American Go E-Journal » Europe

BLITZED IN AMSTERDAM: The next round in the Amsterdam Blitz Championships is this Thursday, March 18 (“A” on the map ; the next day is Queen’s Day in Holland, when Amsterdam turns into one big party. The club will be open all day and offer free instruction out in the open air and an international tourney as well.
- Peter Dijkema

KARLSRUHE BACK ON TOP IN BUNDESLIGA: Karlsruhe has taken over the lead in the top division of the German Bundesliga – or Team League — with their win last week over the Frankfurt Dragons. Karlsruhe is just 2 board-points, or one won game ahead of HH-Hebsacker and the two teams will meet next month. Hamburg Pauli defeated the Berlin Blunders, moving into third place and next face the Dragons to battle over the bronze medal. The final round will be in May. Hebsacker has won the Bundesliga once, while Karlsruhe — a mostly Chinese team with Guo Shengda 4d as captain and Wei Xi 6d at board 1 — has dominated all other years. German Go Journal editor Tobias Berben 4d leads Hebsacker and Benjamin Teuber 6d is their top player. Former German champion Egbert Rittner 6d is Pauli’s top-board player, with EGF President Martin Stiassny 3k on the bench in the dugout. Teamleader Per Kannengiesser 4d of Berlin Igoist enjoys the luxury of having Hwang In-seong topping his line-up, the only 7d in the league.
- Peter Dijkema, after stats at dgob.de

TERWEY & KRÄMER WIN IN CASTROP: Matthias Terwey 4d topped the 26th Castroper Turnier and Lukas Krämer 4d narrowly kept his national youth title — his third consecutive — at last weekend’s Youth championships in Castrop-Rauxel. Krämer won his third title in a row as national youth champ. Click here for youth results and main tourney results
- Peter Dijkema, after dgob.de

LAATIKAINEN TOPS JAAKKO MUNKKI MEMORIAL: Vesa Laatikainen 5d topped the Jaakko Munkki Memorial last weekend in Helsinki, Finland, with a 4-1 score. Lauri Paatero 4d was second and Tuomas Hella 3d third. Click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema, after EGD, where Laatikainen uploaded results

TWO LOCALS TOP FRYDEK-MISTEK: Locals Petr Valasek 2d and Ivan Kostka 4d topped the A-group round robin in Frydek-Mistek (Czech republic) last Saturday, 4-1 each. Young Lukas Podpera 3d from the capital Prague was third at 3-2. ‘Outsiders’ also took top honors in B-group – Ondrej Kachyna 4k of Brno won 5-0, ahead of Tomas Bartonek 7k of Ostrava (4-1) and local Michal Zubalik 5k. Young local hopeful Petr Miculka 19k also went home undefeated. Click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema, after ‘Flatline’ submitted tables to EGD

MACFADYEN SKYE HIGH: Matthew Macfadyen finished two points clear of nearest rivals Francis Roads and Yohei Negi at the Skye go club’s first tournament. Skye is an island in the Inner Hebrides chain, just off the coast of Scotland. The newly formed go club held its first tournament this year and attracted 32 players. Top local was Jurriaan Dijkman in 17th place.”
- Ian Davis, Irish Correspondent for the E-Journal

SMUD SWEEPS BIG MOUNTAIN: Local strongman Mladen Smud 1k went undefeated 4-0 in the Veliki zimski velickogoricki go-turnir, or ‘large global big-mountain tourney’, a one-day event in Velika Gorica (‘Big Mountain’) in Croatia last Saturday, where 20 Croatians played. The tourney is part of the Croatian League. Vigor Grego 1k lost only to Smud to finish in second place. Click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema, after EGD, where Smud uploaded results

STATE RULED BUCAREST SCHOOL-179: Silvestru State swept the first week of the school-179 tourney in the Romanian capital of Bucarest last month. Alexandru Nae was second with 4-1. Also Andreea Crit 20k went undefeated. Click here for full results. The following week, State was undefeated again, ahead of Rares Ghioc (4-1) and Nae (3-2). All are 6k and from the capital. Click here for full results of 28 children.
- Peter Dijkema, after EGD, where Iulian Toma (‘dr. Toma’) uploaded results

