about the PGETC League A game between Reem Ben David and Carlo Metta

- At the time of the Israeli protest the performance of Carlo Metta in the
PGETC was so exceptional that it is easy to see why it led to a suspicion
of him using an outside help. The analysis performed by the league manager
also supported the claim that the accused player used Leela in his PGETC
games, so we believe that decision made by the league manager was done in
a good faith.

- The Italian appeal has demonstrated the weaknesses of the analysis and
rightly questioned its conclusions. With the available tools it is hard if
not impossible to convince someone of using an outside help in the
internet games. Thus, we do not think that it was proven without a
reasonable doubt that Carlo Metta broke any rules and the decision made by
the league manager should be reversed.

- The advent of strong go software and a possible use of other tools like
readily available joseki and fuseki dictionaries makes it difficult to
warrant a fairness in games played on internet. We advise the EGF to
enforce more strict rules for EGF sanctioned tournaments played on
internet, e.g. anything the player does during playing the game could be
recorded on a camera with the footage supplied upon the completion of the
game, stored and made available for a review.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship Appeals Commission

Based on a protest against the PGETC League A Round 4 match Italy vs. Israel Board 3 game Carlo Metta vs Reem Ben David, and after an extensive study and consultation, the League A referee has decided that Carlo Metta used Leela computer software to assist him in the game. This violates the rule of fair play (§3.2).

The penalty is that all games by Carlo in the 8th PGETC League A are forfeited and the player is banned from the 8th and 9th PGETC play.

Edit: The appeals committee has reversed the decision on 18th May 2018.

A friendly match between South Africa and Argentina has been scheduled for Sunday, February 4th, 19:00 CET. All the games will be played on Pandanet-IGS, in the EuropeanTeamChamps room.
Time settings: 45 minutes main time with a Canadian byoyomi of 10 minutes / 25 moves. Colors: nigiri.

South Africa vs Argentina
Victor Chow (RoseDuke) 7d – Fernando Aguilar (Fernando) 7d (Saturday, February 10th at 13:00 CET)
[B] Andrew Davies (adavies) 4d – [W] Santiago Tabares (Petete) 3d – W+12.5
[B] Samuel Scott (Fargo) 3d – [W] Luciano Salerno (salerno) 3d – W+Resign
[W] Chris Welsh (sente) 2d – [B] David Pollitzer (jabber) 2d – W+Resign
[B] Lloyd Rubidge (JosephK) 1d – [W] Francisco Manuel d’Albuquerque (Aldevaran) 1d – B+25.5
[B] Paul Steyn (svartrev) 1k – [W] Nicolás Alejandro Fortunato (shind0) 1k – W+Resign
[W] Michael Rapson (Mai4ke1) 5k – [B] Jose Piccioni (jacksonh) 4k – B+16.5

Russian team scored a resounding victory in the 7th Pandanet Go European Team Championship, held 21st and 22nd July 2017 in Oberhof, Germany. The path to the top place came through match results 4-0, 4-0 and 3-1, and there was no doubt about the winner. Romania was second with an admirable score of 1 win, 1 tie and 1 loss while Hungary was the third with 2 ties and 1 loss. The last year’s winner Ukraine was left the fourth with 1 tie and 2 losses, even if the latest European go professional Andrij Kravets scored personal 3 wins.

Full results and the top board game records

The 7th Pandanet Go European Team Championship Finals are here! The Finals will be played on Friday and Saturday at the beginning of the European Go Congress 2017 in Oberhof as the first highlight of this year’s EGC. By the time of writing this, it is today and tomorrow.

Join the broadcasts on the IGS/Pandanet, the rounds are scheduled as follows:

Friday, 21st July
18:45 Round 1: Russia – Hungary and Ukraine – Romania

Saturday, 22nd July
10:00 Round 2: Romania – Russia and Hungary – Ukraine
14:30 Round 3: Russia – Ukraine and Romania – Hungary

The teams fighting for the championship bring together strong players from Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. Four players from the team will play each round:

Russia
Ilya Shikshin
Alexander Dinerchtein
Gregory Fionin
Timur Sankin
Dmitrij Surin

Ukraine
Artem Kachanovskyi
Andrij Kravets
Dmytro Bogatskyi
Volodymyr Kokozei
Dmytro Yatsenko

Romania
Cristian Pop
Cornel Burzo
Dragos Bajenaru
Daniel Cioata
Ioan Grigoriu

Hungary
Pál Balogh
Csaba Méro
Dominik Bővíz
Péter Markó
Rita Pocsai

The results will be published after each round on the Finals page and the full report a little bit later.