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EUROPEAN GO NEWS: Hricova/Silt Czech Pair Champs; Li Ting Kansai Kiin 1-Dan; Diamond Sharp In Maiden

HRICOVA/SILT CZECH PAIR CHAMPS: Jana Hricova and Ondrej Silt won the Czech Republic Pair Championship in Prague January 23-24, in which five pairs competed. Anna Prokopova and Jan Simara also finished at 3-1, but lost the mutual game. Ondrej Kruml swept the side event, topping 37 participants. Click here for results. David LeBaDuy won all five in the childrens tourney with 13 kids. - Peter DijkemaLI TING KANSAI KIIN 1-DAN: In what's being hailed as "a real sensation for Austria," Vienna's Li Ting will begin playing as a professional for the Kansai Kiin on March 1. Li learned go at the age of 6 in Beijing and took a BA there, a MA in Tokyo and has been working on her Ph. D in Vienna -- on the spread of Go in Europe – where she's been living and teaching with her husband Hu Bin. Both were co-organizers of the 2007 European Go Congress, where Li placed 7th, and she's continued to do well in Europe, sharing the Slovenian Open title in April 2009 with Hwang In-seong 7d. - Peter Dijkema, after http://www.goverband.at/DIAMOND SHARP IN MAIDENHEAD: British Go Association President Jon Diamond 4d won the 19th Furze Platt tournament in Maidenhead on tie-break, ahead of David Ward 3d and Tim Hunt 3d on January 23 at Hitachi Europe Ltd's headquarters. Five players won all three games. The team from Central London did best with a 75% overall result. Click here for results. - Peter DijkemaHEBSACKER HAMBURG LEADS GERMAN LEAGUE: The Hebsacker team defeated Kieloben in Round 5 of the German team leagues, or Bundesliga, on January 14. Led by captain Tobias Berben, editor of the German Go Journal, Hebsacker drew just one match, won the rest and are now two matchpoints clear of 'eternal' champs Karlsruhe, while St. Pauli -- also from Hamburg -- moved into third place after their match with Frankfurt Dragons. Unexciting Elks from Darmstadt drew their fifth match in a row, with Igoist Berlin. With ten teams in a division, four more matches are up. - Peter Dijkema, based on dgob.deARTEM TOPS KILL A-LEAGUE: Former European Youth Champ Artem Kochanovskiy ('artem92', Ukraine) leads the KGS Insei League (KILL) A-league with a 9-4 (69%) record. Kochanovskiy has only lost to league teachers and has won three crucial games with early leader 'j13' (Finland), who is second with 18-10 (64%), including 1-7 to teachers Alex Dinerchtein (16-2) and Ilya Shiksin (17-5). Third is 'danigabi' from Argentina with 9-6 (60%); he's lost once to both leaders and the other losses are to his teachers. In the B-league, 'feature' (Germany) 10-5 overtook 'monestri' (US) 6-3. Both are at 67%, but 'feature' played more games and they have not played each other yet. 'Snowbars' (Russia) is close behind with 10-6 (63%). All three have lost all their encounters with the trainers. In C-league 'lemurov' (Russia) avoided teaching games and leads 6-0, while US-players 'Sinprejic' 6-7 (including 0-4 to teachers) and 'Banker' 11-16 (0-5) are 4th and 5th. Leagues end at the end of each month. - Peter DijkemaLIU 2P TO TEACH IN ZURICH: Liu Yuanbo 2P will be at the Zurich Go Club February 12-14 for simuls and a weekend workshop, reports swissgo.org. Liu is known as PeteLiu 2p, tartaric 9d and MilanMilan 9d on KGS. A week earlier, on Friday, February 5, Li Yue 5d (Madrid) will teach on the theme "attack to benefit". - Peter DijkemaMETTA TAKES TROFEO: Carlo Metta 1d (Pisa) won the 5th Trofeo Higashitika held January 16-17 in Remanzacco, in the Udine province in northeast Italy. Metta won his first four and drew his last game with Sandro Poldrugo 1k (Triest), who finished second. Radovan Golja 3d (Ljubljana - Slovenia) 3-2 finished 3rd in a field of 22. Only Frederico Forte 16k (Pisa) won all five rounds. Click here for results.