News Archive - Part 1

3 December 2006

Ken Dackombe close to winning Grand Prix

Ken Dackombe is very close to winning the Youth Grand Prix for 2006, after picking up another 70 points at the West Surrey handicap tournament. Ken now has 1299 points, more than 100 points ahead of nearest rival Will Brooks. The only tournaments remaining are the Scottish Bar-Low, which is not usually attended by the top junior players, and the London Open.

2 December 2006

Bei Ge is UK Champion

Bei Ge is the new UK Go Champion. He has taken the title from Matthew Macfadyen by a score of 3 games to 2. The last game was played in Oxford. Matthew has previously won the title more than 20 times. You can listen to a free audio commentary on the final game at the excellent Guo Juan's Go School. You will find it there in the audio lectures section.

26 November 2006

Will Brooks is UK 13x13 Champion

Will Brooks has added to his national junior title by winning the British Small Board Championship.

It is very unusual for a junior to win a national open title like this! Ken Dackombe was also among the prize winners, so Will did not make up much ground on him at the top of the Youth Grand Prix table.

17 November 2006

Will Brooks profile

We are planning to bring you on this page profiles of all the top UK junior players. And now you can see the first one, of Will Brooks.

Will has won the British Youth Championship for the last three years, and he gave some very interesting answers to some of our questions. More profiles will be added soon.

16 November 2006

International Pair Go

Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke are in Tokyo this weekend to represent the UK in the International Amateur Pair Go Championship By following the link you can see the schedule and the other competitors, and you can follow the progress of the tournament at the weekend.

12 November 2006

European Youth Go Masters League

Ondrej Fidrmuc, aged 16 from the Czech Republic, won the European Youth Go Masters league. You can see the results of the finals which were played in Strasbourg. You can also see pictures of the eight finalists, and game records from the finals. In the qualifying league, Fidrmuc only finished fourth behind the winner Antti Tormanen aged 16 from Finland who had 8 wins, and Antoine Fenech aged 20 from France and Ondrej Silt aged 19 from the Czech Republic who had 7 each. However, Tormanen was not able to play in the final stages, and Fenech lost in the quarter finals to Jun Tarumi of Germany. Fidrmuc beat Silt in the semi-finals and then Tarumi in the final.

8 November 2006

School Club relaunched

The school club at St Laurence's School in Cambridge was relaunched today after a short break. Now that Tim Lachlan-Cope has left, the strongest player in the school is Dominic Milbourn. But there were more than a dozen new players present today as the club was successfully restarted.

5 November 2006

News from other mindsports: Scrabble

Former weightlifter Jake Jacobs is the winner of the National Scrabble Championships. He defeated Christian Brown by 3 games to 2. Jake, 57, lives in Ely in Cambridgeshire. In the 1980s he worked on the TV series Superstars, teaching sportsmen how to do weightlifting. The match was held at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London.

3 November 2006

Takao Shinji is Meijin

In Japan, the challenger Takao Shinji has taken the Meijin title from holder Cho U. Takao, aged 30, won the match by 4 games to 2. The Meijin title is the second highest ranking professional title in Japan. Takao also holds the Honinbo title. Takao and Cho, together with Yamashita Keigo and Hane Naoki are sometimes called the Four Emperors of Japanese Go because of their dominance of the current professional Go scene.

3 November 2006

News from other mindsports: Shogi

A shogi demonstration is to be held in Asia House in London on 29 November, it has been announced. Shogi is the Japanese form of chess. Shogi and Go are the two great traditional board games played professionally in Japan. The demonstration will feature Segawa Shoji who is very famous in Japan for becoming a professional shogi player at the advanced age of 35 years. He was a salaryman and keen amateur shogi player, but the rules on professional status had to be changed to allow him to achieve his dream of becoming a professional. Previously it was not possible to turn pro after the age of 26.

30 October 2006

Go to be recognised as a Sport?

This week the Government amended the Charities Bill to change the definition of Sport for charitable purposes. The new definiton refers to sport or games which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion. This means that Go, and other mindsports such as chess and bridge, should now fall within the definition. For more information see this article on the website of the English Chess Federation.

