News

Change of playing site for Le Pantin

Chez Parrain, the cafe where the go club Le Pantin was gathering until now every saturday, has recently closed. We are looking for a new playing room. Next saturday, the club will be held at L'Union, Parvis de Saint-Gilles, Brussels at the usual playing times. However, this is not definite and we will update the new playing room as soon as we have found one. Check our website for updates.

2013 belgian Blitz championship : Dominique Versyck won his 3rd consecutive title !

Dominique Versyck has won the 2013 Belgian blitz championship. This is his 3rd consecutive title.
(this tournament has been played in May, but we forgot to mention it at that time; as "late is beter than never", we do it now !)

There were only 5 (!) participants this year.

Here are the results: (all games played handicap minus 2 stones).

1. Dominique VERSYK (2-d) 4/4
2. Thomas CONNOR (3-d 3/4
3. Nelis VETS (2-d) 2/4
4. Demian WALWISH (3-k) 1/4
5. Jean-Denis HENNEBERT (5-k) 0/4

Preliminaries of Belgian Championship 2014

The preliminaries of the Belgian Championship 2014 will take place on November 23rd-24th, 2013. The tournament place will be Cafe Sport and Restaurant De lange trappen, both in Leuven. This tournament aims at selecting 5 Belgian go players who will join the already qualified 5 finalists of last year's edition. Participation is free but you need to be a member of the Belgian Go Federation. Best luck to all!
More details

2nd round of the European Team Championship: Belgium-Italy 3-1

In november, Belgium team (composed by Lucas, Jan, Nelis and Dominik) won against Italy in the 2nd round of the European Team Championship.

Here are the complete results of the 2nd round: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/154

Here are the standing after 2 rounds: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

1st round of the European Team Championship 2013-14: Belgium-Poland 1-3

In Septembre, Belgium team (composed by Lucas, Kwinten, Thomas and Nelis) lost to Poland in the 1st round of the European Team Championship 2013-14.
Please note the victory by Lucas on one of the European rising stars, young Mateusz Surma (according to Hwang In-Seong, Mateusz Surma is the most promising one; read his interview: http://www.eurogotv.com/index.php?menu=News&archief=1367515975).

Complete results of the 1st round here: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/153

Kevin Prist 26th in the 2013 Korean Prime Minister Cup (KPMC)

Our represent Kevin Prist ended 26th with 3 victories out of 6 rounds in the Korean Prime Minister Cup (+/- the Korean version of the World Amateur Championship).

Winner was, as expected, the Korean representative ahead of the Chinese on.

Here are the complete results: http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=W131012A

Find hereunder Kevin's report (in French):

Ça s'est super bien passé, le voyage était simplement génial.

Mon premier adversaire était la Finlande, Juri Kuronen 6D (pur hasard, il était assis à côté de moi dans l'avion à l'aller). J'étais content de mon fuseki et je pensais être en avance dans la partie avant de rentrer en Byo-yomi. Là ça a commencé à déraper pour moi, j'ai joué plusieurs coups inutiles m'éloignant de plus en plus de la victoire et j'ai fini par mourir avant d'abandonner.

Deuxième adversaire était le Japon 7D, Kikou Emura (...). Je me suis fait laminé du début à la fin, et en plus ça a été retransmis sur le net... J'ai donc abandonné avec au moins 30 points de retard. (...).

Troisième adversaire: l'Afrique du Sud 1D, Rodney Stephen Kroon. Cette partie a été un peu plus facile que les autres. Le début était très calme des deux côtés, mais après le fuseki, les coups de mon adversaires devenaient un peu plus hésitant. J'avoue avoir essayé plusieurs arnaques, normalement inefficaces, mais qui ont marché. J'ai fini par gagner par abandon (...).

Quatrième adversaire: la Mongolie, Sansar Tsolmon 4D et prof de go dans son pays. J'ai joué très calme (sans doute pour éviter de me faire mal voir par un prof de go) et lui, contrairement à ce que j'aurais cru, a été très agressif. Je me suis du coup retrouvé dans une grande chasse d'un groupe faible d'un bord à l'autre du goban où j'ai fini par le tuer et remporter la victoire.

L'Australie fut mon 5ème adversaire. Wei Qian 6D, très sympathique, mais un peu arnaqueur. Je me suis fait avoir au fuseki et après ça son jeu est devenu très calme et solide, ne me laissant aucun moyen de rattraper mon retard : défaite par abandon.

Et enfin mon ultime adversaire, l'Italie, Fausto Predieri 1K. La partie fut un combat de grands territoires. Jusqu'au début du yose je me sentais en avance. Tout à coup il a ignoré un hane en première ligne pour tenter de tuer l'entièreté du groupe. Je n'avais pas vu le coup venir! Jamais je n'avais autant réfléchi dans le tournoi qu'en ce moment. C'était un stress intense pour les deux joueurs. (...) je finis par trouver la faille et vécus avec un deuxième oeil à l'intérieur même de son énorme territoire ne lui laissant que peu de points. La tension était redescendu, j'avais gagné.

Report on the visit by 2 Korean professionnal on 25, 26 and 27/10/2013

Two Korean professional, Lee Young Sin (5-P) and Yoon Young Min (3-P) paid a visit in Belgium on 25, 26 and 27/10.

On Friday 25/10, we organised a event session in Leuven, during which they played simultaneous games, after some tsumego exercices as upwarming. Desappointing: there were only 8 members present ! :-(

On the WE of 26 and 27/10, the 2 pros were present during the Brussels tournament to comment the game(s) of every participants who whished to have his/her game(s) reviewed.

The Belgian Go association thanks them for their visit.
And thanks also the Korean baduk Association for making this event possible !

Zhang Yuanbo wins Brussels tournament

Zhang Yuanbo won the Brussels tournament ahead of Antoine Fenech and Benjamin Blanchard. See the full results

Student and Young Belgian Go Championship

Due to the very low number of participants registered in October, we decided to give the Student and Youth Championships another try. We reschedule them in three weeks time. The tournaments will be played on KGS from Monday 18 November on. Please follow this link for registration : http://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/youth .

To participate in this tournament, you need to be a 2013 member of the Belgian Go Association, to hold Belgian nationality, to
be under 30 and, if you are more than 19 years old, to be a full time student.

(remark: best player aged less than 20 will be the "2013 Belgian young champion").

Go Camp 2013

The Go Camp 2013 attracted some18 go players from September 12 to 15 in Nessonvaux. According to all of them, it was a success: simultaneous games, lessons, games and even a barbecue! We will update pictures soon.