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EUROPEAN GO NEWS: Qing Wins Barcelona's Go Seigen Tourney; Behrendt Blitzes Bochum; Mackowiak Wraps

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 DijkemaMATEESCU 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