EuroGoPro Initiative

European Go Professionals or EuroGoPro (after their web page) was an initiative in 2010 to organise the top european players in a league of initially 12 players, thereby providing them with a temporary professional status and a base income. Failing to gain sufficient sponsorship the initiative fell inactive soon after.

In 2013 a different initiative began: see 1st European Pro Qualification 2014

Below is the original opening statement.

For many years the EGF has tried to form a top players committee but this never came from the ground.

In 2010 the Top players took it in their own hands:

Opening statement

Openings statement: http://eurogopro.org/opening.html (links added)

The Top European Players attending the 54th European Go Congress have decided to create a Professional Go Organisation in partnership with EuroGoTV.

There are a lot of top European players who are already completely devoting their lives to teaching and studying Go. The level of European Go is already very high, with many of us having studied in the Orient, and a lot of us have obtained the rank of professionals in Asia. The time is now ripe to form a professional Go organisation for Europe too. The European Professional Go Organisation will run a European Professional Go League, a year long competition that provides professional status for 12 top european players every year.

We believe that the breakthrough we need to reach the same level as the Orient is to form an organisation which allows Europeans access to high level playing conditions together with a perfect environment for studying. We hope that European Go fans will see the rise of new European stars who can compete on even terms with the world's top players.

This Organisation is the first of its kind in Europe. We are looking forward to cooperation with the European Go Federation, the National Go Associations of Europe as well as the Go Organisations of the Far East.

Tampere, Finland

2010 6th August

• Guo Juan 5p
• Catalin Taranu 5p
• Alexandre Dinerchtein 3p
• Diana Koszegi 1p
• Ilia Shikshin 7d
• Cristian Pop 7d
• Rob van Zeijst 7d
• Artem Kachanovskyj 6d
• Csaba Mero 6d
• Benjamin Teuber 6d
• Cornel Burzo 6d
• Ondrej Silt 6d
• Pal Balogh 6d
• Antti Tormanen 6d
• Ali Jabarin 5d
• Nikola Mitic 5d
• Fredrik Blomback 5d
• Javier Savolainen? 5d
• Viktor Lin 5d
• Alexander Eerbeek? 4d

Website

http://eurogopro.org As of October 2011, the domain registration has lapsed.

Openings statement: http://eurogopro.org/opening.html

See also:

• Top 20 European Players
• Top Amateur Players By Country

• American Professional Go Association similar organisation in the USA (though inactive).