Andrii Kravets 2p (Ukraine) won the European Championship 2024, confirming his title from the previous championship. In a short interview, Andrii tells us about his mindset during the games and impressions from this championship, his goals in go and routine as a teacher in the main European Go School - JIGS, Jena International Go School (Germany).

You can find the original article on the JIGS website.



Q: Hello Andrii, Congratulations on winning the European Championship again! Securing your title two years in a row is an incredible achievement. You are also the first European champion from Ukraine. In the post-game interview, Stephen Hu asked you how you feel right now and you said: “I don’t know, I don’t feel anything right now…” Now that some time has passed, do you finally feel something?

Hello Frantisek, thanks for the congratulations. After some time, I started to realize how difficult it was, and I’m glad I managed to win. Also, I started to realize that in the next tournaments, people will do their best to beat me, so I will have a bit more pressure to perform well in the future. But overall, I’m happy that I became a champion for two years in a row.

Q: Coming into the tournament as a defending champion, how did you prepare for this championship? Did you approach your preparation differently compared to last year?

This year, I trained a lot, played a lot on Fox and with AI, and reviewed many games with AI. But before the tournament, I took a two-week break from Go, which helped me refresh myself before the important event. Last year, I had a similar approach, but I think I only took a one-week break.



Q: You won all six games in the tournament, including the final against Thomas Debarre. What was your mindset going into the tournament and the final? And how important was the experience from last year for you this time?

After each game, I started to focus on the next opponent and the next game. Last year’s result gave me a lot of confidence, and I realized that I could beat anyone, so I just needed to try my best and anything would be possible. Last year, I made a few blunders during the tournament and still won those games. That knowledge helped me recover from big mistakes and wait for opportunities to come back.



Q: During the final game, there was a moment early on where you had an opportunity to go for a kill on one of your opponent’s groups. However, Thomas managed to live with the group, and you gained a lot of influence and strength on the outside. Can you walk us through your thinking process in that situation? Did you want to go 100% for the kill, or did you decide to go with a safer option?

In that game, I had a very good beginning. I knew that the invasion, which Thomas started with an empty triangle was wrong, so I didn’t really play to kill. For him, it wasn’t easy to find a life, and Thomas already had some time problems, so he made some mistakes, which gave me an opportunity to get a very good position. I saw that I could kill half of the group and gain a +20 lead, but I decided to go for the kill on the whole group. I didn’t see how he could live and I thought he might try to fight some ko, which would still be good for me. In the end, he found a way to live, and the game was almost even again. I felt really frustrated at that moment, but I knew that my second part of the game is better than the first, so my chances of winning the game were still good. I played a very good second half and kept a small lead, winning by 4.5 points.

Q: Were there any other key moments or challenges you faced during the tournament? Were there any games that stood out as particularly difficult or memorable?

In this tournament, I had a few difficult games. In the first round, I had a very tough position against Yuze Xing, and in the second round, I was behind by 10-15 points before the endgame against Ho Yeung Woo. But in the end, I managed to fight back and turn those games around. In most of the games, I played with a lot of walls and not much cash, so in the second part of the game, it wasn’t easy to create territory out of nowhere.



Q: The tournament was held in Toulouse, France. How was the experience of playing in Toulouse, and did the atmosphere or setting impact your play in any way?

I think the Go congress in Toulouse was organized well, but I didn’t like the weather there. The temperature was consistently around 35-40 degrees each day. During the games, the air conditioning helped a lot, but it was hard to recover after the games because of the heat. It was also difficult to go sightseeing in that kind of weather.

Q: What are your next goals and plans for the future? Are there any upcoming tournaments or challenges that you’re especially focused on?

I don’t have any special goals in Go anymore. I think I reached everything I wanted when I started playing. Now, I focus on improving and seeing how strong I can become. The next events I will participate in as a player are the 4th “China Town” Weiqi Cup in Warsaw, the 8th European Grand Prix Finale 2024 in Karlsruhe, and the European Professional Championship in Vienna. As a teacher, I will visit the Stuttgart Tournament and participate in the next JIGS Go camps.



Q: As someone who continues to balance playing at the highest level with teaching (thank you for being a great teacher for our JIGS students! :)), how do you manage both your own development as a player and your responsibilities as a teacher?

I have some students who are high-dan players. Sometimes I play with them, which gives me regular extra training. I also need to create lectures or do joseki research to show to my students. I think that with this type of teaching, I am also becoming stronger. I try to play and study with AI each day as well.

Q: As we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts or messages you’d like to share? And what advice would you give to aspiring Go players looking to improve their game?

I want to thank all the people who supported and cheered for me during this event. I got a lot of extra motivation to improve from this. My advice is to always review your games with AI, at least for the moment. You might find some new, interesting moves or ideas that can inspire you to play and study more.

Thank you for the interview, Andrii!

 Photos: Harry van der Krogt, Matthieu Aveaux