ARTEM92 TAKES OVER LEAD IN KGS LEAGUE: Artem92 from Ukraine has grabbed the lead in the March Korean Insei League on KGS. Artem had won the first league in January, but in February he was second to danigabi (Argentina), who skipped in March. While Fredda from Sweden built an early 4-0 lead, Artem92 took revenge for his unexpected loss last month to ha of France and played League founder and teacher Alex Dinerchtein, winning both lessons. Next a win over Maroncsan (Hungary) brought him on even and he next challenged Fredda and won. Artem now leads 5-0, but has not yet played OohAah (Israel), who follows at 6-1. Fredda 4-1 is third. Ha 3-3 and Hungarian Maroncsan 2-2 are on even. In the B League, Fedor (Russia) leads 4-0, ahead of Elvina Karlsberg (rus172) at 6-1 and remake (Sweden) with 12-4. AGA e-journal editor Chris Garlock is in fourth place at 2-1.
- Peter Dijkema, from EuroGoTV.com

KID’S TOURNEYS EASY & FUN: In the latest German Go Journal, Steffi Hebsacker writes about how easy it is to organize a youth event. Hebsacker had noticed the joy of many children and their parents at the Kido-cup last September and the Rahlstedt Tengen in November, both held in Hamburg. To keep the rhythm until the March Harburg event (see last week’s report) she proposed holding another tourney on January 17. It took her less than seven hours of preparation and ten hours during the tournament, which drew over 30 kids. Divided into round-robin groups of up to six, the best four, all single-digit kyu players — played slower games. Hebsacker’s helpers were TD’s for every group and a few parents to help with catering. A small investment of time and energy, Hebsacker concludes for so much fun.
- Peter Dijkema, after DGoZ 85-1

MARIGO RECLAIMS ITALIAN TITLE: Francesco Marigo 4d from Milano regained his Italian title, when he defeated opponent Carlo Metta 1k in his hometown Pisa twice and took the 2009 title (the first game was held last year) 3-0 on Friday, March 5. Marigo held the title from 2001-2006. Viktor Bogdanov 5d of Petrozavodsk (Russia) won the Firenze (Florence) Open, held last weekend in Colleoli, a village in the green hills of Toscany.
- Peter Dijkema, from reports by Nicoletta Corradi at www.figg.org

MARZ BEST AT BST-MEISTERSCHAFT: Manja Marz 4d of Marburg won the combined Meister(in) title of Brandenburg, Saxony and Thüringen states. Last weekend in Leipzig (Saxony) Marz stayed ahead of locals Jens Henker 4d and David Schmidt 1d . Manja is married to Micha Marz 3d, President of DGoB. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema, after dgob.de

GONZE GOES FOR BELGIAN TITLE: With current Belgian Champion Lucas Neirlinck 4d not defending his title, François Gonze 3d grabbed his chance. In the first weekend of the round-robin with 10 last weekend in Brussels, Gonze won all four rounds, with three close behind at 3-1: Jan Ramon 4d, Thomas Connor 3d and Pieter Beyens 2d. The second and final playoff is set for March 21-22.
- Peter Dijkema, after a report by Frank Segers at EuroGoTV.com

SURMA AND NG EURO YOUTH-CHAMPS: Mateusz Surma 4d (Poland) won the under-16 European Championship and Anson Ng 1k (UK) took the under-12 title in Sibiu, Romania,  March 4-7. Surma and Ng will represent Europe at the next Goe World Youth Championships. Mihai Valentin Serban 4d (RO) won the under-18 and Christian Pop 7d the side event over the weekend. Saijo Masataka 9P was the top special guest at the jubilee 15th Youth-EC. Next was his student Catalin Taranu 5P, now President of the Romanian Go Association and the third guest was Csaba Merö 6d (Hungary), winner of the first Youth-EC back in 1996 in Baile Felix, Romania. The three categories attracted a record number of children, 75 in the under-12, 48 in under-16 and 13 in under-18, while 40 grown-ups took part in the Open tourney. EuroGOTV broadcast video and games on KGS.
- Peter Dijkema

