Ukraine's youth Go team is European champions

The winner of the European Championship was the representative of Poland, Mateusz Surma, the second and third place went to the Ukrainians - Valeriy Krushelnytskyi and Artem Kachanovskyi, which is a serious achievement, the Ukrainian Federation of Go (UFGO) is convinced.

The national team coach Dmytro Yatsenko noted that according to the results of the competition, the Polish team exceeded all expectations and became European champions for the first time. In the European Team Championship, the Ukrainian national Go team took 2nd place, without losing a single round to the other three finalists.

“We have good results. For the second year in a row, the Ukrainian youth Go team is the European Champions! With an absolute result of 5 victories out of 5 possible. Thanks to the efforts of children's coaches from state extracurricular institutions, we managed to create a healthy competitive environment among children. The constant participation of children in tournaments at home and foreign competitions allowed them to develop and consolidate their best skills, strengthen friendly relations,” said Yatsenko. Over the 15 years of the tournament, the Ukrainian team has participated in all the finals and won the title of European champion three times.

Honorary President of the Ukrainian Go Federation Volodymyr Kosterin congratulated the team, winners and prize-winners of the championship: "I wish all participants new interesting tournaments and improvement of skills. I am sure that Go skills will be useful in later life. After all, in conditions when neural networks take on routine tasks, intellectual games form competitive advantages and allow you to be ahead."

In a recent article in the Swiss publication SNBCHF Focus in a Distracted World snbchf.com, Kosterin emphasized that the game, which was invented in the East, contributes to a person's personal development and supports mental health at any age: "The benefits of Go at different stages of a person's life have been proven by practice. For children, this is the development of logic, attentiveness and discipline, as well as the ability to communicate. For adults, it is strengthening mental agility and strategic thinking, increasing concentration. For the elderly, it is keeping cognitive abilities in good shape, training memory and maintaining social activity." Go classes are also recommended by psychologists for all age groups to relieve stress.

In Eastern countries, Go is considered a cultural achievement, and initiation into the game is the best gift. Interest in Go in Europe and the United States was also due to its potential for systems analysis and military art, as commanders in ancient times used a goban (a 19x19 board of cross lines) to strategize and plan defensive or offensive actions. Later, it was found that the game simultaneously develops both hemispheres of the brain and improves a person's analytical and creative abilities.

The Go community is steadily developing and includes educated youth and proactive people from the business and scientific spheres. In particular, the Congress elected Manya Marz, a professor from the University of Jena (Germany), who teaches life sciences and specializes in bioinformatics, as the head of the European Go Federation. One of her tasks is to support local initiatives to develop the Go network.

The next European Go Congress will be held in the summer of 2026 in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, where a large family of players will gather again to improve their skills and exchange experiences between representatives of different countries.

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