Belgian Go Federation

He did it once again: Lucas Neirynck is Belgian champion.
He won for the 9th time in 10 participations.

***

This year, for the 1st time, the final of the Belgian championship was organized as a knock-out tournament with (partially) 2 lives
(see: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/477).

Unfortunately, 2 qualified competitors did not participate:
- Thomas Connor (4-d), who had notified his absence in advance
- Lucman Bounoider (3-d), who suprisingly did not show up.
They were replaced respectively by reservists Joost Van Nieuwenhuizen (1-k) and Laurent Calmus (5-k) (who had joined just as a scribe).

There were no surprise during the 1st day of the competition.

The semi-finals, played the 2nd day, opposed Lucas Neirynck to Gabriel Mercier (Winner: Lucas) and Jan Ramon to François Gonze ( Winner Jan).

François won the "little final" and climbed onto the podium.

And Lucas, as you know, triumphed in the final on a good-performing Jan.

Here is the final standings:
1. Lucas Neirynck (6-d)
2. Jan Ramon (4-d)
3. François Gonze (4-d)
4. Gabriel Mercier (3-d)
5. Nelis Vets (2-d)
6. Thibaut Pillon (2-d)
7. Joost Van Nieuwenhuizen (1-k)
8. Laurent Calmus (5-k)

Chinese Chen Wang triumphed in the 2019 World Amateur Championship.
He remained unbeaten (8/8).

Second is Korean Jaesung Lee with 7/8, who lost by a half point to Chen Wang.

Further, five competitors got 6 victories, in order of the tie-breaker:
- the player from Hong-Kong
- Albert Yen from USA (best Westerner)
- Pal Balogh from Hungary (best European)
- the player from Canada
- and Dmitro Bogatski from Ukraine.

Our delegate was François Gonze.
He ended 26th out of a field of 59 competitors, with 4 victories (against South Africa, Turkey, Lituania and Czechia - this last one is a real feat: Jan Simara was European champion in 2012 !) and 4 losses, to Albert Yen (US), Pal Balogh (HU), Vietnam and Geert Groenen (NL). Congratulations to him !

In the last 2 rounds of the 2018-2019 season, Belgian team won.

In the 8th round (played on 18/04) against Denmark (3-1): Lucas +, Lucman + Gabriel - and Nelis +
https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/500

In the 9th round (played on 07/05) against Switzerland (3-1): Lucas +, Jan +, Lucman + and Nelis -
https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/501

Belgium ends at the 3rd place, behind Austria (2nd) and Serbia (1st) who climb in 1st division next year.

Final standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

***

The 4 finalists in the A-league are: Russia, Hungary, France and Ukraine.
They will play "live" the final round in Brussels on the 19th of July.

(tekst in NL hieronder; text in English hereunder)

Le congrès européen de go constitue l'événement majeur de la vie du go en Europe.

Il rassemblera plus de 600 joueurs à Bruxelles pendant 2 semaines, du 19 juillet au 3 août !

Le congrès, c'est, avant tout, le plus grand tournoi "open" d'Europe, en 10 rondes.

C'est aussi le championnat d'Europe - réservé à l'élite des Européens - qui désignera le champion d'Europe 2019;
ainsi que la phase finale du championnat d'Europe des Nations.

C'est, par ailleurs, maints tournois annexes moins formels: parties rapides, "rengos", 9*9, pour enfants,...

C'est enfin, des cours, des parties commentées, des parties simultanées animés par des joueurs professionnels (plus de 20 seront à votre disposition tous les jours !) sans oublier quantité d'événements connexes en soirée, plus funs les uns que les autres.

Plus d'information ici: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: nous avons besoin de volontaires (belges) pour aider à l'organisation. Si vous êtes disponible, ne fût-ce pour quelques heures, contactez-nous via: volunteers@egc2019. Merci d'avance.

***

(text in English hereunder)

Het Europese go congres is het hoogtepunt van het Europese go-jaar en hiervoor zullen meer dan 600 spelers zich verzamelen gedurende twee weken, van 19 juli tot 4 augustus!

