3rd European Pro Qualification 2016

The certification of European professional Go players goes into the third year. It is a cooperation with CEGO our main sponsor and it was only possible thanks to their initiative and generosity.

This year the qualification is organized by the Karlsregion Go Club in the beautiful bathing resort Baden Baden in southern Germany.

The Qualification Tournament

Date : Friday to Sunday, March 4-6, 2016
Place : Baden Baden, HELIOPARK Bad Hotel zum Hirsch: webpage, map
Sponsors: This tournament is supported by CEGO and the Ge Yuhong Go Academy, Hotel Heliopark and Karlsregion Go Club.
Side Tournament Webpage : International Go Tournament of Baden-Baden.

The Pairings


The Brackets


Time Table

Friday, 4th March: Opening 9:15 1. round 9:30 2. round 16:00
Saturday, 5th March: 3. round 9:30 4. round 16:00
Sunday, 6th March: 5. round 9:00 6. round 15:00

Board 1 and 2 will be transmitted on KGS, userids: EGFPro1, EGFPro2, EGFPro3 and EGFPro4.

Participating Players

Name : Andrij Kravets
Nationality : Ukraine
EGF Rank : 6D
1999 - started to play
2002 - 1st place, Youth Go Championship in category under 12, Prague
(Czech Republic)
2006 - Become 4 dan
2008 - Become 5 dan
2008 - Represent Ukraine in 1st World Mind Sports, Beijing (China)
2010 - 2nd place in Ukrainian Championship (High League), Kyiv(Ukraine)
2011, 2012, 2013 - third place in the European Team championship
2012 - Become 6 dan
2012 - 3rd place in 5th Shusaku Cup, Targu Mures (Romania)
2012 - 3rd place in European Iwamoto Memorial, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2012 - 1st place In Ukrainian Championship (High League), Kyiv(Ukraine)
Name : Lukáš Podpera
Nationality : Czechia
EGF Rank : 6D
My name is Lukas Podpera, I'm 21 years old and I'm currently studying Chinese. I learned Go from my father at the age of 7. Soon after that, Go became the main part of my life. Except Go I also do cycling or playing football.
I got promoted to 6-dan in 2013. I have been studying Go few times in Asia. My biggest experience was half a year stay in Beijing in 2014/2015, which could happen thanks to CEGO and Ge Yuhong Go Academy. Still I'm aiming for my dream to become a pro.
My best results:
Czech Go Baron 2015
Czech Champion 2013
2nd places on Brno International Tournament 2013 and 2015.
8th place on European Championship 2014.
European Youth Champion U20 2012 and 2014
European Team Chmapion 2013
6th place on World Amateur Championship 2014
6th place on World Youth Championship 2010
 
Name : Artem Kachanovskyi
Nationality : Ukraine
EGF Rank : 7D
My name is Artem Kachanovskyi, I live in Kyiv, Ukraine. In February 2015 I finished my studying in university, so now I am finally free. I started to play Go when I was 6 or 7, I think. I studied Go mostly by myself. Until I was 17, I think, I was dreaming to become pro. I read many books that were describing not only the games, but how professionals think and some details of their living. That was inspiring. From some moment I stopped feeling like it's necessary to become pro. I just play Go. As the university is behind now, I'll have more free time. I work as a programmer, so it's not so easy to play online each day, after staring almost all the day into a monitor. I think I'll pay more attention to reviewing pro games on a board, maybe playing online on weekends.
Name : Thomas Debarre
Nationality : France
EGF Rank : 6D
Hi, I'm Thomas Debarre, I live in Paris. I started playing go when I was 7 : my father had some friends who liked to play together and since I was very found of games, they taught me how to play go. A few months later, my father discovered he had a colleague who played go, so his son and I started going to the Strasbourg go club, which was great for kids like me since it was in a school and not in a bar. After that, I have improved rather steadily up to my current level, which I have reached in 2010. Because of my studies (I'm a first year student in an engineering school), I've almost stopped playing tournaments these last two years, but I'm starting to play a little more this year.
Achievements :
French champion 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
4th place at European championship 2012, 2013
4th place at WAGC 2011
 
