IGF Director's Report 2004

c/o the Nihon Ki-in, 7-2, Gobancho,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Email: igf @ nihonkiin.or.jp
Fax: 03-3262-1527

To: �� The European Go Federation
Attn.:� Member Organisations and the Executive
Ref.:�� International Go Federation European Director's Report
CC.:�� Zoran Mutabzija, former vice-president
�� Martin Stiassny, director
�� Yamamoto Ri-ichi, secretary-general

Amsterdam, 30^th June 2004

Dear Members,

Herewith I would like to inform you about the developments within the IGF last year.

General Assembly of International Sports Federations membership

Last year we submitted our application file for membership of the GAISF. Mr Yamamoto, secretary general and I represented the IGF at the GAISF General Assembly in Lausanne in May this year. During a very exciting meeting our application was accepted. The GAISF member certificate is included as attachment 1. Membership of the GAISF means international recognition of the game of Go and as such is a first step towards recognition by the International Olympic Committee.

Co-operation between the Mind Sport Federations

Because of the growing membership and increasing globalization of the world of sports recognition by the GAISF is essential for the future development of the IGF. Before and after the General Assembly we staged meetings with the other major Mind Sport Federations. Agreement was reached that extensive co-operation will be in our mutual interest. At the beginning of October, connected to the GAISF executive meeting, we will get together for the first time.

International recognition

Membership of the GAISF will create possibilities for the IGF to help strengthen infrastructure in the member countries.� One of the most important topics, of interest for all Mind Sports is the fact that though internationally they are recognized as sport, this is not the case on the national level. Capitalizing on the GAISF membership the IGF prepared guidelines on how to work towards recognition by the National Sports Authority and National Olympic Committee. These guidelines together with a letter by our former president are also attached to this letter. An important step will be to get in contact with the national associations of bridge, chess and draughts to exchange experiences.

WAGC

This year the World Amateur Go Championship took place in the beautiful city of Kurashiki, Okayama prefecture. Sixty-four players competed for the JAL Cup. The Korean representative became world champion without losing a game. The best European performance came from Bernard Helmstetter from France, who was in contention for the title until the last game. After losing against the Chinese Taipei, he became fourth only one SODOS point behind the Chinese player. Other Europeans on stage, receiving a prize were Laurent Heiser (Luxembourg) and Radek Nechanicky (10^th, Czech).

Election of directors

Due to health reasons our president Mr. Toshimitsu was forced to resign. He is succeeded by Kato Masao, who also is the new president of the Nihon Ki-in. This year Zoran Mutabzija has decided not to stand for re-election as vice-president. Both gentleman were thanked for their work for the IGF. Martin Stiassny (Germany) was elected as second European director.

The new vice-presidents are Wang Runan China, Eduardo Lopez Herrero (Argentine) and Erik Puyt (Netherlands)

World ratings system

At the directors meeting, it was decided to establish a working group that would study the possibility of developing a world rating system. Rather than choose between existing systems, the current proposal presented by the AGA will work to create an Asian rating system (for China, Korea and Japan for the time being), and test the feasibility of rank and rating conversion between the three systems.

IGF webpage

This development has urged the IGF office to reconsider the lines of communication.

As you know this has resulted in a different format of the IGF publication "Ranka" combined with a newly developed and to be expanded webpage, provisionally posted at:

http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/igf/

The IGF office depends on your contribution to develop this webpage. Please send a report about the activities in your country.

International relations

Lastly, the IGF directors play an important role in establishing and maintaining contact with our Asian partners. Visiting the WAGC and IGF meeting is a perfect opportunity to thank our sponsors and discuss future possibilities. This year Tony Atkins and I met with representatives from Fujitsu Corporation, IGS-Pandanet, the new President of the Nihon Ki-in and the new Director of the Overseas Department.

In conclusion, I hope this report improves your understanding of the activities of the IGF.

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

With best regards,

Erik Puyt

Vice-President IGF