Go in Slovenia in 2001


The history of go in Slovenia can be found in Ranka Yearbook 10, so in the following article we shall deal only with the events that took place over the last year. The 2001 go calendar in Slovenia was similar to previous years. Main events are listed below.


The 13th Lado Omejc Memorial

Since the year 1993, Lado Omejc Memorial has the status of a Grand Prix tournament (and, later, Toyota Tour or Fujitsu Qualification tournament). This year it was held in Bled from April 27th to 29th for the 13th time. All together 62 players from 10 countries took part (31 of them were of dan level and there were 15 players with rank 4-dan or stronger). The winner of the tournament was Radek Nechanicky (Chechia), second was Vladimir Danek (Chechia) and the third place went to Victor Bogdanov (Russia). Best Slovenian players were Leon Matoh and Tamar Cefarin with 8th and 9th place respectively.


The 11th Slovenian Team Championship

On the final team tournament four teams competed, each one consisting out of four dan level members. The tournament in the form of round-robin league was held in Novo mesto on May 26th and it was won by the home team from Novo mesto, which scored 10 points. Second was the team from Maribor with 5½ points, followed by the teams from Kranj with 4½ points and Ljubljana with 4 points.


The 1st Open Summer Tournament of Ljubljana

On the last day of June 14 players participated in this 5 round handicap tournament which is partly meant as a social occasion before holidays and will probably become traditional. The winner was Andrej Kralj with 4 points ahead of Janko Korelc and Goran Šiška; both of them also finished on 4 wins.


The 14th Maribor Open

This classic handicap tournament was held on 22nd and 23rd of September. 37 players from several countries participated in this five-round event; 13 of them had dan rankings and 11 of them were 3-dan or stronger. The winner was Leon Matoh with 5 points, ahead of Bojan Rojs with 4 points and Gregor Butala, Andrej Kralj and Eduard Ekart who all finished with 3 points.


The 33rd Slovenian Championship

National championship (the 11th championship since Slovenia became independent) was held in Pesnica near Maribor from 18th to 21st of October. 15 dan-holders competed over seven rounds; the winner, earning the title of Slovenian Champion, was Leon Matoh with 6 points, followed by Tamar Cefarin, also with 6 points, and Mirko Rupel with 5 points.


The 2nd Open Autumn Tournament of Ljubljana - “Akisen 2001”

The second tournament organised by Go Club Ljubljana “Akisen 2001” took part in the middle of November (17.-18.). The tournament was played for the first time under Ing rules over 5 rounds. 15 players participated; the winner was Gregor Butala who won five straight, ahead of Goran Siska and Janko Korelc.


The 10th Open Championship of Ljubljana

This traditional handicap tournament, which commemorates the founding of Ljubljana Go Society (incidentally, this was 40th anniversary) was held on December 22nd. The winner among the 20 participants was Andrej Kralj with 4½ points, followed by Timotej Šuc and Borut Zaplotnik, both with 4 points.


Congress of the Slovenian Go Association

At the annual congress, held in October, the current executive was reelected, new ranking list (all together 55 dan players) was approved, the schedule of the tournaments in year 2002 was confirmed and the report of the Kranj Go Club about the preparations for the Tournament Bled 2002 was accepted.


The functionaries of Go zveza Slovenije (Slovenian Go Association):

President: Peter Gaspari, Aleševa 3, 1210 Ljubljana-Šentvid. Phone: (+386) 1-5127530, Cellular: (+386) 41-651690.
Vice President: Bojan Rojs, Gregorciceva 3, 2000 Maribor. Phone: (+386) 2-2517286.
Secretary: Milan Zakotnik, Tavcarjeva 22, 4000 Kranj. Phone: (+386) 4-2326100.

Slovenian Go Asociation has its own internet site http://slovenia.european-go.org/


Report by Peter Gaspari