Belgian Go Federation

In Septembre, Belgium team (composed by Lucas, Kwinten, Thomas and Nelis) lost to Poland in the 1st round of the European Team Championship 2013-14.
Please note the victory by Lucas on one of the European rising stars, young Mateusz Surma (according to Hwang In-Seong, Mateusz Surma is the most promising one; read his interview: http://www.eurogotv.com/index.php?menu=News&archief=1367515975).

Complete results of the 1st round here: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/153

Our represent Kevin Prist ended 26th with 3 victories out of 6 rounds in the Korean Prime Minister Cup (+/- the Korean version of the World Amateur Championship).

Winner was, as expected, the Korean representative ahead of the Chinese on.

Here are the complete results: http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=W131012A

Find hereunder Kevin's report (in French):

Ça s'est super bien passé, le voyage était simplement génial.

Mon premier adversaire était la Finlande, Juri Kuronen 6D (pur hasard, il était assis à côté de moi dans l'avion à l'aller). J'étais content de mon fuseki et je pensais être en avance dans la partie avant de rentrer en Byo-yomi. Là ça a commencé à déraper pour moi, j'ai joué plusieurs coups inutiles m'éloignant de plus en plus de la victoire et j'ai fini par mourir avant d'abandonner.

Deuxième adversaire était le Japon 7D, Kikou Emura (...). Je me suis fait laminé du début à la fin, et en plus ça a été retransmis sur le net... J'ai donc abandonné avec au moins 30 points de retard. (...).

Troisième adversaire: l'Afrique du Sud 1D, Rodney Stephen Kroon. Cette partie a été un peu plus facile que les autres. Le début était très calme des deux côtés, mais après le fuseki, les coups de mon adversaires devenaient un peu plus hésitant. J'avoue avoir essayé plusieurs arnaques, normalement inefficaces, mais qui ont marché. J'ai fini par gagner par abandon (...).

Quatrième adversaire: la Mongolie, Sansar Tsolmon 4D et prof de go dans son pays. J'ai joué très calme (sans doute pour éviter de me faire mal voir par un prof de go) et lui, contrairement à ce que j'aurais cru, a été très agressif. Je me suis du coup retrouvé dans une grande chasse d'un groupe faible d'un bord à l'autre du goban où j'ai fini par le tuer et remporter la victoire.

L'Australie fut mon 5ème adversaire. Wei Qian 6D, très sympathique, mais un peu arnaqueur. Je me suis fait avoir au fuseki et après ça son jeu est devenu très calme et solide, ne me laissant aucun moyen de rattraper mon retard : défaite par abandon.

Et enfin mon ultime adversaire, l'Italie, Fausto Predieri 1K. La partie fut un combat de grands territoires. Jusqu'au début du yose je me sentais en avance. Tout à coup il a ignoré un hane en première ligne pour tenter de tuer l'entièreté du groupe. Je n'avais pas vu le coup venir! Jamais je n'avais autant réfléchi dans le tournoi qu'en ce moment. C'était un stress intense pour les deux joueurs. (...) je finis par trouver la faille et vécus avec un deuxième oeil à l'intérieur même de son énorme territoire ne lui laissant que peu de points. La tension était redescendu, j'avais gagné.

Zhang Yuanbo won the Brussels tournament ahead of Antoine Fenech and Benjamin Blanchard. See the full results

Korean Hyunjae Choi is an undefeated World Amateur Champion (and will thus now become professional).
2nd was Chinese Yuqing Hu with 7/8.
Good suprise: the next 3 are European contestants: Artem Kachanovski (UA), Ilya Shikchin (RU) and Pavol Lisy (SK).
The Japanese representative is 8th !

Lucas Neirynck (BE) made 3/8 (37th) (best player among those with 3 wins).

More info here: http://ranka.intergofed.org/
NB: one of Lucas games is commented by Michael Redmond, 9-p

Ex-chinese professional Fan Hui (who has recently got the French nationality) became last week the new European champion.

He defeated in final young (18) Pavol LISY from Slovakia (who was the winner in the last Brussels tournament).

In the little final for the 3rd place, opposing 2 other young talents, Mateusz SURMA (PL) beat Thomas DEBARRE (FR).

Results of the finals:
http://egc2013.go.art.pl/EGC-finals.html

Note the elimination of two great favourites Ilya SHIKCHIN and Artem KACHANOVSKI in the 1st round (= quarter finals) of the finals (respectively by LISY and DEBARRE), and the bad result of multiple European champion Alexander DINERSTEIN, who even failed to qualify for the finals !

Complete results of the main tournament:
http://egc2013.go.art.pl/EGC2013_main.html

Still, Ilya SHIKCHIN did win the WE tournament, beating among others, Fan HUI !

Results of the WE tournament:
http://egc2013.go.art.pl/weekend.html

As expected, Belgium was severly beaten by Austria, one of the 3 strong teams of the B-division.

Finland (1st, next year thus in A-league), Austria (2nd, will play a match against Israël to possibly climb into A-league) and Netherlands (who ended 3rd at tie-break and will thus stay in B-league) dominated by far the other teams.

Thus this match did not matter for the final standing: Belgium ended 4th (out of 10 teams).

Here are the detailled results of the 9th round:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/95

Here are the final standings of this 3rd edition if the European Team Championship:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

PS: the 4 best teams of the A-division (Russia, Ukraine, Czechia and Hungary) will play against each other during the next European Congress in Poland this summer to designate the champion team...

Belgian team made 2 draws in Mars and April against Italy and UK.

It is now certain that we wil stay in B-class next year (not be promoted neither be demoted).
It remains just one round to play.

Here are the results of the 7th round:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/93

And here those of the 8th round:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/94

Finally, here are the standings after 8 out of the 9 rounds:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

(you see also the domination of the Eastern countries in A-class !).

In the second weekend of the Belgian Championship, Kevin Prist lost against Jan Ramon and Lucas Neirynck lost against Kwinten Missiaen. As Jan had already lost to Lucas in the first weekend, before the last round three players had 7 points.
In the last round, Jan won from Bram Vandenbon.
But Hitchcock was hanging by, as Lucas and Kevin were to meet in this last round: Should Kevin wins, Jan would be Belgian champion. If Lucas wins, Lucas would be champion.
The game, which lasted very long and counted nearly 400 moves (both players ended with negative points !), was finally decided with the last ko !
Kevin felt short of just ONE ko thread and thus lost by half a point. Ironically enough, there was actually still another ko thread ...that a tired and byo-yomied Kevin did not see !
So, Lucas became a little luckily Belgian champion 2013, and Jan an unfortunate silver medal.
In the end, the first five (qualitiving) places went to Lucas Neirynck, Jan Ramon, Kwinten Missiaen, Kevin Prist and Bram Vandenbon (curiously enough, places 1 to 7 are the same as in 2012 !) See full results

The first week-end of the Belgian Go Championship ended today. Two players have 5 wins: Lucas Neirynck and Kevin Prist. See http://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=BC&year=2013 .

Some games have been broadcasted on KGS with the account BelChamp13.

As feared, Belgium was crushed by the very strong team of Finand (who is leading the B-division).
After 6 out of the 9 rounds, we are still 4th (out of 10 teams) and will very probably stay in B-division next year.

Results of the 6th round: http://www.pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/92

Standings: http://www.pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps