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 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 (Above) River Thames and the Hotel well as oriental culture, in honour of All the top board games were our Patron Saint. The trip to Windsor also fitted into the theme. broadcast live on IGS-PandaNet 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 (Above) Czechia v Germany 2 being broadcast broadcast on IGS-Pandanet. 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 (Above) Pair Go 2005 Attendees the first day went much as expected. After four rounds the Highest placed of the group on 3 leaders were the Czech pair of wins overnight was UK's Matthew Jana Hricova and Ondrej Silt and Cocke and Natasha Regan; they Germany's Lisa Ente and Benjamin won one more to be fifth. Close Teuber. 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 (Above) Germany v Russia on IGS-Pandanet 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: (Above) Pair Go Prizes 1. Lisa Ente / Benjamin Teuber (Germany) Players could select from pairs of 2. Manja Lindemeyer / Michael oriental wine bottle covers, tea Marz (Germany) cups and stick holders as prizes 3. Natalia Kovaleva / Timur and the winners got very nice Sankin (Russia) engraved glass trophies. In addition 4. Jana Hricova / Ondrej Silt all official pairs received a travel (Czechia) topping the group and accommodation grant thanks on 4 wins. 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. (Above) Triangle Winner Paul Blockley receives trophy from Tony Atkins Unfortunately 14, not 15, players Getting the fighting spirit prize was took part which meant that one Chuwen Teng, a young lady from game each round had to be one on Hitachi who learnt Go specially to one. Otherwise the draw was take part. 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 (Above) GoGoD seminar on Pair Go kyu Worcester) and second was After the third round a seminar was Jonathan Englefield (8 kyu High presented by T.Mark Hall and John Wycombe). Placed third for winning Fairbairn on Pair Go and Partner his first two games was Ed Go in general. They traced the Blockley (2 kyu Worcester). history of Partner Go and Pair Go back some thousand years and The main prizes were all triangular illustrated their talk with historic in some way. pictures and anecdotes. Using their computer software GoGoD (Games Runners-up who got go baseball of Go on Disc) they were able to caps were Xinyi Lu, Daniel Debski, show off some of the Partner and France Ellul and Nick Wedd. 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 (Above) Triangle game featuring Miss Teng all who helped and supported the event. and Mr Hirahara from Hitachi Results More photos at http://www.britgo.org/tournaments/2005/europairgo/gallery.html .