Hi everyone, the entries for the Irish Go Championship have just opened. This is the most important title that Irish Go has to offer. To enter, fill out this entry form. In order to be eligible to enter, you have to have been living in the island of Ireland for at least two years or be an Irish citizen. You should also have paid your annual membership fee to the Irish Go Association before the start of the qualifiers (1st January).

The qualifiers will be played online on OGS and run during January and early February. The time control will be 60min maintime and 5x30sec byo-yomi. The qualifiers work on a knockout system. Unlike a simple knockout system, where losing one game eliminates a player, the qualifiers use a back-door option – so it will take two losses to eliminate a player from the competition. Last years qualifiers can be viewed here

At least four players will be selected from the qualifiers to play in the Top8 held in person in Dublin in early March. Currently, the top 4 players last year have already qualified for the Top8 (Philippe Renaut, Xinqun Lu, John Courtney and Peter Kasko). If one or more of these players declines to play this year, there may be a fifth or sixth player to qualify.

The deadline for entry is December 23rd 23:59! Best of luck to all entrants.