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19-Aug: Narrow win for Richard Hunter in Isle of Man


The entry for this year's Go Festival, held in memory of its creator, Leo Phillips, was a disappointing 21, but all the participants (and several spouses and friends) had a good time despite mediocre weather.

The main Open tournament was won narrowly on tie-break by Richard Hunter (1d Bristol) from Sandy Taylor (2d Cambridge), but Sandy got his revenge by winning the Afternoon Tournament. Commended were Denis Becker (7k Grenoble, France) with 4/5 in the Main, and Ed Blockley (6k Worcester) with 3/3 in the afternoon. Winners of the Handicap tournament were Denis Becker (Thursday) and Richard Hunter (Friday). The "fighting spirit" prize went to Alan Dean (5k Exeter) while his wife, Barbie (7k), got a special prize for having three...

18-Aug: UK Team Taking Part in Chinese Youth Event


Two European teams, one from France and one from the UK, were invited thanks to Fan Hui to take part in the first 'the Belt and Road' International I-Go Invitational Tournament for Teenagers. This runs from 16th to 22nd August in Xi'an in China.

Here is the first report from UK team captain and team coach, Martin and Helen Harvey:

The UK Team are enjoying the first few days of their trip to Xi'an in China. There are 20 teams invited, from six countries. We have opted for Cheadle Hulme School as the UK team name, as most of the other teams have a school name. In round one of seven we played Yanta Road (from Xi'an) and in round two we played Xifei (also Xi'an). In round three, which has just started, we play Nanshan (the...

26-Jul: Cheadle Hulme Girl wins Pair Go


Congratulations to Lizzy Pollitt (facing the camera), 18 kyu from Cheadle Hulme School, for winning Group E of the Pair Go tournament at the annual 2-week European Go Congress, in Brussels this year.

Partnering a 2 dan from China, Li Feng, they won 5 out of their 6 games, including the final. Their prizes - presented by Martin Stiassny, EGF President - were nice wood-mounted...

24-Jul: BGJ 188 Now Available in Members Area


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

30-Jun: Welsh Run Out of Beer


The sun shone well for the 27th annual Welsh Open Go Tournament, held as ever in the coastal town of Barmouth, nestling at the foot of beautiful Snowdonia. 36 players vied over the two days, in the fine Min-y-Mor hotel, where many players had booked rooms, with others opting for the many nearby B+Bs. One intrepid youngster, whilst disabled, travelled solo from Potsdam in Germany, for his first-ever UK trip. The main organiser Helen Harvey was pleased both with the numbers and being sung Happy Birthday at prizegiving! We were pleased to have a group of Chinese dan-...

30-Jun: Durham Tournament at 25


In celebration of 25 years of Go in Durham, Durham Go Tournament 2019 was suitably festive - from the Go Club cupcakes to the 25 Year t-shirts (0.25% of the 10,000 year ko!)

The weekend started with players meeting in the pub for a meal on the Friday night. There were 36 entries to the tournament - 15 either current Durham players or alumni of the Durham club, and 18 people who had no connection with the Durham club at all. In total 16 clubs were represented; it was particularly good to see the fledgling Beverley Go Club in attendance.

Durham is a friendly, 6-round,...

10-Jun: Joanne and Bruno Make it a Double


The 38th British Pair Go Championship was held at its now regular venue, the Red Lion in Hatfield. As well as serving lunches and drinks, this has a garden to sit in (when it is not raining), is very close to the railway station and has some nearby shops (including that Hertfordshire delight, a Simmons bakery).

Some of the stronger pairs could not play this time; for instance Natasha Regan was lecturing on Go at the Cheltenham Science Festival. However, thanks to the minibus from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) there were still 15 pairs, many including youngsters. Also...

05-Jun: China Wins WAGC


Wang Chen of China won the 40th World Amateur Championship in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Second, with just a loss to the winner, was Lee Jaesung of Korea. The group on six wins was: Hong Kong, USA, Pal Balogh of Hungary, Canada and Dmytro Bogatskyy of Ukraine. The other places went to the best on five: Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.

The UK Rep, Andrew Kay, was 27th out of 59 with four wins. With three wins on the first two days, day three didn't go so well with losses to Pal Balogh of Hungary and Timotej Suc of Slovenia. On the final day he lost to Jan Simara of Czechia, but beat Ioan Grigoriu of Romania.

Noel Mitchell for Ireland also won four in 36th place. On the last two days he had wins against...

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: Two Andrews to Play Title Match


The Challengers' League, the second stage of the British Championship, took place over four days this Bank Holiday weekend at the London Go Centre. The event was held alongside the Not The London Open Tournament and the players were able to take advantage of having Antti Tormanen (1p) present to review games.

Last year's champion, Sam Aitken, decided not to defend his title, which meant that there were places for seven qualifiers from Candidates' Tournament plus the runner-up from last year, Andrew Simons. Unfortunately some of the top...

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...

27-May: Peikai Xue wins a Swiss Scottish Open


This time the Scottish Open moved back to the weekend at the end of May and to a first time venue at Columbkille’s Church Hall in Rutherglen, just east of Glasgow. Unfortunately there was a drop in numbers attending, with just 15 players taking part at some point. So the decision was made to make the event a Swiss System event, with handicaps less one; everyone playing all rounds had a chance of winning.

In the end it was the two dan players and a 7k who ended on five wins. Peikai Xue (2d London) was the winner of the title on SOS tie-break (shown right...

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: LGC Hosts Kyu Players Weekend


The Kyu Players Weekend, held at the London Go Centre over the first May Bank Holiday, started with a teaching day on the Saturday. Teachers were former professional Chao Zhang (6d), former British Champion Daniel Hu (4d), Charles Hibbert (3d), Joanne Leung (2d) and Jonathan Turner (2k) - shown bottom left - who variously led small groups in analysis, discussion and simultaneous playing sessions. The lectures were videoed and may be found on the LGC YouTube channel. It was good to see some very...

18-Apr: UK Beaten by Sweden


Our team was outplayed by a strong team from Sweden, losing all four games. This leaves the team still in seventh place in the B-League, but only on tie-break. The final match of the season will be on Tuesday 5th May, against Turkey.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by resignation against Fredrik Blomback. The opening did not go well: I went wrong in a "windmill" joseki in the upper-left. I ended up needing to live small while my opponent got a wall. Definitely one I need to investigate! Early in the middle game I started playing more aggressively to try and catch up, but this backfired dramatically and I barely survived. Later on things got a little exciting and I tried a few tricks but to no avail.

Jon Diamond...