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Ladies and gentlement, welcome to the new season of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship, the “PGETC”!
This team event spreads over 2026 and 2027, with an online part and an offline final event, which will take place during the European Go Congress 2027 in the Netherlands this summer.
In the PGETC, we have four leagues with national teams for a total of 34 teams: 30 EGF members, plus Greece, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan and Morocco! This is the most important and inclusive (nations-wise) event of the European-and-plus Go community.
For this season, the leagues are as follows:
League A: Ukraine (title holder), Czechia, Poland, France, Türkiye, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Israel and Hungary.
They will play 9 rounds.
League B: the United Kingdom, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, South Africa, Serbia, Finland, Slovakia and Belgium.
They will also play 9 rounds.
League C: Austria, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Kazakhstan and Slovenia.
They will play 7 rounds.
League D: Norway, Georgia, Morocco, Portugal, Bulgaria and Danemark.
They will play 5 rounds.
Each month, we will be able to follow high level games and cheer for our favourite teams!
All the important info, schedule, players, can be found on the dedicated website.
How is it played?
The PGETC is played as a round robin per league (all team play together), with 4 boards per match. The teams usually have many available players and chose who to align ahead of each encounter. Depending on the match score, teams earn points, which can eventually take them to the upper or lower league at the end of the season. The four best teams of the A league meet at the European Go Congress for a 3 rounds Final Event, face to face.
The Pandanet – Internet Go Server
The online part of the tournament happens on the Pandanet Internet Go Server (IGS), a Japanese Go server with a European version, developed by the company Pandanet, sponsor of the event.
Pandanet is extremely active in developing the Japanese Go Community and, in Europe, also known for their investment in Pair Go. Recently, Pandanet also launched Kumon Go, an online academy for beginners, available in English.
To connect to the server, you have to download a client and create an account, this is also available as a phone App.
The design of the European server is famous for its very delicate and refined look, contrasting with the shapes played in the game.
By the way, the Japanese version of the Pandanet Go Server is very different and recently had a very big upgrade, allowing to play with camera, review games etc. It is hoped that the European version of the server will benefit from these improvement as well in the coming time!
This Season already started!
The first match of the season was played ahead of schedule, between Czechia and Ukraine. The official starting time, though, is Tuesday, October 13th, evening.
This season, we will look for possibilities to make a few live commentaries and communicate more about the rounds in general, so that everyone can follow easily and enjoy the matches!
Good games to all the participants, and huge thanks to the sponsor and project team for their implication!