Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championships 2024

The first Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championships was held from February to June 2024. This European team event and has strict eligibility requirements with all players having to be citizens of the country they represent (as opposed to qualifying through long term residence) and to be U18. The reason for this tighter criteria is that were the winning team be invited to compete in a world event then the players would need to be able to demonstrate citizenship of their country.

The format in 2024 had nine countries participating. Rather than an all play all - for which the timetable was rather tight - there were two leagues with four teams in League A and five teams in League B. The four teams in League A played each other twice with the best placed team in this League being the 1st PYGETC Champion.

The teams were graded on the basis of the average rating of the top five boards (with board 4 being a female player and board 5 being an U12 player). The UK was seeded third and hence was playing in League A.

Team Manager Alison Bexfield selected the UK team for this event. The team selection had a cut off at 10 kyu this year. There was a team of ten players of which five would play each match.

The team was:
Scott Cobbold 4 dan
Ryan Zhang 2 dan (U12)
Lea Wong 2 kyu (female)
Michael Mitcham-Harding 4 kyu
Yanyi Xiong 5 kyu (U12)
Andrew Volovich 5 kyu
Blake Shamoon 6 kyu (U12)
Derek Duan 7 kyu
Zoe Walters 9 kyu (female)
Emily Gan 10 kyu (U12 female)

The matches were normally played on Pandanet on Wednesday evenings.

28th February Ukraine 1 - 4 UK

1. Vsevolod Ovsiienko (VsevolodO, 5d) 0 - 1 Scott Cobbold (mismo 4d)
2. Danylo Petrashevskyi (Danyll, 1d) 0 - 1 Ryan Zhang (RYANZ2013, 2d)
3. Danylo Petryk (Danylo, 2k) 0 - 1 Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k)
4. Mariia Chernova (MariiaChe7, 1d) 0 - 1 Lea Wong (leazwong7, 3k)
5. Avhust Savytskyi (McAugustOs, 3k) 1 - 0 Yanyi Xiong (Yanyi, 5k)

13th March UK 3 - 2 Croatia

1. Scott Cobbold (mismo, 4d) 1 - 0 Stjepan Medak (Noether67, 3d)
2. Ryan Zhang (RYANZ2013, 2d) 1 - 0 Roko Crvelin (RokoCrv, 3d)
3. Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k) 0 - 1 Teo Sladetic (Teoborder, 1k)
4. Lea Wong (leazwong7, 3k) 1 - 0 Tonka Zderic (tonka, 4k)
5. Yanyi Xiong (Yanyi, 5k) 0 - 1 Jakov Sicic (JakovSicic, 4k)

3rd April UK 3 - 2 Romania

1. Scott Cobbold (mismo, 4d) 1-0 Robert Andrei Grosu (Pingu25, 3d)
2. Ryan Zhang (RYANZ2013, 2d) 1-0 Stefan Rotarita (rstefan, 2d)
3. Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k) 0-1 Bogdan Stefan Tifrea (Bogdan23, 3k)
4. Zoe Walters (zw314, 9k) 0-1 Sara Maria Ghetu (saramg, 6k)
5. Blake Shamoon (amyas, 6k) 1-0 Eduard Andrei Iugulescu (eddie1, 7k)

24th April UK 0 - 5 Ukraine

1. Scott Cobbold (mismo, 4d) 0-1 Vsevolod Ovsiienko (VsevolodO, 5d)
2. Ryan Zhang (RYANZ2013, 2d) 0-1 Olesia Malko (olesia, 3d)
3. Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k) 0-1 Danylo Petrashevskyi (Danyll, 1d)
4. Lea Wong (leazwong7, 3k) 0-1 Mariia Chernova (MariiaChe7, 1d)
5. Yanyi Xiong (Yanyi, 5k) 0-1 Avhust Savytskyi (McAugustOs, 3k)

8th May UK 1 - 4 Croatia

1. Scott Cobbold (mismo, 4d) 0 -1 Stjepan Medak (Noether67, 3d)
2. Ryan Zhang (RYANZ2013, 2d) 1-0 Roko Crvelin (RokoCrv, 3d)
3. Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k) 0-1 Teo Sladetic (Teoborder, 1k)
4. Zoe Walters (zw314, 9k) 0-1 Tonka Zderic (tonka, 4k)
5. Blake Shamoon (amyas, 6k) 0-1 Jakov Sicic (JakovSicic, 4k)

29th May UK 0-5 Romania

1. Scott Cobbold (mismo, 4d) 0-1 Robert Andrei Grosu (Pingu25, 3d)
2. Michael Mitcham-Harding (FKnife, 3k) 0-1 Stefan Rotarita (rstefan, 2d)
3. Derek Duan (CrrAke, 5k) 0-1 Alexandru Nicolas Patrascu (Nicolas1, 3k)
4. Lea Wong (leazwong7, 3k) 0-1 Sara Maria Ghetu (saramg,6k)
5. Emily Gan (WStorm, 12k) 0-1 Eduard Andrei Iugulescu (eddie1, 7k)

UK final position 3.

More details: Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championships (PYGETC)