European Go Congress 2007
Villach, Austria, July 14-28 2007
I did not attend this tournament, but to commemorate this biggest Go-event ever staged in Austria, I collected a few images from a picture gallery by Martin Chrz (Czechia) and one by the Austrian Go Federation. The official web-page, which contains, alas, no conclusive report, can be found at egc2007.goverband.at. Please click the pictures below to enlarge them.
The tournament was dominated by Korean players who took places 1-3. The title European Champion, given to the strongest player of European nationality, went once again to Russia: The year before it was won by Svetlana Shinkshina who studies Go/Baduk in Korea and is now 3D pro. Since Svetlana did not defend her title it was won by her younger brother Ilya Shikshin. This must have been most annoying for another Russian Ex-European champion, Alexandr Dinershteyn who lost the rank of the best European player by just a few SODOS points. All in all, most top players from Eastern Europe attended the tournament, while top players from Western Europe were surprisingly few. In spite of this, the tournament was quite popular among average players and hosted 634 registered players, most of them from Germany (169).
Players
Impressions
The tournament location: The Congress Centre in Villach.
Registration.
Go-Fans.
Live broadcasting of top board games.
Exhibition of Austrian Go History .
After the price giving.
VIPs at the farewell party: Kobayshi Chizuo, 5d pro, at that time Austrian resident, together with Li Ting and Rainer Stowasser, president of the Austrian Go Federation.
Pok, 14. Juli 2008