A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities
Last 3 months News
20-Feb: UK Draws with the SwissOur team fought hard and managed a draw against Switzerland. The next match will be on Tuesday 19th March, against Norway. Andrew Simons wrote: I played my game against John Walch on the evening of Saturday 16th. I won on time, but was fairly confident of winning anyway. The game started with a diagonal opening and me 3-3 invading (as I did against Sam in the second championship game); he took the gote wall so I took its extension and then peeped at it. He resisted, connecting on dame, so we had a fight and I was happy to build centre strength, and then, as he haned at q11, I got to make the dame cut in sente. His group was hard to attack directly though, so we played some more opening stuff. I made a makeshift defence... |
19-Feb: UK Youth Team completes their 2018/19 seasonTeam Captain Alison Bexfield, and all her squad of 12 players in the UK Youth Go team, can look back on this 2018/19 season with satisfaction, as we finished comfortably mid table, out of the 12 teams. Whilst we lost narrowly (2-3) to Czechia, in the final fixture last weekend, it was an exciting match, and each margin was between one and a dozen points. If one is superstitious, one might argue that we were "off colour" in the final match - playing 3 boards with the "wrong colour". That's because the match saw White winning on all 5 boards! It was always destined to be a fine margin either way with players,... |
15-Feb: UK Youth team to play CzechiaAlison Bexfield, Team Captain, has selected players for the UK Youth Go team playing - mostly on Saturday - versus Czechia. The two teams' captains have done really well, and managed to line up players with exactly the same paper grade as each opponent, save for a 2-grade advantage to the UK on board 1. The board line-ups for the match are: Board 1: Daniel Yang (Chunyang18) 1d (b) U20 -versus- Anežka Bukovská (Anezka) 2k (w) U20 Board 2: Edmund Smith (dnumde) 3k (w) U16 -versus- Robin Popov (... |
06-Feb: Fischer Time Trialled at Cheshire TournamentThe 21st Cheshire Tournament became the first event in the UK to use Fischer Time on new BGA electronic clocks. The 42 players successfully used the new system that gives extra time for each move played. The basic time was set at 40 minutes and ten seconds were added each move, remaining a B class tournament; only one game was lost on time (selecting the optional warning beep helped most avoid this) and fast players often had more time left at the end than they started with. Most of the prize winners were from the two minibusfuls from Cheadle Hulme School. Ali Moin won a 13x13 prize for the most games played (winning 3 out of 9) and Sam Barnett for the best percentage/most wins (with 6 out of 6). These two were also among the... |
28-Jan: Youngsters play Go despite snow ...Good news if a tad late ...
Well, mea culpa entirely for this late snippet, but no doubt Santa was still delighted with the photo. Taken in December, it shows his helpers enjoying their lunch break at Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) in South Manchester. It seems that not even snow can stop the fun, for those with suitable head-wear. The school Go Club has been running for over 5 years now, with great support from CHS, their teachers past and present, minibuses, drivers, the BGA and DeepMind.... |
25-Jan: New Go Club in Port TalbotDaniel Jones (spoon_man666 at hotmail.com) wrote: The inaugural meeting of a new Go club for the Nath Port Talbot area took place on Sunday 20th January at the Beefeater Bagle Brook, Pentyla-Baglan Rd, Port Talbot, SA12 8ES. There were four players and another popped in because he was busy and could not stay to play but wanted to meet everyone there. We have also had a couple of people join our Facebook group, which has reached eight members. The next meeting is provisionally on Sunday 24th February. |
23-Jan: Joanne Wins Debut in League Against AustriaOur team lost again by three games to one, this time against Austria. The only win was by Joanne Leung, making her debut in the League on board 4. The next match will be on Tuesday 19th February, against Switzerland. Andrew Simons wrote: I lost on time against Viktor Lin, from a good position that had just turned bad in an overtime panic. We had a nice opening fight when he allowed my powerful cut at p3: we both had weakish groups running out to the centre, but I got to cover the head at m11 and he didn't make much territory on his half of the board in the process. A fight on the lower side ended with an exchange, capturing a load of cutting stones for good profit to settle my groups. I think c4 was a mistake though (e3... |
21-Jan: Fun and Games at Maidenhead
There was much fun and games at the Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament. As usual it was held at the Whitebrook Park headquarters of Hitachi Europe, though news was shared that due to potential company relocation it might be the last. In between rounds, as well as playing 13x13 games, most of the ten youngsters taking part played different games with Alison, the non-playing organiser. In addition, as well as wine and mystery envelope prizes, the prize table contained a large selection of board games as shown right. The winner of the tournament was the former Chinese professional, Chao... |
