Federazione Svizzera di 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 !

This weekend on  April 20th-21st, the Lausanne/La Tour-de-Peilz club held its annual tournament, with the beautiful castle of La Tour-de-Peilz and its Swiss Museum of Games as a setting, on the banks of Lake Geneva.

35 enthusiasts gathered to compete on the Goban, young or old, beginner or experienced, Swiss for the most part but also French, German, Dutch, Ukrainian, Chinese... we can confidently say that Swiss Go is back !

The organization by Rick Wertenbroek and Jérémy Toutain was well managed, and the atmosphere was particularly good, despite the rain showers and even the hail.

Two new features this year: first, we had the honor of welcoming for the first time Yuri Pliushch 5d, an experienced Go instructor, some of whose students have become professional players. Then, we experimented for the first time in Switzerland with the Fischer time control, which is becoming more and more popular in European tournaments, with 45 minutes base time and 15 seconds of increment per move.

In the end, French amateur Champion Thomas Debarre 7d won the event with 5 victories, followed by Rodolphe Azouvy 2d and Emil Nijhuis 6d.

Special mentions as well to Ludovic Ceresa 14k, Oliver Torres 18k and Yvan Pache 25k for their very first participation in a tournament.

We look forward to seeing you again next year !

The results

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.