HWANG SNAPS UP BIG CHEESE IN HARBURG MOUSETRAP: Hwang In-seong 7d from Berlin took home the top prize in the March 6-7 “Mausefalle” (‘Mousetrap’, is German for ‘snapback’) in Hamburg-Harburg. A large field of 112 players turned out from 37 German clubs. Hwang joins current Deutscher Meister Christoph Gerlach and Benjamin Teuber as two-time winners. Only Cho Seok-bin 7d has won the Mousetrap three times. Local veteran Stefan Kaitschick 5d finished second, losing only to Hwang. Local hopeful Timo Kreuzer 1k was undefeated, as was Olaf Engel 5k from Flensburg. The former received a thick luxury go-ban as special prize for best youth, while Olga Silber 1k earned her a set of luxury stones as best woman with 4-1. Top winners got money prizes, others got books. Click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema, after dgob.de

SILT SWEEPS IRISH CONGRESS: Ondrej Silt 6d from Czech Republic overcame the opposition of Wang Wei 7d, winner of last year’s Irish Congress in his hometown Cork. Silt won the Irish Open 5-0 in the Teachers Club at the heart of old Dublin last weekend. Wang was second, while Willem Mallon 4d and Willem-Koen Pomstra 5d (both of Holland) shared third place. Also Kim Ouweleen 2d (NL) and Quentin Mills 4d (UK) won 3 each. Click here for the full results. At the rapid handicap tourney, the Friday before, Edwin Brady 2k (UK) had best sos. Also Justyna Klaczar 3k (PL), Pomstra, Bernd Sambale 1k (D), James Hutchinson 1k (UK) and Ouweleen won 4-1. Click here for the full results.
- Peter Dijkema, after www.irish-go.org

MARIGO CAMPIONE ITALIANO: Francesco Marigo 4d from Milano regained his (2001-2006) Italian title for 2009, when he defeated his opponent Carlo Metta 1k in his hometown Pisa twice and took the title 3-0 on Friday, March 5. The first game had been last year. Viktor Bogdanov 5d of Petrozavodsk (Russia) won the Firenze (Florence) Open, held last weekend in Colleoli, a village in the green hills of Toscany.
- Peter Dijkema, from reports by Nicoletta Corradi at www.figg.org

MARZ BEST AT BST-MEISTERSCHAFT: Manja Marz 4d of Marburg won the combined Meister(in) title of Brandenburg, Saxony and Thüringen states. Last weekend in Leipzig (Saxony) she stayed ahead of locals Jens Henker 4d and David Schmidt 1d . Manja is married to Micha Marz 3d, President of DGoB. Click here for the results.
- Peter Dijkema, after dgob.de

GONZE GOES FOR BELGIAN TITLE: With current Belgian Champion Lucas Neirlinck 4d not defending his title, François Gonze 3d grabbed his chance. In the first weekend of the round-robin with 10, last weekend in Brussels, he won all 4. Three follow him at 3-1: Jan Ramon 4d, Thomas Connor 3d and Pieter Beyens 2d. Second and final part is up for March 21-22. Gonze still has to play all three at his heels.
- Peter Dijkema, after a report by Frank Segers at EuroGoTV.com

CHEN DOMINATES DRESDEN: Chen Lei 6d easily swept the 23rd Dresden tournament 5-0 on February 27-28 in Germany. Runner-up Marc Landgraf 3d lost to Chen and Thomas Hübner 3d took third. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema, after dgob.de

SIMEUNOVIC SWEEPS SAMAC: Zoran Simeunovic 5d swept the fifth annual tournament in Samac, Bosnia the last weekend in February. Dragan Barisic 5d, also of Bosnia, was second and Robert Jovicic 3k from Zagreb (Croatia) came in third. The other three players from Zagreb — Mato Tausan 9k, Fran Pejonic 11k and Filip Pejonic 13k also won 4-1. As Rado Babic 12k of Austria reported, the tourney featured 25 players from 8 clubs in 4 different countries. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema

BLOMBACK BANKS VAESTERAS: Scandinavian Champion Fredrik Blomback 5d (Stockholm) flowered at the Open Champs in Vaesteras, Sweden the last weekend of February, sweeping the event 5-0. Martin Li 5d of Falun and Charlie Akerblom 4d of Norrköping lost only to Blomback and also made the podium. Jakob Bing 2k, Robert Aahs 4k and Robin Nilsson 11k won 4-1 as well. In Vaesteras 28 took part. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema

MGE-1 HUNGARIAN TEAM CHAMP: The MGE-1 team, captained by György Czismadia 4d, narrowly won the Hungarian Team Title,  staying half a point clear of Origo under Zoltán Fódi 1d in the final round. While Origo crushed PaGoda-2 8-1, they defeated PaGoda Agro by only 6-3; half a point more (jigo is possible with 6 komi) would have tied them with MGE-1. Winners were awarded cash prizes and champagne. The student team of PaGoda-1 — Alexandra Urban 1d, Júlia Seres 1k and Péter Markó 2d — won bronze. Click here for the detailed results.
- Peter Dijkema and Péter Korossy (Hungary)

HUNGARIAN SCHOOLKID PRELIMS: The preliminaries of the Hungarian Championship for schoolkids kicked off February 19 in Hejokeresztúr in the East of Hungary, where 45 kids played, mostly on 9×9 and 13×13. “There were lots of age groups, lots of medals, lots of happy kids,” reports Péter Korossy. The next day, 18 played round-robin in three age-groups in Pápa in the West and the following week in Szigetszenmiklós in central Hungary, 14 took part on February 26 and 24 a day later in Budapest, at the the “Rabbity Six” tourney (see last week’s news). For results, click here – for photo links, click here “The finals are up for May in Budapest, where most of Hungarian go-life is concentrated,” adds Korossy.
- Peter Dijkema and Péter Korossy (Hungary)

PARIS DECAMPS FOR SUBURBS: For many years the Paris Pandanet – played during Easter – has been held at the ancient City Hall in Paris’ 13th District. With City Hall now under renovation, the 2010 Paris tourney has been moved to the suburb of Antony and will be held April 3-5. The Paris Pandanet is the final event of the Pandanet season and with a top prize of 1000 euros, many strong players are expected to participate. To sign up, click here
- Peter Dijkema

EURO GO DATABASE TO REACH HALF A MILLION: The European Go Database lists over 26,000 players in almost 5,500 tourneys with almost half a million games as well as more than 400 game records and over 300 player pictures. Over 300 also appear in the new American Go Association Game Database. Click here for current standings.
- Peter Dijkema

QING WINS BARCELONA’S GO SEIGEN TOURNEY: The UK’s Qing Du 7d won the Barcelona “Torneig Go Seigen” http://bcn2010go.blogspot.com/ February 20-21, winning all five games. The 2100 Euro prize fund attracted many top players from across Europe. Cornel Burzo 6d of Romania lost only to Qing and took silver, while Nikola Mitic 5d (Nis, Serbia) took home bronze on SOS. In the field of 146, only Jonathan Marcos 3k from France also won all five rounds. Click here http://lapedra.org/bcn2010/results/wl.txt for results. Click here (http://liopic.com) for Julio Martinez’ report; photos http://ves.cat/acKa & video http://ves.cat/acKh
- Peter Dijkema

BEHRENDT BLITZES BOCHUM: Jens Behrendt 1k won the first full handicap Bochum Blitz February 20 in Bochum, Germany, posting a 6-2 result while former German Champion ‘Kaiser’ Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d topped a group of five with 5-3 results. Among the 14 participants was also ‘kyu-killer’ Horst Sudhoff, well-known to U.S. Go Congress attendees, over 80 years old and 1d now, who also won a game with the ‘Kaiser’. The Winter Bochum Blitz was the first of what’s planned to be a quarterly event; next up is the Spring Blitz on May 8.

MACKOWIAK WRAPS UP BYDGOSZCZ RAPID: Dariusz Mackowiak 2k of Poznan swept the Bydgoszcz (Poland) Rapid 4-0 on Saturday, February 20. The tourney has an ideal formula for kyu’s from all strengths, with full handicap and 5 points reverse komi for every stone over 9, and half an hour plus overtime. Bruno Walaszewski 6k and Lukasz Wierzbowski 17k led a field of five locals with 3-1 each. In the final Mackowiak won against 9 stones plus 30 points of komi. Tomasz Buczkowski 11k (Wlodyslaw) went home undefeated (3-0). 21 players ranking between 1k and 25k took part.
- Peter Dijkema

MATEESCU MASTER OF TRIGANTIUS: Robert Mateescu 6d (Caltech) topped the Trigantius tournament in Cambridge February 20, defeating British hopeful Matthew Macfadyen in the final. Tim Hunt took third place. Further down the list were Baron Allday, Michael Pickles, Will Hornby and Alistair Turnbull, who also went undefeated. Click here http://www.britgo.org/results/2010/trigantius.html for results.