12-Jan: UK Youth team playing HungaryAlison Bexfield, Team Captain, sent us 2 posts on Sat. 12 Jan. re this UK Youth Go Team match. --- Pre-match --- Our line-up for today's match is: We welcome Emily from Harpenden to the squad as our newest member, making her debut today. She joins the squad after a strong showing at the British Youth championships (which I use for talent spotting). Three boards commenced play at... |
07-Jan: New Stevenage (North Herts) Go ClubThe group which has been meeting in Letchworth and Stevenage as Letchworth Go Club (adults) has reconstituted as the Stevenage (North Herts) Go Club and will no longer meet in Letchworth, but only in Stevenage, every Tuesday from 7.30pm till closing time (11pm). The first meeting is on 8th January 2019 at: Cafe Green, IBIS Hotel, Danestrete, Stevenage, SG1 1EJ. The venue is five minutes' walk from Stevenage Railway Station (map at the link) and parking is available at the nearby Westgate Multi-storey for £2... |
01-Jan: Oh Chi-Min Wins Third London Open
The BGA's flagship tournament - the [45th] London Open - started as usual on Friday 28th December and ran until 31st December at its new venue of the London Go Centre. The event was limited in numbers because of it was being run at the London Go Centre for the first time and the organisers wanted to make sure things worked with a smaller venue, but still 89 players (including ghosts) took part. Next year they will be able to accept more registrations. Representing 14 countries, the players ranged from 30k to 7d, including... |
28-Dec: London Open Under Way
The 45th London Open got under way on Friday 28th December at its new venue of the London Go Centre. The event had to be limited in numbers because of the size of the venue, but still more than 80 players sat down to play the first round. Representing 14 countries, the players ranged from 30k to 7d, including some children, and there was a large party from Germany. Top British youth player Tom Bradbury is seen right in a warm up game before the event started. The person to beat this year is likely to be Oh Ch-Min (7d) from France, who is seen at the bottom in his first round... |
17-Dec: Club President Wins in EdinburghThe annual Edinburgh Christmas competition - a challenging format of four 45-minute main-time rounds with overtime starting at 30 stones in 5 minutes - was won convincingly by club president, Boris Mitrovic (2d), who beat the other four players starting ‘above the bar’ and was the only entrant to win in all four rounds. James Richards (1k), Alistair Wall (1d) and Roger Daniel (6k) each won three of their four. The competition lost out badly to the weather, with only 17 of the 21 entrants actually playing at the event in the hall of St Columba’s by the Castle Episcopal Church. |
17-Dec: Germany Too Strong for our UK Youth teamThe UK Youth team played a strong German team, on Saturday 15th December, and lost 4-1. This was our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC). This match against Germany was always expected to prove a hard test, as the UK was out-graded on 4 boards: ------------ Germany -------------- ------------- UK ----------------- Result Feiyang Chen (feiyang) 3d (b) U20 -------------- Yueran Wang (jrstone) 3d (w) U20-------------- 1-0 Manuel Jacobsen (ManuelGJ) 1d (w) U16 ---------- Edmund Smith (dnumde) 3k (b) U16 ------------ 1-0 Gregor... |
14-Dec: UK Youth team announced for Sat. 15 Dec.The UK Youth Team Captain, Alison Bexfield, writes: The youth team is playing Germany on Saturday 15th December and teams have been chosen. This is our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC). The match is interesting. We narrowly won our opening match against Croatia. Germany may prove an even harder test. They have a very strong squad, but are wisely and sportingly giving mid-order players some match experience. We thus have an outside chance of winning it, but only if everyone plays up to their top level. We wish the team luck especially Yanyi, who is making his... |
12-Dec: UK Team Slump to Bottom of B-LeagueOur team lost three games to one against a strong team from the Netherlands. This put our team down to bottom place in the Pandanet B division, behind Denmark. After four rounds, in the B League out of A-D, four teams have three wins: Serbia, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. This win left Netherlands in fifth place. The next match will be on Tuesday 22nd January, against Austria. Alex Kent wrote: I lost by resignation against Geert Groenen, but I feel I played a lot better this game (at least in the opening) so I'm not too regretful! Probably the hardest choice I faced... |
05-Dec: Youth Championship Grows in SizeThe 2018 British Youth Go Championship (BYGC) featured 57 competitors, aged from 5 to 18. This is believed to be the second largest such event (the largest was in 2005 with 74). There were two minibuses from Cheadle Hulme School and groups from two new clubs, Rednock School (Dursley) and Sheffield Chinese School. The event would have been bigger but the Edinburgh team had to withdraw through illness and there were no locals from the host, King Edward VI (Aston) School.
