Croatian Igo Alliance
Chronicle
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Croatian Igo Alliance Chronicle |
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In the begining of the century igo was played in Sailors club in Pula. Thanks to one of the players then, now deceased Mr.Ervin Fink, this noble game of ancient far east civilizations was revived first in Ljubljana, and afterwards in Croatia. Igo has been continuously played since 1964., when Miljenko Srdic, a reporter of weekly magazine "Plavi vjesnik", published articles about the game, which initiated formation of groups of players in Rijeka and Zagreb. In autumn of 1964. first igo tournament was held. It was a championship of Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Zagreb, gathering most of the players. Stjepan Szabo won the tournament. By the end of 1964. magazine "Plavi vjesnik" has organized "Towns tournament", which was held for twelve consecutive years in Zagreb. Teams of three players from towns of former Yugoslavia contested it. Shortly afterwards first clubs in Rijeka and Zagreb have been founded. Groups in Duga Resa and in Delnice were also active. Since 1967. Zoran Mutabzija had started publishing courier "Go vjesnik", which he had edited, financed and published on his own. "Go vjesnik" was published by Go klub "Zagreb" from 1968. to 1973. "Towns tournament" was discontinued after Yugoslavian Go Federation was formed. Go klub "Gordowa" from Veliki Grdjevac and Go klub "Sljeme" from Zagreb were formed a few years after. In 1971. Croatian Go Association was formed. It is important to emphasize that even before this event many club events were organized, croatian players contested many tournaments home and abroad. Annual international team tournament "Zlatni zmaj" in Ljubljana was one of them, which our players attended regularly. Croatian Go Association had started Croatian go championship and National team league, although league was played only for three seasons. During the summer of 1974. Croatian Go Association and Go klub "Zagreb" have organized 17th European Go Congress in Zagreb. In 1978. Go Associations of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia have formed Yugoslavian Go Federation. Many federal events were organized: team championship, national go championship and others, in which Croatian Go Association participated by organization and competition. As a member of Yugoslav Go Federation, Croatian Go Association was a member of international go organizations. Due to the lack of financial support players seldom attended international tournaments. Nevertheless, Zoran Mutabzija, born in Rijeka, won two European titles in 1967. and again in 1971. Since 1979. WAGC is organized where winers of national championship compete. Croatian players played four times on WAGC as Yugoslavian Champions:
In 1980. European Go Congress was organized in Croatia again, in Mali Losinj. This time Go klub "Student" from Rijeka was organiser together with Croatian Go Association. Since 1970. untill the colapse of the former Yugoslavia there had been organized individual championships in Social Republic of Croatia. .--------------------------------------------------------------------. ! No ! Year ! City ! Winner ! Club ! !--------------------------------------------------------------------! ! I ! 1970. ! Zagreb ! Orbanic Djordje! Sljeme (Zagreb) ! ! II ! 1971. ! Rijeka-Zagreb ! Orbanic Djordje! Sljeme (Zagreb) ! ! III ! 1972. ! Opatija ! Gudac Petar ! Student (Rijeka)! ! IV ! 1973. ! Zagreb ! Bacevina Sead ! Sljeme (Zagreb) ! ! V ! 1974. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Smud Mladen ! Zagreb (Zagreb) ! ! VI ! 1978. ! Veliki Zdenci ! Smud Mladen ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! VII ! 1979. ! Veliki Zdenci ! Koncer Slobodan! Student (Rijeka)! ! VIII ! 1980. ! zerjavinec ! Kuhar Velimir ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! IX ! 1981. ! Rijeka-V.Grdjev.! Smud Mladen ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! X ! 1982. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Vujasinovic Lj.! Student (Rijeka)! ! XI ! 1983. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Kuhar Velimir ! Prigorje (Popo.)! ! XII ! 1984. ! Bjelovar ! Kuhar Ivica ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! XIII ! 1985. ! Rijeka ! Koncer Slobodan! Student (Rijeka)! ! XIV ! 1987. ! Popovec ! Smud Mladen ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! XV ! 1988. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Kuhar Velimir ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! XVI ! 1989. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Smud Mladen ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! XVII ! 1990. ! Bjelovar ! Smud Mladen ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! ! XVIII ! 1991. ! Grubisno Polje ! Kuhar Velimir ! Gordowa (V.Grd.)! '--------------------------------------------------------------------' Since 1979. croatian players competed in championship of former Yugoslavia. Zoran Mutabzija won the championship three times and Velimir Kuhar once.