Name : Viktor Lin
Nationality : Austria
EGF Rank : 6D
I am a 24 years old student living in Vienna. I speak Austrian German, Austrian English and Taiwanese Mandarin, and I'm currently learning French.
When I was around 12 years old, I found the Manga Hikaru no Go. My father happened to know this game, so he taught me Go, with the same board we used to play Gomoku with.
Today I am part of the Austrian Go Federation team as their general secretary and also a KGS junior admin. Since 2014 I'm involved in the creation and organisation of the EGF Academy
Notable achievements: Austrian champion 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013, 2014 and 2015
Name : Dmitry Surin
Nationality : Russia
EGF Rank : 6D
Russian National Go Championship 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012 - 1st place.
Russian Pair Go Championship 2007, 2008, 2009, 2015 - 1st place.
Russian Team Go Championship 2006 - 1st place.
European Go Championship 1999, 2000 - 3rd place.
European Team Go Championship 2005, 2007 - 1st place.
Pandanet Go European Team Championship 2011, 2012, 2014 – 1st place
European Pair Go Championship 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - 1st place.
 
Name : Cornel Burzo
Nationality : Romania
EGF Rank : 6D
My name is Gheorghe Cornel Burzo and I was born may 3rd 1980 in Bistrita, a small town located in the north of Romania.
I came across the game of Go for the first time at age of 10 when my grandfather bought a Go game set for me and my 2 brothers as a X-mas present but we couldn't really understand the rules from the flyer inside the box so I found the game boring and quit after trying a few 9x9 games..
Few years later I moved with my family in a bigger city Baia Mare also in the north of Romania and in 1993-1994 I started to join a local Go club which was ran by a 2kyu physics teacher Florin Berciu and once I got to learn the rules correctly I found the game fascinating and addictive and since then I took part in 220 go tournaments worldwide since 1996. You can check my player stats here.
Among the numerous tourneys played in Europe, Usa and Asia I can mention a few notable results such as winning the National Championship in Romania in 2004, 2011, 3rd and 4th place in the European Championship in 2003, 2010 respectively and 5th place in the World Championship in 2008.
As a recent tourney success I won the British Go Congress in march 2014.
I got promoted to 6dan player egf in 2003 and besides playing many tournaments I've been very active as an online player on servers like IGS, KGS, since 2000 when I also started to teach online which is pretty much my main job. I am also studying pro games and playing often on tygembaduk and wbaduk servers.
My hobbies are tennis, ski and poker !
Name : Dragos Bajenaru
Nationality : Romania
EGF Rank : 6D
I am 36 years old, playing go since age 13.
Have been insei for a year in Tokyo between 1997-1998 with Kobayashi Chizu as teacher.
Working as a computer programmer for the past 10 years.
My biggest achievements by far are my two kids - Stefania and Victor.
In the future I am looking to improve my Go and to enjoy playing more tournaments.
 
Name : Csaba Mero
Nationality : Hungary
EGF Rank : 6D
Sometimes I wonder, why I still play go. I lost all my battles, and still keep on trying. I know I am not going to be world champion and I don't really have any special talent for go. I've passed my peak years ago. And I am still trying. Insane, isn't it?
Started playing go in 1993.
Studied as an insei in Japan 1999-2001. Student of Chizu Kobayashi.
Working as a programmer/statistician.
Name : Lukas Krämer
Nationality : Germany
EGF Rank : 6D
I am a 23 years old student living in Bonn. I speak German, English, a little French, studying Mandarin at university, and I'm studying Japanese by myself.
When I was around 14 years old I read the Manga Hikaru no Go. Later I found a way to play on a Manga website and played a game against the that time German Champion Christoph Gerlach. Eventhough I lost I was motivated to try again as I learned something. Since that time I played on KGS.
My major achievements are propably winning the German youth Champion title from 2008-2010, the German Championship from 2013-2015, and becoming 8th place at the EGC 2015. Also a great thanks to CEGO who let me take part in their Go training from 15.09. until 28.02.14 in Beijing. I am convinced that it in long term helped me a great deal. Also I noticed that I just played my 100th tournament (from these listed in the EGD) so far. I always had and still have the aspiration to become pro, but no matter what happens in this tournament (with great respect to my many strong rivals) I am aiming to become stronger in future and continue my life with Go.
 
