Report (PDF 1.36MB) - European Go Federation

European Pair
Go
Championships
23/04/05-24/04/05
A total of 24 pairs from 12 countries
and including 12 pairs from the UK
took part in the 2005 European Pair
Go Championships held at the
modern headquarters of Hitachi
Europe in Maidenhead, Berkshire
UK. In addition the first Triangle
Tournament was held and there
was also a GoGoD seminar and
barn dance and trip to Windsor.
(above) Hitachi Europe’s Headquarters
(Above) River Thames and the Hotel
All the top board games were
broadcast live on IGS-PandaNet
Accommodation was provided at
the Thames Hotel picturesquely
located on the banks of England’s
great river the Thames. The
weekend was St George’s Day
weekend, so the activities were a
celebration of English culture, as
well as oriental culture, in honour of
our Patron Saint. The trip to
Windsor also fitted into the theme.
http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/
and video streamed (available at
http://www.britgo.org/tournaments/
2005/europairgo/live.html )
Typical audience of the games on
IGS-PandaNet was 50 people so
proving that Pair Go is very popular
to watch, especially when it is
broadcast on IGS-Pandanet.
(Above) Czechia v Germany 2 being broadcast
on IGS-Pandanet and on video stream
The tournament ran very well, with
some late starts caused by delays
on checking out from the hotel and
the taking of the group picture. The
weather was mostly sunny so it
was possible to enjoy the walk from
the hotel to the venue. Including
the organisers and Triangle players
some 70 people were present.
The results of the four rounds on
the first day went much as
expected. After four rounds the
leaders were the Czech pair of
Jana Hricova and Ondrej Silt and
Germany's Lisa Ente and Benjamin
Teuber.
(Above) Germany v Russia on IGS-Pandanet
(Above) Pair Go 2005 Attendees
Highest placed of the group on 3
wins overnight was UK's Matthew
Cocke and Natasha Regan; they
won one more to be fifth. Close
behind were another UK Pair:
Kirsty Healey and Matthew
Macfadyen in sixth.
Winners of the handicap section by
close tie break were UK's Maria
Tabor and Paul Tabor. Nudged into
second were Italy's Alessandra
Zarcone and Davide Minieri. The
other prize in this section went to
Portugal's father and daughter pair,
Ines Teles de Menezes and Jose
Teles de Menezes.
The Germans won their clash in
round 5 only to lose to the second
German pair Manja Lindemeyer
and Michael Marz in the last round.
Also in the last round Czechia lost
to the young Russians Natalia
Kovaleva and Timur Sankin. So
both Germany pairs and Russia
ended on 5 wins.
The tie was split by sos / sodos:
1. Lisa Ente / Benjamin Teuber
(Germany)
2. Manja Lindemeyer / Michael
Marz (Germany)
3. Natalia Kovaleva / Timur
Sankin (Russia)
4. Jana Hricova / Ondrej Silt
(Czechia) topping the group
on 4 wins.
(Above) Pair Go Prizes
Players could select from pairs of
oriental wine bottle covers, tea
cups and stick holders as prizes
and the winners got very nice
engraved glass trophies. In addition
all official pairs received a travel
and accommodation grant thanks
to sponsorship of IGS-PandaNet.
The first ever Triangle Tournament
(2 plays 1) was held alongside the
European Pair Go Championships.
The aim was to give those who
could not play in the Pair Go
Championships a chance to see
the Pair Go, experience some of
the enjoyment of playing with a
partner and also hear about the
history of Partner Go.
Unfortunately 14, not 15, players
took part which meant that one
game each round had to be one on
one. Otherwise the draw was
arranged so that every one got to
play once on their own against a
pair and twice with a partner
against a single. In each game they
would find themselves paired with
or playing against different people.
Nobody won all three games, so
the lowest graded player winning
two in a pair was judged the
winner. This was Paul Blockley (13
kyu Worcester) and second was
Jonathan Englefield (8 kyu High
Wycombe). Placed third for winning
his first two games was Ed
Blockley (2 kyu Worcester).
The main prizes were all triangular
in some way.
Runners-up who got go baseball
caps were Xinyi Lu, Daniel Debski,
France Ellul and Nick Wedd.
(Above) Triangle game featuring Miss Teng
and Mr Hirahara from Hitachi
(Above) Triangle Winner Paul Blockley
receives trophy from Tony Atkins
Getting the fighting spirit prize was
Chuwen Teng, a young lady from
Hitachi who learnt Go specially to
take part.
(Above) GoGoD seminar on Pair Go
After the third round a seminar was
presented by T.Mark Hall and John
Fairbairn on Pair Go and Partner
Go in general. They traced the
history of Partner Go and Pair Go
back some thousand years and
illustrated their talk with historic
pictures and anecdotes. Using their
computer software GoGoD (Games
of Go on Disc) they were able to
show off some of the Partner and
Pair Go game records contained in
their vast database.
Our thanks go to
IGS-PandaNet, Hitachi Europe ,
Forbidden Technologies,
British Go Association,
European Go Federation,
Organisers (Tony Atkins,
Anna Griffiths and Brian Brunswick) and
all who helped and supported the event.
Results
More photos at http://www.britgo.org/tournaments/2005/europairgo/gallery.html