Belgian Go Federation

May 25th

Today players arrived. In the Narita airport, there was a significant effort to avoid 'pandemic influenza', all employees having masks and all immigrants having to fill a form saying that they did not cough the last 10 days or so. Tomorrow, there is a transfer to the playing site, Kakegawa city, in Shizuoka prefecture. The first two rounds of the tournament will be played on May 27th.

May 26th

After the transfer to Kakegawa city, there was the classical "orientation" session with the reading of the rules and demonstration of the clocks. At the end of this meeting, the pairings for the first round were drawn. Belgium will face Japan on table 23.

Next there was the IGF general meeting. It is interesting to note that the situation of international go is changing. The sponsoring for WAGC is decreasing, and probably next year the flight will not be sponsored anymore. Another change is that the WAGC will not always be organized in Japan, but also in other countries, such China. The next KPMC will be held from 23rd to 28th of October 2009 together with two other events (website)

May 27th

In the morning, I lost my game against Japan. It seems I forgot several proverbs, and I only realized when I was behind in the running battle. In the afternoon I captured three Philipine groups.

Japanese people are very kind and helpful. However, sometimes the language barrier causes some challenges. I spent 20 minutes unsuccessfully asking how to dial an international phone number at the hotel reception desk. Fortunately, modern hotels have broadband LAN and skype supports calls to regular phones.

May 28th

I started the second day by winning from Peru in a fairly interesting game.

During lunchtime there was a tea ceremony. Even though essentially this consists in getting a cup of tea and drinking it, there are a few subtle but important details. There is for instance the rotating of the cup. Even though the cup is perfectly circular, it has a picture which is called the center. The lady offering the cup rotates the cup (to mix and cool the hot tea a bit and) to let the center face the drinker as a sign of respect. Next, the drinker rotates the cup again, as one should not drink facing the center.

In the afternoon, my hallucination contained more liberties than the reality. I had to resort to several too expensive ko fights.

May 29th

In the morning my South-African opponent resigned, after having taken the four corners and (according to the comments of a professional) having missed numerous opportunities to invade correctly the center exploiting my too defensive defence.

In the afternoon my white opponent went for influence by playing a 5-5 and 4-6 opening. The game became interesting and complicated, involving several big ko fights. The amount of mistakes of my opponent nearly approached mine, and he won by 2.5 points.

At the top of the tournament, the last unbeaten players, China and Korea faced each other in the sixth round. In the end China won.

May 30th

My seventh game much resembled my 5th. My opponent used the same joseki variation in the beginning which was not known to the pro but not necessarily bad. I was again forced into playing for influence. It seems my opponent played two kikachi too much, which costed him my 7.5 points margin.

The last round and hence the last chance to score a point was against Russia. It was my second game with white, and my only one with a diagonal fuseki and no moyo. Despite a few mistakes in the fuseki, I managed to capture a few stones in the middle game. However, due to approaching byo-yomi, I forgot about a variation which cutted of 7 of my stones. I was however very lucky that my opponent just lost one liberty in yose, and by enlarging my captured group I could capture 6 stones myself in oiotoshi. Finally, I won by 2.5 points, probably thanks to the 15 stones in 10 minutes byo-yomi rithm which allowed to play reasonable endgame. I was very happy to again score 5 victories.

the tournament was won by China. From our neighboring countries we can note the good results of Laurent Heiser (Luxembourg) and Thomas Debarre (France).

May 31st

On the last day, there was a friendship match with the local people in the morning. It is interesting to see the contrast between the old men who say that they play fast but in fact use quite some time and avoid fights, and the young kids who are asked to think well but play fast and are not afraid of fighting. I have to admit that using a lddder that does not work as a source of ko threats may in some cases be a remarkably good idea.

In the afternoon.the participants went sightseeing to a zen temple. It was a relatively large complex. We got invited to practice zen. The priest first explained that one should sit straight on the mat, look at a point 1 metre in front, and thing nothing. He then continued with hitting the interested participants (making loud snaps), explaining that this was to remmind zen practicers that they should think nothing. Next, he also reviewed the history of the temple.

It took 4 hours to get through the traffic jam to Narita hotel with its English speaking staff.

You will find here all the documentation about tournaments in Belgium.

National

For the next tournaments to take place, please see Calendar on the right side of your screen.

Federal

Tournaments organized by the Belgian Go Federation

• Belgian Championship
• Brussels Tournament
• Interclubs
• Belgian Blitz Championship
• Belgian Rengo Championship
• Youth and Student Belgian Championship

Clubs

Tournaments organized by the Belgian Go Clubs

• Leuven Tournament
• Antwerp Tournament
• Ghent Tournament
• Liège Tournament
• Andenne Tournament
• Louvain-La-Neuve Tournament
• Pantin / Hoshi Go Club Tournament

International

Calendar of tournaments in Europe; https://www.eurogofed.org/calendar/.

