Belgian Go Federation

We're excited to introduce the team representing Belgium in this year's Pandanet competition.

This year's lineup includes both experienced players and people who still need to have their first games in this competition:

Here is the linup with the European Database Ranking

Lucas Neirynck - 6 Dan
Jan Ramon - 3 Dan
Lucman Bounoider - 3 Dan
Kevin Prist - 2 Dan
Kiem Lam - 1 Dan
Vincent Quoilin - 1 Kyu
Guillaume De Keijser - 4 Kyu

We invite all Go fans to follow and support our national team over the next few months. Stay updated on their progress, match results, as they compete on the European stage!

The Chinese representative, Tianyi Liu, won unbeaten (7/7) the 19th edition of the KPMC.

Chen-en Chung from Taïwan ended 2nd and - thus the best Occidental player - Valerii Krushelnytskyi from Ukraine completed the podium. Both with a 6/7 score.

The Korean player ended at a desappointing 4th place, and the Japanese one was 5th; both with a 5/7 score (and with the 2 greatest tiebreaker scores among the players with 5 wins).

"Our guy" was Joost Vannieuwenhuyse (2-kyu). Joost won 3 games, among which one against a Danish 4-dan ! His other results were "logical": wins against Danemark, Brazil and Argentina; losses to New-Zealand, Croatia, Switzerland and Norway). He ended 41th out of a field of 60 competitors.

Complete results: https://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/us/2024/result

Dear fellow Go players,

You have Belgian nationality,
You are member of the BGF
You are ready to play maximum one Tuesday evening (online) each month (more likely one game every 2 or 3 months) with players from all over Europe,
Then, please read further:

The European Team Championship, also known as the Pandanet League, is expected to restart in October.
We need minimum 6-8 Go players to build a Belgian team.
For each match, the team captain will constitute a team of 4 players who are free and eager to play, among the ones players 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 heros of the team!
Thus, don’t be shy and ask for being a team member whatever your level is !

Further information about Pandanet League here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

If you are interested, please send an email to info at gofed.be before Friday 28th of September (deadline for registration of the Belgian team is 01/10 !).

Andreii Kravets, already European champion last year, became 2024 European champion by beating Thomas Debarre (FR, 7-d) in final of the European championship.

Frederik Blomback (Sweden, 7-d) took bronze medail by beating a surprising Denis Karadaban (FR, 6-d) in the « little »final.

Complete results: https://eurogofed.org/egc/2024.html

https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2024.html

What a feat !
Lucas won against Tanguy Le Calvé (1-p) then he won against Lukas Podpera, 7-d
Then, he lost to Mateusz Surma (3-p).
But in the loser section, he won against Denis Dobranis (5-d) to qualify himself for the 1/4 of finals.
Friday, he will affront Andrei Kravets (1-p), 2023 European champion.
Last update: Lucas lost to Andreii (by 4,5 points). :-(

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.
The place is very nice, please look here: https://aubergedetilff.be/about-us/
To go there it's only 20 mn travel in train from Liège and 5 mn walk from the Tilff railroad station.

Motoki Noguchi: Our main instructor will be this year and for the first time the famous Motoki NOGUCHI 7d - reigning champion of France.
https://senseis.xmp.net/?MotokiNoguchi

WHAT ?
Scheduled program
Games, commented games, theory, exercices, mini-tournaments, fun...
Motoki will speak english.

WHEN ?
3 full days
From Thursday evening 26/09 (6 pm) or Friday 27/09 (10 am) to Sunday 29/09 (6 pm).
Note: Possible to come only the week-end !

HOW MUCH ?
180 € full pension all included (3 nights, all the meals, drinks, lessons by the instructor).
130 € if just for the week-end
For non-Belgian Go Federation members: extra 20 € to pay with the registration
Deadline registration: 18/09

Fee to transfer on the account of the BGF IBAN: BE24 7755 9621 2238.

Registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2v5mppp8Keab-zQ0JebPOydaPLx-6...

Kevin Prist (3-d) had not played any competitive game since 04/2016.
He came back last WE (06+07/07), winning the 2024 tournament of Ghent, ahead of Yannick Kuy (2-k) (4/6) and Voja Stojanovic (4-k)(4/6).
There were 8 participants.

Here are the complete results: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/630

On the first weekend of Juli, the 6th and 7th, the Gent Go Tournament will take place. You can register here.

Tournament set-up

System: 6 rounds MacMahon
Time limit: 45 min
Byo-yomi: 5*20 sec Japanese
Rules: Japanese
Komi: 6,5

More info

In the 9th (and last round) of the European Team Championship, Belgium (Lucas, Gabriel, Sven, Larisa) lost heavily to Switzerland (0-4)
(Lucas lost to a mere 4-d; the others, to better ranked opponents).

Belgium ended 4th out of 10 teams.

Results of the 9th round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1009

Final standing: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(note there are only 2 points difference between the 3rd and the 8th team !).

PS: In A-league, Ukraine, France, Poland and Czechia are the 4 teams qualified for the finals (which will be played during the European Go Congress this summer in Toulouse).

For this year Belgian Championship the 3 favorites were Lucas Neirynck, Jan Ramon and Xin Shu.

Jan (4-d) has been champion 3 times and Lucas (6-d)...12 times ! The newcomer, Xin Shu (5-d), is a student from China who arrived in Belgium last year for studies.
On the belgian rating list, Lucas (6-d) was number 1 but Xin is very close behind. In the Paris tournament in which they both participated, Lucas finished 8th and Xin 7th. Lucas has won the Orsay tournament this year, and Xin Leuven and Lille. The participation of Xin therefore promised to provide a bit of suspense !