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.

League fights have ended for this season, the remaining games are the deciding matches between league borderline teams and the grand finals in the European Go Congress 2017 Oberhof, Germany.

The top teams qualified for the Pandanet Go European Team Championship Finals 2017 are: Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. The previous finalists France and Czechia missed out in the close competition. The finals will be played in Oberhof, on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd July 2017.

This year Finland will drop out from the League A to the League B and Poland will join the League A as the winner of the League B. Germany and Italy will play the A/B deciding match 30th May on Pandanet IGS.

The leagues B, C and D will change in size as the number of participating countries is getting bigger and bigger. This will create some special circumstances for the qualification for B, C and D. This year’s two bottom teams in the League B – Slovakia and Croatia – will drop out to the League C directly, and the third one – Belgium – will play a deciding match with the League C winner Norway.

Iceland will move to the League D and the teams of Slovenia and Georgia will play the deciding match about the place in the League C. In the next season, a new country will join the 8th Pandanet Go European Team Championship and the League D.

Qualification games May 30 on Pandanet IGS
Germany-Italy (League A/B)
Belgium-Norway (League B/C)
Slovenia-Georgia (League C/D)

Finals July 21-22 in Oberhof (broadcast of top boards on Pandanet IGS)
Russia
Ukraine
Romania
Hungary

Next season, the 8th PGETC will start forming in August 2017.

The seventh season of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship is now having a year-end break and leaving the year 2016 behind.

League A has played 4 rounds and the year 2017 will see 5 more rounds. The top four countries will play the finals in yet-to-be-defined site of European Go Congress 2017 in July. At this point, Czechia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine are leading.

League B with the twelve countries has been busy, already finishing 5 rounds and playing 6 more in 2017. Poland is leading, with Austria, Italy and UK following.

Leagues C and D will have a more relaxed pace – this year 3 rounds and 4 rounds to come. South Africa and Lithuania lead the League C and Cyprus and Ireland are the current top in the League D.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The new Pandanet Go European Team Championship season is here! For the season 2016/2017 we have all in all 36 countries – 10 in A, 12 in B, 7 in C and 7 in D.

League A goes normally along the rules. The top four countries will settle the score in the Finals in Cappadocia, Turkey, in July 2017.

League B will be reduced after this season from 12 to 10 teams. This means that temporary rules are set: two last teams will drop out to League C directly and the third last will play a relegation match against the winner of League C.

League C is now split to upper League C and lower League D. Both leagues have now 7 countries and in the next season they will grow to 8 countries. The winner of the League C will play a relegation match for the place in League B. The last team will drop out directly to League D and the second last will play a relegation match with the League D winner.

Enjoy the hard-fought matches and join us at Pandanet-IGS, starting 20th September!

The 7th Pandanet Go European Team Championship will start soon. We expect to have now 36 teams, League A with 10 teams, League B with 12 teams and Leagues C and D with 7 teams each.

League A
Ukraine, Russia, France, Romania, Czechia, Germany, Serbia, Finland, Israel and Hungary

League B
Sweden, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Denmark, Croatia and Switzerland

League C
Spain, Norway, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, South Africa and Iceland

League D
Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Georgia

It is tough that the League C was unpreceded split in two but it is nice to see the Pandanet Go European Team Championship grow and new countries come in. Welcome Belarus and Georgia!

All teams are expected to send in their team lineup by September 10th 2016. The schedule and the pairings for the season will be published around September 15th and the first round with League B games starts on Tuesday, September 20th. League A start September 27th while League C and League D games will start October 4th.