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13-Sep: Regulars Win Again in Cornwall


The Cornwall Tournaments have a regular following and it was some of those regulars who won the two tournaments. 14 players from 1d to 12k took part in the Cornish Lightning Handicap on the Saturday afternoon. Winner for the third time in four years was Paul Massey, 1k from Mid Cornwall, who is shown with the Dominic Taylor Trophy. On the Sunday there were 16 players in the Open; Toby Manning, 1d Leicester, was the winner for the second year running and the sixth time in all. The others winning wooden Go stone prizes were Tony Atkins (1k Reading) who was runner up in both...

22-Aug: Cheng Gong Takes 3 Golds at MSO


This year the Go events at the Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO), held again at JW3 in London, were at the start of the games festival rather than at the end. This meant lower attendance than the previous year, and the promised party of Chinese children under Sai Sun cancelled through terror worries.

On the opening Sunday of MSO, the MSO Open attracted 14 players from 5d to 8k to play a four round McMahon system event (bar at 3k). Winner of the gold medal and the top prize money was Gong Cheng (3d) who won all four, including beating the favourite Chang Han on time....

22-Aug: Daniel Hu Wins First Title Match Game


In the first game of the best-of-three 2017 British Go Championship title match, Daniel Hu beat Andrew Simons to go one up. Played at Geoff Kaniuk's house in Cambridge, they played a long game that lasted well into the evening. With live broadcast in the British Room on KGS, and parallel live commentary by Matthew Macfadyen, more than 60 spectators could be found enjoying the game at any one time.

Eventually Andrew had to resign, having battled against time difficulties for over a hundred moves. The game record, with...

19-Aug: First BGA Youth Camp Successful


The first BGA Youth Residential Training was held at the PGL youth adventure centre at Caythorpe Court, not far from Grantham in Lincolnshire. The BGA group was made up of 19 youngsters aged 10 to 17 from Manchester, Letchworth, Cambridge and London areas, and five adults.

On arrival on Monday 14th August the youngsters were split into two by age for an afternoon of orienteering and raft building. Once dried out and fed, they assembled in the downstairs rooms of the Court for a short Go tournament, followed by Liar Dice and other games. Winner of the top group was Oscar...

19-Aug: Jon Diamond Wins at Arundel


Jon Diamond was the winner at the Arundel Tournament four years after his last win there. He won all four games, including beating Alistair Wall in the final, and is pictured receiving his prize from organiser Sue Paterson.

22 players met up at the usual event venue of the football club, in the shadow of the castle. They mostly came from southern England, including nine from the local club, but also one came from Lincoln Club and one from Paris (though actually currently living in Horsham). The latter, Stephane Gros-Lemesre (10k), made the trip memorable...

10-Aug: Isle of Man Winners


The Leo Phillips Isle Of Man Go Festival was held at the Cherry Orchard in Port Erin, in memory of its former organiser, thanks to the efforts of Paul Smith. 35 people took part in the various Go events and there was sandcastle building, an eight-team quiz (won by team Marklom), a reading by Ingrid Jendrzejewski of some of her very enjoyable flash fiction stories and a chance to explore the island. Forty people attended the final evening meal and many expressed the hope that there would be future Isle of Man Go Festivals.

TOP PRIZEWINNERS

Main: 1st Andrew Simons, 2nd Alex Rix, 3rd: Joanne Leung

Afternoon: 1st Sandy Taylor, 2nd Francis Roads, 3rd...

09-Aug: Calota wins in Belfast


Lucretiu Calota, the Romanian 4d from St Alban's Club, won this year's Belfast Tournament with a perfect score of five. Second place was taken by Karl Irwin, 4d from Belfast Club. Local organiser James Hutchinson (2d) took third. In all 15 players took part in the friendly event, held as usual at the Boat Club. Lower down the rankings Kevin Farrell (8k Galway) did very well winning all five games and Rachel Plomp (16k Dublin) won three games.

Results

10-Jul: UK Go Challenge Finals Held in Stoke


The after a gap in 2016, the UK Go Challenge Finals were back. This time the event was sponsored by Mindsports Academy (MSA) as part of their youth championship event, which meant free entry. As well as the usual certificates, all players received a MSA voucher, participant's medal and sports bag; the winner and second also received a trophy from MSA and all age group winners received a plaque from MSA too. The venue was the very pleasant function rooms of Stoke City's stadium, now called the...

27-Jun: Eric wins 25th Welsh Open


The 25th Welsh Open – held in its constant, coastal town of Barmouth since 1993 (when Matthew Macfadyen gained the first of his 16 consecutive wins) – was held on the weekend of 24-25 June 2017. Organised again by Helen & Martin Harvey, the event passed off smoothly and enjoyably, despite Martin's sun dance needing improvement, although the rainy periods meant it was a good time to be indoors. 31 played in at least 1 of the 6 rounds, including two 3-dans, two 2-dans, 4 shodans and down to a 13-kyu. Participants could take a bow for having travelled from across the UK – from as far away as the Isle of Man, Durham and Winchester. Numbers at the evening meals were further-swelled by non-playing partners....

17-May: UK Team Ends Fourth in B League


The last round of the B-League on 16th May saw the UK playing Italy. Board one was played a day early. The match was drawn with wins on boards 3 and 4.

Andrew Simons wrote: I'm afraid I lost my game last night against Allesandro Pace. I was happy with how the opening went, and played a shoulder hit I'd seen in a Lee Sedol game to counter his influence strategy. Once I played the last big opening point on the left he played a strange attachment underneath and rather than directly answering I went for a leaning attack. He then played a loose move (f7 rather than f8, afterwards he said it was misclick) which allowed me to clamp to get the side but instead I got carried away and played what was essentially an endgame move at...

14-May: Lucretiu Calota wins at Bracknell


The top player at the 39th Bracknell Go Tournament was Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans) who beat Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) in the final (pictured). Chao Zhang (5d London) and Jim Clare (1d Reading) took third and fourth places, and Paul Barnard (2k Swindon) took fifth with three wins. Others of the 36 players winning three were Casey Alexander (10k Arundel), Alexander Hsieh (10k Cambridge Juniors) and Lueming Yang (20k Oxford).

Arundel won the team prize, by one win, over the junior team of "A Football Stuck in a Bush Squad". Nobody competed in the 13x13, but...

01-May: Daniel Hu Wins Candidates'


The Candidates' Tournament was held over the April-May Bank Holiday weekend at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in West London. 18 of the possible players took part to determine who would play in the next stage of the British Championship, the Challengers' League, on the next bank holiday at the same venue.

Thanks to the organiser, Matt Marsh, setting up a webcam, Chris Bryant was able to rebroadcast the top board game online and it gave a chance to see some of the game on YouTube. Also the players were able on the Sunday to help review some of the games in the...

01-May: Bar-Low won by Alison Bexfield


After a year's break, the Bar-Low tournament returned, thanks to organiser Jonathan Green at a new comfortable venue - The Young Chelsea Bridge Club, home of the West London Go Club. It was held as usual alongside the Candidates' Tournament.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, the entry fees were cheap, 17 players taking advantage of this. The generous prizes meant that more than half of the competitors made at least their entry fee back, as well as everyone taking home some sweet treats.

Alison Bexfield (1k, Letchworth) was the winner, having secured victory before the last round started. Roger Huyshe (5k, Manchester), Roger Daniel (7k, London) and Lueming Yang (23k, Oxford) also all did well, winning four games out of five...