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The 16th Pandanet Go European Team Championship took place over 2025-2026, with teams from EGF members playing online in Leagues. The top four teams of the A League met in Ankara, Türkiye, to dispute the finals over 3 rounds on August 3-4. Ukraine, winning 2 out of 3 matches, is the new European Team Champion!
The Pandanet Go European Team Championship is a well known event of the European circuit, as it is first played throughout the year on the IGS Pandanet Go Server, a Japanese platform which provides teaching and playing which recently launched the ‘Pandanet Go Beginners Academy‘ in partnership with Kumon (see this article).
After hundreds of games, the final stage is the last show of the event, played at the European Go Congress in face-to-face matches.
This year, the title holder, Poland, had not qualified for the finals, so there would be a new Champion for sure. The question remained though, which team would that be?
Czechia had finished first in the online stage, Ukraine and France were right behind. All the three teams being regular finalists and past winners of the championship. Germany was the new challenger, managing their way to the finals for the first time since…well, for the first time ever! But it was not such an unbelievable fact, after all: the German team counts young improving players, such as Yuze Xing 6d and Arved Pittner 6d and a bit less young yet somewhat improving players. This year, they showed impressive results in tournaments and a lot of dedication to the game.
The tournament started on the Monday afternoon in a quiet room, contrasting astonishingly with the violence which could be seen on the go boards…
The teams in details
Czechia, led by Lukas Podpera 7d – 3rd at the European Championship after losing to the Champion Andrii Kravets 3p bitterly in semifinals, keep this valuable piece of information in mind, it’s important for the next chapters…- had in the team Jan Simara 1p and Jan Prokop 6d, who had just arrived, Bartik Dach 5d, a young improving player and youngest player in the finals, playing rounds 1 and 3, and Jan Komin 5d, another young improving player, playing the 4th board in round 2.
Jan, Jan, Lukas, Bartik and Jan, and yes you don’t know which Jan is which so let’s do it again: Jan Komin, Jan Prokop, Lukas, Bartik and Jan Simara.
France, led by the latest EGF pro Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia 1p had a balanced team, with Tanguy Le Calve 2p – both pro finished in the top 8 of the European Championship – Remi Campagnie 6d and Florent Labouret 6d.
Rémi, Florent, Antoine the team captain and reserve, Benjamin, Tanguy, a bag of bananas intentionally left there to show how full of energy were the guys, ready to beat anyone
Ukraine had a very strong team as well, led by Andrii Kravets 3p, the newly crowned European Champion, Valerii Krushelnytskyi 7d who had just arrived, Vsevolod Ovsiienko 6d and Dmytro Bogatskyy 5d.
Vsevolod, Dmytro Yatsenko (reserve), Andrii, Valerii and Dmytro Bogatskyy
Finally, Germany had a very motivated 6d line-up team, with Lukas Kraemer 6d (top-8 finisher of the European Championship), Matias Pankoke 6d, Yuze Xing 6d and Arved Pittner 6d.
Lukas, Matias, Arved and Yuze!
First round
In the first round, Czechia would play France, and Ukraine Germany (hence our presenting order).
Most of the players had participated in the European Championship the week before, so they were already fed-up fully warmed-up, but also a little exhausted.
Czechia - France
The first round ended in a draw for Czechia vs France, with Lukas and Jan Simara defeating Benjamin and Tanguy, and Rémi and Florent defeating Jan prokop and Bartik. Half the matches had a little taste of déjà-vu, as Florent and Bartik had played in the first round of the European Championship, and Benjamin had been kicked-out of the last square of the European Championship by Lukas. In both cases, nevertheless, the result was the same.
Thus, 2-2.
Ukraine - Germany
For Ukraine vs Germany, things were much more worrisome for the spectators than the audience there.The spectacular apparent win 4-0 of Germany over Ukraine, including a total defeat of the European champion, was already making history and litters of ink flood all papers. The German fans were starting to losing their mind over such a wonderful start in the tournament and see the huge (it’s not a figure of speech) trophy in their hands for their first ever participation in the finals. The collective illusion of this unexpected miracle faded away quickly once it was discovered that, online, the colors had been announced wrongly and it was nothing else than a less striking 4-0 defeat for Germany.
Thus, 4-0 for Ukraine.
Second round
In the second round, Ukraine would face France, and Germany Czechia. Another round of tough battles…
Czechia - Germany
The second round, player later on the same day, was very tough for all players. For Czechia-Germany, it ended as a draw, with the victories of Lukas (Podpera) and Jan (Simara) for Czechia, and Yuze and Arved for Germany.
Thus, 2-2.
Ukraine - France
This time, no tricks for spectators, but a draw after chaotic games. For Ukraine, Andrii and Valerii looked invincible, while on the French side, once more Rémi and Florent would save the honor.
Thus, 2-2.
Third and last round
The last round was quite decisive. Ukraine looked like the big favorite, having already one strong win and a European champion in their ranks, but hypothetical scenarios could lead to a different result, so nothing was to be taken for granted…
A fun fact for this round, all the games ended by resign (one by time, but resign was pretty much a secure option so let’s count it as if).
Czechia - Ukraine
The last round was a must-watch, with decisive games and a very important revenge match: Lukas Podpera 7d would play against Andrii Kravets 3p, who had (if you remember in the first lines of this article!!) knocked-out his dreams of European title this year in a close game full of twists.
Prediction masters and very well informed intel close to the players involved were sure of a 2-2 for the encounter, waging on the loss of Lukas. Some others, wearing denial glasses and swimming in optimism, were hoping for a 3-1 for Czechia which could, in a case of a 4-0 for France, make the blue-white-red flag European Champion.
But what happened was very far from these prophecy-attempts, with a pitiless 3-1 for Ukraine.
Nevertheless, Czechia could be very proud, as the victory was the one of Lukas Podpera against Andrii Kravets. How cool was that?
Thus, 3-1 for Ukraine.
Germany - France
France needed the funny scenario of a Czech team winning 3-1 against all odds, and themselves winning 4-0 against Germany.
Well, no regrets, France won only 3-1.
After this last win, Ukraine was the European Team Champion. Congratulations!
France was second, Czechia third and Germany fourth.
The games were broadcast on IGS and live reviewed by Motoki Noguchi 7d. You can find the replays on the Youtube Channel of the EGF.
For additional information, please see the official website.
Thank you
We hope you enjoyed the championship.
Huge thanks to the Pandanet company for making this event happen!
Thank you to Manja Marz (referee and on-site organizer) Jörg Sonnenberger (broadcast manager), Harry van der Krogt for most of the photos, Julian Werthmann for the team photos, and all volunteers and scribes who helped to make this event so great for both players and viewers!
Thanks as well to all the players from all the leagues, team captains, league managers, committees, webmasters and project leaders Vladimir Danek and Martin Stiassny for this 2025/2026 season.
The next season is under preparation, if you want to participate as a League Manager, your help will be welcome!