TIGGRE – Ellie Cup 2025: A first time at Lycée Vaucanson!

New venue, new format, new lighting… Let’s take a look back at our Grenoble international tournament held on January 25-26 at the Lycée Vaucanson.

This year, we decided to use the Lycée Vaucanson to replace the WTC, which had been hosting the TIGGRE for several years. After preparing a few hundred sandwiches and muffins, and setting up the 4 large game rooms, we were ready to welcome the 150 players who would take part in the tournament!

Anecdotally, the Lycée Vaucanson’s open house was taking place right next door, and a tempting-smelling crêpe stand meant that more than one player found themselves in the middle of high-school students deciding on their professional future… Fortunately, with a few more signposts, all the players were able to reach the main hall for the opening ceremony.

We also had a number of stands on site, which players could enjoy between rounds. These included the ever-popular Jeux du Monde, which has supported the club for many years, Camille’s Stoned on the Goban, In-seong and his Trouble Master, and Lisa, who exhibited paintings of Go games for the first time!

As for the tournament, we changed the format this year, with 4 rounds instead of 5. This allowed us to have a much more relaxed schedule on Saturday, and was much appreciated overall. For the Ellie Cup (the TIGGRE’s top group), we were able to make a cup between the 16 best players, ending in a beautiful final between… (see below)

We were also pleased to welcome, as in previous years, two excellent teachers: In-seong Hwang and Christopher Annachachibi. They were able to comment on the players’ games throughout the weekend, and showed their seriousness by continuing even in the dark…

But back to the tournament… After a first round that went perfectly (draw almost on time, clocks almost all functional, almost all players registered in the draw) we were able to launch the second round at almost 5pm. As you can imagine, apart from a few blitzers, all the players were fully concentrated on their chuban at 6.30 p.m., when all the lights in the school went out! This was a measure to avoid wasting electricity, which had not been deactivated. While some players finished their games by telephone light, others waited patiently in the corridor, while panicked organizers ran around. Fortunately, the incident only lasted half an hour, and the games were finished in good conditions.

To relax after this busy day, all the players met up on Saturday evening at La Tanière au coin du jeu. This is a games bar set up by two players from Grenoble Go club, Loïc Lefebvre and Guillaume Ghyselen. Between the tapas, fries, go games, coinches and hundreds of other games available, the bar broke attendance records that evening!

On Sunday morning, back in a well-lit high school, we had the third round, featuring the semi-finals of the Ellie Cup, commentated live by In-seong! The matchups were Oh Chi-Min vs Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia and Stanisław Frejlak vs Yang Yaoling. After two highly contested games, Oh Chi-Min and Yang Yaoling qualified for the final, while Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia and Stanisław Frejlak would face off for third place.

In the afternoon, we also organized the Tiggrou, a mini-tournament for children. This year, we had five participants, and it was Ziyan Huang, from Nicolas Chorier School, who won the tournament with an impressive 11 victories out of 11 games! A big thank you to Augustin for taking care of all the organization!

Finally, after a spectacular final, the tournament concluded with Oh Chi-Min’s victory! Returning to the Tiggre after a few years of absence, he proved that he hadn’t lost his edge! Congratulations to him! In second place, we have Yang Yaoling, followed by Stanisław Frejlak (3rd), who defeated Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia (4th) in the third-place playoff..

To conclude, here are the photos from the award ceremony

Finally, a huuuuge thank you to our amazing team of volunteers who made this event possible!

A big thank you as well to Matthieu Aveaux for all the photos! The full album is available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/f6Vb8N9DPmfiJKBx5

See you next year!

You can find all the games below, along with the final standings.

Round 1

Rémi Campagnie 6d vs Alexander Eerbeek 5d: https://online-go.com/review/1403237
Denis Karadaban 6d vs Florent Labouret 6d: https://online-go.com/review/1403239

Round 2

Oh Chi-min 8d vs Denis Karadaban 6d: https://online-go.com/review/1403361
Rémi Campagnie 6d vs Yang Yaoling 7d: https://online-go.com/review/1403362

Round 3

Oh Chi-min 8d vs Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 7d: https://online-go.com/review/1403732
Stanisław Frejlak 1p vs Yang Yaoling 7d: https://online-go.com/review/1403726

Round 4

Yang Yaoling 7d vs Oh Chi-min 8d: https://online-go.com/review/1403827
Stanisław Frejlak 1p vs Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 7d: https://online-go.com/review/1403831

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Written by Warren AIM, 4d French Go player president of the Grenoble Go Club and main organiser of the TIGGRE.