European Othello Grand Prix Series European Grand Prix history
|
Year |
|
|
|
1986 |
Imre Leader
|
J.-François Puget
|
Graham Brightwell
|
1987 |
Peter Bhagat
|
Didier Piau
|
Augusto Brusca
|
1988 |
Imre Leader
|
Karsten Feldborg
|
David Shaman
|
1989 |
Karsten Feldborg
|
|
Graham Brightwell
|
1990 |
Peter Bhagat
|
Marc Tastet
|
Imre Leader
|
1991 |
Imre Leader
|
David Shaman
|
Francesco Marconi
|
1992 |
Graham Brightwell
|
Marc Tastet
|
Dominique Penloup
|
1993 |
Marc Tastet
|
David Shaman
|
Imre Leader
|
1994 |
Marc Tastet
|
Graham Brightwell
|
Stéphane Nicolet
|
1995 |
Marc Tastet
|
Graham Brightwell
|
Dominique Penloup
|
1996 |
David Shaman
|
Marc Tastet
|
Dominique Penloup
|
1997 |
Marc Tastet
|
Graham Brightwell
|
David Shaman
|
1998 |
Emmanuel Caspard
|
Dominique Penloup
|
Erik Jensen
|
1999 |
Emmanuel Caspard
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Stéphane Nicolet
|
2000 |
Stéphane Nicolet
|
Alexandre Cordy
|
Graham Brightwell
|
2001 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Stéphane Nicolet
|
Alexandre Cordy
|
2002 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Andreas Höhne
|
David Shaman
|
2003 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Andreas Höhne
|
David Shaman
|
2004 |
Andreas Höhne
|
Emmanuel Caspard
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
2005 |
Graham Brightwell
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Frédéric Auzende
|
2006 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Albert Kortendijk
|
Francesco Marconi
|
2007 |
Imre Leader
|
Milosz Cupial
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
2008 |
Michele Borassi
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Sébastien Barre
|
2009 |
Milosz Cupial
|
Tom Schotte
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
2010 |
Imre Leader
|
Matthias Berg
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
2011 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Marc Tastet
|
Nicky v/d Biggelaar
|
2012 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Nicky v/d Biggelaar
|
Michele Borassi
|
2013 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Francesco Marconi
|
Martin Ødegård
|
2014 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Marc Tastet
|
Nicky v/d Biggelaar
|
2015 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Miroslav Voracek
|
Francesco Marconi
|
2016 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Tom Schotte
|
Dmitriy Atamanov
|
2017 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Matthias Berg
|
Marc Tastet
|
2018 |
Matthias Berg
|
Marc Tastet
|
Tom Schotte
|
2019 |
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Marc Tastet
|
Imre Leader
|
2020 - 2022 |
The 2020, 2021 & 2022 EGP seasons were cancelled due to Covid-19. |
||
2023 |
Imre Leader
|
Takuji Kashiwabara
|
Tomoki Otaka
|
Paul Ralle 
In 1985 the Othello federations of Italy, Great Britain, Denmark and France had the great idea to combine their major open tournaments into an international circuit. They agreed on a set of rules and a scoring system to determine the overall winner, and named the circuit the "European Grand Prix" (EGP).
The inaugural EGP season started with the Milan Open in December 1985, followed by the Cambridge Open (February 1986), the Copenhagen Open (April 1986) and closed with the Paris Open (August 1986).
Imre Leader of Great Britain was the first EGP champion winning the title in a thrilling season finale in Paris overtaking the French master Jean-François Puget by just one EGP point!
A few years later the EGP became a five tournament circuit when the Brussels Open was added to the 1991 season. As new European Othello federations emerged, new tournaments were added and by 2009 the EGP had grown to a massive 12 stage circuit with tournaments all over Europe from Barcelona to Stockholm. The organising committee found it was becoming increasingly difficult to schedule so many different stages within one season and decided they needed to find a new system. The new system involved splitting the 12 stages into two groups of 6 so that a season would only consists of 6 stages organised by each group of countries on alternating years.
The EGP with the new format continued from 2010 until 2019 (with three more stages added along the way) when Covid-19 forced a three year break. With the introduction of the new European Championships in 2022 it was decided that the EGP needed to be "downsized" even further and returned in 2023 as a four tournament circuit just like the inaugural season (each participating country now organises an EGP tournament every three years).