News

Human revenge over computer: Cho Chi Kun won his match against Zen (2-1).

Cho Chi Kun managed to win his match against the computer "Zen" by 2-1.

More info here:
http://rfg.jeudego.org/item/287-match-entre-cho-chikun-9p-et-le-logiciel...

(not yet updated with the 3rd game, which is commented here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/5eg1iw/cho_chikun_vs_deep_zen_go...

Meanwhile, I read "Zen" has climbed to nr 1 on KGS.

4th round of the European Team Championship: Belgium - Switzerland 2-2

On 22th of November, Belgium (Gerald +, Lucas -, Nelis +, Gabriel -) obtained its 1st point by making a draw against Switzerland.

Note the reinforcement by Gerald Westhoff (ex-European top Dutch player, now living in Ghent) and the defeat of Lucas by a tiny 2,5 pts...

Detail of the round here:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/345

Present standings here:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

We are in the red zone (with a risk of demotion to the C league), but there are still many rounds to come...

3rd round European Team Championship: Belgium - Italy 1-3

On 1st of November, Belgian team (Lucas -, Jan +, Kwinten -, Nelis -) lost...for the 3rd time consecutively :-(.
This time against Italy.

Detail of the round here:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/344

The "Zen" team expects to overcome "Alpha Go" in 2017...and plays legendary Cho Chi Kun in a 3 games-match in November.

"Zen", the best publicly available software, has made incredible progress the last months (I reported he won a match against German champion Lukas Krämer, 6-d, by 3-1 in September).

The objective of its developers is now to beat "Alpha Go" before end 2017 ! Yes, guys !

The team managed to organize a test match of 3 games against the legendary Cho Chi Kun starting just now (end November).

Cho is certainly not as strong as he was in the eigties, but he is one of the most prestigious go players. He has won no less than...75 titles !

Please find here more info about this match (in French):
http://rfg.jeudego.org/item/286-match-entre-cho-chikun-Bonjour

31st Brussels Tournament

The 31st Brussels tournament took place on the weekend of the 29th and 30th October 2016 and gathered 63 players!

The winner is Fabien Lips (4d, FR), followed by Lucas Neirynck (5d, BE), Antoine Fenech (5d, FR) and Manuel Frangi (2d, FR).

Complete results: http://www.europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=T161029G

2nd round Europa Team Championship: Belgium - Austria 1-3

On 11/10, Belgian team (Lucas lost against Viktor Lin, Kwinten -, Nelis - , Gabriel +) lost against Austria 1-3 :-)

Complete results here:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/343

Present standings:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

1st round European Team Championship 2016-17: Belgium - United Kingdom 1-3

Despite reinforcement of the Belgian team by Gerald Westhoff (NL, 6d), an European star of the 90's now living in Belgium, our team lost to UK by 1-3.

Played for Belgium: Gerald (lost), Lucas (won), Nelis (lost) and Gabriel (lost, by 1,5 pt).

Complete results here:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/342

Present standings:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

Best publicly available software is now 6-d strengh

Since 3 years, a match (of 5 games) has been organized between the strongest commercially available software and a top European amateur player.

Up till now the human (Franz-Josef Dickhut, D, 6d) had triumphed against the machine/s ("Crazy Stones" in 2014; "Zen" in 2015), both times by 3-1).

But this year, "Zen" beats Lukas Krämer (D, 6d, German champion in 2013, 2014 and 2015) also by 3-1.

This is a new milestone in Computer-go because "Zen" (unlike "Alpha Go") is a publicly available go programs running on regular hardware...

More info here: https://go.codecentric.de/

Young (16) Chinese amateur star Rundong Yang wins 2016 KPMC (Korean Prime Minister Cup)

Young Chinese Rundong Yang wins 2016 KPMC (Korean Prime Minister Cup)
(the Korean version of the World Amateur Go Championship, also called "the little WAGC").
He was the only undefeated player (6/6).

Four other players ended with one defeat: Yu-Cheng Lai (7d, TW), Kim Heesoo (7d, insei, KR), and the representatives of Canada and Thaïland (in this order).
Best player with 4 wins is the Japanese player, just ahead of best European, Jan Hora (CZ, 6d).

"Our guy" was this year Gabriel Mercier.
He did great: with 4 victories, he ends 20th out of a field of 54 participants.

Complete results here: http://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/eng/result/gameTable.asp

Pandanet New season is coming!

Dear Go players, with this message I'm happy to inform you the next season of Pandanet Go European Team Championship will start on 15th of September. If you want to be a member of the Belgian team, please just fill the doodle (with your first name, family name and rank):

http://doodle.com/poll/7r3e9ybharg2t65u#table

The 12 top ranked participant will be accepted in the team (but qualification can be organised if there is much more than 12 participants).

Condition to be a member of the Team:
1° To live in Belgium or being a belgian player.
2° Agreed to play for Belgium only (cannot change team after season start).
3° Be ready to play a game on tuesday evening (usually from 20h- to 23h) every three weeks (on internet). Schedule will be sent at the beginning of the season so I expect you to put it in your agenda
4° Fill this doodle before 7th of september with complete name and rank.
5° Send me before 8th of september your Pandanet account (http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/pandanet).

This is a great opportunity to play against other european players (and even pro sometimes) without moving too far !

Please read the infos about the matches before season starts:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

With great expectations for this year,
your devoted team captain,
Gabriel Mercier.