A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

03-Jun: WAGC Under Way

The World Amateur is underway in Japan, in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. The opening ceremony on 1st June featured a drama of the slaying of the local eight-headed dragon and the city encouraging players to visit the castle and the large local lake. Play got underway the next day with the usual Asian and other strong countries winning two; after two days Korea, China, Japan and Hong Kong were the ones on four.

The UK representative, Andrew Kay, lost as expected to the Korean player, but then won his next three against Lloyd Rubidge of South Africa, Martin Li of Sweden and Stjepan Mestrovic of Croatia. This put him 13th of 59 with two days left to play.

Noel Mitchell for Ireland lost to Pal Balogh of Hungary, Carl...

28-May: Annti Tormanen 1p at Not the London Open

The Second Not The London Open took place over the second May Bank Holiday weekend at the London Go Centre. At 21, we had a slightly bigger entry than last year, reported organiser Gerry Gavigan, but we've still got a long way to go before we reach the size of its progenitor the London Open Go Congress. However in its own terms the tournament was successful. A nice feature of the weekend was the five or six people who just dropped in watch and enjoy the event, such as Bruno Poltronieri and Martha McGill. Antti Tormanen (1p) was the professional (thanks to the Nihon Ki-in); he...

20-May: Relaunched Oxford Tournament a Success

After a six year gap the Oxford Tournament was relaunched and successfully attracted 57 players. The previous Oxford event had 92 players, but that included a team playing a varsity match and attendances were generally higher in 2013. This time a new venue was used, Oxford Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre. This former meeting hall, converted into a community centre including a chapel and various side rooms, is conveniently near the centre of the city, tucked in behind Pembroke College and the new shopping centre.

Best of the players was Chao Zhang (6d London) who won all three games, including beating Romania's Alexandru-Petre Pitrop (4d), America's Hugh Zhang (6d) and Cheng Gong (3d London City). Hugh was rewarded with the...

13-May: Local Teacher from Japan Wins Nottingham

About 30 players enjoyed the 2nd Nottingham kyu training day and rapid tournament. It was held, as in 2018, in The Dice Cup board game cafe, near the city's Victoria Centre. The number of players was boosted by a minibus of students from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS), accompanied by Martin and Helen Harvey, and physics teacher Mike Winslow.

In the morning the teaching was given by Andrew Kay, Sandy Taylor, Martin Harvey, Robin Dews, Carl Roll and Tetsuro Yoshitake, a student from Japan, studying at the University of Nottingham.

In the afternoon there was a three-round rapid-play tournament, with 30 minutes per player, sudden death. The winner was Tetsuro Yoshitake (3d Nottingham), who won all three games including that...

08-May: Andrew Kay Wins Candidates'

Fifteen players gathered in the small Hertfordshire town of Letchworth, more formally known as Letchworth Garden City, to play in this year's Candidates' Tournament, the first round of the British Championship. It was held at the community hall called "The Settlement" and we are grateful to Simon and Alison Bexfield who arranged the venue and also acted as ghosts. Our thanks also go to Matt Marsh for running the Tournament.

As usual the event had six rounds over three days of the first May Bank Holiday, run on the Swiss system. With six players to qualify for the Challenger's League, four wins would almost certainly ensure qualification, while with three wins one would need to do well on the tie-break to qualify.

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20-Apr: BGJ 187 Now Available in Members Area

The Spring 2019 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.

08-Apr: British Go Congress Held in Manchester

Each year the British Go Congress is held in a different place, with the BGA's Annual General Meeting on the Saturday evening. The 2019 edition was held in the MacDonald Hotel on Manchester's London Road, not far from Piccadilly Station. The weekend started with a teaching session on Friday afternoon with Toby Manning. That evening the British Open Lightning was held; it was won by London's Peikai Xue (2d), shown below left with the trophy.

On the Saturday and Sunday 80 players, many of whom were below 10k, enjoyed the usual six round British Open tournament. It was for the...

25-Mar: First Harpenden Won by Chao Zhang

When the Welwyn Garden City Tournament found that the sports centre housing their Bridge Club venue was closing, the organiser, John Collins, had to move the event to the Sunday and to the new venue of the Harpenden Arms, in the High Street of the nearby town. This is also the venue of the new Harpenden Go Club, so it was in fact a good way to promote that too.

It was a bright sunny spring morning, good for travelling by road, but unfortunately a power failure on the railway meant no Thameslink trains at all from London that morning....