European Professional System
The EGF created a European Professional System (EPS) in 2014, the constitution of which can be read here Its aims are as follows:
- To support strong players becoming even stronger by enabling them to concentrate themselves mainly on Go. That especially includes helping strong players with participation in high quality studying programs, and working on arrangements for top quality tournaments based on professional standards.
- To establish a professional background for EPS which includes not only direct management of EPS, but also Go promotional, educational and marketing activities around Europe.
It is governed by the EGF Professional Committee, which consists of representatives of the European professional players and of the EGF. It is not known if the Committee actually exists yet.
The operational rules of the EPS are not yet available.
All promotions of new European professional players will always be resulting from the European Professional Promoting Tournament organised under the direction of the EGF. Candidates must hold a valid passport from an EGF member country and have been a citizen of an EGF member country for 10 years.
As of March 2016, there are five European professional players belonging to this system
- Ali Jabarin (2014 promotion)
- Pavol Lisy (2014 promotion)
- Mateusz Surma (2015 promotion)
- Ilya Shikshin (2015 promotion)
- Artem Kachanovskyi (2016 promotion)