09/08/2014
The European Go Congress 2014 is over. The last game to finish about 10 minutes ago was between Lothar Spiegel and Jan Simara and the austrian won. I took the results to T**i Ghioc and Viorel Arsinoaia, the guys that did their magic for 2 weeks and now I hit refresh on the results page to see where my friends are placed after 10 rounds. The Weekend Tournament was won by Tong Yulin from China, the Tsume Go contest by Alexandru Pitrop from Romania, the Veterans Tournament by Sorin Sora from Romania, the Children Competition by Xinyu Liu from China for children under 12 and Alexandru Pitrop from Romania for children under 16, the 13x13 tournament by Andrej Arsentjev, the Lightning Tournament by Tong Yulin, the Rapid Torunament by Wang Chen from China, the Main Open Tournament by Tong Yulin and the title of European Champion was won by Fan Hui from France. Boring statistics that hide the truth about the awesome 2 weeks several hundred people spent together. Many of the participants are already travelling towards their homes and the hotel halls are not the same. There is no more children laughter, no more people sleeping on the sofas or on the carpets, no more plans being made on where to spend the evening.
There is a lot to be written about these two weeks from my point of view starting with the people that I've met or that I've gotten to know so much better, about the great way in which we, in the organizing team, worked together about the feelings that I had when I would enter the playing halls and hundreds of people were deep immersed in their complicated game.
The organizing team was formed of: Marius Ion, Sorin Padurariu, Catalin Taranu, T**i Ghioc, Valeria Costea, Bogdan Enache, Alex Nae, Rares Ghioc, George Ginguta, Alice Trifu, Laura Avram, George Chirila, Alex Acsinte, Paul Stanciu, Viorel Arsinoaia, Mihai Serban, Alexandru Caraivan, Viorel Ichim, Andreea Pirvu, Ilie Sebastian, Dan Groza, Iulian Militaru, Adelina Sora, Ruxandra Atanasiu, Ana-Maria Szilaghi, Adina Piloiu, Alexandra Pintea, Mirel Florescu and Iulian Dragomir. I copied the list in exactly the same order these names were listed along with the telephone numbers so in no way this reflects the importance of any of us here on the outcome of the event. There were some people that, in my opinion, were indispensable to our success. The referee team leaded by T**i Ghioc with Viorel Arsinoaia and Dan Groza as his right hands was oustanding. At one point one of us said that now he understands how important is to work with people you get along with and that he is thinking to quit his job in order to find some nicer people in a new place of work. That is quite a compliment if you ask me. I would add to this list the team of EuroGoTV formed of Harry Weerheijm and Judith van Dam. In the end none of us were perfect but we pulled it off quite nicely. Ok, maybe the girls were perfect.
The city of Sibiu and Hotel Ramada were great hosts aswell. There were some missteps along the way but in the end I couldn’t imagine a better city and a nicer hotel for this event. There were live concerts, wild parties, great landmarks to visit and above all, a lot of Go. Go against old friends or new friends, against unknown persons, against professional players, against stronger or weaker players, in the hotel halls, in front of a beer, in hotel rooms or in official competitions. Go was everywhere.
In the days to come I will try to contact professional players and players that attended and see if it was for them as great as I think it was.
I hope that I will attend EGC 2015 in Liberec and can’t wait to meet my new czech friends.
The closing ceremony will begin soon so I have to close this here but the story is not over. I will continue to post pictures, movies or stories as soon as I get them or remember them.
