Wbaduk

1st EGF Pro Qualification Finale.

Ali Jabarin became the 2nd EGF pro! 2014-06-20

The last two rounds for selecting the 2nd EGF pro were played in Vienna, Austria on the 20th of June. 20 years old man Ali Jabarin (6D, IL) became the 2nd pro winning against Mateusz Surma (6D, PL) and Lukas Podpera (6D, CZ). Hereby EGF has two pros, Pavol Lisy 1P and Ali Jabarin 1P.

For the celebration of having EGF pros, 6 special guests came from China including Wang Runan 8P, the president of Chinese Weiqi Federation and the main sponsor of this qualification CEGO (an article about CEGO will be updated soon)

These Chinese pros, Wang Runan 8P and Zhao Baolong 2P, gave a live-commentary for the qualification matches with the EGF's 1st pro, Pavol Lisy 1P.

With all the help from CEGO, EGF and the local tournament organizers, the 1st EGF Pro Qualification has finished. However, it is not the end but a start.

The president of the European Go Federation, Martin Stiassny said, "It is great to have EGF pros, and it is a great start. But it is only a start. If I look the details, nothing is changed. From now on we must develop it having special tournaments such as Pro European championship or European Pro league. I hope it brings some sponsors. The major change is the average age of EGF player pros are younger than European pros who became a pro in Asia; when they became a pro, they were over 25 years old. But EGF pros are 19 and 20. Other candidates are also mostly under 20 years old. From this September, EGF two pros and the others, total 6 players, are going to get trained in China for 5.5 months and another 3 more months of training by online when they come back from China. So we can expect the improvement of EGF pros and some candidates for the next EGF pros.

The president of Chinese Weiqi Federation, Wang Runan 8P gave a touching speech in the ceremony saying, "Having EGF two pros is a huge step. It is called Go in Japan, Weiqi in China, and Baduk in Korea. However, it is played in the same way with black and white stones on a 19x19 board for whole the world. There is no difference. Therefore, there should be no obstacle between countries and continents. I hope for a day that European pros can beat Chinese and Asian pros."