Belgian Go Federation

15/05: despite presenting the probably best team possible (Gerald Westhoff 6d; Lucas Neirynck 5d; François Gonze 4d; Jan Ramon 4d), Belgian team did not manage to do better than a draw against our direct competitor, Slovakia.

And still, we had to win this match as to avoid to match a test-match against the winner of the C-league (Norway)to determine whether we'll still play in B-league next year of be demoted to the C-league.

True, the mission was difficult because the Slovakian best player being Pavol Lisy, a professional player (who defeated as expected Gerald), the Belgians had to win on all the 3 other boards.

And this nearly happened: Lucas and Jan won...
Unfortunately, François lost..by a small margin (3,5 pts)...

Now, Belgium had to overcome Norway on 30/05...otherwise we play in C-league the next season !
Let's cross our fingers !...

Complete results of the round:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/352

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

It is pity: there were just 4 participants in this 2017 edition of the Belgian championship of quick games (15 min pp.). -(

Lucman Bounoider (2d) remained indeafed and is the new Belgian blitz champion, ahead of Michael Silcher (5k) (2/3), young Louis Baudaux (6k) (1/3) and Jean-Denis Hennebert (5k) (0/3).

Hopefully, more people will participate next year in this fun tournament...

Registration for the 10th Ghent tournament is now open! Please follow this link for all relevant informations.

Weather will probably be rainy this next Sunday. So, why not to try to be Belgian champion by participating in a fun one-day tournament: the quick games (Blitz) Belgian championship (15 minutes as time allowance).
This tournament is played with (reduced) handicap so that everyone has chance to win it !
Participation is free of charge, but only for members of the Belgian Go Federation.

Read more here: https://www.gofed.be/node/1004 and...come, play and enjoy !

Soon (May 23 to 27) a summit named "the Future of Go" will gather China’s top players and leading A.I. experts in Wuzhen (China).

The summit will feature a variety of game formats involving "AlphaGo" and top Chinese players:
1. “Pair Go” — A game where one Chinese pro will play against another...with both having AlphaGo as teammate!
2. “Team Go” — A game between AlphaGo and a five-players team of top pros working together
3. "Match Bot vs. the best (human) player" - A match Ke Jie vs AlphaGo (in 3 games)

More info: https://deepmind.com/blog/exploring-mysteries-alphago/

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May, 30 players have gathered for the second edition of the Pantin Tournament!

Lucas Neirynck, 5d managed to win all six rounds, earning the first place. Second came Brendan Guevel, 1d and third, with a slightly worse SOS, Olivier Drouot, 3d.
Congratulations to João Vieira, 13k who won five games out of six!

Complete results can be found here.

Along with the "European Pro Championship" (in February) and the "European Championship" (during the EG Congress, in July), the most (qualitatively) important European tournament of the year is the "Grand Slam Tournament", organized in Berlin.

The "Grand Slam" is a tournament making part of the European Grand Prix (EGP) which has existed now for a few years in Europe and which is sponsorised by CEGO (a Chinese firm). The EGP consists of a series of bonus point tournaments throughout the whole year in which the Grand Slam tournament counts for many points (I do not enter the details).

We report here the results of the 2017 (and 3rd) edition:

In the ¼ finals, there were still 2 amateurs left: Tanguy Le Calvé (FR, 6d) and Andreii Kravets (UA, 6d) while professional Catalin Taranu (RO, 5p) had already been eliminated by Alexander Dinerstein in the preliminary round.

In ¼ final,
Shikchin won against one of the 2 amateur, Le Calvé,
Dinerstein won against Jabarin,
Kachanovski against Surma and
Lisy against the other amateur, Kravets.

In semi-finals,
Dinerstein took the advantage on Shikchin,
and so did Kachanovski against Lisy.

The winner of the 3rd edition of the Grand Slam is…finally Kachanovski, who triumphed over Dinerstein in final, while Lisy won the small final for the 3rd place to a probably demotivated Shikchin...

Complete results: http://www.eurogofed.org/EuropeanGrandPrix/grandslam2017.html

Belgium team made a great result yesterday in the European Team Championship: she/he managed to make a draw against the leader, Poland!

Gerald lost logically against the pro (!) Mateusz Surma and so did Lucas; but Jan and Nelis won their game.

Despite this great result, Belgium remains in the relegation zone. The last round on 16th May, against Slovakia, a direct competitor - both team have 6 points, will be decisive!

Complete results of the round:
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/351

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

Oscar Vazquez (4d), the young (14 years old) Spanish rising star, won the 2nd edition of the tournament of Liège.
Second was Belgian champion Lucas Neirynck (5d) and Thomas Connor (3d) ended as bronze medail.
All three ended with 3 victories (out of 4 rounds).

Detailed here: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/398

Korean Park Junghwan remains unbeaten in the 1st edition of the World Championship which took place last week in Osaka.

2nd is Mi Yuting from China (who only lost to Park).

"Deep Zen Go", who/which represented the A.I. side, ended 3rd, thanks to its/her/his (:-) victory over...

4th - and last - Japanese Iwama Yuta, who did not gain a single victory
(this is rather worrying for Japan, beacause Yuta is by far the strongest Japanese go player !).

Most of the games were very disputed.

The results: http://www.worldgochampionship.net/english/

***

PS: meantime "Deep Zen Go" is not longer the 2nd strongest go program in the world (behind AlphaGo/Master): the (2nd) strongest program is now a chinese one, "Fine Art". "Fine Art" is improving so incredibly quickly that many expect him to catch up AlphaGo soon !
Read more about "Fine Art" here: https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2017/03/20/inside-tencents-ai-lab-how-...