The 53rd European Go Congress

25.07.2009-08.08.2009, Groningen, Netherlands

Sponsored by Zhuyeqing Tea

The 53rd European Go Congress, sponsored by Zhuyeqing Tea, was held in Groningen in the north-east Netherlands.

516 players took part in the first week of the main Open Championship, including some strong Koreans as usual. Jun Sang-Youn of Korea was in first place after the first five games. Alex Dinerchtein and Cristian Pop were the Europeans in the group on four wins.

At the end of the second week 586 players had taken part. The top group of Koreans all ended on 8 wins, and the top Europeans were in the group on 7. They had to be split by SOS. Kim Eunkuk became the European Open Champion, equal on SOS with Hwang In-Seong - but had won their match. European Champion by 2 sos points was Alex Dinerchtein.

  1. Kim Eunkuk (8 wins)
  2. Hwang In-Seong
  3. Kim Joon-Sang
  4. Oh Chi-Min
  5. Jun Sang-Youn (7 wins)
  6. Alexandr Dinerchtein
  7. Catalin Taranu
  8. Csaba Mero
  9. Cristian Pop
  10. Rob van Zeijst (6 wins)

Russia's Ilya Shikshin won both the handicap 9x9 (beating an 8 kyu in the final) and the 13x13. Second in the 13x13 was Robert Jasiek from Germany.

374 players took part in the Weekend Tournament. After four rounds Kim Joon-Sang was unbeaten in the top group, but was beaten in the last round by Ilya Shikshin. These two and Jun Sang-Youn and Kim Eun-Kuk ended equal on four wins and shared the cash prize. After sos tie-break:

  • 1st Kim Joon-Sang
  • 2nd Ilya Shikshin
  • 3rd Jun Sang-Youn

On 9 afternoons the Rapid Play was held and had 206 players. Winner was Oh Chi-Min with 9 wins. Second was Kim Joon-Sang with 8 and third was Kim Eunkuk with 7 wins. The top European players had 5 wins.

Winner in the Lightning was Jun Sang-Youn. Second Oh Chi-Min, third Kim Joon-Sang and fourth was Ilya Shikshin.

The Team was won by Baby Face (Chang Yuan-Jung 1p, Jun Sang-Youn 7d, Zhang Yanqi 6d and Shiu Chang-Li 6d).

The Rengo was won by Russia's Nemly, Shikshin and Ainali.
Second was Netherlands' Verbrugge, Vet and Spanhoff.
Third was Lebastard, Naddef and Debarre from France.

Results

Main Tournament
Weekend Tournament
Rapid Tournament

Pair Go

There was a Pair Go tournament with 68 pairs. The best four played knock-out finals. The winners were Chang Cheng Ping (1 dan pro) from Taiwan and Siu Hong Chung (2 dan) from Netherlands. They beat Guo Juan (5 dan pro) and Lin Liu Zhi (2 dan) from the sponsor in China.

  • 1st Chang Cheng Ping and Siu Hong Chung
  • 2nd Guo Juan and Lin Liu Zhi

Photo Gallery


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