Belgian Go Federation

The Belgian championship is the only competition in Belgium that is divided in 2 Rounds: 8 players participate in the final round.
4 of them are seeded thanks their results in last year championship (they ended at places 1 to 4): Lucas Neirynck, Thomas Connor, Jan Ramon and Victor Schneider. This preliminary rounds would determine the 4 other players who would join them.

It was an intensive weekend of Go. 8 players battled it out in 7 rounds.

Here are the final results (note that Xin Shu missed the 2 first rounds):

1 Bounoider, Lucman 3 Dan 6 21 128 107
2 Kuy, Yannick 3 Kyu 5 20 129 87
3 Xin, Shu 5 Dan 5 20 120 90
4 De_Keijser, Guillaume 4 Kyu 5 20 108 67
5 Silcher, Michael 4 Kyu 3 18 110 32
6 Boukricha, Moad 8 Kyu 2 17 132 33
7 Dusausoy, Guy 5 Kyu 2 17 132 32
8 JEANJEAN, Edouard 15 Kyu 0 15 134 0

Congratulations to the first 4, who are qualified for the final stage !
The others will be reserve players.
(report by Guillaume De Keijser)

Tournament to qualify 4 players for the final stage of the Belgian Championship
Players of all levels are welcome.
No registration fees but only for members of the Belgian Go Federation.
More info and registration form here: https://www.gofed.be/node/1416

Belgium team (Lucas Neirynck -, Jan Ramon -, Sven Cuyt -, Nelis Vets -) lost heavily to Italy in the 4th round of the European Team Championship.
Note: Lucas lost by 0,5 point to young raising star Davide Bernardis.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1004

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Belgium is now back in the middle of the division (which is by far dominated by Turkey and Italy, both still unbeaten).

As usually, the Asiatic players trusted the 1st places in the 43th WAGC !
1. Kim Jung Seon (KOR) 7/7
2. Yang Chuhun (CHI) 6/7
3. Lai Yu-Chang (TW) 5/7
4. Kurita Yoshiko (JAP) 5/7
5. best Westerner: Alan Huang (USA) 5/7
...
7. Best European: Jonas Welticke (DE) 5/7
...

*****

"Our guy" was Bram Vandenbon, who scored a fair 3/7 (wins to UK, Croatia, Mexico; losses to France, Chili, Luxembourg and Poland)

Complete results via the site of the EGF: https://www.eurogofed.org/index.html?id=402

The General Assembly of the Belgian Go Federation will take place on Sunday 14/01/2024 from 2 PM till 4 PM (online - MS Team).

This important meeting is the main opportunity to exchange information, share ideas and comments regarding the past year and the future of your club and of the BGF.

The link to participate to the meeting will be communicated to the every BGF member who are interested (send a mail to : board at gofed dot be).

Unfortunately, after the 2 wins in the 2 first round, Belgium team has been beaten in the 3rd round by a strong Turkish team (Lucas Neirynck +, Sven Cuyt -, Nelis Vets -, Gints Engelen -).

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1003

Standings in B-league after 3rd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Belgium is now 3rd, just behind Turkey and Italy which remains both unbeaten.

The best teams of Belgium did gather for this 2023 Belgian RenGo Championship edition.

1) Yannick Kuy 3k & Edouard Jeanjean 15k - team "Random Movers"
2) Michael Silcher 4k & Moad Boukricha 10k - team "Go Squad"

Not a very quantitative edition but games were played seriously and we got both quality and fun.
We got of course the traditional question "is it my turn ?" many times, the stress of the byo-yomi and roller-coaster sequences requiring steel nerves from all players.

First game was very tense and ended in a victory for the first team by 2 points only after a last yose mistake.
The second game started with a joseki disaster and ended with a big capture in the center and the victory for the second team.

After passionate post-game analysis, it was already late and the teams were too tired to continue a third round. So this Championship ended with a tie score of 1 game won each and no decisive winner (everyone is winner...).

Xin Shun wins unbeaten the 2023 edition of the Belgian Championship of rapid games (15 min per player, sudden death; handicap - 2).
Second and Belgian Rapid Champion is Victor Schneider.

Only 7 participants but again a fun tournament for everyone - that has been quietly played from home.

Final result

Xin Shu 6 wins (Tournament winner)
Victor Schneider 5 wins (Belgian Rapid Champion 2023)
Guillaume De Keijser 4 wins (Belgian Rapid Vice-Champion 2023)
Jan Ramon and Xavier Baele 2 win
Jean-Denis Hennebert and Michael Silcher 1 win

Congratulations to Xin, winner of the 2023 Belgian Championship of Rapid Games !
Victor is 2023 Belgian Champion of Rapid Games ! Congratulations to him too !!! (edited)

Belgian Team got another win in the European Team Championship, by beating this time Croatia 3-1 (wins by Lucas, Jan and Gabriel, loss by Sven).

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1002

Standings in B-league after 2nd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Suspense till the very end in the 2023 interclubs competition !

This week the last rounds of the 2023 interclubs have been played and the name of the club champion has been decided.

The match between Leuven and Brussels Phénix would determine which team got crowned this year.

Leuven has won the Interclub competition 7 times in the past, whereas Phénix was last year’s champion.

Board one was a clash of the rising stars: Yannick Kuy, playing for Phénix, recently scored 5-0 at the Brussels Go tournament and has just been promoted 3 Kyu. His opponent, Bram Westhovens, scored 14-1 as 7 kyu at the European Go congress this summer (his streak included a win against a 2kyu and Bram is inches away from a 3 kyu rating). The game was played with 0,5 komi and was the one that finished first with the victory of Yannick Kuy. 1-0 for the Phénix Go club.

The next game to finish was played on board 3. It ended with a win by Leuven this time: Simon Janssens (11 kyu) won against Xavier Baele (7kyu): 1-1

So, board 2 would finally determine which team would go home with the interclubs title this year !
In their head to head match up in official competition, Tom Van Doorsselaere (Leuven) (5 kyu) was leading against Guillaume De Keijser (Phénix) (5 kuy). But this time, when the dust settled, Guillaume was able to bring the win home. 2-1 for Phenix Go Club, who got thus the title this year.

Congratulations to our Back-to-Back 2023 interclubs Champions Brussels Phénix

The other match, that followed a couple of days later, opposed Antwerpen to Gent. There was only 12,5% chance of Antwerpen to grab second place. But somehow the stars were aligned for them this time and they managed to win the 3 games, and to finish with thr silver medail.

The full results can be found here; https://www.gofed.be/node/1406

We hope more clubs will participate in the interclubs next year !

(report by Guillaume De Keijser)