Belgian Go Federation

The 2018 edition of the European Youth Championship just ended in Kiev.

In the category under 12, the winner is Stefan Adrian Rolarita (2k, RO). He was 2nd last year. Favorite Artem Pishchalnikov (1k, RU) ended 2nd.

In the category under 16, winner is Arved Pittner (3d, RFA), who was 4th last year, ahead of Solal Zemor (1d, F).

In the category under 20, results are:
1. Sinan Djepov (5d, BG (yes, Bulgaria !)(7th last year)
2. Matias Pankoke (5d, RFA) (4th last year)
3. Elian Joan Grigoriu (4d, RO)(6th last year)
4. Oscar Vazquez (5d, ES) (Oscar had been European champion, but in category under 16 last year...and, incidentally, European champion under 12 in 2014)
5. Valeri Kryshelnytskyi (5d, UA) (was 2nd under 16 last year...and, incidentally, European champion under 12 in 2013)

Complete results here: http://eygc2018.org.ua/?page_id=484

PS: it seems to me that they are not so many impressive European "rising stars" younger than 16 for the being time...Hope I'm wrong

Lucas Neirynck (5d) did it once more: he won (unbeaten) the 2018 Belgian Championship.

This is his 8th title (in 9 participations).
And a record: Jan Bogaerts won 7 titles; Alain Wettach, 6.

Ended on the podium: François Gonze (4d) with 8/9, and Thomas Connor (4d) with 7/9.

The 2 others competitors who qualify theirselves directly for the 2019 finals (should the system not change) are: Lucman Bounoider (3-d) and a surprising Thibaut Pillon, from Switzerland (1d).

Complete results here: https://www.gofed.be/webfm_send/420

Team team won 4-0 the 6th round of the European Tean Championship against Bulgaria.

Lucas Neirynck won, against one of the European rising stars, Sinan Djepov (17 years old), the only very strong Bulgarian player.
And so did Kwinten Missaen, Dominik Versyk and Vincent Quoilin.

With this victory, Belgium is already sure, before the last round, to reintegrate the B-league next season.

Result of the round: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/432

Standings: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

PS: in A-league, note that France is till leading...

After the 1st WE of the Belgian Championship, the holder of the title, Lucas Neyrinck (5-d) is the only competitor still unbeaten (5/5).
Two players have a 4/5 score: Thomas Connor (4-d) and François Gonze (4-d)
Two others have 3/5: Lucmann Bounoider (3-d) and Thibault Pillon (1-d).
and three 2/5: Marie Jemine (2-d), Nelis Vets (2-d) and Gabriel Mercier (3-d).
Still waiting their 1st victory are Joost Vannieuwenhuyse (1-k) and Vincent Lochen (4-k) (Vincent replaced at the last minute Bram Vandenbon).

Belgian team remained unbeaten after its victory on Spain (3-1) on 13th of February (Gérald Westhoff -, François Gonze +, Gabriel Mercier +, Nelis Vets +).

With just 2 rounds still to be played, it is now likely Belgium will reintegrate B-league next year, but attention: Lithuania is only 2 points behind us :-)

Result of the round: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/431

Standings: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

The 3rd European Professional Championship, in which participated nearly all active European professional players, was organized from 6th to the 9th of February in Romania.

Pavol Lisy (5/6 - defeated by Ali Jabarin) won this edition, followed by Ilya Shikchine (5/6 - defeated by Pavol Lisy) and Artem Kachanovskij (4/6).

These 3 players will represent European in forthcoming professional tournaments.

Further, ended...
4th: Alexander Dinerstein (3/6)
5th: Mateusz Surma (2/6)
6th: Ali Jabarin (2/6)
7th: Andreii Kravets (0/6)

More info here: https://www.eurogofed.org/index.html?id=191

Amazing how these pros are close in strength (Ilya seems to be a little stronger and Andreii a little weaker than the others): in tournaments in which they play each other, they alternate good and less good results (f.i. compare the results of Lisy and of Jabarin here with the ones they got in Olomuc : https://www.eurogofed.org/index.html?id=185) ...

Thomas Connor emerged as the winner of the 2018 edition of the Leuven tournament, which met a great success (47 competitors !).

Thomas scored 4/5, just like Zicheng Wang (CH, 4d) but Thomas had a better SOS.
François Gonze scored 2/2, beating Thomas, but only played the Sunday.

Young Louis Baudaux (5k), Gints Engelen (10k) and Wouter Baert (18k) remained undefeafed !

Complete result here:
http://www.gofed.be/tournament/results?tournament=LEU&year=2018

The Grand Prix Finale is a tournament in which only the 16 best players in the 2017 Grand Prix season ranking can compete.

Like the F1 Grand Prix, the "Grand Prix" organized by the European Go Federation awards points according to the 6 best placed players in some 2017 European tournaments (some - big - tournaments weights more than - small - others).

The grand Prix Finale was organized in 2 steps: firstly, the 16 players played against each others in 4 groups of 4 players. The 2 best of each division are qualified for a K-O tournament.

In the preliminary rounds, 2 of the 7 pros (Lisy and Kravets) were suprisingly eliminated. The feat was the qualification of "our" Oscar Vazquez (a mere 5-d).
But in the semi-finals, sure enough, there were only pros left...

Finally, Ali Jabarin won the final against Artem Kachanovskij.
Ilya Shikchin got the bronze medal, beating Mateusz Surma in the "little final".

Complete results here: http://www.olgo.cz/en/clanky/2017/grand-prix-final-2017-olomouc/

Belgium team, composed by François Gonze +, Jan Ramon -, Gabriel Mercier + and Nelis Vets +, won against South Africa (3-1) in the 4th round of the C-league of the European (yes) Team Championship.

Belgium team dominates now the C league...but it remains 3 rounds to run...

Result of the round: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/430

Standings: http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps

PS: note also France's nice victory on Russia in the A league
http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/413
France is now leader in A-league !

The Selection Tournament of the Belgian Championship 2018 took place on the week-end of the 25th and 26th of November in Antwerpen.

This year, 17 players took part to this tournament, a great success!

The biggest surprise of the week-end was the performance of Lucman Bounoider, 3d: he remained undefeated, winning his games against Oscar Vazquez, 5d and Thomas Connor, 4d. Congratulations to him!

The five seats for the finals of the Belgian Championship are given in order to:

1. Lucman Bounoider
2. Oscar Vazquez
3. Thomas Connor
4. Thibault Pillon
5. Bram Vandenbon

They will play in the finals against Lucas Neirynck, Gabriel Mercier, François Gonze, Kwinten Missiaen and Nelis Vets.

In case one of the finalists drops off, the next candidates are:

6. Victor Schneider
7. Joost Vannieuwenhuyse
8. Marie Jemine

Full results of the tournament can be found here.