Het congres is vooral het grootste “open” tornooi van Europa met tien rondes.

Het is ook het Europees kampioenschap, gereserveerd voor de Europese elite, waarmee de Europese kampioen 2019 zal aangeduid worden, alsook de eindronde van het Europees landenkampioenschap.

Daarnaast zijn er ook nog talrijke minder formele neventornooien: rapid partijen, “rengo”, 9*9, kinderen,..

Er zijn ook lessen, becommentarieerde partijen, simultaanpartijen door professionele spelers (> 20 zullen elke dag tot jullie beschikking zijn!) zonder alle randactiviteiten tijdens de avond te vergeten, sommige nog prettiger dan de andere.

Meer info op: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: wij zoeken naar (Belgische) vrijwillers om mee te helpen.
Als U bereid bent om een te zijn, contact ons via: volunteers@egc2019. Wij danken U bij voorbaat.

***

The European Go Congress is the biggest go event one in Europe and there will be more than 600 participants this year, between 19th of July and 04th of August.

The EGC if at first the biggest open Go tournament in Europe, 10 rounds tournament open to everyone.

Also, it's the place of the European Championship Final, only for best European players ! Along with this, there is the European Team Go Championship Final.

Furthermore, there is a lot of smaller and informal tournaments such as rapid tournament, blitz tournament, children tournament, rengo tournament, 9x9 tournament,...

But EGC is not only about competition but also about training and entertainment so there will be commented games, free-lectures for all level players, simultaneous games with professional players (> 20 pro players available each day !) and a lot of fun or go-related activities in the evenings.

More information available here: http://egc2019.eu/

PS: any (Belgian) helping hand is welcome, even for a few hours. Ready to help us ? then contact us via: volunteers@egc2019. We thank you in advance !

On 19/03, Belgian team lost to a direct competitor, Austria (1-3), losing the hope of being promoted to the A-league next season.

On board 1, Lucas Neirynck lost to Victor Lin by 2,5 points. As François Gonze (board 2) and Gabriel Mercier (board 4) also lost, the victory by Jan Ramon (board 3) was not enough to avoid the defeat...

Now Belgium (8 points) stands in the middle of the "peloton" in this B-league which is dominated by Austria (12 points) and Serbia (11 points).

There are still 2 rounds to go.

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/499

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

On 19/02/2019, Belgian team made draw against Turkey.

Lucas Neirynck won (against Denis Karadaban) and so did Gabriel Mercier, but François Gonze and Nelis Vets lost.

Belgium is now still 3rd (with 8 points), 2 points behind Serbia (with the 2 Mitic brothers, both 7-d) and Austria (with Viktor Lin, a strong 6-d)...

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/498

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

François Gonze (4d, Louvain-la-Neuve) has won with a prefect score the 29th edition of the tournament of Leuven ahead of his clubmate Gabriel Mercier (3d) and Nelis Vets (2d, Leuven).

Two other competitors remained unbeaten:
Laurent Calmus (5k, Brussels Le Pantin) and
Alexandre Teferenko (10k, Ath).

There were 33 participants.

Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results?tournament=LEU&year=2019

The Annual General Assembly of the Belgian Go Federation will take place on Saturday 16 February at 2:00 PM in Brussels.

The exact location is:
Association Belgique Chine - Vereniging België-China
Avenue Paul Deschanellaan 92
1030 Brussels

From Gare du Nord/Noordstation: 20 mn walk, 10 mn with tram 25 (station Coteaux/Wijnheuvelen)

Everyone interested to participate in the organization of Belgium Go Federation activities is welcome !

Also with the EGC, this year 2019 will be very busy !

On 22th of January, Belgian team made draw against the Netherlands (2-2).
Lucas Neirynck (6-d) won against Gilles Van Eeden (6-d), but François Gonze (4-d) lost against the other dutch 6-d, Peter Brouwer. Jan Ramon won and Gabriel Mercier lost.

Belgium is now 3rd with 7 points, but the standings are very close (there are only 2 points difference between the leader and the 6th team)

Results of the round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/497

Standings: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps
(at the right of the screen)

More info: https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/leuven