Belgian Go Federation

Deadline of the resgistration are coming nearer. So do not hesitate any longer: register yourself in the
4th season of the Belgian Go Master League : https://www.gofed.be/node/1302
or in the Belgian Championship 2022: https://www.gofed.be/node/1281
Registration in both events are free but you have to be a BGF member.

The European Grand Prix is an annual series of tournaments with the top-finishers collecting so-called “bonus points”, these tournaments include the European Championship and the Grand Slam + various international competitions held by local organizers.
The idea behind the Grand Prix is to incentivize strong European players to attend various competitions all around Europe.

The EGF invites the 16 most successful participants, who are divided into four groups of four players.
A round-robin (every one plays everyone) is played out in each group in order to determine the two players that will qualify to the knockout stage.

"Our" Lucas Neirynck was one of the 16, but was logically eliminated in the 1st stage despite a victory to Jan Prokop (6-d, CZ): he was defeated by Mateusz Surma (2-p) and Ilya Shikchine (4-p).

The usual suspects qualified for the quarters of finals, in which a big surprise was the elimination of Artem Kachanovskij (2-p) by Nikola Mitic, a mere 7-d.
The other results were: Lisy-Surma 1-0, Jabarin-Vazquez 1-0 and Shikchine-Podpera 1-0.
In semi-finals, Lisy beat Mitic and Shikchine beat Jabarin.
In final, Shikchine won, proving once again he is definitively the strongest European player !

Belgian team goes on his impressive start in the 12th European Team Championship: our team (composed this time by Jan Ramon, Lucman Bounoider, Gabriel Mercier and Sven Cuyt) won the 3rd round on the same score as the one of the first 2 rounds: again a sweeping victory 4-0 !

Complete results here:
3rd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/784

The European Go Journal is a monthly journal officially supported by the European Go Federation (EGF). It was launched in February 2021. The journal is compiled and written by Artem Kachanovskyi, and co-written, proofread and designed by his Team.

The EGJ is a roughly 50-page A4 magazine featuring the following go-related topics:
Recent go news - focused mainly on Europe but including major events from around the globe.
Game commentary.
Interviews with go players.
Art and photography.
AI studies - analysis of fuseki and joseki with superhuman go computer programs.
World of Tesuji – Remarkable moves from professional games.
Problems and answers.

More info here: https://eurogojournal.com/about

PS: The digital copy of the 1st issue (February 2021) is available for download free of charge :-)

The annual General Assembly of the Belgian Go Federation will be held on line on 16/01 at 2 PM

Please come with your enthusiasm and your projects to shape up the future of the Belgian go life !
this meeting is the unique moment to discuss over it !

Agenda :
1. report on the 2021 activities (by the president) and financial report 2021 (by the treasurer)
2. projects for 2022 (and later) and adoption of the 2022 budget
3. election of the Board of Administration

If you wish to participate, send an e-mail to «board@gofed.be».
The meeting will take place on Discord https://discord.gg/aAa39wBV

Artem Kachanovskyi (UKR, 3p) won the 2021 Grand Slam, the richest doted European competition (5.000 € for the winner), by beating in final the Frenchman Tanguy Le Calvé (FR, 1p).

Tanguy had surprisingly beaten the great favourite Ilya Shikchine (RUS, 4p), 8 times European champion, in semi-final !
(in the 1st round, Tanguy had eliminated Alexander Dinerstein, 7 times European champion; and in 2nd round / quarters of finals, Pavol Lisy, 1 time European champion).

Ilya did win the little final against Mateusz Surma (PL, 2p).

Here are the results: https://www.eurogofed.org/grandprix/grandslam2021.html

The club of Ath has won the 2021 interclubs season, ahead of last year winner, Leuven.

Five clubs had registered at the beginning of the year, but after just one round Brussels-Pantin dropped off (without officially notifying the organizers). Finally, this club was given a general forfeit.

