Thomas Debarre ('rubik' on KGS)

When the future of European Go is discussed, everyone mentions Ilya Shikshin and Artem, but if you ask me, there is another player with a bright future ahead: Thomas Debarre.

Even before turning eighteen, Thomas managed to beat some of our top European players, including professionals (Catalin Taranu, Alexander Dinerchtein and even Fan Hui!).

In MilanMilan's interview for GoSensations.com, when asked who the strongest player in Europe is, Liu stated that he was "a [fan] of Debarre's style", and indeed his Go style is extraordinary! He now likes to attack very much (maybe his teacher, Guo Juan, influenced him (-:) and although I still think that Ilya is the strongest amateur fighter in Europe, he will soon challenge that!

As an example, I attached one of Thomas' most epic win (played in Paris, a little over a year ago) where he crushed Fan Hui (just look at how many weak groups White has in the middlegame!). White made it close later on, but actually he was completely destroyed in the opening and Thomas was never afraid to fight! It is rather surprising how a youngster from France can play such a powerful game...

Let's see how he does in this year's World Amateur Go Championship. We will be cheering for him!