Mateusz Surma 3p wins CEGO Grand Slam 2023

The European Go scene was full of exciting events in 2023. Let’s recall the most important of them.

The Grand Prix Finale, concluding last year’s Grand Prix series, took place in Grenoble, France on 25–27 January. The winner was Stanislaw Frejlak 1p.

The 7th Professional Qualification Tournament consisted of two stages held in Brno, Czechia on 25–26 February and 10–12 March, respectively. Jan Simara beat Lukas Podpera in the final match and thus was certified a professional player by the EGF.

The 28th Youth Go Championship took place on 22–25 March in Ankara, Turkey and brought together 87 players from 11 countries. The winner in the U12 category was Alper Sulak 2d, U16 – Vsevolod Ovsiienko 5d, U20 – Denis Dobranis 5d.

The Women’s Championship took place in Strasbourg on 13–14 May. Li Ting 1p remained undefeated and thus was crowned the Champion.

The 6th Professional Championship took place online on 21-25 June and brought together eight European professional players. The winner was Mateusz Surma 2p who was also promoted to 3-dan professional after this victory.

The 65th European Go Congress (EGC) took place in Leipzig on 22 July–5 August and traditionally hosted the European Championship and the Pandanet European Team Championship, won by Andrii Kravets 1p and the Ukrainian Team, respectively. The biggest event of the EGC, Open European Championship, brought together almost 700 participants from more than 30 countries. The winner was Ryu Insu 7d.

The Pair Go Championship was held on 16–18 August in Leksand, Sweden and the winners were Manja Marz 4d and Johannes Obenaus 6d from Germany.

The Student Championship was held on 15–16 September in Timisoara, Romania. The Student Championship is usually one of the smallest EGF events and this time it brought together five participants who played out a round robin. The winner was Denis Dobranis 5d.

The 2023 Transatlantic Professional Go Team Championship was held online. The NAGF (North American Go Federation) team won the first two rounds on September 16th and 30th with a score of 3-0. The EGF team won the last round on October 7th with a score of 2-1, so the final score was 2-1 in favour of the American team.

The Grand Slam was organiSed in Prague on 19–22 October. Mateusz Surma 3p was victorious, repeating his success from 2019 in Berlin.

It was a bright and successful year for European Go. Let’s hope that the next year will bring us even more joy on the Go board and beyond!

Report by Artem