of the World Amateur Championship.

The 2022 has been won by 1. Jung-Sun KIM (Korea), who ended unbeaten (but in absence of representative from China).
Five competitors got a 5/6 score: in the order after tie-breaker:
2. Yu-Chang LAI (Taïwan),
3. Minoru OZEKI (Japan)
4. (best European and best Westerner) Rob Van Zeijst (Netherlands) (who is nearly 60 years old)
followed by the representative of 5. Vietnam and of 6. New-Zeeland.

Our representative was Lucas Neirynck, who ended 22th out of a field of 52 competitors, with a 3/6 score and rather expected results: + against Iran, Columbia and Finland; - against Japan, New-Zeeland and France.

Completed results here: http://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/eng/result/gameTable.asp

Frenchman Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia (6-d) is the 2022 European champion.
He won (rather surprisingly) the final against the great favourite (in absence of Russian Ilya Shikchine), Ukranian Artem Kachanovskij (2-p).
Frederick Blomback (Sweden, 6-d) won the small final against Serbian Nikola Mitic (7-d).

Artem is suffering the "Raymond Poulidor's syndrome": up till now, he has never been European champion. He was finalist in 2022, 2021 and 2019, and semi-finalist in 2020 and 2017.

Complete results of the European Championship: https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2022.html

****

The Korean professional Won Jin Choi (1-p) won unbeaten the open tournament, ahead of his countrymen Kim Yuchan (another 1-p) (9 wins out of 10 rounds) and Kim Dohyup (7-d) (with 8/10).
Chinese Yang Yaolin ("5-d") ended 4th with 7 wins.
Best European is Stanislaw Frejlak (PL, 1-p), 6th with 6 wins.
To be noticed: the great performance of the young Italian (16 years old) Davide Bernardis ("4-d") who ended 8th with 6 wins (he beat a Korean 7-d and Cornel Burzo, 6-d).
And also the good results by our 2 Belgian participants: Sven Cuyt, 3/4 as a 2-d and Wouter Baert, 4/5 as a 8-k. Congratulations to them.

Complete results of the open tournament: https://egc2022.ro/main-wallist/

Young teenagers Kevin Yang and Alexander Qi topped a competitive field at the North American Go Federation’s (NAGF) 2022 Pro Qualification tournament and were granted the pro statute in the American Go Association.

Both are 14 years old ...and have learned to play just 5 years ago !

F.i. Kevin Yang reached shodan by October 2019 and jumped to 7d in August 2021 (and thus pro in June 2022).

Kevin's score against European pro players in a recent on-line competition (https://www.eurogofed.org/pros/league/transatlantic2.html) is amazing: 10 wins, 1 defeat !

I wonder whether such quick progressions have already been seen before, even in Asia (?).