361points.com/blog

I missed both the European and US Go Congresses this year - I blame the vacation for that.
With only 2 rounds to go, the European Go Congress is dominated by Korean players.

The European Masters was dominated by Russian players: Alexandre Dinerchtein won, and Ilya Shiksin came out second.

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 28th) starts the US Go Congress.

I hope to plan my next year’s vacation(s) in a more Go-friendly manner…

The Ing Memorial 2007 European tournament is over: the winner is Fan Hui (2 dan pro from China, has been living in France for the last 7 years) with a perfect score:

Pl. Name                 Str Co. MMS   1    2    3    4    5    6   Pt  SODOS SOS
  1 Hui, Fan              7d CHN  6   14+  12+   4+   8+   2+   3+  6     23   23
  2 Taranu, Catalin       5d ROM  5   19+  13+  10+   5+   1-   6+  5     16   22
  3 Dinerstein, Alexandr  7d RUS  4   20+   4-  13+   7+  11+   1-  4     12   22
    Silt, Ondrej          6d CZE  4   16+   3+   1-   6-  13+  19+  4     12   22
  5 Pop, Cristian         6d ROM  4   21+   9+   8+   2-   6-  12+  4     12   21
  6 Juan, Guo             7d NED  4   24+  10-  12+   4+   5+   2-  4     12   20
  7 Surin, Dmitrij        6d RUS  4   13-  19+  16+   3-  15+  11+  4     11   18
  8 Shikshin, Ilya        6d RUS  4   23+  15+   5-   1-  17+  10+  4      9   19
  9 Kulkov, Andrej        6d RUS  4   17+   5-  18+  11-  21+  14+  4      8   15
 10 Mero, Csaba           6d HUN  3   18+   6+   2-  17+  14-   8-  3      8   20
 11 Groenen, Geert        6d NED  3   12-  14+  22+   9+   3-   7-  3      8   19
 12 Burzo, Cornel         6d ROM  3   11+   1-   6-  22+  18+   5-  3      6   20
 13 Dickhut, Franz-Josef  6d GER  3    7+   2-   3-  23+   4-  21+  3      6   19
    Soldan, Leszek        6d POL  3    1-  11-  23+  19+  10+   9-  3      6   19
 15 Bajenaru, Dragos      6d ROM  3   22+   8-  17-  20+   7-  18+  3      5   15
    Lazarev, Alexej       5d RUS  3    4-  20+   7-  18-  22+  17+  3      5   15
 17 Hora, Jan             5d CZE  2    9-  21+  15+  10-   8-  16-  2      4   18
 18 Teuber, Benjamin      6d GER  2   10-  24+   9-  16+  12-  15-  2      4   17
 19 Nijhuis, Emil         6d NED  2    2-   7-  24+  14-  20+   4-  2      3   19
 20 Corlan, Lucian        5d ROM  2    3-  16-  21+  15-  19-  23+  2      2   14
 21 Donzet, Frederic      5d FRA  1    5-  17-  20-  24+   9-  13-  1      1   16
 22 Bogackij, Dmitrij     6d UKR  1   15-  23+  11-  12-  16-  24-  1      1   14
    Fenech, Antoine       5d FRA  1    8-  22-  14-  13-  24+  20-  1      1   14
 24 Jacenko, Dmitrij      5d UKR  1    6-  18-  19-  21-  23-  22+  1      1   11

Second was Catalin Taranu, who only lost to Fan Hui. Then there is a large group of players with 4 points (including professionals Guo Juan and Alexander Dinerstein, and former insei Ondrej Silt and Cristian Pop).

The tournament page doesn’t have yet game records from the last rounds - I am especially looking forward to the game between Fan Hui and Catalin Taranu, which decided the first 2 places.

For those who don’t know yet: Fan Hui is the official trainer of the French Go Federation, and he also has a mailing list which you can subscribe to for free that delivers weekly Go problems to your email box. Check out this page.

A very strong invitational tournament has started yesterday in Europe: the Ing Memorial.

Among the 24 players, there are 4 professionals (Guo Juan, Catalin Taranu, Fan Hui  and Alexander Dinerstein) and 8 ex-insei (Cristian Pop, Dragos Bajenaru, Ondrej Silt, Csaba Mero, Bejamin Teuber, Emil Nijhuis, Dmitrij Bogatski and Leszek Soldan).

See all 24 pictures at this link.

Here is the tournament page, with links to the results and rounds so far (with game records and more pictures).

Two professionals already lost to ex-insei in the second round: Guo Juan lost to Mero Csaba and Alexander Dinerstein lost to Ondrej Silt.

I am sure there will be a lot of exciting games!