Belgian Go Federation

Suspense till the very end in the 2023 interclubs competition !

This week the last rounds of the 2023 interclubs have been played and the name of the club champion has been decided.

The match between Leuven and Brussels Phénix would determine which team got crowned this year.

Leuven has won the Interclub competition 7 times in the past, whereas Phénix was last year’s champion.

Board one was a clash of the rising stars: Yannick Kuy, playing for Phénix, recently scored 5-0 at the Brussels Go tournament and has just been promoted 3 Kyu. His opponent, Bram Westhovens, scored 14-1 as 7 kyu at the European Go congress this summer (his streak included a win against a 2kyu and Bram is inches away from a 3 kyu rating). The game was played with 0,5 komi and was the one that finished first with the victory of Yannick Kuy. 1-0 for the Phénix Go club.

The next game to finish was played on board 3. It ended with a win by Leuven this time: Simon Janssens (11 kyu) won against Xavier Baele (7kyu): 1-1

So, board 2 would finally determine which team would go home with the interclubs title this year !
In their head to head match up in official competition, Tom Van Doorsselaere (Leuven) (5 kyu) was leading against Guillaume De Keijser (Phénix) (5 kuy). But this time, when the dust settled, Guillaume was able to bring the win home. 2-1 for Phenix Go Club, who got thus the title this year.

Congratulations to our Back-to-Back 2023 interclubs Champions Brussels Phénix

The other match, that followed a couple of days later, opposed Antwerpen to Gent. There was only 12,5% chance of Antwerpen to grab second place. But somehow the stars were aligned for them this time and they managed to win the 3 games, and to finish with thr silver medail.

The full results can be found here; https://www.gofed.be/node/1406

We hope more clubs will participate in the interclubs next year !

(report by Guillaume De Keijser)

Belgian team (Lucas Neirynck 6d +, Jan Ramon 3d + Gabriel Mercier 3d - Sven Cuyt 2d +) won against Ireland in the 1st round of the Pandanet European Team Championship.

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/1001

Standings in B-league after 1st round:https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Romanian Cornel Burzo (6-d) won the 37th edition of the Brussels tournament ahead of Chinese Yan Zihan (6-d), Xin Shu (5-d) and Luxemburger Andreas Gottzfried. All with 4 wins (out of 5 rounds).
2 players remained unbeaten: Yannick Kuy (5-k) and Jeffrey Nguyen (12-k). There were 66 participants.
Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=BT&year=2023

Chinese Chonzhe Tang wins the 18th KPMC with a perfect score (7/7) and is thus 2023 amateur world champion, version Korea.

Three players ended on 6/7: Hwan-Young Choi (KOR), Yu-Cheng Lai (TaÏwan) and...Lukas Podpera (CZ).

Young Ukrainian Valeri Krushelnytskyi (5th) leads the group of players with 5 wins.

Note that the Japanese representative ended at a desappointing 14th place, with a poor 4/7 score !

"Our guy", Sven Cuyt (2d), ended 40th on 56 participants with a 3/7 score
(wins against Guatemala, Brazil and Lituania; losses to Thailand, Slovakia, Turkey and Sweden).

Complete results here: https://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/us/2023/result

Victor Schneider (2-k) won the 13th edition of the Gent tournament, with a perfect 6/6 score.
He surprisingly won 2 times against favourite Bram Vandenbon (2-d), who ended 2nd.
As they were only 4 participants (a desappointing figure !), the tournament was played in the form of a 2 rounds round robin.

Results here: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/614

Mateusz Surma (2-p) wins the 6th European professional championship by beating in final the Finnish Anti Törmannen (1-p in the Nihon Ki-in).
Ali Jabarin (2-p) won the "small final" for the 3rd place against Stanislaw Frejlak (1-p).
The Russian pros (Ilya Shikchine and Alexander Dinerstein) were not allowed to participate.

Complete results here: https://www.eurogofed.org/epc/2023.html

On 18/06, Lucas Neirynck got (as expected) his 12th (!) title of Belgian champion (in 13 participations. Since his 1st participation in a Belgian Championship - in 2009 - Lucas won 116 games out of 122 and has not lost any game since 2016) !).
He won the final against Thomas Connor (4-d).
Jan Ramon beat Victor Schneider in the "little final" to got the bronze medail.

Last year's winner, Huang Yong Sen, ended at (desappointing) 6th place.

Here are the complete results, standings...and a video of 2 commented games by Christopher Annachachibi (2-d):
https://www.gofed.be/node/1389
https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/613

You can also find the SGF file on OGS here:
- Semi-final Jan-Thomas: https://online-go.com/review/1092976
- Final Thomas-Lucas: https://online-go.com/review/1093086

Belgian team (Lucas, Jan, Gabriel, Victor) lost heavily (0-4) to the leader, Germany in the 9th (and last) round.
(Lucas lost by 1,5 against Jonas Welticke (7-d).

Anyway, this encounter has no any stake: Germany was sure to end 1st (and to climb next season in A-league) and Belgium was certain to stay in B-league, whatever the result would be.

Finaly, Belgium ends 6th out of 10 teams.

Complet results of the round here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/911

Definitive standings here: Standing: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

In May (02/05), Belgium beat Lituania (3-1).
Lucas, Jan and Gabriel won, but Gints lost (against a stronger opponent).

Complete results here: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/910

It remains only one round to play. With this victory, Belgium climbed to the 6th place place (out of the 10 teams in the B-league) with 7 points and is ensured to stay in B-league in the next season.
Standing: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Koichiro Habu, a Japanese 5-d player living in Poland, won the 33rd edition of the Leuven tournament, with 4/5, ahead on tie-break on German 3-d Lukas Wandelt, 2nd.
Jan Ramon (4-d) completeted the podium with a 3/5 score.
Marcel Van Herck (8-k) was the only other player with 4/5.
There were 23 participants (a litlle desappointing figure).
Completed results here: https://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=T230506D