Fédération Suisse de Go

The Swiss Go Championship 2024 took place on September 14th-15th in Brugg-Windisch, hosted by the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweitz (FHNW). It was organized by Hanspeter Schmid, who is a professor there, with the help of the Go team from the FHNW Sports program, as well as the Zürich and La Tour-de-Peilz Go clubs.

This year, we had the pleasure to welcome as a teacher Mateusz Surma 3p from Poland, a top European professional player, and author of several books. Mateusz spent the weekend reviewing the participants’ games, and we gladly thank him for his teachings.

Liu Zhentao 5d from China won the tournament, with a sweeping 5 wins and 0 loss. The 2024 Swiss Champion is Frederic Schlattner 2d, who finished second with 4 wins. Third place is Flavien Aubelle 3d with 3 wins. The tournament also attracted many beginners, honorable mentions to Andre Emmeneger, Pascal Risold, Wolfgang Weck, Simon Fluehler, Adrian Grana Rodrigues, Peter Ehrensberger, Timeo Joslin, Daniel Damaskinos and Boyan Doytchinov for their very first participation in a tournament.

Finally, the general assembly of the Swiss Federation took place on Saturday evening, the first one since 2019. Encouraging decisions were made to further develop Go in Switzerland.

europeangodatabase.eu/EGD/Tournament_Card.php?&key=T240914C

From September 20th to 26th, the 19th Korea Prime Minister Cup (KPMC) was taking place in Taebaek, South Korea. The KPMC, organized by the Korea Baduk Association, is one of the most important annual events for amateur Go in the world, along with the World Amateur Go Championship. A total of 60 players from all five continents gathered to represent their country in a 7 rounds tournament. The event also included a Pair Go tournament.

This year, the Swiss representative was James Nguyen 1 dan, from the Lausanne Go club. In the main tournament, James managed to end in 29th place, with a score of 4 wins, including upsets against a 2 dan and a 3 dan.

Moreover, in the Pair Go side-tournament, James teamed up with Chung Chen-En 7 dan from Taiwan. The pair ended up winning all 4 of their games, and thus became Champions of the KPMC Pair Go tournament.

Congratulations to James Nguyen for his outstanding performance !

En ce weekend du 20-21 avril, le club de Lausanne/La Tour-de-Peilz tenait son tournoi annuel, avec pour cadre le magnifique château de La Tour-de-Peilz et son Musée Suisse du

Jeu, au bord du Léman.

35 passionnés se sont réunis pour en découdre sur le Goban, jeunes ou âgés, débutants ou expérimentés, Suisses pour la plupart mais aussi des Français, Allemands, Néerlandais, Ukrainiens, Chinois... autant dire que le Go suisse revient en force !

L'organisation par Rick Wertenbroek et Jérémy Toutain était rondement menée, et l'ambiance particulièrement bonne, malgré les averses et même la grêle.

Deux nouveautés cette année : d'abord, nous avions l'honneur de recevoir pour la première fois Yuri Pliushch 5d, instructeur de Go expérimenté, dont certains élèves sont devenus joueurs professionnels. Ensuite, nous expérimentions pour la première fois en Suisse la cadence Fischer, qui devient de plus en plus populaire en tournois européens, avec 45 minutes de temps de base et 15 secondes d'incrément par coups.

C’est finalement le Champion de France amateur Thomas Debarre 7d qui s’impose avec 5 victoires, suivit de Rodolphe Azouvy 2d et Emil Nijhuis 6d.

Mentions spéciales aussi à Ludovic Ceresa 14k, Oliver Torres 18k et Yvan Pache 25k pour leur toute première participation à un tournoi.

Au plaisir de vous revoir l’année prochaine !

Les résultats

It is with deep sorrow that the swiss go federation learnt of the passing of Alan Held. He was one of the players which truely spread the game, not only in Switzerland where he was president of the federation for several years but throughout Europe where he was secretary / president of the European Go Federation from 1988 to 1997.

In September, Brian Kleiner represented Switzerland in the 17th Korea Prime Minister Cup (KPMC), in Gwangju. There were players from 53 countries present, with 6 rounds over three days of play. The organisation from the hosts was excellent from start to finish, the late summer weather was ideal, and a good spirit reigned throughout. The long bus rides were rewarded with attractive views of the country-side, explanations from the guides, and several memorable visits – first to a beautiful bamboo forest park, and then to a Baduk (Go) factory, museum, and shop for souvenirs. Equally memorable was the excellent Korean cuisine, for carnivores and vegetarians alike.

The devotion of the Korean people to Baduk was on display everywhere, from the reception and closing events, to the round-the-clock Baduk television stations. There were many hard-fought games at the tournament, with the best final results from the strong Korean 7 -dan player – an excellent and happy reward for the generous hosts! As for Brian, his performance was not stellar, but not abysmal either (3/6 wins). After the event, each player was treated to a personal drawing made by the visiting French artist Zoé Constans.