The Moravian Go Open, best known among Go players as the Brno tournament, took place between September 2nd and 4th. The tournament took place for the 15th at Santon Hotel, located in the outskirts of the city. 

On Friday evening the participants were welcomed with a buffet and had a chance to socialize. When not playing, they could enjoy the picturesque view and take a swim in the lake located close to the playing venue. For the first time ever, the hotel room came with tickets to the Wellness area this year, including a swimming pool, a whirlpool, and three saunas. 

Close to 100 players of all levels participated in the tournament that is part of the European Grand Prix Level C. This year’s winner is Cristian Pop 7d from Romania. A fitting gift for him, since he was also celebrated his birthday at the time. He scored 5 wins out of 6 games. Viktor Lin 6d from Austria finished in 2nd place after beating the winner in the last round, and Andrii Kravets 6d from Ukraine took 3rd. There were a few surprising results, both in the top group and among the rest of the players, and many games finished by the smallest margin of 0,5 points. This implies that the top players in Europe are very close in skill. The first two boards were broadcasted on KGS under the accounts Brno2016a and Brno2016b.

In the top room, where the first 12 boards were located, you could sense the atmosphere changing slowly but surely with almost every move. At the beginning of the rounds the players would be concentrated, yet not tense; however, pretty much once the first player in the room enters his/her byoyomi you can feel a gradual change: the players are more concentrated and tense and once in a while their body language would give them away either for their relief or for their frustration. The first couple of games would finish with a handshake and a very brief review in which the players would let their opponents know about what might have been their biggest mistake. When most of the players in the room were in byoyomi, however, I think that the tension was reaching its peak: even as a spectator you get caught in the games and feel the tension that the players must be feeling when the clock lets them know that they have “30 seconds one time” left and then those 30 seconds seem to be gone in a heartbeat.

Top 8
Johannes Obenaus - 8th place
Cornel Burzo - 7th place
Pal Balogh - 6th place
Dusan Mitic - 5th place
Zhang Yi - 4th place
Andrii Kravets - 3rd place
Viktor Lin - 2nd place
Cristian Pop - 1st place