Belgian Go Federation

This weekend marked the Finals of the Belgian Go Championship, delivering intense battles and a dramatic conclusion to the competition.

After the first day, Jan Ramon (4-dan) was the last undefeated player, showing impressive form and positioning himself as the favorite. However, Sunday’s matches brought unexpected twists.

The Road to the Finals

The first major upset of Sunday saw Yannick Kuy (1-kyu) defeat Jan, shaking up the leaderboard. Meanwhile, in a much-anticipated rematch, Kevin Prist (3-dan) secured a win against Lucman Bounoider (3-dan), keeping his championship hopes alive.

Kevin continued his strong performance by defeating Yannick, who had employed the "Great Wall of China" opening. With this win, Kevin advanced to the finals, setting up a decisive showdown against Jan.

The Championship Match

With both players holding one loss each, the title was on the line—whoever won this final game would become the Belgian Champion.

Kevin fought fiercely, pushing Jan . However, in the end, Jan emerged victorious, securing the national title. This victory also served as revenge for his previous loss to Kevin at the Lille Tournament.

Congratulations to Our New Champion!

A big congratulations to Jan Ramon, the 2025 Belgian Champion, and to all participants for a fantastic tournament filled with exciting games and memorable moments.

Final Standings

1 Ramon Jan
2 Prist Kevin
3 Kuy Yannick
4 Bounoider Lucman
5 Silcher Michael
6 De_Keijser Guillaume
7 Boukricha Moad

Looking forward to next year’s battles!

This weekend, the qualifier for the 2025 Belgian Championship took place, determining which players would join last year’s top four: reigning champion Xin Shu (6-dan), runner-up and top Belgian Lucas Neirynck (6-dan), Guillaume De Keijser (4-kyu), and Jan Ramon (4-dan).

With six participants, the tournament was condensed into five rounds instead of the usual seven.

The final round became a high-stakes showdown between the last two undefeated players: Lucman Bounoider (3-dan) and Kevin Prist (3-dan). Remarkably, before 2024, the last time these two had faced each other in rated play was back in 2010—when both were still kyus.

Their rivalry reignited this year, with each player securing a victory in previous encounters. Lucman won their match at the 2024 Brussels Tournament, but Kevin evened the score at the first Hoshi Tournament. This final game would settle the latest chapter in their growing rivalry.

The match started cautiously, with both players focusing on building solid shapes. When the fighting began, Lucman was the first to exploit a weakness in Kevin’s position, gaining an early advantage. However, Kevin remained composed, patiently working his way back into the game. In the end, Kevin was slightly ahead on the board, but the result was sealed when Lucman lost on time.

Final Standings:
Rank Player Score
1st Kevin 5
2nd Lucman 4
3rd Yannick 3
4th Michael 2
5th Guy 1
6th Moad 0

With these results, as Xin will not participate in the finals, top 5 people secured their place in the 2025 Belgian Championship alongside last year’s remaining of the top four. Congratulations to all participants on a competitive tournament!

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

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...).

All European amateur players 6-dan or stronger (but the Russian ones) were invited by the EGF to the 7th European pro qualification tournament, whose winner would become the 9th European-made professional.

Among the (only) 8 participating players (there were 9 positive answers), Lukas Podpera (7-d, CZ), the best ranked European amateur, was the big favorite, especially in absence of any Russian candidates.

He had lost the final of the 2 previous editions:
in 2019 against Tanguy Le Calvé: https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2019.html
and in 2021 against Stanislaw Frejlak: https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2021.html

And, against all odds, he faced exactly the same cruel destiny in this year edition !
he lost the final (1-2) to his countryfellow Jan Simara (6-d) (he lost the 3rd - and deciding - game by...1,5 point).

Jan Simara is certainly very strong (he has been European champion in 2012), but undoubtely weaker than Lukas. Nevertheless, Jan fully deserves to become the 9th European-made professional ! Congratulations to him !

More info: https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2023.html

The following players will join the pre-qualified players in the finals:

• Lucas Neirynck
• Jan Ramon
• Victor Schneider
• Renaud Gaban

Reserve players are (in that order):

• Marie Jemine
• Joost Vannieuwenhuyse
• Guillaume De Keijser
• Roel Van Nyen

Participez à la 3ème saison de la "Belgian Go Master League" (BGML): en ligne, du 1 novembre au 20 décembre !

