A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players are very large. For example, the Honinbo Tournament has a grand prize of about $350,000.
The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, commonly known by the acronym FIVB, is the international governing body for all forms of volleyball. Its headquarters are located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current president is Ary Graça of Brazil.
The European Volleyball Confederation is the continental governing body for the sports of indoor volleyball, beach volleyball and snow volleyball in Europe. Its headquarters is in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
The American Go Association (AGA) was founded in 1935, to promote the board game of Go in the United States.
The World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is an international tournament for amateur Go players, held once a year since 1979. The organising body is the International Go Federation (IGF).
The Pandanet Go European Cup was a Go competition played across Europe. The now defunct European Cup and European Go Tour merged to form this cup after Toyota's support of the Tour ended. Many of the games played during the Cup are broadcast on Pandanet's Internet Go Server (IGS) and the KGS Go Server. Since 2011, Pandanet decided to end the support of this competition and wanted to take care of the European Go Teams Championship. This competition is called now European Go Cup as previously.
The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and European Tour events. Only four players have gone on to win at least 30 titles on the PDC Pro Tour. Michael van Gerwen has won the most Pro Tour titles winning 88. Phil Taylor is second on the list winning 70 events. Gary Anderson is in third winning 35 events and Peter Wright in fourth winning 33 events, as of March 2024.
Tennis Europe was formed in Rome, Italy on 31 May 1975 by a group of 17 European national tennis federations as a regional governing body for the sport of tennis and under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation. It is the world's largest regional association of the sport's governing body, the International Tennis Federation, with 50 member states in 2015.
The International Basketball Federation is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the equipment and facilities required, organizes international competitions, regulates the transfer of athletes across countries, and controls the appointment of international referees. A total of 212 national federations are members, organized since 1989 into five zones: Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
The European Go Championship or Congress (EGC) is the annual and main event organised by the European Go Federation for players of the board game Go. It consists of a 2-week open competition, one round per day, making a total of 10 rounds with a champion ultimately emerging – the player with the most wins. The Congress has taken place in a different European city each year, since the first contest in 1983. During these two weeks, the best Go players in Europe fight for the title of European Champion. The number of participants in recent years has ranged from a low of 290 to a high of 718 players.
The European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) is a championship for young players of the board game of Go. It is held annually, and first started in Băile Felix, Romania in 1996. Some winners of the various age groups, such as Diána Kőszegi, have since progressed to become professional Go players.
The 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from 9 to 23 August 2012. The meeting started during the 2012 Summer Olympics and ending shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics, both in London. This was the second rendition of the World Mind Sports Games, which was inaugurated in 2008 in Beijing. The mind sport games had about 2000 players from 95 nations—down from 2,763 competitors and 143 countries at the 1st Games. More than half of the gold medals were contested at draughts and Russia, with the strongest draughts squad, won the most gold and most overall medals. China won five gold medals—all five events contested at Xiangqi. Chinese Taipei won four gold medals—four of the five events contested at go.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the world governing body for the sports of baseball, softball, and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by the merger of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and International Softball Federation (ISF). Under the WBSC's organizational structure, the IBAF and ISF now serve as the confederation's baseball and softball divisions, respectively. Each division is governed by an executive committee, while the WBSC is governed by an executive board.
The Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships, also known as the Balkan Indoor Games, is an annual international regional indoor track and field competition between athletes from the Balkans. Following a test event in 1991, it was officially launched in 1994. Organised by the Association of the Balkan Athletics Federations (ABAF), it is typically held in February. The competition complemented the long-running annual outdoor track and field tournament: the Balkan Games.
Andrij Kravets is a 1-dan professional Go player from Ukraine; European Go Champion 2023, member of numerous international amateur competitions and previous Ukrainian Champion. In 2021, Kravets and his wife relocated to Germany.
Ilya Valerievich Shikshin is a 4-dan professional Go player from Russia. He was the fourth player to be awarded professional status by the European Go Federation, in 2015. He has won 27 major European titles including the European Championship, European Team Championship and European Pair Go Championship.
Jan Šimara is a Czech Go player. He placed first in the European Go Championship in 2012.
Mgr. Pavol Lisý was the first professional go player certified by the European Go Federation.
Artem Volodymyrovych Kachanovskyi is a 2-dan professional go player from Ukraine. He was the fifth player to be awarded professional status by the European Go Federation, in 2016. He has won the European Grand Slam tournament twice, in 2017 and 2021, and was runner-up in the European Championship four times, in 2010, 2019, 2021 and 2022. He placed third in the 2013 World Amateur Go Championship, an achievement shared by only two other European players. Among other high tournament placements, he was part of the winning team in the Pandanet European Team Championship in 2016 and 2022, and won the Silk Road Tournament in 2019 and the first season of the European Professional Go League in 2020.
