Monday May 9, 2011
As in Paris, the 40th Prague Tournament was easy prey for Yuanbo Liu 2P (r), better known as MilaMilan, who swept again with a 
100% score. Best of the West was Ondrej Silt 6d, losing only to Liu. This year’s European Youth Champion under 20, Pavol Lisy 5d, only lost to Yuanbo and came in third. Young talents Lukas Podpera 4d, 2010-2011 European Youth Champion under 16 Mateusz Surma 5d and Jan Prokop 4d came in 4th, 5th and 6th in this 101-player field.
- EuroGoTV
Monday May 2, 2011
If you like world-class wine with your go, this is the year to plan to attend the European Go Congress. The Zhuyeqing Tea 
55th European Go Congress is set for July 23rd to August 6th in Bordeaux, France. The EGC will host two major events this year in addition to a 10-round main tournament – which determines the 2011 European champion – the usual side tournaments, workshop and simuls with professional players. The Pandanet Go European Team Championship will hold its finals during the first weekend, and the China Weiqi League will also play a round during the EGC. Sightseeing will be organized during days off during the two-week event, and Bordeaux offers world-famous vineyards, including in the village of St Emilion, architectural sights, an interesting city center as well as many lakes and rivers and the ocean, which are located nearby. There are also plans to organize tours to the famous Pyla sandhill.
Sunday April 24, 2011
Over 1,000 spectators showed up to cheer on their favorite youth players at the 3rd Transatlantic Youth Match, held Sunday, April 17 on KGS. From the start, it was a very close match, as the two under-12 boards split their games 1-1 early on in the first series. While the North American side took the lead with victories by Andrew Lu and Jianing Gan, the Europeans quickly answered, tying the match 3-3 at the end of the series with Ali Jabarin’s victory over Bill Lin. The second series was equally nail-biting. Although the Europeans were seemingly down on their last leg, with victories by Gansheng Shi and Daniel Gourdeau putting them in a 4-5 hole, a close win by Thomas Debarre over Ryan Li tied the match up once again. In the last game to finish, Ricky Zhao had a slight lead against Mateusz Surma, but a large ko in the end proved to be too much for him to handle, giving the Europeans a 6-5 win, their first ever in the history of the Transatlantic Youth Match. More details, including game records, can be found on the TrabsAtlantic Youth website http://www.usgo.org/tournaments/TransAtlanticYouth/3/
- reported by Lawrence Ku, who also organized the match
Monday April 18, 2011
Pandanet Go European Cup Finals. The Pandanet Go European Cup finals will be held in Paris, April 23-25, in conjunction with the 39th annual Paris Go International Tournament. 
The first two boards will be broadcast on EuroGoTV, and all the top 
games will be relayed to IGS, along with one game each round that will be relayed to KGS. Over 200 players from 20 countries are expected at the tournament. Greece-Cyprus Go Match. Alexios Voudouris 3D of Greece and Dimitris Regginos 1D of Cyprus, who are among the top players for their respective countries, are playing a ten-game series on KGS. The games will be played weekly and the first was a win for Regginos by resignation on April 14.
Monday April 18, 2011
As aftershocks continue to hit Japan, more go tournaments are raising funds to aid in the earthquake/tsunami 
recovery efforts. This Saturday the Tsunami Relief Tournament will be held in New York City; space is very limited, so you MUST pre-register: email Badukboris@gmail.com And thanks to sponsorship of the April 30 Western Maryland Go Club Spring Tournament by the Insei League on KGS, “we will be able to donate the majority of the entry fees to the tournament to Japan relief efforts,” reports Trevor Morris. Pre-registration is not required, but if you think you might be coming, let them know on Facebook. The recent Go4 Japan tournament – usually known as the Antwerp Go Tournament – raised $800 for the Japanese Red Cross Society. The April 9-10 event in Antwerp, Belgium drew 30 participants from Belgium and Holland, and “we made both the regional newspaper and television, which is nice as well,” reports Joost Vannieuwenhuyse.
Monday April 11, 2011
Top youth players from North America will square off against their European counterparts this Sunday in the 
third Transatlantic Youth Match, which will be held April 17 on KGS at 11am and 2pm. “Come out and support the North American side, featuring past Redmond Cup champions and US/Canadian representatives to the WYGC, as they take on the European youth,” urges organizer Lawrence Ku.
Sunday’s line-up: 
1500 GMT (8a PST/11a EST)
Ali Jabarin vs. Bill Lin; Mihai Serban vs. Jianing Gan; Alexander Vashurov vs. Peter Zhang; Roman Ruzhanskyj vs. Andrew Lu
Vladyslav Verteletsky vs. Aaron Ye; Stepan Popov vs. Oliver Wolf
1800 GMT (11a PST/2p EST)
Thomas Debarre vs. Ryan Li; Pavol Lisy vs. Gansheng Shi; Mateusz Surma vs. Ricky Zhao
Vanessa Wong vs. Hugh Zhang; Lukas Podpera vs. Daniel Goureau
Monday April 11, 2011
Chong Han Edges Out Kay & Wong in British Open: Chong Han 5d (Loughborough) won the April 8-10 British Open, the British Go Congress’ main tournament, beating out Andrew Kay and Vanessa Wong on a SOS tie break. The Swindon Go Club hosted this year’s Congress in the historic town of Malmesbury, and many players took advantage of the early summer weather to visit the Abbey and Abbey House Gardens. Andrew Kay did not go away empty-handed, having won the Friday Evening British Lightning tournament. Additional prizes were awarded to the four players in the Congress’ two “perfect games” resulting in jigo. Click here for full results and here for the original report.