Name : Grigorii Fionin
Nationality : Russia
EGF Rank : 6D
My name is Grigorii Fionin. I was born on 13th February 1999 and live in Saint-Petersburg. Became interested in Go from 5, learned and played in local club Go-Dokan and with Chinese tutor Yilun Yang 7pro. After getting first good results on tournaments increased interest in developing in Go. My best achievements are: 1st place in Championship of Russia (u16) 2014, 2nd place in European Youth Go Championship (u16) 2014, 1st place in the Japan Ambassador Cup in Russia, 1st place in championship of Saint-Petersburg 2015.
Name : Juri Kuronen
Nationality : Finland
EGF Rank : 6D
I came to learn go by chance in 2004, at the age of 14. Something about the game captivated me and I kept playing, at first only in the internet, and I reached shodan in a bit over a year. Needless to say, I've been hooked ever since! I was promoted to 5 dan in 2010 and 6 dan in 2013.
I am studying statistics at the University of Helsinki. On the side I run a go-teaching program together with my good friends Antti Törmänen and Su Yang.
I think the EGF-CEGO cooperation is a great initiative, and I hope it will help go prosper in Europe!
 
Name : Jan Hora
Nationality : Czechia
EGF Rank : 6D
I got to know go at the age of 14, while visiting my cousine, and started to play from that moment on. I have created a lot of friends among go players, have visited more than 200 hundreds of go events, most of them being czech local tournaments. For me, go is not a game, but more likely an activity, that evolves a lot of different human abilities, that satisfies the innate craving for the beauty and that brings a huge ammount of fun.
Hobbies:
Tennis, cycling, poetry, literature, ancient greek culture
Go Awards:
European Team Champion 2013
Semifinalist of 18th Samsung Cup Qualification 2013
European Pair Go 2nd place 2013, 2012, 2011
European representative at Sport Accord Mind Games 2012
14th at World Amateur Go Championship 2008
Czech Go Champion 2007
European Student Champion 2005
9th at World Youth Go Championship 1999
Name : Zhao Pei
Nationality : Germany
EGF Rank : 6D
I started Go at the age of 8 and became Chinese Female Youth Champion at 11 unexpectedly. When I left for Germany at 13, I stopped my Go carrier but started enjoy a lot to play Go in Europe. I majored then in Business administration in the university and worked several years in China, Japan and Germany, until finally moved to France and stayed home with our two daughters. I hope my kids would like to play go so that we can enjoy travelling to tournaments in the future, and I am considering teaching Go at school for young kids as part of my future project.
 
Name : Tanguy Le Calvé
Nationality : France
EGF Rank : 6D
I started go at the age of 12, after reading the first tome of hikaru no go, I figured out I had a goban in my room for all that time without knowing what it was...I learnt the rules on internet and played a lot there, before going to the go club of my city, Nantes.
I participated to a lot of tournament in France, and more recently in Europe.

Best achivements : 2nd at french championship 2012, 1st ex aequo at Amsterdam tournament 2015, 2nd Wien 2015, 5 times youth french champion
Name : Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia
Nationality : France
EGF Rank : 6D
Hello, I'm Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia, but you can call me ben0, I'm 23, I started to play go when I was 13. Quite surprisingly, my little town of Concarneau in Brittany had a club, then I became addicted, thanks to KGS too.
I never really got any impressive results in tournament but I enjoy playing top tournaments like EGC or others main european tournaments.
I became 6d in 2014, this is my first time trying the Pro qualification so I'll see what I can do !

Rules & Constitution

In the New Professionals in Europe – the qualification tournament you can find the setup of the qualification with more detailes about the selection criteria and the mode and rules of the qualification tournament. In the EGF Professional Go System Constitution you find all the details about the rights and duties of the new European go professionals. 

Photos

Baden Baden 2016 thanks to Harry van der Krogt