Belgian Go Federation

On 12/06/14, Go Seigen, considered by many as the best player ever in the history of go, turned 100 years !

http://www.usgo.org/news/2014/06/go-seigen-turns-100/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Seigen

15 days after Pavol LISY (see our "older news"), Ali JABARIN, 19 years old, from ...Israël (!) became on 20/06 the second European professional go player by winning the loser's section of the 2014 pro qualification tournament...

Here are the results:
http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/#tournaments

On 5 and 6 July the Gents Go Genootschap welcomes you, yes you, to come to the marvellous Ghent Go Tournament. Don't miss it.

registration and further information

Thomas CONNOR is 2014 Belgian blitz champion.

He ended with 5 wins out of 6 rounds, just one 1-"sos point" ahead of unlucky Dominique VERSYCK, winner of the 3 previous editions, who was the only other competitors with 5 wins.
10 players took part.

Complete results will follow soon.

Young Pavol LISY (18 years !, SK, ex 7-d) became last WE the 1st European player to be promoted professionnal go player within the European Go Federation.
He won 4 straight games against other European top candidates.

20th of June, he will be joined by another European top amateur to be selected among half-finalists of the "1-defeat competition": Cornel Burzo vs. Lukas Podpera and Mateusz Surma vs. Ali Jabarin.

Here are the results:
http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/#tournaments

(I remember that, 2-3 years ago, Pavol took only 18 months to raise from 1-k to 5-d !)

Despite this heavy lost against Denmark (with 2 narrow defeats), Belgium ended 7th of 10 teams and will stay in the B-league next year.

For your information: in the A-league, the 4 best teams: Tchequia, Russia, Ukraine and France will play aginst each other for the title during the European Go Congress in Sibiu (Roumania) this summer.

Complete results here: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

On Sunday 01/06 (2 PM to 6:30 PM) the BGF organises the Belgian Blitz (quick games) championship, open to and free for all members of the BGF.

More info: www.gofed.be/node/746

The Belgian Go Federation is proud to announce the visit of Cho Mikyung, a young Korean baduk professional, in Belgium. She will be among us for a week in late May. She has a good teaching experience (she has been teaching for a few years in Singapore) and speaks fluent English. We are very happy to welcome her.

We will organize visits in go clubs and we will try to organize lectures. Stay put for a complete schedule soon!

Belgium knocked Norway down 4-0 on the 8th round of European Team Championship held on IGS. We are currently ranked #6 out of 10 in League B and it looks extremely unlikely for Belgium to go down one league at the end of this year's championship.

Complete results are available at
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Following the example of the USA, and thanks to the sponsoring of a rich Chinese company, the EGF (European Go Association) has started a European pro organisation !

The 2 first European professionals will be designated among 16 candidates through 3 tournaments in May and June.

Here is the CV of the 16 candidates:
http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/#players

These candidates have been selected going down the European rating list, among the amateurs younger than 40 ready to try to become a pro. (for the record, here is the list of the invitated players:
http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/#invited)

Here is the presentation of the selection system:
http://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/#tournaments

NB: my guess: Pavol Lisy and Mateusz Surma, who are both very young (18).

A regret: the best amateur European player, Ilya Shickchine, has declined, with 2 other "big shots" Antti Törmannen and Artem Kachanovski :-(