Go in Slovenia in 1999
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 occurring in the last year and with the history of Lado Omejc Memorial tournaments. The 1999 go calendar in Slovenia was much the same as the previous year. The main events are listed below.
The 11th Lado Omejc Memorial
Since 1993, this tournament has the status of a Grand Prix tournament. This year it was held in Bled on 24 –26 April. 62 players from 10 countries took part (31 had dan-rankings and from them were 15 players 4 dan or stronger). The winner of the tournament was Vladimir Danek (Chechia), second was Victor Bogdanov(Russia) and third Dmitry Yatsenko (Ukraina) . The best Slovenian player was Leon Matoh with 6th place.
The 8th Slovenian Team Championship
On the final team tournament tree teams (with 4 dan players) competed. The tournament was held in Dolenjske toplice by Novo mesto on 15 May and won by the team from Kranj with 5 points. The team from Ljubljana was second with 4 points, followed by the team from Novo mesto with 3 points.
The 5th Slovenian (women’s) Championship
On the final tournament (with the strength limit - minimum 5 kyu) held on 8 May in Kranj only 3 women took part.The winner was Vida Hernaus, ahead of Vera Rupel and Jasna Schatz.
The 12th Maribor Open
28 players participated on the handicap tournament held on 18 - 19 September; 12 had dan-rankings and 10 from them were 3 dan or stronger. The winner was Leon Matoh with 5 points, ahead of Igor Bizjak, Eduard Ekart and Bojan Rojs all with 3 points.
The 31th Slovenian Championship
This championship (the ninth championship since Slovenia became independent) was held in Šmarjeske toplice on 21-24 October. 16 players participated in the seven rounds tournament. The winner and Slovenian champion was Leon Matoh with 6 points, ahead of Igor Bizjak and Dušan Jukič all on 5 points.
The 8th Ljubljana Open
On this handicap tournament held on 18 December 15 players participated. The winner was Andrej Kralj with 5 points, second Gregor Butala with 4 points and third Lojze Šuc also with 4 points.
Other events
From 26 to29 September two professional women players Yoko Inori and Yukari Umezawa visit our clubs in Ljubljana and Novo mesto. They played simultaneous (teaching) games on tree boards.
Congress of the Slovenian Go Association . At the annual congress, held on 23 October, the current executive was reelected, new rating list (all together 54 dan players) was approved, the schedule for the tournaments in the year 2000 and the report of the Kranj Go Club about the preparations for the Tournament Bled 2000 (5-7 May) was accepted.
On July Peter Gaspari and Lojze Šuc had the go teaching course in the camp at Motnik for the children (the age from 8- 14 years).
Report: Peter Gaspari