29 October 2006

Ken Dackombe increases YGP lead

Ken Dackombe has increased his lead over Will Brooks in the Youth Grand Prix by picking up another 60 YGP points at the Wessex Tournament, held this year in Keynsham near Bristol. The overall winner of the tournament was Mike Charles 2-dan.

17 September 2006

Ken Dackombe retakes YGP lead

Ken Dackombe has retaken the Youth Grand Prix lead from Will Brooks after an excellent three straight wins in the East Midlands tournament. This event was held in the dramatic setting of the National Space Centre in Leicester. The overall winner of the tournament was Simon Shiu 4-dan from Bristol.

25 August 2006

Will Brooks takes lead in YGP

Will Brooks has taken the lead in the Youth Grand Prix following his results in the Isle of Man tournament. Will was 6th in the main tournament and 3rd in the afternoon tournament. The main tournament was won by Piers Shepperson and the afternoon one by Matthew Cocke. The Youth Grand Prix is still very close, with Ken and Kay Dackombe in second and third places not far behind Will.

12 August 2006

Shikshina is European Champion

The Russian professional player Svetlana Shikshina is the new European Go Champion. She is the only European female professional player. She won the European title at the European Go Congress in Rome. In the full results of the main tournament you can see that the overall winner was Park Chi Seon of Korea. Shikshina was the only player to beat Park, and as the top-placed European she becomes the new European Champion. At the EGF Hall of Fame you can see the list of previous European Champions. The winner for the previous 4 years was Alexandr Dinerchtein, also of Russia. He has won 6 times altogether, only one behind the record held by Jurgen Mattern. Shikshina is only the second woman to win the title; the other was Guo Juan. The only British player to win the European Championship was current UK champion Matthew Macfadyen who won three times.

29 July 2006

European Go Congress underway

The European Go Congress is getting underway today in Rome. Over 500 players are registered to take part in the event. The congress was last held in Italy in 1996 when it was held in Abano Terme. This time, there are several British players taking part including junior player Paul Blockley 12-kyu from Worcester. There are many professionals appearing as guests at the congress, including the great Takemiya Masaki. Takemiya won the Japanese Meijin title in 1995 and has been holder of the Honinbo title six times. Another famous guest who will be at the event is Yumi Hotta, creator of Hikaru no Go.

28 July 2006

European Youth Go Masters League

This is an update on the European Youth Go Masters league. Twelve of the top European youth players have been taking part in this and the top players will qualify for the finals in Strasbourg in November. The current leader is Antti Tormanen 4-dan aged 16 from Finland with 8 wins. Second equal are Antione Fenech 4-dan aged 20 from France and Ondrej Silt 6-dan aged 19 from the Czech Republic; they have 7 wins each.

24 July 2006

Liao Xingwen turns pro

Liao Xingwen is a young Chinese Go player who visited this country in the year 2000 to play in the MSO at Alexandra Palace. At the time he was only six years old, but he won the junior Go event at the MSO. He also did quite well in the main MSO Go event, where he defeated 4-dan players Francis Roads and Des Cann. Liao has been training in Beijing and now he has just become professional 1-dan.

14 July 2006

National Go Week

Many events took place around the country as part of National Go Week. You can now see Peter Wendes' photos from some of these.

13 July 2006

Honinbo Title Match

In Japan, the Honinbo title match has just finished. The Honinbo title is one of the three most prestigious professional titles in Japan. In this year's match, champion Takao Shinji has beaten the challenger Yamada Kimio in a best of seven games match by the score 4-2. You can see the games from the match on the GoBase site, where you can register for free.

10 July 2006

Youth Grand Prix update

Ken Dackombe still leads the Youth Grand Prix, following his good performance at the Epsom tournament. Ken's sister Kay moves back into second place ahead of Will Brooks. But there are still fewer than 50 points separating these three players. See the Youth Grand Prix page to see all the latest scores.

