I was a little surprised to see that the European Professional Qualifiers will run again this year. In the current financial climate I had imagined that they would be suspended, but no. It means another fun tournament for us to watch.

https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualificat ... _2021.html taking place in Leksand, starting October 28.

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North Lecale

The winner of the 6th Pro Qualification and the 8th European Professional is Stanisław Frejlak!

In the final he defeated Lukáš Podpěra 7d with a score of 2-1: after losing the first game, Stanisław won the second one by half a point and the third one by resignation.

Game records, tournament chart, and more information are available on the EGF website: https://eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2021.html

In the sample edition of the European Go Journal that is available for download free of charge, February 2021, there is a big interview with Stanisław. You can download the magazine here: https://eurogojournal.com/editions/february-2021

After Stanisław's victory in the Pro Qualification it's interesting to go once again through his interview that was made half a year ago.

I have started to study the finals game 2 moves 263 - 271. There are many more variations than expected. Still I do not know whether B had a guaranteed possibility to create a dame ko fight or whether W could prevent it necessarily before move 271.

The attached SGF is just a draft for those who want to study on their own. It may contain mistakes and has gaps but already goes far beyond the OGS forum file.

I don't know Stanisław well, but I've had some interaction with him. He's a good guy, and I'm happy to hear about his success in the pro qualification tournament. Congrats to him!

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be immersed

At the same time, missing out on making pro by a half point has to stink.

Unfortunately I didn't get to look at any of the games yet, I've only seen the results. I was a bit surprised to see Rob Van Zjeist go out in the first round. The eventual winner was probably most people's favourite. Lukas seems destined to finish second too often.

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North Lecale

Rob's last European Title dates back almost 30 years already (1993).
I think most of the other participants of this Pro Qualifier Tournament weren't even born then.
I think Rob would the first to aknowledge that in his late 50s, he's not as strong anymore as he was back then.