The tournament in Velika Gorica, a growing city covering Zagreb Airport, started "small" two years ago with "only" 32 mostly local players, became "bigger" with 65 players from 9 countries last year, and - with the EGF Grand Prix Bonus C tag - attracted a lot of top European players this year. Due to some no-shows, it was a very diverse tournament with 80 players from 17 countries. 47 players came from abroad - it was encouraging to see young players from Serbia and Bosnia in an international tournament again.

Velika Gorica became an independent city on 13th December 1995 and its 30th anniversary was a big story everywhere. The city wholeheartedly supported its native Go club and the organizers led by Karlo Vlahovic, 2d, who is only 17, to make the most spectacular Go tournament of the year. After months of active announcements, timely webpage and registration form, regular communication with registered players, all other "goodies" were provided: the ice-breaker party in the Confucius Institute of the University of Zagreb near the Zagreb downtown during regular weiqi gathering each Friday, a bag with valuable presents for each participants during registration, three separate rooms for the super group, top group and then all other dan players, free lunches on Saturday and Sunday, with huge birthday cakes at the end.

With almost 30 players having GoR higher than 2000 and 10 players above 2500, it was a respectable Bonus C tournament in 2025. According to the rating and recent results, two favorites were Mateusz Surma, 3p, European Champion 2025, winner in Brno, Pisa and Bistrita, and Lukas Podpera, 7d, winner of Budapest, Vienna, Amsterdam, Prague. Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia, 1p, did not win any of EGF Grand Prix tournaments in 2025, but he won the Professional Qualification in Vienna. Since Mateusz, Lukas and Ben have already qualified for the Grand Prix Finale, to be played in Stockholm, January 8-11, 2026, Ali Jabarin, recently promoted to 3p, Vsevolod Ovsiienko, 6d, and Amir Fragman, 6d, were the top candidates for the last direct qualification seat.

Three games from each round were cast live using IZIS Boards, which means that 15 games can be found on Go Games Live EU. Rounds 2-5 were commented on the Twitch channel of the European Go Federation by Tanguy le Calve, 1p, (rounds 2 and 3) and Andrii Kravets, 2p, (rounds 4 and 5).

The first round went well for the top players, preparing a much tougher second round. Mateusz convincingly won the game against Kaku Maekawa, 6d, and Ben won against Ali. Vsevolod had a small lead against Lukas, but he blundered the central group of stones and lost. The first day ended with a bit easier games for Mateusz and Ali, winning against 4d and 2d respectively. The choice of commented games was very good: Ben turned the tables against Lukas, clinching another very important win by a margin of 2.5 points, and Stjepan Medak, who just earned 6d, won against Kaku Maekawa. A real drama was going on board 5: Vsevolod and Amir had their chances in the game, with last 70 moves within plus/minus half a point: at the end it was Vsevolod who won by 0.5.

On Sunday, players came fresh and round 4 brought penultimate clashes: Mateusz stopped Ben’s winning streak, and Lukas was a bit lucky after Ali missed his chances. All this was easy compared to a game the commentator Andrii Kravets, 2p, described as “crazy”: in the critical moment, already in byoyomi, Alexander Eeerbek, 5d, made an error and Stjepan Medak came back to the top, because Vsevolod lost to Martijn van Ling, 4d. It should be noted that the top six boards were usually simultaneously in double byoyomi (the time settings was 60 minutes plus 3 times 30 seconds Japanese byoyomi), the audience was kindly asked to follow the games online, outside the nice geography classroom.

Thus, after a very good on-site lunch, the last round brought the final showdown: Lukas and Mateusz - two most successful players in Grand Prix events 2025 fighting on board 1, while Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia continuing his “Factorio Match” with Stjepan Medak. Lukas Podpera won the dramatic game by 2.5 points and caught Mateusz Surma with 4 wins. The win did not guarantee the first place, because Ben had much better SOS, but … Stjepan played some outstanding moves in the middlegame and won the game convincingly. The commentary of the high-quality games is worth watching.

Suddenly, Lukas is first, by 1.5 SOSOS point ahead of Mateusz, with both of them 1 SOS points ahead of Stjepan. Ben had the best SOS to get the fourth prize, and Vsevolod (who defeated Ali in the last round), took the fifth prize and his fifth GP point.

The tournament in EGD: 9th Velika Gorica City Go Tournament - EGF Bonus C

A nicer standings table with all prizes: Google Sheet Velika Gorica 2025

At the end, Stjepan Medak, 6d, directly qualified to the Grand Prix Finale, and Vsevolod Ovsiienko, 6d, got the invitation based on the number of GP points.

During a nice award ceremony, your reporter thanked top players on the stage (Lukas, Mateusz and Ben) for training the members of Croatian youth team.

Two local heroes had 5 wins: Jan Ilekovic from Zagreb started to play go exactly one year ago in 8th Velika Gorica City Go Tournament - he is already 5 kyu, Lukatoni Karamatic from Velika Gorica started to play six months earlier - his teacher is Karlo Vlahovic.

The endgame included two birthday cakes – a sweet aji for the 10th Velika Gorica City Go Tournament, December 12-13, 2026!