This year, due to an easing of the qualifying rules,... |
27-Nov: Philip Leung Wins Coventry Again
The 2018 Coventry Tournament was held on 24th November in its usual Warwick University location. This year 38 players took part and Philip Leung (4d University of Warwick) won the event for the third time in a row and the fourth time overall. This is particularly noteworthy as Philip was also the event organiser. Honghao Lu (2d Manchester University) and Peikai Xue (1d Central London) were first and second runner up respectively, with two wins out of three, both only losing to the winner. The picture shows Philip (right) with Peikai. James Taylor (8k... |
25-Nov: UK Youth team wins 3-2 against CroatiaAlison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, brings us these 2 stories - the first pre-match, and the second post-match - to follow on from her UK Squad announcement. The 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC) is held online over four rounds, on KGS. Pre-match The UK Youth team is today (24th November 2018) playing its first international match of the season, with a game against Croatia. The UK is starting in the second half of the 12 national teams, so is playing another of the teams in our half of the draw. My UK team selection takes account of a number of things... |
25-Nov: Some new UK Juniors in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team ChampionshipAlison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, writes: I am pleased to announce this year's UK Youth Team for the European Youth Go Team Championship 2018/19 (EYGTC). This is held online over four rounds on KGS. The standard in the UK team has increased every year, with this year no exception. I put together a talented UK Team Squad with up to 15 Juniors, and then I select a team of 5 for each match, from three age groups. Each match is played over five boards - one U20, two U16 and two U12. Traditionally we have done quite well in the U12 age groups, but less so at the top end, where often board 1 is a mid-rank dan player... |
18-Nov: Sam Aitken New British Champion
Sam had not previously played the title match; Andrew had in 2013, 2015 and 2017, winning it in 2015. |
12-Nov: 17 BGA volunteers demo Go all day to youngsters
On a pleasant autumnal day, this year - as ever - the splendidly organised Doki Doki Festival was held in Manchester, helped a lot by members of the friendly Japan Society North West (JSNW). This is an exciting event, with all imaginable Japan-themed activities, stalls & competitions, attracting a huge and youthful attendance. For each such occasion, the organisers invite us back (we're the British Go Association - BGA), to give free Go demos to large numbers of the public.... |
13-Oct: Sam Aitken Ties Title Match
On Saturday 13th October the second game of the British Championship, between Andrew Simons and Sam Aitken, took place at Andrew's house in Cambridge. After a fighting game, Sam Aitken won by 4.5 points to level the match. The game relay and a commentary by Matthew Macfadyen are available. The deciding game will be announced on the BGA events page, with again live online relay in the British Room on KGS. |
04-Oct: T Mark Hall Remembered at London Go Centre
22 players came to the London Go Centre to take part in the first T Mark Hall Rapid Play. Before the prize ceremony, Francis Roads said a few words to inform or remind the players who T Mark Hall was, how he liked fast games and how the London Go Centre was a consequence of his bequest to Go. Winner of the tournament was Tunyang Xie (4d China) who won all five games. Second was Peikai Xue (1k London) on four wins and Zhanqi Kang (2d Winchester) was third. Lower down those who won four games were James Taylor (11k Warwick University) and Caleb Monk (20k Kings College Juniors),... |
04-Oct: Team China Dominate in London
The London International Teams Autumn edition was held at the London Go Centre on the same weekend as the new T Mark Hall Rapid. 18 players in six teams came together on the Sunday to battle in reduced handicap games for the trophy and a cash prize. Two strong teams of Chinese dominated the event. It was Team China (shown right) that won two matches to come first, their Tunyang Xie (5d) winning all three games. Team Mango was second with one win and six games won, with their Peikai Xue (1k) winning all three. The team London Organisers was third, ahead of Nippon Club and Cambridge; Epsom... |
