The Paris Tournament was the finale of the Pandanet Go European Cup for 2009-2010.

Over 200 players took part.

Winner with 6/6 was Dai Junfu. Second was Csaba Mero and third Hwang In-Seong, both on 5/6.

Only UK player was Yohei Negi who won 3/6.

Results

Pal Balogh scored enough points to overtake long time leader Ondrej Silt to win the PGEC ranking.

Congratulations to the UK representatives Anson Ng and Vanessa Wong!

This event took place in the ancient town of Sibiu in Romania. 48 under-16s and 75 under-12s took part. The lowering of the age limit at the WYGC meant the 13 under-18 players who were not under-16 played in their own section and not for any official title.

Winner in the under-12 was Anson Ng (1k) representing the UK, who won 5 games out of 6. The next places were taken by players with 4 wins: Alexandru Pitrop (4k Romania), Silvestru State (6k Romania), Oliver Wolf (1k Germany) and Stepan Popov (1d Russia).

Winner under-16 was Poland's Mateusz Surma (4d), also winning 5/6. The UK's Vanessa Wong (4d) was second, Jurij Mykhaljuk (2d Ukraine) was third and Lukas Podpera (4d Czechia) was fourth, all on 4 wins.

Romania's Mihai Valentin Serban (4d) won all six games to win the under-18 section, ahead of Roman Ruzhanskyj (1d Ukraine).

To complete the Go festival, 40 adults played their own tournament.

The 21st Irish Open was held as usual in the Teachers' Club in Dublin and again was part of the Pandanet Go European Cup. There attendance was 41, the strongest being the winner Ondrej Silt (6 dan Czechia). Second was Wei Wang from UCC; third and fourth were members of the large Dutch contingent Willem-Koen Pomstra and Willem Mallon.

Results

The Irish Rapid handicap tournament on the Friday evening ended in a four-way tie. After braking it the winner was Edwin Brady from St Andrews. Second was Justyna Klezcar, third was Willem-Koen Pomstra and fourth Bernd Sambale.

Results

The Nihon Ki-in have announced that Noriyuki Nakayama, 6 dan professional, died on 16th February 2010 aged 77. He was a well known and much loved professional teacher at many European and American Go Congresses and author of the book "The Treasure Chest Enigma".

When President Obama visited China in November 2009 he presented Preident Hu Jintao with a Go or Weiqi set. It consisted of a US-made wooden board and Chinese jade stones in American glass bowls, showing a fusion between the culture and skills of the two countries. You can see see the board being made in the AGA E-Journal report. No doubt Obama's knowledge of Chinese culture gained through this gift helped when he met the Dalai Lama on 18th February 2010.

The 2009 Youth Grand Prix has now finished, with Matthew Hathrell coming first, Roella Smith second, and Michael Webster third. Well done to those three, and to everyone else who earned points. Full standings for the year can be seen here. Matthew and Michael will both be too old to play this coming year, so we will have at least two new prize winners in 2010. Good luck to everyone in their tournaments this year.

Clive Hendrie died on 28th January 2010 at 6 pm in the Windsor hospice of Thames Hospicecare. Clive had been battling cancer for over a year, and despite treatment and operations was taken worse just after the New Year. Uncle Clive, as he is known to Bracknell Go Club (because of his two nieces), will be sadly missed by those who knew and played against him.