9 July 2006

Bei Ge wins first game against Macfadyen

The British Championship title match has got off to an exciting start as the challenger Bei Ge has managed to win the first game against long time champion Matthew Macfadyen. As you can see from the history of the British Championships, Matthew Macfadyen has won the title 21 times and in the last 9 years he has lost only two games while winning 27 in the best-of-5 title matches. You can replay the game with audio comments from professional player Guo Juan at her Go School site. On this excellent site there are also other free game commentaries, and some very useful Go lessons for just one Euro each, starting with a step-by-step course for novice players.

8 July 2006

Li Shen wins Epsom

Li Shen 6-dan, who is by far the strongest junior player in the country, has won the Epsom tournament for the third year in a row. Once again he had a perfect score of three wins out of three. Other juniors doing well at the event were brother and sister Ken and Kay Dackombe who both won all their games playing at 12-kyu. And reigning youth champion Will Brooks scored two wins to finish 7th overall in the tournament. For more details, see the Epsom results page.

3 July 2006

UK Go Challenge Finals

Will Brooks has won the UK Go Challenge finals for the second time in three years. Maria Tabor was second and last year's champion Matthew Hathrell came third. The champion school was Aston and the champion primary school was Milton. The age band winners in the boys sections were Will Brooks (U-18), Matthew Hathrell (U-16), Matthew Harris (U-14), Owen Walker (U-12), Richard Engel (U-10) and Jonathan Xue (U-8). In the girls' sections the champions were Maria Tabor (U-16), Aoife McCaul (U-10) and Bridget Johnson (U-8). And here are the full results. This event was very generously sponsored by LG Electronics UK Ltd.

21 June 2006

Go Seigen film due soon

According to the Chinese movie site MonkeyPeaches, director Tian Zhuangzhuang has received funding to complete his long-awaited film Wu Qingyuan. The project was in post production stage but had run out of money. Now Tian hopes that the film will appear at the Venice Film Festival. The subject of the film is the legendary Go player better known in this country as Go Seigen. Tian Zhuangzhuang is a well-known Chinese film director whose previous work includes The Blue Kite and The Horse Thief. The cast includes Taiwan's Chang Chen (previously in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Wu and Sylvia Chang (who featured in Eat Drink Man Woman). You can see more information about the film here.

19 June 2006

Challenger's League

The league to determine who will play in this year's British Championship title match took place this weekend in Letchworth. In first place was the reigning champion Matthew Macfadyen who has won the title more than 20 times. In second place was Bei Ge 4-dan from Milton Keynes. So these two will play a best-of-five match to see who will be the champion this year. This Challenger's League page has the full results of the league.

19 June 2006

Youth Grand Prix update

The strong performance by Will Brooks at Durham has lifted the 2004 YGP winner up into second place in this year's table. But it is incredibly tight at the top. Current leader Ken Dackombe is just 22 ahead of Will, who is in turn just 16 points ahead of Ken's sister Kay. This year's title race could be even more exciting than the close finish between Maria Tabor and Jonathan Englefield last time round.

18 June 2006

Will Brooks second in Durham

Will Brooks was second in the Durham tournament this weekend. He won five games out of six to finish second behind fellow Cambridge player David Ward.

31 May 2006

World Amateur Go Championship

The World Amateur Go Championship, sponsored by Japan Airlines has just finished. This year there were players from 68 different countries. The winner was Hiraoka Satoshi from Japan, and second was 13-year-old Tang Wei Xing from China. The British representative, Des Cann 4-dan, finished in 30th place. This results table has the full information of all results in the tournament.

21 May 2006

European Cup Results

The European Cup was won by Seok-Bin Cho, the same player who won the Toyota Tour last month. Seok-Bin Cho is a Korean 7-dan player who currently lives in Hamburg.

15 May 2006

Ken Dackombe leads Youth Grand Prix

After the Bracknell tournament, Ken Dackombe has taken over the lead of the Youth Grand Prix from his sister Kay. Ken's three wins at Bracknell gave him 100 Grand Prix points so he is now in first place with 620. Kay is second with 582. In third place is the UK youth champion Will Brooks, and fourth is Jonathan Englefield who won the Youth Grand Prix in 2002 and 2003. Maria Tabor, the reigning Youth Grand Prix champion, is fifth. But there are still plenty of tournaments to go in 2006, so there are lots of players with a chance of winning. On the Youth Grand Prix page you can see the full scores for this year so far and the winners in previous years.

