Go In Britain 2023

Summary

2023 was the year that the unincorporated British Go Association was wound up, at the online AGM on 20th April, and all activities were taken over by the Company Limited by Guarantee.

The UK tournament scene was again dominated by Chinese students and another became British Go Champion. Children of Chinese origin also continued to boost the numbers on the youth Go scene.

Our two oldest female players, Pauline Bailey and Kathleen Timmins, died in December.

British Go Congress

For the first time the British Go Congress was not held in Great Britain. In conjunction with the Irish Go Association it was held at a hotel in Belfast. 47 players took part in the British Open, which was won by Tangyi Chen of Liverpool on tie break from Mingxuan Chang from China. The Lightning was won for a second year by Changhao Huang.

Regional Tournaments

In 2023 nearly all the tournaments were won by Chinese students or players of Chinese ancestry. The exceptions were the Welsh Open won by Alistair Wall, on tie-break from Toby Manning, the Edinburgh won by Greg Kudla (2k) and the Bar Low won by Brook Roberts (3k). Yicheng Xiao of UCL won three (tied Trigantius, Not the London Open and Sheffield University). Tianyi Chen of Liverpool also won three (the first ever Lancaster, the Wessex and T Mark Hall Rapid). Double event winners were Chun Fang (tied Trigantius and Mind Sports Olympiad) and young Ryan Zhang (Three Peaks and Northern). The first UCL was won by Yiyang Ding, Durham by Sicheng Shang, Cheshire by Chenghang Liu, MSO 13x13 by Tik Wai Cheung and Sheffield by Peikai Xue.

Cambridge hosted two editions of the British Small Board; the first (for 2022) was won by Changhao Huang and the second by Tunyang Xie. The two online Go events in the MSO GP were won by Ho Yeung Woo (19x19) and Yorkson Cheung of Hong Kong (9x9).

In Ireland the April Rip-Off was won by Marc Stoer from Sweden and Seong-Jin Kim (8d Berlin) won the Confucius Cup on tie break from Mateusz Surm (3p).

The 127-player DDK Grand Prix was won by young Clinton Yu from Manchester with 965 points, ahead of Lauren Hindmarch on 556. Rachel Chik from Cambridge was the best player better than 20 kyu with 398.

Pair Go

The British Pair Go Championship was held this time at Frodsham in Cheshire. The champions were Yanming Zhang and Yue Matt Xi. The six-pair handicap section was won by Shobita Bhumbra and Tim James.

British Championship

The Candidates' Tournament was held at the Open University in Milton Keynes and attracted 17 players. This was the only event to select the players for the title match with Ho Yeung Damen Woo and Bruno Poltronieri, both on 5 wins, being selected.

The title match was played from 26th to 28th August at the London Go Centre with streaming online and Matthew Macfadyen commentaries. The match was won two games to one by Ho Yeung Woo (a student in Nottingham), giving the UK another new champion, and so congratualtions go to him.

International

The World Amateur was held in Shenzhen, China, in December, with Tim Hunt being our representative. He won three games to place 35th. Our player in the Korea Prime Minister Cup in Gwangju was Alex Rix; he won three games to come 32nd. In the International Amatuer Pair Go Championships, in Tokyo, Joanne Leung and Bruno Poltronieri were our reps, winning two games to come 20th.

The UK online team ended the 2022-2023 season of the European C-League in second place behind Ireland. However the UK lost the promotion play-off against Finland and stayed in the C-League. At the start of the 2023-2024 season things were going well, ending the year in second place behind South Africa.

Youth Events

Youth events were again a mixture of online and in-person. The finals of the UK Go Challenge were held online in October and won by Ryan Zhang and Kun Yin Ng. The online Youth Squad Selection was won by Scott Cobbold. The 2022 Youth Championship was scheduled for January 2023 and won by Scott Cobbold; the 2023 edition in November was won by Alvina Kwok. Both were held in Leicester. The best school team in the online championship was Winchester.

The 132-player Youth Grand Prix was won by Ryan Zhang with 1351 points. Second was Caleb Monk (1228) and third was Clinton Yu (1197).

The European Youth Go Team Championship for 2022-2023 saw the UK youth team beating Turkey and Czechia to end an excellent second, behind France. At the start of the 2023-2024 season they beat Turkey but lost to France. Two Leagues against China saw the top one drawn, but the bottom one lost be two points. A third online last-team-standing match against Hong Kong saw the opponents just ahead at the end of year.

16 young players joined the annual BGA Youth Residential, again held at Caythorpe Court, an adventure holiday centre in Lincolnshire, in the middle of August. Mark Kirillin won the 19x19 tournament, Rachel Chik and Michael Mitcham-Harding won the Pair Go and Morgan Pittaway won the 13x13.

London Open

The London Open ended the year as usual, held at the London Go Centre with a entry of 84. The large number of strong Chinese players was dominated by two young boys: Yue Wen won the Open and Qi Wen won the Lightning, whilst together the brothers won the Pair Go. Tik Wai Cheung took the David Ward Trophy for the best British player. The professional player Catalin Taranu gave lectures and analysed games.

The 7th European Grand Prix Final was held along side with ten top European players. Cornel Burzo was the winner, whilst British Champion Damen Woo was fourth.

More BGA history