CAMBRIDGE FIRST BRITISH TEAM CHAMP: The team from Cambridge have won the first BGA online league with a match to spare. In the four matches played so far they dropped just one game to the fell hand of Matthew Macfadyen. The victorious Cambridge squad is composed of Alex ‘Infinity’ Selby, Dave Ward, Andrew ‘The Great Destroyer’ Kay, Andrew Simons, Phil Beck and Graham ‘Sensible’ Philips. Competition for second place is still fierce, with Durham, Dundee and St Andrews, and Leamington all in with a shout. – Ian ‘Javaness’ Davis to www.EuroGoTV.com. Click here http://league.britgo.org/league.php for the current standings in all four divisions.
- Peter Dijkema with Ian Davis

PODPERA TOPS CZECH YOUTH: Lukas Podpera 3d easily confirmed his status as best Czech youth, sweeping the under-16 national title 6-0 in Prague, February 13-14. The top three were boys, but girls dominated in numbers, with 10 of 15 players. A girl, Kamila Samajova 18k, won the under-12 title. Click here http://www.goweb.cz/node/2733 for results. A week later, Podpera also did well in Barcelona (see above), where he won four games; among his victims was Antoin Fenech 5d (France), while he only lost to Hwang In-seong 7d. A week earlier he had won bronze in Erdingen.
- Peter Dijkema, after www.goweb.cz

VENTURIERI WINS SWISS YOUTH TITLE: Luciano Venturieri 2k won the Swiss Youth Title, despite losing all his games. The Youth Champs were part of the regular “Solothurn Turnier” in Solothurn, February 6-7, where 39 took part, among them 4 youngsters. The ranking for the title was based on the final table. Rose-Marguerite Martin 6k won silver with one win, while Arthur Bassand 12k took home bronze with his 3 wins. Daniil Matveev 3d swept the Solothurn Title 5-0, ahead of Andreas Hauenstein 2d 4-1 (both Basel) and Lorenz Trippel 1d 3-2 (Zurich), who was third on SOS.
- Peter Dijkema, after www.swissgo.org

Winner David Ward 3d (Cambridge) had the last grin when the Cheshire tournament returned after a year gap for the British in Chester and ran again alongside the Frodsham Chess Tournament on February 13. Ward beat Sam Aitken 3d (Warwick) in the final. In the Handicap Section, Justin Neeves 7k (Manchester) was the winner at 5-0. On 4/5 were Jack Ley 8k (Warwick) and Brian Timmins 9k (Shrewsbury). Jamie Taylor 5k (York) was the top junior winning 3-2. 28 players took part. Click here http://www.britgo.org/results/2010/cheshire.html for results.
- Peter Dijkema, based on a report on the British Go Association’s website www.britgo.org

PEDERSEN WINS AMBASSADOR’S CUP IN DENMARK: Torben Pedersen 1d won the Japanese Ambassador’s Cup in Copenhagen February 13-14, undefeated in six rounds. This full handicap tournament offered chances to kyu players: Jeppe Juul 4k lost only to Pedersen and took silver, while Rasmus Bisschop-Larsen 7k won bronze, with best SOS of those with four wins. All winners and a majority of the 24 participants came from the organizing Kobenhavn Go Klub. Click here http://www.kgok.dk/res/ambcup10r.html for results.
- Peter Dijkema

GERLACH GRABS GÖTTINGEN: Current German Champion Christoph Gerlach 6d swept the A-group of the 19th Göttingen Open last weekend, ahead of Willem-Koen Pomstra 5d (4-1) from Holland and local Marion Welter 3d (3-2). From B-group Dutchmen Gijs van Swaaij and Zeno van Ditzhuizen (both 1k from Utrecht) moved to A-group on Sunday, where they continued to win. Click here http://www.dgob.de/tourn/tourn.cgi?f=10degoe1.txt&mode=cml for the A-table with 18 and here http://www.dgob.de/tourn/tourn.cgi?f=10degoe2.txt&mode=cml for the B-table with 34.
- Peter Dijkema, from www.dgobe.de

