Every year the BGA organises a series of events to determine who will be the British Go Champion. These events are conducted according to the official rules, which are summarised below. There is also Guidance for the conduct of the Title Match . As well as the title “British Go Champion”, for which the trophy is The John Barrs Go Ban (pictured right), prize money and qualifying points for the World Amateur Go Championship are up for grabs.
Current (2006 and 2007) Champion: Bei Ge
Previous (2005) Champion: Matthew Macfadyen
The list of players qualified for the 2008 British Go Championship is based on their performance in tournaments played during 2007. The qualifying achievement for the Candidates’ Tournament 2008 was to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament in 2007 in which the candidate played in all rounds.
The list of players qualified for the 2007 British Go Championship was based on their performance in tournaments played during 2006. The qualifying achievement for the Candidates’ Tournament 2007 was to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament in 2006 in which the candidate played in all rounds.
The Candidates' Tournament stayed this year on the May Bank Holiday weekend, at 6 rounds, and at Selwyn College in Cambridge. There were 23 players and four local ghosts taking part, from 2 kyu to 6 dan. Winner with a straight 6 was Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan) from Leamington. With 5 wins were Des Cann (5 dan) and Alex Selby (3 dan). The top four of the group on 4 wins also qualified for the Challengers' league: David Ward (4 dan), T.Mark Hall (4 dan), Will Brooks (3 dan) and Sam Aitken (3 dan). Tim Hunt was first reserve under the place last year tie-break. They would join Champion Bei Ge in the League in June.
The home of BGJ Editor Barry Chandler in Winnersh (Berks) was the venue for the long weekend of the Challengers' League. The top players from the Candidates' joined with British Champion Bei Ge to decide who will play this year's title match. Bei took an early lead and won all seven games to take first place. Surprisingly Matthew Macfadyen only won 4 games; his losing scores only totalling 4.5! Alex Selby lost his first game, but then won his next 4 and the last one to end on 5 wins and clear second place; his wins against Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Aitken were both half-pointers. So Alex will challenge Bei Ge for the British Champion's title. This is only the second time since 1977 that the final will not involve Matthew Macfadyen, who ended third. Also on 4 wins was David Ward, on 3 Des Cann, 2 T Mark Hall and William Brooks, and on 1 Sam Aitken. Tony Atkins was referee and ensured all went well and with Barry's help four games at the weekend were broadcast live on KGS.
The title match between Bei Ge and Alex Selby took place between July and October. Game 5 was not needed as Bei Ge won the series three games to one.
Details of title games including game records are available.
The BGA has kindly arranged for Guo Juan to provide audio comments an all the title matches. See the game records page for details.
The list of players qualified for the 2009 British Go Championship is based on their performance in tournaments played during 2008. The qualifying achievement for the Candidates’ Tournament 2009 is to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament in 2008 in which the candidate played in all rounds.
Following a rule change, the top two players from the Challengers' League played the best-of-5 Title match. These were Bei Ge and Matthew Macfadyen. Bei Ge won the match 3 games to 2. He will be the BGA representative at the World Amateur Go Championship in Tokyo in May 2007.
Matthew Macfadyen retained his Title by defeating the Challenger, Des Cann, 3-0 in the best-of-5 games match.
A detailed history of the British Go Championship and detailed results of the matches and qualifying tournaments since 1997 is available.
The Rules of the British Go Championships are the definitive reference.
These rules were amended for the 2006 Championship, to change the way of qualifying for each of the stages, and also the length and timing of some of the stages. In 2008 AGA Rules were adopted.
Until 2006 the Champion did not need to play the Challenger’s League and also some of the best players did not play the Candidates’. Since 2000 qualifying was based on the number of wins at certain levels in British tournaments, rather than achieved rating after events as in the new system.
For reference, the old versions of the rules and pages detailing changes have been preserved:For those of you who do not have time to read all of the rules and just want to know how to win, here is a brief summary:
To start with, if you want to be British Go Champion, you have to be "British". We take that to mean that either you are eligible to hold a British passport, or that you have lived in this country for five years. Then, since the BGA goes to the effort of running the Championship and we would like something in return, all competitors have to be paid-up members of the BGA.
Once you have dealt with these requirements you will have to play some Go. In fact you need to plan ahead a little bit because to win next year’s Championship you must qualify this (calendar) year. You can qualify from any of the many tournaments that take place around Europe each year (provided that they are rated on the European rating system). All you need is to play the entire event (that is not to drop out early or just ghost the odd round) and end the event with 1900 or higher. Please note that deliberately entering an event at too high a grade just to get a 1900 rating will not be tolerated.
The British Championship proper comprises three tournaments. First you must win through the Candidates’ Tournament. All the players who qualified during the previous year play in a six round Swiss-style tournament. Watch out for the announcement of this event as you will not get invited directly. The event is now held on the first May bank holiday weekend. The top seven (or possibly sometimes six) players gain a place in stage two. If you want to be on the safe side, I advise you to win five of your games, but if you can only manage four then you may qualify, if you are lucky with the tie break.
Stage two is the Challengers’ League. This is an eight-player all-play-all tournament that normally takes place from the Friday to the Monday of the second May Bank Holiday or a later weekend if there is a clash with the WAGC. You and the other six qualifiers are joined by the previous champion. The organiser would be quite pleased if you could beat all seven of your adversaries outright. Then you are the clear winner of the league and progress to the Title Match as the first challenger. If you come second you will also play the Title Match as the second challenger. If there is a tie for first or second place in the league, those involved may have to have a play-off game (on the Monday afternoon) to decide the second challenger.
So now you are in the title match. This is the last hurdle but the biggest. A best of five series of games against the other winner from the League. Each player has three hours on the clock for each game. These are some of the longest time limits in any European competition.
Good luck! You only have to win about 16 games of Go from start to finish of the process. What is so difficult about that?
Of course there is more to the Championship than winning. After all, only one person can win each year, but lots of other players take part, play some serious Go, enjoy themselves, and aim to achieve what they themselves consider success.