Belgian Go Federation

The 30th edition of the Leuven Go Tournament was won by Gabriel Mercier (2D) and Nicolas Flagothier (2D), who ended with 4 wins each and the same SOS and SODOS!

Third place was shared by Joren Oris (1k) and Sven Cuyt (1D).

Six other people managaged tot win 4 games out of 5.

Although there were no high dan players, 35 people participated in the tournament, which was organised by a new tournament director, Tom Van Doorsselaere and which saw un unusual high consumption of coffee, Duvel and cake.

Complete results: https://www.gofed.be/tournament/results?tournament=LEU&year=2020

On 04/02/2020, Belgium team, composed by Lucas Neirinck (+), Jan Ramon (+), Gabriel Mercier (+) and Nelis Vets (+), crushed the Swedish one by 4-0 in the 6th round of the ETPC.

Results: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/596

Belgium is presently 3th out of 10 teams and can dream to be promoted in A-division.

Standings after the 6th round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps (extreme right on the screen).

Mid-Januari, Belgium team (Lucas Neirinck +, Gabriel Mercier (-), Joost Van Nieuwenhuyzen (–) et Laurent Teirlinck (+)made a draw against Finland in the 5th round of the ETPC.

Results: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/595

Belgium is presently 5th out of 10 teams.

Standings after the 5th round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps (extreme right on the screen).

Mid-december, Belgium (Lucas Neirynck +, Jan Ramon -, Gabriel Mercier - , Nelis Vets +) made a draw against Italy in the 4th round of the ETPC.

Results: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/594

Belgium is presently 6th out of 10 teams.
Standings after the 4rd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps (extreme right on the screen).

Leuven is the second tournament by order of importance (behind Brussels):

Info and registration: https://www.gofed.be/en/tournament/leuven.

The first phase of the SEYGO Tour 2020 will take place in Grenoble, on February 1st and 2nd, in parallel with the Grenoble International Go Tournament (TIGGRE - Ellie Cup).

European young players will play in 3 categories (U20, U16, U12) and will receive points and prizes, as explained on the SEYGO page of the EGF website (https://eurogofed.org/seygo/).

We are expecting a large number of participants in the TIGGRE - Ellie Cup (see the website http://tiggre-elliecup.jeudego.org/), many young players in the SEYGO Tour competitions and several dozens of kids from the Grenoble area who will play a « beginners tournament ». We are also happy to announce the presence of two Chinese delegations, one from Beijing (CEGO Group, with Ge Yuhong Academy) and the other one from Suzhou.

South Korean Go master Lee Sedol, widely considered as one of the greatest Go players of the modern era and only human to score a win against AlphaGo, announced his retirement.

Lee, 36 years old, had started playing Go when he was six years old and has turned professional in 1995.

In a career spanning 24 years, Lee scored 18 victories in global competitions and 32 wins in local events.

He declared his retirement was primarily motivated by the invincibility of AI Go programs.

See this article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20191127004800315

Info van de VRT: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2019/11/28/wereldkampioen-bordspel-go-stopt...

The club of Leuven prolongs its national title

This year, six clubs have participated.

Completed results: https://www.gofed.be/node/1140

On 19/11, despite having mobilized one of strongest possible team (Lucas 6d, François 4d, Jan 4d and Lucman 3d), Belgium has been beaten by Serbia.

Still, note the remarkable victory of Lucas - by half a point ! - against Dusan Mitic, one of the two terrible "Mitic brothers" (his brother Nikola did win, against François).

Results: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps/rounds/593

Standings after the 3rd round: https://pandanet-igs.com/communities/euroteamchamps (extreme right on the screen)

The European Youth Go Championships is the top European youth tournament.

There are three categories: under 12, under 16 and under 20.

The EYGC 2020 will be held in Stubicke Toplice, a beautiful spa town 40 km north of Zagreb, between 11th March 2020 and 14 March.

Dedicated webpage: https://eygc2020.hgos.hr/

Registration: https://eygc2020.hgos.hr/registration/