Here is the final standing:
1. Ath 6 pts
2. Leuven 5 pts
3. Brussels - Phenix 4 pts
4. Gent 3 pts

And here are the results of each round: https://www.gofed.be/node/1242

10 years after the last edition of the Belgian Rengo Championship, it was high time to resurrect it. This year the tournament took place on Sunday 19 December, on which day we saw 4 pairs battling it out for eternal glory, and also for the title of 2021 Belgian Rengo Champions:

Sven Cuyt (1d) and Gints Engelen (2k)
Naomi Bensel (4k) and Yvan Nollet (4k)
Raoul Richard (6k) and Umut Inal (8k)
Thomas Lemaire (6k) and Guillaume Jouret (8k)

Despite the arguably high stakes, the tournament unfolded as a rather jolly affair: every 10 minutes or so the sound of ticking clocks would be interrupted by fits of laughter at one of the tables. Most participants not having had much Rengo practice during the pandemic, the question "is it my turn" resounded countless times. Sometimes, when a group was on the verge of dying, a prayer to the Go'ds could be heard (specifically: by the player whose turn it was not).

In all this merriment, 3 rounds were played. At the end, Sven Cuyt (1d) and Gints Engelen (2k) found themselves undefeated and thus became the 2021 Belgian Rengo Champions!

Here are the full results:

ROUND 1:
Raoul Richard and Umut Inal - Thomas Lemaire and Guillaume Jouret
Sven Cuyt and Gints Engelen - Naomi Bensel and Yvan Nollet (1)

ROUND 2:
Raoul Richard and Umut Inal (4) - Sven Cuyt and Gints Engelen
Thomas Lemaire and Guillaume Jouret (1) - Naomi Bensel and Yvan Nollet

ROUND 3:
Raoul Richard and Umut Inal (1) - Naomi Bensel and Yvan Nollet
Sven Cuyt and Gints Engelen - Thomas Lemaire and Guillaume Jouret (4)

Championnat de Belgique de "rengo" ("pair") : en live, le dimanche 19 décembre
Association Belgique-Chine
Av. Paul Deschanel 92, 1030 BRUXELLES Schaerbeek

Nous souhaitons ressusciter le championnat de Belgique de pair go dont la dernière édition remonte à 2011 !
Il s'agit d'un tournoi dans lequel des équipes de 2 joueurs s'affrontent, pas obligatoirement des paires mixtes (mais seules les paires mixtes seront éligibles pour une éventuelle qualification à des compétitions internationales).
Veuillez compléter le formulaire suivant pour y participer: https://forms.gle/ufJdoixyejRk6gMo7

****

Belgisch kampioenschap "rengo": live, zondag 19 december (georganiseerd onder voorbehoud)
Vereniging België-China
Avenue Paul Deschanellaan 92
BRUSSELS Schaerbeek 1030

We willen het Belgisch kampioenschap pair go, waarvan de laatste editie dateert uit 2011 nieuw leven inblazen!
Dit is een toernooi waarin teams van 2 spelers het tegen elkaar opnemen. Ditmaal wordt het een “rengo” toernooi (in de plaats van “pair go”), wat betekent dat teams niet noodzakelijk uit gemengde (1 man & 1 vrouw) paren moeten bestaan (wat betreft kwalificatie voor internationale competities komen echter enkel gemengde paren in aanmerking).
Vul het volgende formulier in om deel te nemen (één formulier per team): : https://forms.gle/ufJdoixyejRk6gMo7

*****

TOURNAMENT RULES:
Round-robin tournament (every pair plays every pair)
1 hour main time + 3 times 30s Japanese Byo-yomi
Handicap -2 (based on the average rating of the players in a pair)

Tie-breaker rules: Result mutual game, then average registration strength.

REGISTERED PAIRS:

Sven Cuyt (1D) - Gints Engelen (2k)
Yvan Nollet (4k) - Naomi Bensel (4k)
Guillaume Jouret (8k) - Thomas Lemaire (6k)
Umut Inal (8k) - Raoul Richard (6k)

Favourite Ilya Shikchine (RU, 4-p) became European Champion this year.
He defeated Artem Kachanovskii (UK, 3-p) in final (2-0).

Ali Jabarin (IL, 2-p) won the "little final" against Pavol Lisy (SK, 2-p) to take the bronze medal.

It is his 8 European title (Ilya has already been European champion in 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2019 and in 2020). He equalizes the record of late Jürgen Mattern (DE, 6-d) (who has been also 8 times European champion, in the 60's and the 70's).

Completed results: https://www.eurogofed.org/egc/2021.html

PS: in the preliminary rounds (4 pools of 4 players), Lucas Neirynck (BE, 6-d) won against the European rising star, Oscar Vazquez (SP, 6-d), but later lost to Jonas Welticke (DE, 6-d) and to Dusan Mitic (SR, 7-d)...and was eliminated.