European Championship 2026

32 players compete in a double knockout to become the European champion in Akara, Türkiye!
The championship is played over eight rounds: The first round starts on Sunday 26th July, the final is on the next Sunday 2nd of August, together with the match for 3rd and 4th place.
The first 8 players will win points for the European Grand Prix.

Check the dedicated webpages: https://www.eurogofed.org/EC2026/index.html 

• EGC 2026 • Ankara |
• Pairings / Results |
• Participating Players |
• Rules |
•  

EGC 2026 • Ankara

Pairings / Results

Time Table

Prize Money

1st Place: 4.000 €
2nd Place: 2.500 €
3rd Place: 1.500 €
4th Place: 1.000 €
5th-8th Place: 500 €

Sponsored by the the European Go Congress

 

Rules

Who can participate?

For 2026:

- 8 top players from last year EC and additional 4 from this year Grand Prix Finale:
- 3 seats for the winners (or best placed player) of EYGC 2026 (U12,16 and U21) if GoR > 2400*
- 1 EGC wildcard
- 16 best ranked (peak GoR) players since last June and up to June this year (= May 31st) who have played at least one tournament game in that period.

Any other joining player will be decided by ranking on the same criteria (peak GoR, one tournament game).

*As the rules for EYGC Championship were changed (age group change), it was decided to award not one but 3 seats to the European Championship, provided that the go level would be high enough.

All participants must be citizens from an EGF member country, must register to the EGC 2026 and pay the discounted fee (early bird equivalent), be there on the evening prior to the Championship (25.07), attend all the rounds and follow the tournament rules and requirements as asked from the organizer.
It is strongly wished for participants to respect a classical decent dresscode (no flip-flops etc, but no need to enforce a suit by 40° either).

Interested players 5d+ who meet the conditions to play can fill this form.

The current list of players can be found here: https://www.eurogofed.org/EC2026/players.html 
Please note that the bottom of the list will vary depending on ongoing tournaments results, so it may remain pending until mid June.

Qualified => players who qualified with EC, Grand Prix or EYGC, Wildcard.
Confirmed => eligible players whose participation is confirmed and not subject to GoR changes. You need to register to the EGC as well.
Pending => players who are eligible and didn't give a response yet / players whose eligibility is subject to GoR changes.

Players declining the invitation are removed from the players page, and other players are added to it. If you don't intend to participate and appear on the list, please, fill the form.

System:

• Double knock-out, then classical bracket with Final and Small Final.
• 80 min with 40sec increment (Fischer time) (TBC with the complete ruleset)
• EGF general tournament rules with territory scoring (eu-japanese rules, komi 6.5) apply.
• Games parallel to the EGC Main Open will be counted for it, more details later.

The European championship shall be played during the first week (starting on Sunday) and second weekend of the EGC. 
A final phase with 8 players shall take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It is a double knock-out tournament – the players with two lost games in the preliminary rounds leave immediately the European Championship and may continue playing in the main EGC tournament.

There is no need to define 5th to 8th positions. Hence, the players may play the weekend tournament if they wish so.

Only for semi-finals, the games for 3rd place and the final are played over the weekend.

Pairings: Pairings for the first round is based on EGF ratings by July 19th after the Moyo Open Bonus Point C tournament.

Championship Schedule: - 5 rounds played during the main EGC tournament on the first week - 1 extra round played on Wednesday for the loser bracket - 2 extra rounds played on Saturday and Sunday (2nd weekend) – semi-finals and finals.

Pairings for round 1: The seeding-number for each player will be assigned by an open drawing during the EGC Opening session. After having built 8 groups with four players (1-4, 5-8, .., 29-32), according to the rating-list including (hopefully) the Moyo Open 2026 Bonus C event. The order within the group will be decided by the draw on 25th July 2026. Following the brackets, players with an odd seeding-number will play with white stones in round 1, while players with an even seeding-number will get the black stones. 

Referee: TBD
Coordination ahead of the event: Milena Boclé (EGF) / Michael Marz (Commission for European Tournaments)