Group photo of the European Youth Go Team Championship in Prague, March 2022

In the year that has just concluded, European Go players finally had a chance to attend numerous face-to-face tournaments after a long break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Youth Championship – the biggest event after the European Go Congress (EGC) – took place in March in Prague. The winners were: U20 – Arved Pittner 5d, U16 – Vsevolod Ovsiienko 4d, U12 – Bende Barcza 3k.

After three years of break, the main event of the European Go scene, the EGC, took place in Vatra Dornei, Romania. Traditionally, the European Championship and the Pandanet European Team Championship were held as parts of this event, and the winners were Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 7d and the team of Ukraine, respectively. Besides claiming his first European Championship, Benjamin also won the European Pair Go Championship, held in October in Strasbourg, together with Ariane Ougier 4d.

Rita Pocsai 5d won the Women’s Championship in September in Budapest, and the Student Championship was claimed by Martin Ruzicka 4d the same month.

The year concluded with Jonas Welticke 6d winning the Grand Slam, the most prestigious European tournament, in Niš in December.

Let’s hope that the coming year will be as bright for the European Go scene as the passed one!

Report by Artem