Belgian Go Federation

The 44th World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) was held on 19–22 May in Tokyo, Japan.

After eight rounds of intense games, Bai Baoxiang from China emerged victorious, clinching his fifth championship.
Bai has previously won the WAGC in 2011, 2016, 2017, and 2022.

Korea’s Kim Jeong-Seon (last year champion) came in second, and Japan’s Ōzeki Minoru was third.

Each one had a score of seven wins and one loss, with Bai having lost to Ōzeki, Ōzeki to Kim, and Kim to Bai.
SOS was used as tiebreaker, with Bai having the highest score, followed by Kim, and then Ōzeki.

Bai has a total of 37 wins and 1 loss in all the WAGC tournaments he has participated in, his game with Ōzeki being his only loss.

Top 6 places:
1. Bai Baoxiang (China) 7/8
2. Kim Jeon-Seon (Korea) 7/8
3. Ōzeki Minoru (Japan) 7/8
4. Pongsakarn Sornarra (Thailand) (6-d, 17 years old !) 6/8
5. Lo Sheng-Chieh (Chinese Taipei) (6/8)
6. Csaba Mero (Hungary) (6/8) (best Westerner, best European)

Our delegate was Renaud Gaban (1-k).
He ended 31th (out of 60 participants) with a 4/8 score
(logical losses to stronger opponents of France, Singapore, Croatia and Brunei; wins against Venezuela (a 2-d !), rep Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan...and against another 2-d competitor, from Norway (his land of residence for the being time).
Congratulations to him !

More info on: https://www.intergofed.org/igf-news-feed/bai-baoxiang-from-china-wins-44...

In the 8th round of the European Team Championship, Belgium lost to Serbia (1-3) (but remains 3rd).

The terrible Mitic brothers (both 7-d) were too strong for Sven and Nelis, and Larisa (1-k) lost to a 4-d...But Bram (4-k ?) succeeded in beating a 3-d. Congratulations to him !

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1008

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Shu Xin (5d) won unbeaten the 2024 tournament of Leuven in which 23 players (a disappointing figure) participated.

Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/626

In April, in the 7nd round of the European Team Championship, Belgium beats Austria 3-1
(Gabriel Mercier -, Sven Cuyt +, Nelis Vets +, Larisa Popescu - new face in the team +).

Belgium is now 3rd, but too far away from the 2 leader teams (Italy and Turkey) (both still undefeated) to hope to be promoted to the A-league.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1007

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

There were 10 participants in the 3rd edition of the Pantin tournament.
Here are the results: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/625

On 6th March, Belgian team (Lucas Neirynck +, Jan Ramon +, Gabriel Mercier +, Nelis Vets -) won against Finish team in the 6th round of the ETGC.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1006

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

After 6 of the 9 rounds, Belgium is 3rd with 7 points...but far away from Turkey and Italy, who dominate both with a perfect (12/12) score !

Belgium team (Lucas Neirynck +, Jan Ramon -, Gabriel Mercier -, Nelis Vets +) made a draw with Lituania in the 5th round of the European Team Championship.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1005

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Belgium is in the middle of the division (which is still by far dominated by Turkey and Italy, both with a 10/10 score).

The Belgian championship is the only competition in Belgium that is divided in 2 Rounds: 8 players participate in the final round.
4 of them are seeded thanks their results in last year championship (they ended at places 1 to 4): Lucas Neirynck, Thomas Connor, Jan Ramon and Victor Schneider. This preliminary rounds would determine the 4 other players who would join them.

It was an intensive weekend of Go. 8 players battled it out in 7 rounds.

Here are the final results (note that Xin Shu missed the 2 first rounds):

1 Bounoider, Lucman 3 Dan 6 21 128 107
2 Kuy, Yannick 3 Kyu 5 20 129 87
3 Xin, Shu 5 Dan 5 20 120 90
4 De_Keijser, Guillaume 4 Kyu 5 20 108 67
5 Silcher, Michael 4 Kyu 3 18 110 32
6 Boukricha, Moad 8 Kyu 2 17 132 33
7 Dusausoy, Guy 5 Kyu 2 17 132 32
8 JEANJEAN, Edouard 15 Kyu 0 15 134 0

Congratulations to the first 4, who are qualified for the final stage !
The others will be reserve players.
(report by Guillaume De Keijser)

Belgium team (Lucas Neirynck -, Jan Ramon -, Sven Cuyt -, Nelis Vets -) lost heavily to Italy in the 4th round of the European Team Championship.
Note: Lucas lost by 0,5 point to young raising star Davide Bernardis.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1004

Standings in B-league after this round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Belgium is now back in the middle of the division (which is by far dominated by Turkey and Italy, both still unbeaten).

As usually, the Asiatic players trusted the 1st places in the 43th WAGC !
1. Kim Jung Seon (KOR) 7/7
2. Yang Chuhun (CHI) 6/7
3. Lai Yu-Chang (TW) 5/7
4. Kurita Yoshiko (JAP) 5/7
5. best Westerner: Alan Huang (USA) 5/7
...
7. Best European: Jonas Welticke (DE) 5/7
...

*****

"Our guy" was Bram Vandenbon, who scored a fair 3/7 (wins to UK, Croatia, Mexico; losses to France, Chili, Luxembourg and Poland)

Complete results via the site of the EGF: https://www.eurogofed.org/index.html?id=402