14 May 2006

Ken Dackombe wins 3 at Bracknell

Ken Dackombe of Farnborough won three straight games at the Bracknell tournament. Other junior players doing well at the event were Will Brooks and Jonathan Englefield who scored two wins each. The tournament was won by Roman Pszonka 3-dan from Warsaw. You can see more details on the results page.

10 May 2006

UK Go Challenge 2006

The 2006 UK Go Challenge is now underway. Heats have been starting in individual schools, building up towards the finals in Loughborough in July. From early reports we hear that 22 players are in the heat at Milton School where early leaders include the school's reigning champion Tom Tyrrell and the school's highest rated player Aoife McCaul. And in the Cambridge Chess & Go Club there are 13 players with Matthew Harris and Owen Walker tied in the lead with new player Alan Kanapin after two rounds. If your school is not yet in the competition, there is still time to enter. For full information see the UK Go Challenge website.

8 May 2006

European Youth Go Masters

Twelve of Europe's top young players have been taking part in the European Youth Go Masters league. The top players will qualify for the finals in Strasbourg in November. The current leaders, with five wins each, are Antione Fenech 4-dan aged 20 from France and Antti Tormanen 4-dan aged 16 from Finland.

7 May 2006

MSO Cambridge

Go again featured in the games festival MSO Cambridge. On the Sunday there was the Bar-Low tournament for kyu players. There were some very good performances from juniors. Ken Dackombe 13-kyu from Farnborough won four games out of five. Maria Tabor 5-kyu from Epsom finished in third place overall and she beat two 3-kyu players in her three wins to continue her meteoric rise up the ratings. The overall winner of the tournament was Maria's father Paul. On the main BGA site are the full Bar-Low results. On the Saturday there was a continuous 9x9 tournament for juniors. There were 20 players and the winner was Daniel Naidoo with 8 wins out of 11. Roella Smith was second, and the puzzle competition was won by Aoife McCaul.

17 April 2006

Toyota Tour Results

The 2006 Toyota Tour was won by Seok-Bin Cho, the 7-dan Korean player currently living in Hamburg. In second and third places were Ondrej Silt and Radek Nechanicky, both 6-dans from the Czech Republic. Nechanicky was the winner in each of the previous three years. For more details of the final placings, see the Toyota Tour results pages. The Toyota Tour is an annual grand prix circuit of 12 events, and many top European players compete in it. The winner receives a prize of 1,500 Euros.

20 March 2006

Youth Championships Results

The Youth Championships were held this Sunday at King Edward VI School in Aston. William Brooks was the winner for the third time. The other age group winners were Maria Tabor, Hai Xia, Vanessa Wong, Dominic Boston and Thomas Meehan. You can find the full results on the Youth Championships 2006 page.

6 March 2006

Tim Lachlan-Hope wins Trigantius Novices

Tim Lachlan-Hope of St Laurence's School in Cambridge was the overall winner of the Trigantius Novices' event. Tim only learned to play last term and he was playing in his first ever tournament. The other top places in the event were also taken by juniors. Oliver Gerlach of the Cambridge Junior Chess and Go Club was second. And the three juniors tied in third place all gave very strong performances - Alice Lincoln from Farlingaye School in Woodbridge, Ben Haines from the Perse School in Cambridge and Sam Smith-Howell from Cedarwood School in Ipswich. Meanwhile in the main Trigantius event, top ranked UK junior Li Shen was finishing in second place while reigning youth champion Will Brooks was beating two 3-dans to finish in fifth place overall. There were also two wins each for rapidly improving juniors Zaichen Lu 5-kyu, Maria Tabor 6-kyu and Ken Dackombe 14-kyu.

27 February 2006

Matthew Hathrell wins Kurnik Tournament

There have been some informal meetings of junior players on the Kurnik Go Server on Monday evenings. This week there was a small tournament, and it was won by Matthew Hathrell from Finham Park School in Coventry. Matthew's sister Holly took second place. We hope it will be possible to have some more tournaments like this soon.

See newer news.

See news archive part 2.