KARLSRUHE NARROWS GAP WITH HEBSACKER IN GERMAN LEAGUE: Karlsruhe defeated Hamburg St. Pauli in the sixth round of the German Bundesliga on February 11, while leader Hebsacker (also from Hamburg) drew Berlin Blunders. With three rounds left to play, Hebsacker leads Karlsruhe by a single match-point. With two lost matches and a draw, the Frankfurt Dragons are third. Next month, Frankfurt meets Karlruhe. The Hebsacker-Karlsruhe top-match is scheduled for April. In the final round in May, Hebsacker will face the Dragons and Karlsruhe Berlin Igoist, now in 4th place.
- Peter Dijkema, based on www.dgob.de

BLANCHARD BROOMS ANTONY: Benjamin Blanchard 1d from Tours won – with a perfect record – the jubilee 25th edition of the tourney in Antony, near Paris in France on February 6-7. Mathieu Dagenet 1d and Dai Junfu 7d finished 2nd and 3rd with 4-1 each. In Antony 118 took part. Also Antonin Vivès 3k and youngsters Lina Nguyen, Nicolas Richard (both 15k) and César Simonot (16k) won all five games. For full results, click here http://ffg.jeudego.org/resultats/afficheTournoi.php?idt=12435
- Peter Dijkema, after a tip found at Facebook

THREE TOP LEUVEN: Despite losing the last round to emerging star Kim Ouweleen 1d from Amsterdam (Holland), Jan Bogaerts 3d from Le Pantin (Brussels) still finished first on SOS in the jubilee 20th Leuven Open – celebrated with home-baked cakes  – in Belgium on February 6-7. Huang Yong Sen 3d also won four, to take silver. Marie Jémile 4k and BGF-President Cédric Declerfayt 5k (both Le Pantin) won all five. 43 players participated. Click here http://www.gofed.be/tournament/results&tournament=LEU&year=2010 for results.
- Peter Dijkema

GERMANY UPDATES: Danek Dominates Erdinger: Veteran Vladimir Danek 5d (Prague) swept the 13th Erdinger tournament in Bavaria, Germany the first weekend of February, ahead of Jonas Fincke 4d (Munich), while 15-year-old fellow townsman Lukas Podpera 3d took home bronze on SODOS, ahead of Thomas Kettenring 3d (Munich). In the field of 128, only Stefan Fischmeister 5k (Linz, Austria) also won all five. On top of 128 in the main, five more players showed up in Erdingen just to compete in the 13×13-marathon. 1st Bochum Blitz: The Bochum club, already famous for its yearly Bambus (‘Bamboo’) tournament, now lays more claim to fame with their seasonal Bochum Blitz. The first Blitz will be this Saturday, February 20. Participation is free. For details, or to sign up, click here http://www.dgob.de/lv-nrw/bochum/?Blitzturnier:2010 and then click on “mailformular”.
- Peter Dijkema, after www.dgob.de

MACFADYEN WINS WANSTEAD: Matthew Macfadyen got his first tournament win of the year at Wanstead, which returned to its early-year spot on January 30) at the same Wanstead House venue in East London. Other players winning all three were: Mike Cumpstey 3k (Manchester), Eric Hall 5k (Swindon) and Gary Gibson 7k (Wanstead). 32 players participated. Click here http://picasaweb.google.com/igokailondon/Wanstead100130?feat=directlink# for a gallery of photos.
- Peter Dijkema, after www.britgo.org

DANIGABI KEEPS LEAD IN KGS INSEI LEAGUE: Argentina’s ‘danigabi’ has increased his unbeaten lead in the February KGS Insei League to 13-0, while ‘ha’ had moved into second place with 4-2, ahead of 2-1 by both ‘Artem92′ and ‘malexander’. Like ‘ha, ‘Arlequ1′ is from France. Meanwhile, a debate has begun on go-sensations about whether the winning percentage is a fair measure. “A 20-2 result should be better than 12-0,” according to  ‘danigabi’, while others argue that a player might be inclined to stop competing after a good initial score, while others would like to challenge him and play as much as possible, because of the free commentaries earned for every four games played in the league.
- Peter Dijkema

DINERCHTEIN TO FUJITSU FINALS: Alexander Dinerchtein 3P will represent Europe at this year’s Fujitsu World Go Championship. Dinerchtein won a 4-player online knock-out tourney held on KGS at the end of January, first defeating Christian Pop 7d of Romania and then, in the finals, Csaba Mero 6d of Hungary. Mero had eliminated Catalin Taranu 5P; click here http://www.gosensations.com/?id=2&server_id=1&new_id=770  for the game. The Fujitsu will be held in Japan in April.

