Ferran wrote:
What I'm not sure is that the EGF has a proper balance, or that it has a clear vision of its reason. Is it there so that people can play? Internet has sort of turned that obsolete, even if you only use it to set up real life meetings through Whatsapp. Is it there to give pros a marketing push? That's the origins of the Kiin, as I understand it, but not of the EGF.
If the reason for the EGF is the *promotion* of Go, then not using Asian certified Pros AND not making sure there are women in the *general* events is a mistake. It's not a question of rank.
I believe you're conflating the purpose of the EGF with the purpose of the European championship. While the EGF has many goals, including the promotion of go, the main goal of the European championship, as I understand it, is to find the strongest European player(s). So, it very much
is a question of rank (or rather, rating and playing strength).
The rules for selecting the candidates are quite clear, reasonable and don't favour any gender. Here's a direct quote from the 2021 tournament rules:
24 top European players (passport of EGF member country required) will participate in the event. They can be either amateur or professional players.
The players qualify for participation in order of their best achieved EGF rating within the last twelve months (1.11.2020 – 31.10.2021), as given in the EGF rating database by 31.10.2021.
A minimum of 2351 EGD rating is requested.
Only active players with a tournament result since 1.01.2019 documented in the EGD will be taken into account.
The selection is done as follows:
a) Nominate the Top 8 from 2020 European Championship
b) Then, we nominate 13 players from EGD list based on max rating 1.11.2020 – 31.10.2021
c) U20 champion at 2021 European Youth Championship
d) 2 EGF wildcards
Players who want to play the European Championship have to preregister [...] for the EC latest till the deadline for registration is: 31.10.2021
Who are these strong female players that meet the criteria but were not included? If we take into account that the lowest ranked player who was nominated has the rating of 2566, then the only female player who could potentially participate is Svetlana Shikshina and she's only played in 4 tournaments in the past 5 years so doesn't seem to be particularly active. I only did a quick search so may have missed someone but clearly there's not many potential female candidates.
The only contentious issue here are the wildcards and I'm generally in favour of them being given to strong young players as it was done in the Pro qualification tournament.
Ferran wrote:
But, as I see it, the message right now is that, if you're a woman, you're out of luck: you can play in the Female Tournament or Go East, but there's not much for you here.
I've yet to hear of a single European tournament where women aren't allowed to or aren't welcome to join provided they meet any required nationality, age and strength criteria. What is more, I never felt that the European Women's championship was particularly well-attended, especially since many strong female players choose not to participate and I doubt it's because they're not feeling welcome.