Second Matthew Wins Arundel: Matthew won Arundel again this year. Matthew Cocke 5d (Epsom) was the best of the 26 players in the March 27 UK tournament, taking the first previously won by Matthew Macfadyen. Winning all three games were Michael Webster 1k (London) and Adan Mordcovich 5k (Wanstead). All those on two wins received prizes including runner-up Francis Roads 3d (Wansted). After the event many players went on to enjoy the evening of a sunny day in the Black Rabbit. Click here for full results.
- reported by Tony Atkins
Thursday March 31, 2011
Ilya Shikshin 7d (l) swept the 8th annual Japanese Council Cup, held March 25-27 in St Petersburg, Russia. Mitsubishi was the tournament’s main sponsor, providing a rich prize purse as well as covering travel and hotel expenses for the top players. This year the top 16 players in the Cup competed in a new A section while the rest of the field — nearly 80 players up to 3d – comprised the B group. As expected, Alex Dinerchtein 3P and Ilya Shikshin 7d wound up battling for the first place; while Shikshin is a bit higher on
the European rating list, Dinerchtein has better numbers in the Russian ratings and has a favorable score in their head-to-head matches. The two – who both teach online in the KGS Insei League — dominate the current Russian tournament scene, winning half the recent major titles. Shikshin won the showdown (see game record at right) with Dinerchtein at the Japanese Council Cup, sweeping the tournament 6-0, while Dinerchtein took second place. In third was Svetlana Shikshina 7d, who’s not been as active in tournaments recently, occupied with her 4-year-old son Slava. Oleg Mezhov 6d was fourth and Andrej Kashaev 5d fifth. Finns took three of the top five places in the B group, with Samuel Ritakallio 3d from Finland – a former student of Dinerchtein’s – in first place and Pekka Lajunen 2d in second, Dmitrij Kirakosjan 2d of Russia in third, Reino Karttunen 1d (Finland) in fourth and Sergej Vinokurov 1d (Russia) in fifth. “I have the feeling that Finnish 3-dans are able to fight on even with our local 5-dan players,” Dinerchtein tells the E-Journal.
Click here for full results in both the A Group and B Group. For top-board game records, check JPNConsul account on KGS.
This was the deciding game between Shikshin and Dinerchtein for 1st place. “Notice that it was possible to kill Black’s group by playing W 74 at L2,” says Dinerchtein. “After the game Ilya was not able to show me any geta on the right, which I was afraid of, and said that ‘I was very lucky here.’”
Monday March 21, 2011
BELGIANS LAUNCH “GO4JAPAN”: A go club in Belgium has “switched our upcoming tournament to a support rally for the 
people of Japan” in the wake of the recent earthquake/tsunami, reports local organizer Joost Vannieuwenhuyse. “Already countries like Germany, Spain and Czechia are thinking about, or planning to host similar events,” Vannieuwenhuyse tells the E-Journal. Hoping to make this “a global initiative in the go-playing community,” the Belgium club has launched a Facebook page under the name “GO4 Japan” where others who want to organize their own local events can communicate and coordinate efforts. “Our club, as well as the organization of the Basel tournament in Switzerland will be giving all the registration fees from our tournament to the Japanese Red Cross Society,”adds Vannieuwenhuyse, suggesting that “It would be nice to also see some events there that take place in the US.” “I hope this way we, as go-players, can give back some support, no matter how big or small, to a country that meant and still means so much for this hobby, passion, life of ours. And to offer at least some relief to the people who are suffering from this ongoing disaster.”
ISRAEL HOSTS JAPAN SUPPORT TOURNEY ON MARCH 30: : An “Identifying day with Japan” has been organized for Wednesday, March 30th in Rosh HaAyin, Israel. The home of both current and previous Israeli go champions, Rosh HaAyin’s mayor joined the effort “with enthusiasm,” reports Shavit Fragman, President of the Mind chain of go clubs in Israel. Money collected at tournament will be delivered to the Japanese embassy, and the event will also include a Tree of Wishes, origami crane folding — in Japan, it’s commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a wish come true — and lectures about Japanese culture and the recent disasters in that country.
UK YOUTH EVENT RAISES £150 FOR JAPAN RELIEF: At the just-concluded Youth Championships in Oxfordshire, England, £150 — the result of a collection, together with the proceeds from the event– was sent to the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.
Monday March 21, 2011
Mazhar Warraich of Aston was the overall winner at the May 20 British Youth Go Championships in Oxfordshire, England. Warraich topped a field of 24 competitors aged 7-18, with strengths from 2 dan to 30 kyu. Thanks to Pelican Books and author Chris Bradford, the main prize winners received copies of “The Ring of Water” and as the result of a collection, together with the proceeds from the event, £150 was sent to the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. Click here for full results.
- Jon Diamond