TÖRMÄNEN TAKES TAKAPOTKU:  Antti Törmänen 5d from Oulu took the Takapotku tournament, sweeping the Pandanet event 5-0 in Helsinki, Finland last weekend. Viktor Lin 5d from Vienna only loss was to Törmänen, while Janne Määttä 4d took home bronze, also to Oulu. Surprisingly, Su Yang 6d (Jeff Chang 9d on KGS) won only three games to finish fifth. Lone Estonian Alo Jöekalda 1k from Tallinn won three games as well. Click here for results http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jnikula/takapotku/results.html

METTA CELEBRATES TENTH TORTELLINO: Carlo Metta 1d from Pisa won all five rounds of the Tortellino Tournament in Vignola (Modena province), Italy to celebrate the first decennium of Tortellina Go Club.  Paolo Montrasio 1k (Milano) was second, while Mirco Fanti 2k (Bologna) took bronze. In 28-player field, only local Modena player Jacopo Silingardi 15k also won all his games. Click here for results http://www.tortellinogoclub.org/torneo/2010/vignola/classifica.htm and here for a gallery of photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciuchino/sets/72157623372405876/
- Peter Dijkema

ANGUILA SWEEPS SPANISH TITLE: Oscar Anguila 3d swept the tournament for the  ’Campeón de Espana’ title in mid-January in Barcelona. Anguila was undefeated in a mostly 3-dans. Antonio Egea won silver and Ignacio Cernuda took bronze.
The final was played over five rounds with eight players. For the table, click here http://fcde2009.blogspot.com/
- Peter Dijkema and Krzysztof Bozek

DANIGABI TAKES EARLY LEAD IN KGS LEAGUE: Danigabi from Argentina sprinted to an early lead in the top-division in the first week of the second Korean Insei League on KGS. Danigabi notched three wins against second-place Arlequ1 from France and leads 9-0. January’s A League winner Artem92 is tied with ha – also of France – in third place. Click here for latest results http://insei-league.com/league.php?l=A

TOP PLAYERS FLOCK TO AMSTERDAM: Top-ranked players are heading to the 39th annual Amsterdam International Go Tournament http://goinamsterdam.nl/tournaments/amsterdam/ , set for May 13–16. Early entrants include current French Champion Yanqi Zhang 6d, former Dutch Champion Merlijn Kuin 6d, current co-winner of the Dutch finals Peter Brouwer 5d and former Amsterdam Open winner – and first Senior Champion of Holland — Robert Rehm 5d.
- Peter Dijkema

GROENEN & BROUWER TIE IN DUTCH CHAMPS: Geert Groenen 6d and Peter Brouwer 5d tied for the Dutch title after the final rounds of the Championship, which were played last weekend at the European Go Center near Amsterdam. The winner will be decided in a best-of-three play-off in the Spring. Last year Groenen lost the play-off, while Brouwer took bronze on his first try for the title. EuroGoTV plans to publish a collection of the Dutch Championship games with commentary by Guo Juan 5P. Four other players shared third place while four more kept their seats in the finals for next year. “I am both proud and happy,” said event co-organizer Herman Hiddema, “I kept my place for next year in my first appearance in the finals.” The Women’s and Youth Championships were also held last weekend and for the fourth year in a row Anne van Leeuwen 1k swept 5-0, besting a 12-player field. This year top-youth Alexander Eerbeek 3d had qualified for the main final, where he won three of his eight games; all his losses were to top-rated players. Yuki de Groot won the kid’s title. The side event was won by Rudi Verhagen 5d, who usually is in the main tournament and was the first reserve player this year. Click here for results in the main and the women’s.
- Peter Dijkema

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GROENEN DENIES POMSTRA BID FOR 5TH WIN AT HEERLEN OPEN: Geert Groenen denied Willem-Koen Pomstra’s bid for a fifth win at the Heerlen Open January 9-10 in Holland. Groenen topped the 20th Open, the traditional opener of the new year, winning the deciding match with Willem-Koen Pomstra, who had won the last four. By tradition, the tournament is held in an old bar, which serves a wide variety of beers in the old center of town. 32 participants from 6 countries attended.

