A new event in the youth go scene is shaping up to become a prestigious tournament designated specifically for youth and kids. It is the Quzhou International Friendly Children Amateur Weiqi Invitational Tournament in China. This year was the second time this event was organized, and it’s really pleasing to see that in 2024 even more kids from Europe were invited to participate.



The 2nd Quzhou International Friendly Children Amateur Weiqi Invitational Tournament was held on November 17-22, 2024, in Quzhou, China. The organization was supported by the People’s Government of Quzhou Municipality, and this place was selected for a reason : there exists a task force to transform Quzhou into “the World’s Mecca of Go”. However, the city is interesting not only for Go-addicts, as it was the place where the immortals played Go on the Lanke mountain, but it is also known as the home-town of Descendants of Confucius.

The event gathered 14 teams coming from all the continents of the world. Each team consisted of three kids aged between 7 and 18. Europe was represented by three teams: Ukraine, Romania and Germany. The first two teams were selected on the basis of their results in last year's Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championship, while Germany got their own wild-card invitation directly from the organizers.

And let’s start with the answer to the question that makes most of the readers curious: yes, our youth performance made us proud.
Thus, Romania finished 5th, Ukraine - 6th, and Germany - 9th.
Prizes were available not only the best teams, but also board prizes were awarded to the top 6 players in each position.
The list of best players on each board was not without European faces as well.

Full results can be found below. Congratulations to the teams on their results!

And now some pictures of the games.

It is difficult to write about the Quzhou International Friendly Children Amateur Weiqi Invitational Tournament without mentioning the organization, which quite honestly was approaching perfection. The transfer from Shanghai to Quzhou (which is very important due to these being located some 405 km apart) was organized for the teams, each player had a luxury of being accommodated in their own stylish room, the playing hall was located in the same hotel. The attention to detail and the smooth organization - these are something that will not be forgotten by those who participated in this trip.

Of course, the main goal of each tournament is to compete. And competition-wise, let’s send a round of applause to Romanian, Ukrainian and German teams once again! However, the trip provided some other amazing opportunities.
Three professional players: Jiang Weijie, 9p, Zheng Zaixiang, 5p, Wang Chuxuan, 5p, - were invited to play teaching games for all the participants to share their secrets and to inspire young players to follow their go-dreams.

Apart from making friends over the go board, the children had a chance to bond during the cultural exchange activities. The organizers provided a platform for this not only during the excursions to immense oneself in Chinese culture and local traditions (Chinese Confucianism Museum, Quzhou museum, Confucius Nanzong Family Temple, Doolittle Raid Memorial Hall, Quzhou International Weiqi Culture Exchange Center), but also on a day to day basis - so that both the inviting party and all teams could learn from each other and could exchange gifts and insights into each others’ history and culture.

It is not an eye-opener that go in China is taken seriously, but it was emphasized by the extensive list of distinguished guests and speakers in the Symposium on Friendly Exchanges between Chinese and Foreign Children performance (for instance, Sun Guangming, Vice President of Chinese Weiqi Association and President of Zhejiang Weiqi Association, and Du Xinglin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Quzhou Municipal Committee).
Reflecting back on the experience, one can only express respect for such a appreciative attitude towards culture and traditions. However, extremely important is the fact that European teams, cherishing their own traditions and values, could find their place and put up a good fight to compete with traditional leaders in Go world.
This seems to be a solid base to expand and develop youth go on. And once again, congratulations to the youth teams from Romania, Ukraine and Germany.

Thanks to the Chinese Weiqi Association and Darius Dobranis (Romanian Go Federation) for contributing with valuable pictures.
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Oksana Nevostruyeva (Ukrainian Go Federation)