SEYGO Tour

Saijo European Youth GO Tour is a new, long-term project, which focuses on Go events for European youth: players in age groups under 12 and under 18 years old. The project starts from the premise that the European Go community is lacking go tournaments suitable for children. As a consequence, the game of Go is losing momentum in many European countries, because there are not enough new players to support the necessary Go infrastructure. Through a series of tournaments with a high-level organization, the project aims at rising both the number of beginners playing Go and the number of strong players competing for trophies and titles. Both groups will profit from traveling and cultural exchange, which is a great motivating factor for youth in the modern world. Additional content during each event is planned: recreational activities, lessons from European professional players, workshops for go instructors and parents. The Point System and the Tournament System are described on separate pages, as well as a unique Prize System.

Significance of the name Saijo

Saijo Sensei is a famous Japanese professional player that taught Go at the European Go Congress and other European events over the span of a decade. His light personality and unique teaching method made him extremely popular and loved. Saijo is the teacher of Catalin Taranu, 5 dan professional player, whom he helped to study Go in Japan and become the first European player that was granted the title of professional player by the Nihon Ki-in (Japanese Association of professional Go players). We choose Saijo as the name of our project because he is the symbol of the ultimate teacher. Recently, Saijo Sensei Obituary was published on the EGF page.

Goals of the Project

For the year 2022, the SEYGO Tour project has the following goals:

• Define the international team of organizers, identify skills, set tasks and deadlines,
• Organize five events of the SEYGO Tour: three online events + two live events during EGC in Romania (Vatra Dornei), and in Croatia (Adriatic Sea-side resort Zaostrog). Despite the challenges created by the novelty of the project and possible lack of resources, we aim at excellent organization quality through the efforts of the international team of volunteers.
• Start developing a centralized database of useful information on the SEYGO Tour project website,
• Start developing a communication network between existing Go teachers in Europe, promote existing working models,

At each tour event there will be a beginner tournament. This means a total expectation of  100 new players for the year 2022.

International Team

The project leader Catalin Taranu, 5p, wrote the concept with all core ideas. Cristian Cobeli from Vatra Dornei, Romania, developed the tournament and points system. Damir Medak from Croatia created maps and suggested the prize system. Flavien Aubelle from Switzerland made the SWOT analysis and helped a lot to complete the project document.

We are thankful to many organizers and supporters from Europe and Asia who recognized the importance of the SEYGO Tour idea. This community is going to grow with time and a long list will be published as a separate document.

Contact SEYGO Tour

If you have any suggestions or comments, or you simply want to be a part of the SEYGO Tour Team, please send an e-mail to [email protected].