The 13th European Go Congress

03.08.1969-16.08.1969, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

The 13th Congress was held in Ljubljana. Present was Edward Lasker (author of 'Go and Gomoku', the man who was largely responsible for bringing Go to the USA, aside from Go he was a well known name in chess and is probably responsible for the saying, that if there is extra terrestial life, they surely will play Go). At the opening ceremony he gave a speech about the beginning of his Go career (1905).

About 120 participants from ten countries played several tournaments. In the most important event, the European Championship, ten players participated. Already in round three, Manfred Wimmer had taken the lead. He increased his lead to the extent that he could afford to lose his last round game against Henk de Vries. He finished first with a mere half point lead over Jürgen Mattern.

The Masters Tournament was won by Joze Intihar (Yug). Rob van Zanten (Nld) and Oskar Eberhard (Ger) shared the second place. In the second Masters Tournament Bojan Rosj (Yug) finished first.

The results of Rebattu and De Vries in the European Championship meant that The Netherlands would win the country ranking with 62.5 percent, Germany got 61.8 percent. Austria took third and Yugoslavia fourth.

In all the other events the Yugaslavs proved to be very successful. Benkovic won the Zone Tournament and Golja the second Zone. Mutabzija won the general handicap tournament.

A fair share of the smooth running congress was because of the excellent functioning of the tournament referee, A.P.H. Schilp, former president of the Dutch Go Association. New was the mass attention of the media. All of the papers reported daily, the radio summarized the highlights of each day, and also television broadcast several reports about the congress. Also, throughout the town, banners and posters were hung and in two of the main shops the complete window display was dedicated to Go.

Championship Group

                             W  M  M  R  V  E  K  S  G  P   Pt 
 1 Manfred Wimmer       Aut  X  1  1  1  0  1  1  1  1  1   8  
 2 Jurgen Mattern       Ger  0  X  1  1  1  1  1  1  =  1   7.5
 3 Zoran Mutabzija      Yug  0  0  X  =  1  =  1  1  1  1   6  
 4 Max Rebattu          Nld  0  0  =  X  1  0  1  1  1  1   5.5
 5 Henk de Vries        Nld  1  0  0  0  X  1  1  1  =  1   5.5
 6 Eduart Ekart         Yug  0  0  =  1  0  X  0  1  1  1   4.5
 7 Michael Katscher     Ger  0  0  0  0  0  1  X  0  1  1   3  
 8 Ernst Skrob          Aut  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  X  1  1   3  
 9 Tony Goddard         Gbr  0  =  0  0  =  0  0  0  X  1   2  
10 Primoz Pecenko       Yug  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  X   0  

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