Foreign Tournament Report

The 54th European Go Congress, sponsored by Zhuyeqing Tea, was held in various school buildings in Tampere, Finland. The fortnight started with the last days of a record heat wave.

The WAGC returned to China after more than 25 years. 60 countries took part, less than before as several European countries could not afford the airfare without sponsors.

The event was held in the new Tian Yuan Tower in Hangzhou, specially built to support Go activities.

After six rounds the only unbeaten player was Song Hong-Suk of Korea; he remained unbeaten. Wang Chen of China was second, only losing to the winner. Czechia's Ondrej Silt and Hungary's Pal Balogh ended in the group with six wins, which also contained North Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Singapore.

T Mark Hall, playing for the UK, was 41st beating Malaysia, Switzerland and Slovenia.

John Gibson of Ireland was 52nd beating Peru and Turkey.

Full Results

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 second UCC tournament in 2009.

British Go Journal No. 66. November 1985 Page 6.

Tony Atkins describes the scene at this year's European Championship

The 2001 European Go Congress was held in the Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square, Dublin, Ireland. It was hosted by the Irish Go Association.

• Main tournament
• Weekend
• Rapid
• Handicap
• Handicap Lightning
• Computer Go (off-site)
• Side Events