Here we are, almost there, on the edge to get our 10th EGF pro!

Twelve of the strongest European Go players will participate in the 8th "Lanke Cup" European Professional Qualification in the beautiful city of Vienna (Austria), from February 10th to 16th.
The winner of this round robin tournament (after 11 rounds and potential tie-breakers), will be the new certified professional of the EGF!

Go7 Go club will co-organize the event with the EGF, together with the 8th European Professional Championship (13-16th February), and they are ready to welcome all players in their nice place at the heart of Vienna. The event benefits from the sponsoring of Lanke Quzhou (have you heard of the Lanke Cup, a prestigious tournament in China?), the support of the EGF and Austrian Go Federation.

A few words about the Pro system

To the occasion of this new qualification tournament, a new set of rules was edited, and it is planned in the future to make the Pro system more engaging and easy to anticipate for the participants.

Professional players are recognised by the EGF and can participate in international and pro events. These include Quzhou Lanke cup, Ing Cup, Samsung Cup, Nanyang Cup, Chinese League C (did you know that the EGF has a team?), and more, and get guaranteed seats in European events such as Grand Slam or, obviously, the Pro Championship. They are also the main commentators for Twitch events or teaching in EGF events. Nevertheless, as our number of pros is growing, it becomes even more important to have a relevant pro system, providing more and more opportunities.
It is one of the objectives of the EGF to give more chances to the pros to boost their go careers, and be able to compete with Asian pros on the international stage.

The candidates

This year, the players were selected by their rating(9 players), whereas 3 spots were left open in an online qualification. A sponsor wildcard and EGF wildcard remained to be used in case of drop-out.

In an online qualification tournament, Lucas Neirynck 6d (BE), Cornel Burzo 6d (RO) and Benjamin Teuber (DE) qualified. Unfortunately, due to unexpected circumstances, two players withdrew, giving a chance to two young players U18 to qualify: Yuze Xing 6d (DE), as the next on the list, and Vsevolod Ovsiienko 6d (UA) chosen as the EGF wildcard, highlighting his engagement in European events and good results this year.

Here is the line-up of the 12 candidates:

Lukáš Podpěra 7d 🇨🇿
Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 7d 🇫🇷
Ashe Vazquez 7d 🇪🇸
Dominik Bővíz 6d 🇭🇺
Viktor Lin 6d 🇦🇹
Jonas Welticke 6d 🇩🇪
Rémi Campagnie 6d 🇫🇷
Matias Pankoke 6d 🇩🇪
Lucas Neirynck 6d 🇧🇪
Benjamin Teuber 6d 🇩🇪
Yuze Xing 6d 🇩🇪
Vsevolod Ovsiienko 6d 🇺🇦

Games will start on Monday, 3:15 PM CET, then each day at 10:15 AM and 3:15 PM. Six boards will be broadcasted live thanks to IZIS boards (three boards when the Pro Championship will start on the 13th). The games will be live reviewed on Twitch 30min after they start.

To be sure not to miss anything, please check the dedicated page and follow us on Facebook (you will find there more about the players)

Huge thanks to Mirta Medak and the Go7 team for the organisation of the event.

UPDATES
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Follow the live stream on https://www.twitch.tv/egf_live (view from the playing hall)

All the week, there will be Twitch coverage thanks to Ondrej Kruml 6d, Elian Grigoriu 6d and Fredrik Blomback 7d, for all rounds, 30min after the game starts. Join here: https://www.twitch.tv/europeangofederation