Belgian Go Federation

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)

More info and registration form: https://www.gofed.be/node/1397

Palmares (former winners and results of the previous editions): https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/blitz

Belgian team (Lucas Neirynck 6d +, Jan Ramon 3d + Gabriel Mercier 3d - Sven Cuyt 2d +) won against Ireland in the 1st round of the Pandanet European Team Championship.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1001

Standings in B-league after 1st round:https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Romanian Cornel Burzo (6-d) won the 37th edition of the Brussels tournament ahead of Chinese Yan Zihan (6-d), Xin Shu (5-d) and Luxemburger Andreas Gottzfried. All with 4 wins (out of 5 rounds).
2 players remained unbeaten: Yannick Kuy (5-k) and Jeffrey Nguyen (12-k). There were 66 participants.
Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=BT&year=2023

!! The Brussels tournament is THE biggest tournament in Belgium !!!

Where ? In the premises of the Chinese-Belgium Association Av. Paul Deschanel 92, 1030 Schaerbeek - a very nice place 20 mn from the center of Brussels. (same place as last year)

Five rounds MacMahon without handicap; Timing: 1 hour per player + byo-yomi: 15 stones for 5 minutes; Komi: 6.5

NB: Christopher Anachachibi (2d) will be present to comment your game (free of charge).

More information: https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/brussels

Registration form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8Iuhl91V9i72HEnmFrhg0UbJoEjC4...

!! Register as soon as you can: the premises of the tournament can host a maximum of 72 players !!

List of the registered players (as on 24th of October): 66 registrations, still 6 possible.

#	Name	Rank	.
1	Adrien Mansy	25k	.
2	Andreas Götzfried	4d	.
3	Aveaux Matthieu	2 dan	.
4	Baijot Eric	8K	ok
5	Beguin Adam	16 kyu	.
6	Ben Mehnert	7 Kyu	ok
7	BOUKRICHA MOAD	10 kyu	.
8	Bram Westhovens	4k	ok
9	Brévière Lionel	5K	ok
10	Cornel Burzo	6d	ok
11	Daniel Maier	1k	.
12	Didier Lesesvre	4k	ok
13	Durbec Amélia	7k	.
14	Emanuel de Jong	6 Kyu	ok
15	Eon Serge	3k	.
16	Filipe Vasconcelos	8k	.
17	Frank Bernard	4k	ok
18	Frank Segers	4k	ok
19	French Daniel	5k	.
20	Gaëtan de Menten	10k	.
21	Geerlings Bert	3dan	.
22	Gerry Gavigan	9 kyu	.
23	Guillaume Léo	14K	ok
24	Guillaume Roux	1d	.
25	Guy Dusausoy	5k	.
26	Hennebert Jean-Denis	5 kyu	.
27	Henneric Audrey	5KYU	ok
28	Jan Ramon	3D	.
29	Jan van Loenen	1 dan	ok
30	Jinming HE	3D	ok
31	Joël Elsen	17Kyu	ok
32	Jonathan Decembry	7k	.
33	Joost Vannieuwenhuyse	2k	.
34	Julien DARTIGUE	1Kyu	.
35	Kampwart Ad	4 Dan	.
36	Kenny Debacq	4 Kyu	.
37	Léon Groenemeijer	3 kyu	ok
38	Leplat Franck	2kyu	ok
39	Lise Werquin	7k	ok
40	Louis Baudaux	1 Kyu	.
41	Malak Hayan	20k	ok
42	Marina Kocheva	18k	ok
43	NGUYEN Jeffrey	14Kyu	.
44	Olivier Boas	2 dan	.
45	PACUCCI Dominique	9k	ok
46	Pascal Wezenberg	5 kyu	.
47	Peter Hoeve	5k	ok
48	Philippe Tranchida	2kyu	.
49	Pittonet Jonathan	3 kyu	.
50	Sergiu Dan Iugulescu	3 Dan	.
51	Shiyan (Steven) Wang	5k	.
52	Sven Cuyt	2d	.
53	Terefenko Alexandre	5 kyu	.
54	THIEBAULT LOIC	5 ku	ok
55	Thi Thu Huyen Tran	12k	ok
56	Tom Van Doorsselaere	5k	ok
57	Van Nyen Roel	2 Kyu	ok
58	VANSCHOEBEKE Benoît	13k	ok
59	Victor Schneider	1kyu	ok
60	Voja Stojanvovic	5k	ok
61	Xavier Baele	7 Kyu	.
62	Xin Shu	5Dan	ok
63	Yannick Kuy	5kyu	.
64	Zihan Yan	6d	ok

Chinese Chonzhe Tang wins the 18th KPMC with a perfect score (7/7) and is thus 2023 amateur world champion, version Korea.

Three players ended on 6/7: Hwan-Young Choi (KOR), Yu-Cheng Lai (TaÏwan) and...Lukas Podpera (CZ).

Young Ukrainian Valeri Krushelnytskyi (5th) leads the group of players with 5 wins.

Note that the Japanese representative ended at a desappointing 14th place, with a poor 4/7 score !

"Our guy", Sven Cuyt (2d), ended 40th on 56 participants with a 3/7 score
(wins against Guatemala, Brazil and Lituania; losses to Thailand, Slovakia, Turkey and Sweden).

Complete results here: https://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/us/2023/result

Dear fellow Go players,

If you are ready to play at most one tuesday evening (online) each month and if you are are hungry for battles or for nice plays with players from all over Europe, please read the following message:

The European Team Go Championship, also known as the "Pandanet League", is expected to restart in October and we need 12 Go players.

Anyone (whatever your level is) is welcome to register, you just need to have Belgian citizenship and be a member of Belgian Go Federation.

For each match, we need to constitute a team of 4 players, among the 12 selected at the beginning of the season.

Usually dan players are preferred but many times in the past, our kyu players were able to score victories against dan players and were the heroes of the team! Thus, don’t be shy and ask for being a team member whatever your level is !

You can find further information about Pandanet League here (currently last season information):
https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
and last year Belgian Team here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/teams/29/BEL

If you are interested, please send an email to info@gofed.be before Friday 29th of September.

With the hope to see you soon and motivated,

Gabriel Mercier,

Belgian Team Captain 2015-2023.