European Go Federation

The European Go Federation is a non-profit organization with the purpose of encouraging, regulating, co-ordinating, and disseminating the playing of the board game Go in Europe. The EGF was founded in 1957, the same year that the inaugural European Go Congress took place in Cuxhaven, Germany. The Congress has been an annual event every year since then, held each time in a different European city. The European Go Championship takes place during the EGC, as well as the Annual General Meeting. In 2014, the European Professional System was established by the European Go Federation.
Membership is open to any Go-organising association in a country in or near Europe. There are currently 35 full members, and two suspended members.

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Function

The EGF elects an Executive Committee which supervises a number of commissions in charge of normal activities in between the AGMs.
Major European tournaments do not fall under the Executive Committee's supervision, but are directly co-ordinated by the EGF itself. Major events organised by the EGF include the European Grand Prix; the Pandanet European Team Championship; European Youth Go Championships in three age categories; the European Youth Team Championship; the European [Pair Go Championship], the European Women's Championship; the European Student Championship and the European Championship, held during the annual European Go Congress. An official Rating List is maintained by processing the results of as many European tournaments as possible.
The European Go Federation is a member of the International Go Federation.

Members

Note: On 3 March 2022, the EGF decided during an emergency general meeting to suspend indefinitely both the Russian and Belarusian associations due to the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine by Russia. All planned or future events organised by the EGF were cancelled and players from both countries were banned from representing their nations at European events. The first major event affected was the 2022 European Youth Go Championship held between the 10 and 12 March in Czechia.

EGF Professional players

The EGF established a professional system in 2014 with Chinese sponsorship. Top European players are invited to take part in a Qualification Tournament, with one or two of the most successful competitors being awarded professional status. Professionals can then be promoted by earning points from wins against other professional players in major tournaments. As of 2023, there are nine such players, who enjoy benefits including automatic qualification to the Grand Slam and the opportunity to represent Europe in major international tournaments.

Player	Nationality	Year Became Pro	Promotion History
Ilya Shikshin	Russian	2015	Promoted to 2p in 2018, to 3p in 2019, to 4p in 2021.
Artem Kachanovskyi	Ukrainian	2016	Promoted to 2p in 2018, to 3p in 2024.
Pavol Lisý	Slovakian	2014	Promoted to 2p in 2018.
Mateusz Surma	Polish	2015	Promoted to 2p in 2019, to 3p in 2023.
Ali Jabarin	Israeli	2014	Promoted to 2p in 2018.
Andrii Kravets	Ukrainian	2017
Tanguy le Calvé	French	2019
Stanisław Frejlak	Polish	2021
Jan Šimara	Czech	2023

Current title holders

Below is a summary of the current holders or most recent winners of the major EGF-organised events.

Title	Title Holder	Notes
European Championship	Andrii Kravets 1p	Held August 2024 in Toulouse, France. Kravets successfully defended his title from 2023.
European Women's Championship	Li Ting 1p	Held September 2024 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
European Grand Prix Finale	Cornel Burzo 6d	Held December 2023 in London, UK.
European Grand Slam	Mateusz Surma 3p	Held October 2023 in Prague, Czechia.
Pandanet European Team Championship	France	Finals held August 2024 in Toulouse, France.
European Pair Go Championship	Milena Boclé 3d and Florent Labouret 5d	Held April 2024 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
European Student Championship	Martin Ruzicka 4d	Held September 2022 in Trier, Germany.
European Youth Championship – U20 Category	Benoit Robichon	Held March 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.
European Youth Championship – U16 Category	Yuze Xing 5d	Held March 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.
European Youth Championship – U12 Category	Bartik Dach 2d	Held March 2024 in Hamburg, Germany.
European Youth Team Championship	Ukraine