On February 11-12th in Tokyo, Japan, a major event took place for the world's students: the World Students GO OZA Championship, gathering together 16 players from all over the world. Organised by the All-Japan Students GO Association, Nikkei Inc. and PANDANET Inc, with the support of the Nihon Ki-in and International Go Federation, this annual championship is a highly anticipated event in students circle.

This year, three Europeans - Anja Djukic 2k (RS), Vuk Dusanic 1d (RS) and Leon Defer 3d (CZ), took part in the event. They had all won their spot at the previous European Students Championship, held in Serbia in late summer 2024.
The 16 participants - who came from Europe, USA, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Singapore - played 4 rounds to decide the winner. Side activities like an excursion to the Tokyo Sky Tree tower were organised for players so that they might enjoy their stay to the fullest and get a nice view of the city.

In the end the winner was Ryo Hayashi from Japan, winning all his four games.
Europeans didn't do so great with one win each, unfortunately, facing a very strong level of play. Last year, the Romanian player Denis Dobranis 6d had taken the 5th spot with 3 wins, not so easy!
So well done to our players, because they were far from being the favorites in the tournament and still played quite well!

Leon Defer tells us more about this experience:

And how to qualify for this event? Well, the 2025 European Students Go Championship shall take place in Luxemburg in autumn. If you do well in that tournament, then you can very well qualify for the OZA or another recent student championship, so, if you are a student, you should already register!

You can find an overview of the tournament, kifus and full results here: https://igooza.nikkei.co.jp/students/23rd/index-we.htm

Photos - Japan Pair go Association