Here ia a table of results of croatian players playing on
Yugoslavian championship. Places the players won are writen
under the year the championship had been played. Championship
had 16 players, which qualified on republic level. Number on the left side of the table signifies place that each player has achived on all championships. On club championships of formal Yugoslavia GO klub "Gordowa" was the most acomplished croatian club. Go klub "Gordowa" won the championship in 1979. Croatian players contested international championships, but not as much as players from other republics, mostly for the lack of financial support, which forced players to self finance visits to tournaments. All activates were brutaly stoped by war in 1991. Go Federation of formal Yugoslavia stopped existing, and we have lost membership in all international organizations. We have formed anew Croatian Go Association consisting of clubs "Gordowa" (Veliki Grdjevac), "Kutina" (Kutina) and "Zagreb" (Zagreb). !---------------------------------------------------! ! Croatian igo championships -seniors ! !---------------------------------------------------! ! ! 1993. ! Opatija ! Velimir Kuhar ! ! ! 1994. ! Daruvar ! Zoran Mutabzija ! ! (*) ! 1996. ! Velika Mlaka ! Velimir Kuhar ! ! ! 1997. ! Malinska ! Zoran Mutabzija ! ! ! 1998. ! Zagreb ! Zoran Mutabzija ! ! ! 1999. ! Zagreb ! Zoran Mutabzija ! !---------------------------------------------------! !---------------------------------------------------! !Croatian igo championships - best female player ! !---------------------------------------------------! ! ! 1997. ! Malinska ! Zoran Mutabzija ! ! ! 1998. ! Zagreb ! Zoran Mutabzija ! ! ! 1999. ! Zagreb ! Zoran Mutabzija ! !---------------------------------------------------! !---------------------------------------------------! !Croatian igo championships - best junior ! !---------------------------------------------------! ! ! 1998. ! Malinska ! Jelena Ilic Dreven ! ! ! 1999. ! Zagreb ! Jelena Ilic Dreven ! ! ! 2000. ! Zagreb ! Jelena Ilic Dreven ! !---------------------------------------------------! (*) This championship was not organized by Croatian Go Association. In this relatively short period Croatian representation team played only ones, on Japanese week in Duserdolf in september of 1993. , where we played against strong teams of Slovakia and Russia 2. Strength of our representation is somewhere above 4th dan. Clubs regularly organize events. Go-klub "Gordowa" organizes "Lovrak days" tournament in memory to the Croatian writer Mato Lovrak at the begining of june every year in Veliki Grdjevac. Go-klub "Zagreb" from Zagreb was formed during autumn of 1996. and revives the Zagreb championships which were held seasonly. There were two championships. At the of 1995 there was another club formed in Zagreb by the name of Go-klub "Croatia" . During two years in 1996 and 1997 this club was dominating in the organization of tournaments. In the October of 1998. another club was formed in Velika Gorica, Go-club "Velika Gorica". There was always a problem with the lack of funds for good organization. Since 1991. correspondence go championship are beeing organized, a new championship every year. During the years of war correspondence championship was the main bond between players. !---------------------------------------------------! ! Correspondence championshiop ! !---------------------------------------------------! !1. !1992.-1997. ! Velimir Kuhar ! Zagreb ! !2. !1993.-1999. ! Vlado Romek ! Bjelovar ! !3. !1994.-1999. ! Velimir Kuhar ! Zagreb ! !4. !1995.-2000. ! Mladen Smud ! Velika Gorica! !5. !1996.-2000. ! V.Romek and ! Bj. i Vg. ! ! M.Smud ! !---------------------------------------------------! We also started with publishing books with the rules so first editions came in 1994. with "Kratka pravila goa" (Short rules of go) of Velimir Kuhar and in 1995. Mladen Smud's "IGO osnove" (Igo basics). In the 1997. at EGF congress in Marseilles Croatia becomes an organizator for another Grand Prix Fujitsu Tournament, and the final recognition comes with becoming a full member with all its rights of the Internation Go Federation (IGF). That is the first time when Croatian flag could be seen at the World Amateur Go Championship In autumn of 1997. Croatian Igo Alliance (HIGOU) was formed, uniting all individual Croatian players, no mater what club they belong to, who are willing to contribute to the promotion of the game of go in Croatia. Since June 1998 Croatian Grand Prix or Croatian Open Championship is being held. !---------------------------------------------------------------------! ! Grand prix Croatia ! !---------------------------------------------------------------------! !! 1998. ! Zagreb - Hotel "i" ! Leon Matoh ! Slovenia ! 5.dan !! !! 1999. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Leon Matoh ! Slovenia ! 5.dan !! !! 2000. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Zoran Mutabzija ! Croatia ! 5.dan !! !--------------------------------------------------------------------!! I former Yugoslavia cities tournament were organized regularly every year in Zagreb before, except one time in Kumrovec, therefore to continue with the tradition we are organizing each year Croatian cities tournament. !----------------------------------------------------------------------------! ! Croatian cities tournament ! !----------------------------------------------------------------------------! ! ! 1998. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Velimir Kuhar, Ivica Kuhar, Vlado Romek !! ! ! 1999. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Velimir Kuhar, Ivica Kuhar, Tomislav Krog !! ! ! 2000. ! Veliki Grdjevac ! Mladen smud, Zvonko Bednjanec, Daniel Zrno!! !----------------------------------------------------------------------------! Since becoming a member of International Go Federation (IGF), Croatian Igo Alliance aquired the place in annual World Amateur Go Championship. Up to now under croatian flag our representatives played 2 times:
By the decision of Croatian Igo Aliance committee our representative at WAGC is current Croatian champion.
*15.05.1999 in the lonely house below Medvednica died our pionir of go in our country. With the group of enthusiasts of complex games, he initiated playing Go in Zagreb. Seduced by the beauty of the game of go he was more inclined to philosophy of the game. He was a winner of two Croatian championships 1967 and 1968.
**16.06.1999 after long and fatal disease our Ivica Kuhar has left us in peace, he was founder and an organizator of Go play in the area of Bilogora and a reprezentative and Croatian champion in 1984. We lost another passionate go player and a capable organizator.
This is not the end of this chronicle; it is still beeing writen;
history is still coming, we create it. To do so we must continue
to work and play.
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