Dear EGF Members,

Well 2003 is nearly over. I hope for Go it was a successful one. 
Unfortunately for me it was a very sad year which still continues
for a while as my mother is extremely ill, which will keep me away
from Go for a while - I may not even get to the London Open! 

Anyway here is a round-up of various issues and items of news.

1. European Masters 
This was a very successful event, held at the EGCC at the end of November.
It was dedicated to the memory of the late Hans Pietsch, Go professional. 
Congratulations to Catalin Taranu who beat Alex Dinerchtein in an
exciting final. The event is being used to select our reps at 
unrestricted world championships. Svetlana Shikshina selected
as a result to attend the Fujitsu Cup 2004 and Guo Juan to play the 
Chunlan Cup at the end of December in China. The fellows opted to wait
for a chance to play in later events such as LG Cup. The next Masters
will be Summer 2005.

2. Student Games 
The second World Amateur Student Championships will be held next
year in Japan. We are currently selecting two male and one female
student to take part. This has been done by working down the ratings
list looking for possible players. If anyone is a student under 30 and
thinks they were missed, then please confirm to us your status and we will
make sure you will be considered for the third Student Games. 

3. Fujitsu European Training
This was held alongside the Masters. The theme was Teaching
Children and took the form of a seminar for Go teachers from 
various parts of Europe. These teachers gained much benefit from 
swapping stories and encouraging each other by knowing they are 
not the only ones doing such teaching. 

4. Catalin Taranu 
Catalin has announced that from the spring he will be returning 
to Romania to found a Go Salon. He will also be available for 
teaching tours and so on, please contact him if interested in his
services. He is also arranging with the EGF to bring Saijo-sensei over
for a teaching tour to Romania and three other european countries in the
autumn.

5. Oza 
The second Oza is rapidly approaching. The waiting list for
the main event is quite long already. Do not forget the fun family
tournaments that are open to every one. See the EGCC web site for details.
You may be interested to know that the two go bodies in Italy are still
in negotiation about who their official representative will be. More than
22 of the EGF countries will be represented there.

6. Special General Meeting
On Saturday 7th February at the EGCC will be the Special General Meeting
to elect the two extra members of executive as agreed at the AGM. The best
way to vote is to get your official representative to bring along your 
vote (written or otherwise) for presentation at the meeting. If you wish
to make a postal vote then you may do so. Please try and conform to as
many of the requirements for authentification as possible. If you do not
and there is a duplicate vote from your country or some other dispute, 
then we may not be able to accept any vote from your country. Of course
if your country has not paid for 2004 by the meeting you will not be 
eligible to vote. Please transfer your fee if normal to do so before then
or the money will be subtracted from the expenses paid to your official
representative at the Oza. Please note that we have requested seconds
for candidates be received by the 7th January, so that you will have a
clear indication which candidates are fully supported when considering
your votes - this date is not a constitutional restriction.

7. Spring Tournaments
May I remind you that as well as the usual selection of Toyota-Pandanet
Tour events in the spring, there are the Ing Memorial, EYGC and Pair Go
Championships. These are in Czechia, Germany and Romania respectively.
Ing Memorial is of course invitation only, but the others have unlimitted
entry, though only one pair per country will receive the benefits of 
sponsorship at the Pair Go. The EYGC in Koeln (Cologne) will be an exciting
event with at least two professionals likely to be in attendance - please
encourage your strongest children to take part!

8. Web Site 
Sorry for any problems with slow updating of the EGF Web Site. Zvonko 
Bednjanec is now maintaining most of the pages, and has started posting
a weekly news bulletin on the self-posting news pages. The tournament
calendar is also being maintained as far as possible, but will soon
be changed into a self-posting (but moderated) calendar. Please keep
an eye on the executive news pages in case you miss any EGF emails. Any
suggestions for extra information that should be provided on these pages
will be considered. 

9. Finances
The EGF finances remain healthy. Recently the latest Ing Fund payment was
received and we continue to get support for the Tour from Toyota and
Panadanet. We are continuing to look at ways of working with Pandanet (IGS)
and they covered the Masters on their server. We have again asked Toshiba
International Foundation to consider supporting the EGC 2004 in Tuchola. 

10. EGCC
The annual EGF-EGCC SUpervisory board meeting was held during FET/Masters.
The EGF continues to be well pleased with the work they do in supporting
and promoting Go. The EGCC will be increasing their charges to us in 2004
in return for the large amount of support work they do for the EGF 
(eg Office, Ing Sets, organisational support). Until now they have 
been supporting us at a loss and I hope nobody will object to this 
increase in EGF spending. 

11. Email Attachments
Several of the EGF members have requested that email attachments should
be kept to a minimum. Plain text attachments are clearly fine, but large
Word, XL, PDF, JPEG or HTML files are problematical and will probably be
discarded by some members unread. Clearly better is to send a plain text
only version, or a summary text, and set up a web page where further
information can be found, or the attachments can be examined or downloaded.

12. Next New Member
Despite rumours of increased Go activity in some of the ex-Russian states
it looks like Cyprus will be the next new member of the EGF. They have a 
new and growing fast Go group and are looking to become an association. 
They recommend Cyprus as a holiday destinations and will welcome any
visiting Go players to their clubs!

May I wish you best regards for the season and much happy Go playing
in 2004.

AJAx
Tony Atkins 
EGF President 22/12/2003