(Ré)Inscriptions possibles jusqu'au 25 octobre, via ce formulaire électronique: https://forms.gle/C975BXEoS9CJCikD9.

Pour rappel, il s'agit d'un tournoi dans lequel chaque joueur est placé dans une division de 5 joueurs. Chacun affronte les autres joueurs de sa division pendant un cycle (de 2 mois).
À l'issue de chaque cycle, le premier de chaque division est promu dans la division supérieure. Les autres joueurs sont répartis en fonction de leur classement BGF.

Les parties se jouent sur OGS (online-go.com). Les contacts entre les joueurs se passent sur le "Belgian Baduk Café" en mode Discord (invite link: https://discord.gg/ufyEUsEpN9)

Nous avons prévu des adaptations afin de faciliter la prise de contact entre joueurs et maximiser ainsi le nombre de parties jouées; d'autre part, les parties de la 1ère division se joueront dorénavant avec webcam.

***

Neem deel aan de 3de seizoen van de "Belgian Go Master League" (BGML): online, van 1 november tot 20 december.

(Her)inschrijvingen mogelijk tot 25 oktober via dit elektronisch formulier: https://forms.gle/C975BXEoS9CJCikD9.

Ter herinnering, dit is een toernooi waarin elke speler in een divisie van 5 spelers wordt geplaatst. Elke speler speelt één partij tegen elke andere speler van zijn divisie, dit gedurende een cyclus (van 2 maanden). Aan het einde van elke cyclus wordt de eerstgeplaatste speler van elke divisie gepromoveerd naar een hogere divisie. De overige spelers worden opnieuw gedistribueerd op basis van hun Belgische rating.

De partijen worden gespeeld op OGS (online-go.com). Alle toernooi-gerelateerde communicatie gebeurt via de "Belgian Baduk Café" Discord server (invite link: https://discord.gg/ufyEUsEpN9)

let op: we hebben enkele aanpassingen voorzien die het makkelijker maken voor spelers om contact met elkaar op te nemen, en zo het aantal gespeelde spellen te maximaliseren; daarbij zullen de wedstrijden van de 1e divisie voortaan gespeeld worden met een webcam.

By Jhen at 20/10/2021 - 15:25 Tournaments Calendar

Just a reminder.

Traditionally we used to play Go human vs human. And up to a few decades ago, computer Go levels were also too low to provide a sensible help to Go players. But nowadays, the strength of AI Go programs has evolved tremendously, way beyond the level of the world top Go pros players.

So for sure, many of us like to use Artificial Intelligence to analyze games or simply to see moves played by computers. And this is perfectly fine and also a modern and efficient way to progress.

But in a human vs human competition, the hidden use of computers spoils the fun of the suspense of a fair game played between players of sensibly around the same levels.

So, for your information, the Belgian Go Federation has some tools to detect such cheating and for the first time these tools have been used to analyze suspicious games and confirm the use of computer assistance.

The cost to pay if you get caught cheating with a computer is a loss of the game and several months exclusion from competition/Go Federation activities.

So for your own enjoyment and the respect of your opponent, please keep computers aside when you are playing tournament games in which they are not allowed.
Thanks !

The results of the second round of the interclub are in.

Gent-Phénix 0-3
Ath-Pantin 2-1

All results can be found at https://www.gofed.be/node/1242.

The Interclubs season 2021 is ongoing and the first round has already been played. But it's only a start there are still 4 rounds to come...
See results there

This year there are 5 participating clubs: Ath, Ghent GGG, Bruxelles Phénix, Bruxelles Pantin and Leuven.

Who can play ?

If you are a registered player (i.e. fee paid for 2021 in the Federation) from any of these 5 clubs, you can participate - according how many free places there are in your club. If you are interested to participate, please contact at your club your Interclubs capitain or club president.

How are Interclubs games played ?

The Interclubs games are played in teams of 3 vs 3 and the time settings are 1 hour + Canadian byo-yomi 20 stones in 5 minutes.

Once again this year the Interclubs is played in a 5 round round-robin tournament.
Because there is an odd number of participating clubs one club will have to be bye every round (i.e. no play).

The duration of each round is 6 weeks, matches must be played in this period.
The scheduling of the matches is agreed between clubs. The 3 games can be played on different days and times since we play online this year.