Welcome to our website. The Irish Go Association is the official organisation for promotion of the ancient oriental game of Go in Ireland. We are members of the European Go Federation and the International Go Federation, and organise numerous club and tournament events throughout the year. The IGA promotes awareness of the game including teaching sessions and providing public infomation. Please read further here for details of member benefits and our activities.
Weekly Meetings (last update 7 Oct 2018)
Galway – Tuesday 20:00 in the Black Gate
Dublin – Wednesday 19:00 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00 on OGS
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College
In stark contrast to last year’s beasting, the 2019 Irish Go Congress took place last weekend in Dublin under clear skies. The Congress returned to its old home of the Teachers’ Club in Parnell Square, the scene of countless previous tournaments. Forty-two players competed over the course of the weekend, with visitors travelling from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Romania, and Poland to join a large local contingent.
Friday night’s Rapid tournament attracted eighteen entrants. The tension gradually built as the tournament organisers huddled around a laptop, trying to figure out which of OpenGotha’s myriad settings was messing up the draw. The first round finally got under way a little before 8pm, with twenty minutes absolute time on the clock for each player, and handicaps as high as nine stones plus forty points on some boards. But short time settings favour the strong, and there were relatively few upsets despite the handicaps. As the tournament proceeded the handicaps dropped, but so did the time limits (twelve minutes in the final round). Tunyang Xie emerged the winner with a perfect record of five wins from five games, the first indication that he was perhaps a little underrated at 4 dan. Xunrui Zhao and Juan-Manuel Losada filled out the podium
Saturday morning saw an event without precedent in the history of Irish go — the first round of the Open started two minutes ahead of schedule. There were nineteen boards in the first round and the bar was set at 2 dan. By the end of the day, Tunyang had already taken his place at the top of the table with a third round win over Yishen Wang 5d, while Mathis Isaksen was in third place. The top three placings remained the same for the rest of the weekend. By seven, most of the players were upstairs in the Teachers’ Club bar. We had dinner on the Parnell Street strip (six Chinese restaurants next door to each other). While we ate Matei Garcia entertained us with an apparently improvised comedy routine entitled “Why don’t we hold the European Go Congress in Dublin?” Tears rolled down our faces every time he repeated his catchphrase “No, I’m serious”. We were still joking about it some hours later over pints in the back room of Mulligan’s pub.
Games started no less punctually on Sunday morning. The morning sunlight streaming through the windows lent the room an almost devotional ambience that was only emphasised by the lively evangelical religious service audible through the walls of the adjoining building.
Tunyang finished out his tournament with wins over Mathis Isaksen 3d and Andreas Goetzfried 4d to complete his fourth consecutive tournament with a clean sheet. After the prizegiving and closing remarks, visiting players were allowed to enjoy themselves while Irish residents were herded into the Irish Go Association AGM for another ninety minutes of convoluted wrangling. Fourteen people made it to the closing dinner at the Kimchi Hophouse, where Arthur Cater entertained us with feats of legerdemain while Tunyang tried to demonstrate conclusively that the game on a 7 x 7 board should always result in seki. And with that the Irish Go Congress concluded for another year.
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th.
Location : Belfast Boat Club
30mn by player + 2x30s byoyomi
4 rounds
Handicap Swiss tournament
Registration : 9-9:15
First round : 9:30-11
Second round : 11-12:30
-lunch break-
Third round : 1:30-3
Fourth round : 3-4:30
Normally we go to Cutter’s Wharf for lunch, and in the evening possibly to the brewbot or some restaurant for post tournament festivities.
Entries to james8hut(AT)hotmail(DOT)com
Entry fee: £7 (euro equivalent acceptable)
Leinster have won the first match in this year’s online interprovincials. They won by a margin of 2-1 over Munster, with Carol Doyle picking up a win in Toner’s to save Munster face. Meanwhile Connaught teeter on the brink of victory over Ulster, needing just one more game to cross the line. Meanwhile, controversy over the province of Noord-Holland’s eligibility to enter the competition rages on, with the matter having now been referred to the CAS in Lausanne.
There will be a meeting between the prizegiving and dinner on the Sunday evening of the Irish Go Congress (March 24th)
The concluding game of the 2018 Irish championship took place today. James beat Cian by resignation. The game can be found here: http://eidogo.com/#url:http://files.gokgs.com/games/2019/3/15/jameshut-emauton.sgf
The first game of the 2018 final took place today. James beat Cian by 8.5 points.
The game can be found here: http://eidogo.com/#url:http://files.gokgs.com/games/2019/3/1/emauton-jameshut.sgf
This year Ireland are well placed in the PGETC league. We stand in second place mid season, with a game in hand. On Tuesday the 26th we face a key match against Iceland, who are currently in first place. Grace of some blue circle play by Karl Irwin, we’re already 1 game up with 3 left to play. Could this be our chance for promotion? Tune in to IGS to follow the action.
I say, you chaps, let’s rock this joint in an old school way…for 2019 the Dublin tournament will return to it’s ancestral home, the Teachers’ Club on Parnell Square. The Irish Go Congress 2019 (to give it its full name) will be comprised of two tournaments — the Rapid, and the 29th Irish Open — and take place over the weekend of the 22nd-24th of March. It will be the social event of the season.
Full details on the tournament page. Or just cut to the chase and pre-register.
The Pandanet European Go Team Championship is not the only show in town on the internet. There are two homegrown events for IGA members to participate in next year.
The Irish Interprovincials, another team competition. (But a better one, obviously)
The Irish Correspondence Championship – experience life in the slow lane.
The 2018 Irish Correspondence Title was shared between James Hutchinson and Noel Mitchell. They both won 9 games from 10. In third place was Irina Davis on 8 wins. See full results.
Registration for next year is open.