Belgian Go Federation

(tekst in NL hieronder; text in English hereunder)

Comme vous le savez, cette année, c'est notre fédération qui relève cette année le défi d'organiser le congrès européen de go (EGC; European Go Congress).

Celui-ci constitue l'événement majeur de la vie du go en Europe. Il rassemblera plus de 600 joueurs à Bruxelles pendant 2 semaines, du 19 juillet au 3 août !

Le congrès, c'est, avant tout, le plus grand tournoi "open" d'Europe, en 10 rondes.
C'est aussi le championnat d'Europe - réservé à l'élite des Européens - qui désignera le champion d'Europe 2019, ainsi que la phase finale du championnat d'Europe des Nations.
C'est, par ailleurs, maints tournois annexes moins formels: parties rapides, "rengos", 9*9, pour enfants,...
C'est enfin, des cours, des parties commentées, des parties simultanées animés par des joueurs professionnels (plus de 20 seront à votre disposition tous les jours !) sans oublier quantité d'événements connexes en soirée, plus funs les uns que les autres.

Plus d'information ici: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: nous avons besoin de volontaires (belges) pour aider à l'organisation. Si vous êtes disponible, ne fût-ce pour quelques heures, contactez-nous via: volunteers@egc2019. Merci d'avance.

***

(text in English hereunder)

Zoals jullie weten, is het dit jaar onze federatie die de uitdaging aangaat om het Europese go congres (EGC; European Go Congress) te organiseren.

Dit evenement is het hoogtepunt van het Europese go-jaar en hiervoor zullen meer dan 600 spelers zich verzamelen gedurende twee weken, van 19 juli tot 4 augustus!

Het congres is vooral het grootste “open” tornooi van Europa met tien rondes.
Het is ook het Europees kampioenschap, gereserveerd voor de Europese elite, waarmee de Europese kampioen 2019 zal aangeduid worden, alsook de eindronde van het Europees landenkampioenschap.
Daarnaast zijn er ook nog talrijke minder formele neventornooien: rapid partijen, “rengo”, 9*9, kinderen,..
Er zijn ook lessen, becommentarieerde partijen, simultaanpartijen door professionele spelers (> 20 zullen elke dag tot jullie beschikking zijn!) zonder alle randactiviteiten tijdens de avond te vergeten, sommige nog prettiger dan de andere.

Meer info op: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: wij zoeken naar (Belgische) vrijwillers om mee te helpen.
Als U bereid bent om een te zijn, contact ons via: volunteers@egc2019.
Wij danken U bij voorbaat.

***

As you might know, this year the Belgian Go Federation organizes the European Go Congress (EGC 2019) in Brussels !

This event is the biggest one in Europe and there will be more than 600 participants this year, between 19th of July and 04th of August.

The EGC if at first the biggest open Go tournament in Europe, 10 rounds tournament open to everyone. Also, it's the place of the European Championship Final, only for best European players ! Along with this, there is also the European Team Go Championship Final.
Furthermore, there is a lot of smaller and informal tournaments such as rapid tournament, blitz tournament, children tournament, rengo tournament, 9x9 tournament,...
But EGC is not only about competition but also about training and entertainment so there will be commented games, free-lectures for all level players, simultaneous games with professional players (> 20 pro players available each day !) and a lot of fun or go-related activities in the evenings.

More information available here: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: any (Belgian) helping hand is welcome, even for a few hours. Ready to help us ? then contact us via: volunteers@egc2019. We thank you in advance !

On 19/03, Belgian team lost to a direct competitor, Austria (1-3), losing the hope of being promoted to the A-league next season.

On board 1, Lucas Neirynck lost to Victor Lin by 2,5 points. As François Gonze (board 2) and Gabriel Mercier (board 4) also lost, the victory by Jan Ramon (board 3) was not enough to avoid the defeat...

Now Belgium (8 points) stands in the middle of the "peloton" in this B-league which is dominated by Austria (12 points) and Serbia (11 points).

There are still 2 rounds to go.

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/499

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

On 19/02/2019, Belgian team made draw against Turkey.

Lucas Neirynck won (against Denis Karadaban) and so did Gabriel Mercier, but François Gonze and Nelis Vets lost.

Belgium is now still 3rd (with 8 points), 2 points behind Serbia (with the 2 Mitic brothers, both 7-d) and Austria (with Viktor Lin, a strong 6-d)...

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/498

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

François Gonze (4d, Louvain-la-Neuve) has won with a prefect score the 29th edition of the tournament of Leuven ahead of his clubmate Gabriel Mercier (3d) and Nelis Vets (2d, Leuven).

Two other competitors remained unbeaten:
Laurent Calmus (5k, Brussels Le Pantin) and
Alexandre Teferenko (10k, Ath).

There were 33 participants.

Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results?tournament=LEU&year=2019

The Annual General Assembly of the Belgian Go Federation will take place on Saturday 16 February at 2:00 PM in Brussels.

The exact location is:
Association Belgique Chine - Vereniging België-China
Avenue Paul Deschanellaan 92
1030 Brussels

From Gare du Nord/Noordstation: 20 mn walk, 10 mn with tram 25 (station Coteaux/Wijnheuvelen)

Everyone interested to participate in the organization of Belgium Go Federation activities is welcome !

Also with the EGC, this year 2019 will be very busy !

On 22th of January, Belgian team made draw against the Netherlands (2-2).
Lucas Neirynck (6-d) won against Gilles Van Eeden (6-d), but François Gonze (4-d) lost against the other dutch 6-d, Peter Brouwer. Jan Ramon won and Gabriel Mercier lost.

Belgium is now 3rd with 7 points, but the standings are very close (there are only 2 points difference between the leader and the 6th team)

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/497

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

More info: https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/leuven

By beating on 11/12/2018 a strong Swedish team (Lucas +, Jan +, Gabriel -, Nelis +) in the 4th round of the ETC , Belgium remains in the race for the title in the B-league.

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/496

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

The favourites qualified for the final rounds through the preliminaries rounds of the 2019 Belgian Championship (in which only 9 contestants played).

These are: Jan Ramon (3-d), Gabriel Mercier (3-d), Lucman Bonoider (3-d) and Nelis Vets (2-d).

They will join Lucas Neirynck (6-d), François Gonze (4-d), Thomas Connor (4-d) and Thibaut Pillon (2-d) in the final rounds in Spring 2019.

Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=BCP&year=2019

Note the final rounds formula has changed: instead of a round-robin (everybody meets everybody) with 10 finalistes during 2 WE, it will now be played with 8 finalists in a "double-life" knock-out tournament (in one WE).