Wanneer? Het weekend van 1-2 november

Waar? Zaal "La Ratatouille", eerste verdieping van het gebouw AGL (35 rue Georges Lemaître, Louvain-La-Neuve)

Inschrijving:
- 10 euro
- 5 euro voor 15k en zwakker

Prijzen:
1e prijs: 50 euro
2e prijs: 30 euro
3e prijs: 20 euro

En een prijs voor iedereen met 4 overwinningen op 5 !

Regels:
Japanse regels, komi 6,5
1 uur per persoon, canadese byo-yomi (15 stenen in 5 minuten)

Schema

Zaterdag 1 november
10.00 uur: inschrijving
10.30 uur: eerste ronde
13.30 uur: tweede ronde
16.00 uur: derde ronde

zondag 2 november
10.30 uur: vierde ronde
13.30 uur: vijfde ronde
16.30 uur: Prijsuitreiking

When? The week-end of 1st and 2nd November

Where? Room « la Ratatouille », at the first floor of AGL building (35 rue Georges Lemaître, Louvain-la-Neuve)

Inscrpition:
- 10 euros
- 5 euros for 15 kyu and less.

Prizes:
1st prize: 50 euros
2nd prize: 30 euros
3rd prize: 20 euros

And a prize for everyone with 4 or 5 victories!

Rules:
- Japanese rules, 6.5 of komi
- 1 hour main time for each player, and canadian byo yomi 15 stones/5 minutes

Schedule:

Saturday 1st november
10h00: Inscriptions
10h30: 1st round
13h30: 2nd round
16h00: 3rd round

Sunday 2nd november
10h30: 4th round
13h30: 5th round
16h30: Prize giving

Quand ? Le week-end du 1er et 2 novembre

Où ? Salle « la Ratatouille », au premier étage du bâtiment AGL (35 rue Georges Lemaître, Louvain-la-Neuve)

Inscrpition :
- 10 euros
- 5 euros pour les 15 kyu et moins.

Prix :
- 1er prix : 50 euros
- 2eme prix : 30 euros
- 3eme prix : 20 euros

Et un prix pour tous ceux qui remportent 4 ou 5 victoires !

Règles :
- Règles japonaises, komi de 6.5
- 1 h de temps par joueur, plus une horloge canadienne de 15 pierres/5 minutes

Horaire :

Samedi 1er novembre
10h00 : Inscriptions
10h30 : 1ère round
13h30 : 2ème round
16h00 : 3ème round

Dimanche 2 novembre
10h30 : 4eme round
13h30 : 5eme round
16h30 : Remise des prix

Championship of youth and students. Delegation to international student/youth tournaments happens in order of the results of this tournament restricted to those participants satisfying the requirements of the international tournament. More information

On July 5-6th, 2008 the Korean Prime Minister's Cup Selection Tournament (KPMCST) and the Ghent Go Tournament (GGT) is organized in Ghent.

Results

WINNERS SECTION:
Nelis Vets 2d
         +-----Nelis Vets +------+
Frederik Carbon 4k               |
                            Nelis Vets +-----+
Chi Yiu Wong 1d                  |           |
         +-----Chi Yiu Wong +----+           |
Michael Meeschaert 1k                        |
                                       Francois Gonze +----+
Thomas Connor 1d                             |             |
         +-----Thomas Connor +---+           |             |
Pierre Kim 1k                    |           |             |
                            Francois Gonze +-+             |
Francois Gonze 1k                |                         |
         +-----Francois Gonze +--+                         |
Kristof Bossee 1k                                     Thomas Connor +---+
                                                           |            |
                                                           |            |
LOSERS SECTION:                                            |            |
                                                           |            |
                           Thomas Connor +------+          |            |
                                                |          |      Thomas Connor +--+
                                           Thomas Connor +-+            |          |
               Michael Meeschaert               |                       |          |
                    +---- Michael Meeschaert +--+                       |          |
               Frederik Carbon                                          |          |
                                         Nelis Vets +------+            |          |
                                                           |            |      Francois Gonze
                           Chi Yiu Wong +------+       Nelis Vets +-----+          |
                                               |           |                       |
                                         Kristof Bossee +--+                       |
               Pierre Kim                      |                                   |
                     +---- Kristof Bossee +----+                                   |
               Kristof Bossee                                                      |
                                                                Francois Gonze +---+

The Korean Prime Minister's Cup Selection Tournament is a tournament sponsored by the Korean embassy and the Korean Amateur Baduk Organisation. The winner of the tournament will represent Belgium at the Korean Prime Minister's Cup in Korea in November (usually, all travel and accomodation is payed by the very generous sponsors). More details

26/27 April the Antwerp Go Club organises its first Open Tournament on the same location as the preliminaries of the Belgian Championship more information here.