The article below is taken from the November & December 2024 edition of the European Go Journal. Subscribe on Patreon to receive future issues of this magazine automatically.

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The European go scene saw many exciting events in 2024. Let’s briefly look back at the brightest of them.

As ever, the most important was the European Go Congress (EGC). The 66th EGC took place from July 26th – August 10th in Toulouse, France and attracted more than a thousand of participants from all around the globe. Alongside the open tournaments, two key EGF competitions were held there: Andrii Kravets 2p won the European Championship and the team from France claimed the Pandanet European Team Championship. The 67th EGC will happen in Warsaw next summer, register now if you plan to participate: egc2025.pl

The other European Championships (number of participants in brackets):

• Youth (90): March 21st – 23rd in Hamburg, Germany; winners: Benoit Robichon 3d (U21), Yuze Xing 5d (U18) and Bartik Dach 2d (U12);
• Pair (20 pairs): 19th – 21st April in Dubrovnik, Croatia; winners: Milena Boclé 3d and Florent Labouret 5d from France;
• Student (10): 7th – 8th September in Novi Sad, Serbia; winner: Sinan Dzhepov 5d;
• Women’s (24): 14th – 15th September in Bratislava, Slovakia; winner: Li Ting 1p.

The 39th World Youth Championship was held on August 25th – 29th in Vatra Dornei, Romania. The winners were Kim Tae Heon 6d from South Korea (U18) and Zhang Yimiao 6d from China (U12).

The biggest independent tournaments in Europe in 2024 (number of participants in brackets):

• 51st Paris International Tournament (170): March 30th – April 1st, winner: Yaoling Yang 7d;
• 52nd Prague Tournament Old Hunter’s Cup (169): April 26th – 28th, winner: Kim Dohyup 7d;
• 6th TIGGRE – Ellie Cup (158): January 27th – 28th in Grenoble, France; winner: Kim Dohyup 7d;
• 4th China Town Weiqi Cup (156): October 12th – 13th in Warsaw, Poland; winner: Lee Minjin 8p.

The Grand Slam, the most prestigious European competition, unfortunately didn’t take place in 2024 and is unlikely to happen in 2025. In the September & October 2023 edition of our magazine we published an article celebrating ten years of cooperation between the EGF and CEGO – an organization that used to fund the professional system in Europe and the Grand Slam in particular. The contract between the EGF and CEGO ended at the beginning of 2024 and CEGO hasn’t yet agreed to sign a new long-term agreement. Nevertheless, CEGO continues to support the EGF and its professional system. For example, they sponsor the Professional Qualification Tournament and invite talented youth to study at the Ge Yuhong Academy in Quzhou.

As for the private projects that started in Europe in 2024, I would mention the long-awaited launch of the new polgote.com platform by Mateusz Surma 3p – an online go learning platform where students can find teachers and book lessons. Check it out!

European amateurs were invited to various events in Asia in 2024, such as:

• 44th World Amateur Championship: May 18th – 22nd in Tokyo, Japan; best result: Mero Csaba 6d, 6th place;
• 19th Korea Prime Minister Cup: September 20th – 26th in Taebaek, South Korea; best result: Valerii Krushelnytskyi 7d, 3rd place;
• 6th SENKO Cup World Go Women’s Championship: March 7th – 9th in Tokyo, Japan; Milena Boclé 3d, Barbara Knauf 3d and Dita Vasova 1d represented Europe in the amateur edition of this event and lost in the first round of the knockout tournament;
• 8th Annual World Collegiate Weiqi Championship: December 15th to 21st in Tokyo, Japan; Ashe Vázquez 7d, Erik Weigert 3d and Mihailo Jacimovic 3d took 8th, 14th and 15th place out of 16 participants, respectively;
• 2nd Quzhou International Friendly Children Amateur Weiqi Invitational Tournament: November 17th – 22nd in Quzhou, China; Europe was represented by youth teams from Romania, Ukraine and Germany, who finished 5th, 6th and 9th respectively.

The 9th Silk Road Tournament was held from November 22nd – 25th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. European professionals and amateurs ranked 1-dan or higher were invited to participate. Of the professionals only Mateusz Surma 3p attended this event. The best result among Europeans was demonstrated by Lukáš Podpěra 7d – 9th place.

The 7th European Professional Championship was held on March 20th – 23rd in Hamburg, Germany. The winner was Mateusz Surma 3p. This tournament hasn’t been held in real life since 2019 (Jena, Germany). The EGF found a new sponsor for the Pro Championship – the Tsinghua Weiqi Foundation, which provided a prize fund for this competition and sponsored the European team at the Chinese C League, members of which were selected based on the results of the Pro Championship in Hamburg.

The European team participated in the Chinese C League after a three-year interruption on May 31st – June 7th in Hangzhou. This time, the team lost six rounds and skipped one due to an odd number of participating teams. The members of the team were Mateusz Surma 3p, Andrii Kravets 1p, Stanisław Frejlak 1p and Tanguy Le Calvé 1p.

European professionals were invited to participate in several tournaments in the Far East:

• 15th Chunlan Cup: March 19th in Nanping, China; Jan Šimara 1p lost to Kyo Kagen 9p in the first round;
• 10th Ing Cup: April 20th, online preliminary; Mateusz Surma 3p lost in the first round to Xie Erhao 9p, Andrii Kravets 1p lost to Huang Mingyu 6p;
• 2nd Quzhou-Lanke Cup: April 24th in Quzhou, China; Mateusz Surma 3p lost to Gu Lingyi 7p, Stanisław Frejlak 1p lost to Choi Myeonghoon 9p in the first round;
• 1st Nanyang Cup: November 2nd in Chengdu, China; Andrii Kravets 2p lost to Gu Zihao 9p in the first round;
• 7th Wu Qingyuan Cup World Women's Weiqi Tournament: November 24th in Fuzhou, China; Li Ting 1p lost in the first round to Qin Siyue 2p.

From the 10th – 16th of February, two important events in the European professional go scene will happen in Vienna: the Professional Qualification Tournament where the EGF will certify its tenth professional and the Professional Championship that will again serve as a qualification for the Chinese C League.

It’s safe to say that 2024 was a successful year for the European go scene. The main challenges were and still are the war of Russia against Ukraine and a general lack of major sponsorship. Thanks to the work of enthusiasts and volunteers from the EGF and numerous national go organizations, we have all the events and opportunities mentioned above. The Journal sends special thanks to everyone who continues to develop the game of go in Europe!