Promoting Go in the UK and beyond
British Championship
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The BGA organises the British Go Championship annually, for the title of British Go Champion for the winner and for the eight best players to earn qualifying points for the World Amateur Go Championship. The Championship comprises a number of events culminating in a Title Match. Details of rules and organisation, and so on, are available using the links on the left. The trophy is the John Barrs Goban, shown here. It is a traditional Japanese Go board (a good quality tenmasa board). |
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Current Champion: Matthew Macfadyen |
2012
The 2012 British Championship kicks off with the Candidates' Tournament on the May Bank Holiday weekend. All those who have played in tournaments between April 2011 and March 2012 and ended with an EGF rating of 1900 or higher are on the list of qualifiers. This list may contain players who do not have the required British nationality or residency requirements, however.
The Candidates' is from Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May 2012 at ISH in London. More details are on the Tournament Calendar.
The subsequent Challengers' League is planed for the Jubilee holiday in June, also in London.
2011
Title Match (reduced from 5 to 3 games this year)
All games relayed live on KGS from 10:00.
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Sunday 3rd July
at Matthew's house in Barford, Warwickshire
Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
Game One - No Comments
Game One Relay raw record including unmoderated comments.
Guo Juan Audio Commentry -
Sunday 17th July
at Nick Wedd's house near Oxford
Won by Nick Krempel by 2.5 points.
Game Two - No Comments
Game Two Relay raw record including unmoderated comments.
Guo Juan Audio Commentry - Saturday 17th September
at Nick Krempel's house, Camden, London
Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
Game Three Relay raw record including unmoderated comments.
Guo Juan Audio Commentry
Challengers' League
Matthew Macfadyen, British Champion 2010, won all seven games in the Challengers' League to earn the right to defend his title. This year he will be playing Nick Krempel (3 dan London), who won five games in the League, in a best of 3 final. Hui Wang and Alistair Wall just missed out on playing for the title by one win each.
Candidates
The qualifiers for the British Go Championship are based on their performance in UK tournaments. The qualifying requirement for the Candidates' Tournament is to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament, played between April in the previous year and the end of March, in which the candidate played in all rounds. You must also be a BGA member and satisfy the residency requirements in section A.2 of the official rules.
28 players from 2 kyu to 5 dan attended the Candidates' Tournament held at Selwyn College in Cambridge. Andrew Kay (4 dan) was unbeaten winner and Des Cann (4 dan) won five out of six. The rest of the qualifiers, on 4/6, were Hui Wang (5 dan), Alan Thornton (1 dan), William Brooks (3 dan), Nick Krempel (3 dan) and Alistair Wall (3 dan). The reserves, also on 4/6, were David Ward, Richard Hunter and Paul Taylor.
Champion Matthew Macfadyen was on hand for two days in the Lyttleton Room to analyse the players' games and suss out the likely opposition.
The entry fee for the British Championship this year was £25, including the Challengers' League, for those who qualify, as well as the Candidates' Tournament.
2010
Vanessa Wong, studying in Shrewsbury, won her playoff game against Richard Hunter in the Challengers' and so qualified to play for the 2010 Title Match against current champion Matthew Macfadyen, who also qualified in the Challengers' with a flawless 7/7 win.
Vanessa won the first game, but Matthew won the next three to retain the title. The last game was actually held on 16th January 2011.
For previous years use the links in the left hand side menu.