POCSAI-PALOGH CORNER MARKET ON HUNGARIAN TITLE GOLD: Dynamic duo Rita Pocsai 4d and Pál Balogh 6d have added the Hungarian Pair Go title to their collection of titles, winning in Budapest on January 30. Pocsai is the Hungarian Women’s Champion and Balogh is the Hungarian Men’s Champion. The pair seem set to bid for a place on the podium in the next Euro-Championships to challenge the rule of Russians. The Youth and Kid’s titles were at stake at the same event and “Despite very bad snow, still nine showed up” Peter Korossy told the E-Journal. Domonkos Albrecht kept his Hungarian Youth title and Róbert Czismadia – who took 4th at last year’s European Championships (EC) — retained his Children’s title. Both will play in the next EC in Romania in March. Click here for results in the Youth and Children’s tourneys In the Hungarian league, held a day earlier in Budapest, both leaders won in the penultimate 6th round. Teams of three play handicap mini-matches of three games each. Origo easily won 8-1, but MGE1 had a hard match, with double-digit Agro which was third: 5-4. Even on match-points, Origo now leads MGE1 by a win and a jigo, but they face tough Agro, while MGE1 meet Sanrensei. The last round will be played in the next fortnight; click here for complete league results full league table.
- Peter Dijkema, based on reports by Peter Korossy

KACHANOVSKIJ WINS FIRST KGS INSEI LEAGUE: Artem Kachanovskiy (Artem92), a young – barely 17 — player from the Ukraine, won the A-division of the first Insei competition on KGS (KILL), run by Alex Dinerchtein, which ended January 31.  Kachanovskiy defeated early leader ‘j13′ (Finland) 4-0 and was best as well against both teachers: 3-5. His over-all 10-5 (67%) beat j13’s 19-11 (63%), while ‘danigabi’ (Argentina) was 3rd with 9-7 (56%). From France ‘ha’ had entered with the weakest KGS ranking, but he was the first to defeat both trainers and finished fourth. As expected, the teachers did best: Dinerchtein 21-2 and Ilya Shiksin 22-5, despite playing simuls with four or five players at a time. Losses to teachers will no longer count for the winning percentage in the new League, which begins this month. The KILL B-league was won by ‘snowbars’ (Russia) 14-6, despite his 1-3 to ‘feature’ (Germany) 11-5, while “Monestri’ (US) was third with 6-3. Other US-players ‘burrito’ and ‘clossius’ incurred many losses to the teachers, who had perfect scores. ‘lemurov’ (RU) swept the C-league 10-0, ahead of ‘silentfear’ from France and ‘Sinprejic’ (US). US ‘BANKER’ was on even with his concurrence 12-12 but lost 5 to the trainers. ‘Grimalkin’ won only a few games. Despite a loss to US ‘will122166′ 11-10, ‘benwahwah’ won the D league 8-5, and ‘Protronics’ (Norway) won E league, with only a loss less then ímagine’ from Turkey, who scored 13-11, while ‘skyboytkd9′ was 3rd with 4-4. For next month, Dinerchtein also announced the new KIEL, the Entrance League to select for E-division. KIEL costs less, but comes with less lessons. A bonus round after the league caused a sensation when the most active players from each league were invited to a simul against Cho Mikyung 1P. Only ‘j13′ won. Watch the game here.
- Peter Dijkema

KACHANOVSKIY, SIMARA, PROKOPOVA TO STUDENT OZA: Artem Kachanowskiy 6d (Ukraine), Jan Simara 5d and Anna Prokopova 1k (both Czech) qualified for the World Student Oza in Japan, later this year. The qualifiers were held for the first time on KGS.

GRABOWSKI STEPS DOWN AS POLISH RATINGS MASTER: After more than 30 years running the Polish rating list, aka ‘Grabolka’, Krzysztof Grabowski resigned on January 1, although he has retained his place at the EGF rating commission. In addition to three decades of running Polish ratings, Grabowski says he proudest of a Kansai Kiin 3-dan diploma signed by their top three 9-dan professionals, Hashimoto Utaru, Shoji and Sekiyama Toshio in 1990. “Perhaps my greatest joy were the Pair Go tourneys during several Polish summer camps.” Grabowski was named the third honorary member of the Polish Go Association, after Tozawa Akinobu 9p and Janusz Kraszek 6d.
-  Peter Dijkema