• 1st Jan. 2020 Correspondence Championship begins (last minutes entries still open).
• 25th–26th Jan, Ballsbridge Hotel, D4. Top 8 Tournament (entries are now closed).
• 28th Feb–1st Mar. Irish Go Congress 2020 (Dublin, details, register)

Weekly Meetings (last update 28 October 2019)

Cork — Tuesday 20:30, in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral Hall
Galway — Tuesday 20:00, in the Black Gate
Dublin — Wednesday, 19:00 in Toners
Online — Thursday, 20:00-22:00 on Discord

Matei Garcia emerged triumphant in the final game of the Championship series against James Hutchinson, taking his first Irish title.

Playing as white, Matei established the larger moyo in the opening and used James’s invasion to solidify his gains. When Matei countered with his own invasion, James needed to kill to balance the game but was unable to prevent the invading stones from gaining life, and eventually resigned the game.

Matei will defend his newly-won title in the Top 8 at the end of January.

Ireland remain top of Division C in the Pandanet Go European Team Championships, after drawing last night’s match against second-placed Slovakia. Philippe was the sacrificial lamb, losing on board 1 against Pavol Lisy 2p, but on the lower boards James and Kevin secured solid wins to force a draw.

The next match will take place in the new year, on January 28th, against Slovenia,

Matei Garcia won the second game in the 2019 National Championship series, beating James Hutchinson by 6.5pts and forcing a third game to settle the title. The final game is provisionally scheduled for December 14th.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are more than pleased to announce that the Irish go Congress will be back once again in 2020, hopefully even bigger and better than last time!.
To commemorate that 2020 is a leap year, what better date to have the Congress on than the 29th of February?, so save the date for such a momentous occasion!!

Please visit the 2020 Irish Go Congress page for more information or click here to get to the registration form!

James won the first game against Matei in the 2019 Championship series on KGS yesterday.

The second match is provisionally scheduled for 3pm, Saturday November 16th in the Ireland room on KGS.

The dust has barely settled on Philippe’s victory in the 2019 championship, but I’m going to open entries for the 2020 Correspondence Championship anyway.

In a possibly foolhardy attempt at innovation, I’m going to hold the 2020 tournament on OGS, partly because it’s easy to set tournaments up there, partly because it has a handy system of conditional moves that speeds correspondence games up a little.

As usual, the format will be a round-robin. In the event that I get a lot of entries (10+) I will break them up into divisions by EGF rating. Time limits will be Fischer time of 14 days + 1 day per move.

The championship is open to anyone who is Irish, has ever lived in Ireland, is married or otherwise related to someone Irish, or has any connection to Irish go, however tenuous.

No cheating, obv. Anyone caught using an AI will be ejected from the tournament and roundly mocked.

To enter the tournament, email Eoghan Barry by December 15th with your OGS username. I’ll set up the tournament over the holidays and games will start on January 1st.

Entries are now open for the 2020 Championship, aka the Top 8. Entry is open to all Irish nationals, and to non-nationals resident in Ireland for a minimum of five years. In addition to determining the Irish Champion, places in the Championship carry points towards representing Ireland at the World Amateur Go Championship.

Format

The format of the tournament for 2020 will be an eight-player double elimination tournament, followed by a best-of-three series between the two players who survive the double elimination. Seeds for the double elimination will be assigned according to EGF rating. The double elimination will take place in Dublin (venue to be confirmed) over the weekend of January 25th/26th.

Qualification

The top four finishers from the 2019 championship automatically qualify for the 2020 Championship. In the event that there are more than four entrants for the remaining places, qualifying games will be played in the first two weeks of January. These qualifying games may be played online.

How to Enter

The closing date for entries is December 15th. To enter, email Eoghan Barry with an expression of interest. There is no minimum rank for entry. There is no fee for entry, but you must be paid-up member of the IGA to play in the double elimination stage (dues can be paid at the tournament).

Schedule

Dec 15th: Deadline for entry
Jan 1st–15th: Qualifying games (if required)
Jan 25th–26th: Top 8
February: Best-of-three series

Congratulations are due to Philippe Renaut, who is this year’s Irish Correspondence Champion, chalking up eight wins in the competition. There was a large tie for second, as Irina, James, and Noel all had seven wins each.

The results are on Senseis

Please be advised that the selection process for the KPMC has changed. See: Korea page

The dates for the mighty Cork Tournament are announced. The 23rd and the 24th of November. A five rounder Swiss Handicap event – full details here.

You can register here.