At the end of January, the Grenoble Go club (which is one of the biggest clubs in France) organized the first tournament in this year's European Grand Prix circuit, the TIGGRE-Ellie Cup. This tournament, thanks to its incredible organisation and superb location; became an eagerly awaited challenge for many European players.
Augustin Noir, newly appointed as a teacher and event manager at the Grenoble Go Club and Go school, tells us a bit more about the event and how it went.

Congratulations to Kim Dohyup 7D who tamed the TIGGRE by winning all his games! He wins the €1,000 prize and a trophy from the hands of Ellie, the daughter of In-Seong Hwang 8d, one of the main sponsors and creator of the Ellie cup, as tradition dictates.

To earn the title, Kim Dohyup beat Ali Jabarin 2p from Israel (2nd place) and Lukas Podpera 7d from Czechia, last year's winner (3rd place).

You can find the games on OGS in the accounts EGF1 and EGF2.

The tournament is the first of the year to be counted in the European Grand Prix, furnishing the top placed with 'bonus points' for the Grand Prix finale at the end of the year. There were 5 prize winners: Ali Jabarin 8 points, Lucas Podpera 6 points, Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 4 points, Lucas Neyrinck 2 points and Cornel Burzo 1 point.

There were also 4 other players who achieved 5 wins each, congratulations to them!

For this 6th edition of the TIGGRE-ELLIE Cup, we saw 158 participants of 15 different nationalities: Germany, China, Korea, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Czechia and Ukraine.

As a general rule, a good tournament needs a good food and drink area. Once again this year, we were delighted by the muffins from Elodie, our incredible head volunteer (she cooked more than 400!).

The stands of Jeux Du Monde (a retailer of books about go and other games), and Stoned on the Goban by Camille Lévêque (famous illustrator) were also on hand to unveil their new releases for 2024. In-Seong Hwang 8d, teacher and author, also presented the release of his latest book: Troublemaster volume 2.

Alongside the main tournament with professional and veteran players, two other side tournaments were held, for young people from the region who had recently taken up the game of go and, for the vast majority, were taking part in their very first tournament.

Firstly, the Intersection Cup with 6 teams of three players. Teams represented their local school or company. A 13×13 tournament, a tsumego competition and participation in the final round of the TIGGRE followed to crown Team 1 (Gojira) from Champollion's preparatory class (Grenoble).

Next up was the TIGGROU, an Atari-Go tournament for young beginners. There were 14 children taking part, from 4 Grenoble schools. A member of the Grenoble Go school was the winner with 15 victories (out of 17)!

Special thanks to Olivier Dulac for the photos, and to our many sponsors.
Come out in force next year for the 7th edition!
But be prepared, as the TIGGRE will sharpen their fangs...