The 2020 Irish Go Congress will take place in Dublin over the weekend of the 28th February –1st March, 2020. The Congress is comprised of two events, the Rapid tournament and the Irish Open. The Rapid tournament takes place on Friday night, and the Open is played across the two following days.

Location

For 2020 we will return to our old home of the Teachers’ Club. Conveniently located in the centre of the city, the Teachers’ Club is well connected to public transport routes, has full bar facilities, and is just around the corner from Parnell Street, Dublin’s nascent Chinatown, which has plenty of good options for dinner.

The Teacher’s Club (map)
36 Parnell Square West
Dublin 1

Registration

Pre-registration is open (check the list of pre-registered players).The entry fees for 2020 are:

Irish Open — €25 (€10 for students or unwaged)
Rapid — €10

There will be a reduced rate of €30 for both tournaments for those who pre-register before 1st February

Registration will take place at the Teachers’ Club on Friday night and Saturday morning. Registration for the Open will close at 9.30 on Saturday morning to ensure that we can start the first round on time. Please arrive in good time on Saturday morning.

The Tournaments

Both tournaments are played to Japanese rules with komi of 6.5 points.

The Rapid

The Rapid is a Swiss handicap tournament with time limits reducing each round, ensuring fast and furious play. Only the true blitz specialists can hope to make it to the final.

The Open

The 30th Irish Open will be a five round, EGF Class A McMahon tournament. The time allowances will be one hour thinking time, with byo-yomi of 5 periods of 30 seconds (or Canadian overtime of 15 stones in 5 minutes if we run short of Ing clocks). The first three rounds will be played on Saturday, and the remaining two rounds on Sunday.

There will be cash prizes for the first three finishers in each tournament, amounts to be determined, and small prizes for anyone who manages to win all five of their games in the Open.

Schedule

The schedule is subject to revision, but should be something like this:

Friday, 28th February
19:00 Registration
19:30 Rapid Tournament

Saturday, 29th February
8:30 Registration
10:00 Open Tournament Round 1
13:30 Open Tournament Round 2
16:30 Open Tournament Round 3
19:30 Social events (i.e. food, pints, craic, ceol etc.)

Sunday, 1st March
10:00 Open Tournament Round 4
13:30 Open Tournament Round 5
16:30 Closing Ceremony & Prizegiving
19:00 Dinner

Accommodation

Dublin has a wide range of accommodation options for people travelling to the tournament. However you are strongly recommended to book early — even in February, Dublin attracts a lot of tourists and it can be difficult or expensive to find a place to stay at short notice.

Nearby options include the Charles Stewart. There are numerous city centre hostels offering budget accommodation — check Hostelworld for a comprehensive list. Airbnb is also an option. Dublin 1 and Dublin 2 are the most central districts of the city and any address within those districts is easy walking distance to the tournament venue. 

Finally, there may be a few spaces available in the homes of Dublin go players. Please contact the tournament director if you are interested in this option.

Travel

There are frequent bus services from Dublin Airport with both Dublin Bus and Aircoach — the journey time should be less than an hour on Saturday morning and Sunday evenings, but could be slower at rush hour on Friday. See the Airport’s To and From page for more details.

For those arriving by train, Connolly Station is within a short walk. Arrivals at Heuston might want to take the Luas or a bus to O’Connell Street and walk from there.

From the the passenger terminal at Dublin Port, you can take the 53 bus into the city centre. It’s 5–10 minutes walk from the terminus at Talbot Street to the Teachers’ Club. Note that Dublin Bus will only take coins and won’t give change — the adult is €2.15.

Contact

The Director of the Irish Go Congress is Matei Garcia. Please use the Pre-Registration form for any enquiries about the tournament.
If you have any extra enquiries, please e-mail the organization at matei.garcia@gmail.com