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Last 3 months News
26-Sep: T Mark Hall Foundation supports Liverpool Games cafeThe T Mark Hall Foundation, which was set up to administer a large legacy from T Mark Hall, is pleased to support "Sugar and Dice", a Liverpool Games café and location of the new Liverpool Go Club. The organisers/owners of the café were looking for £12,000 via crowdfunding to improve the premises with LED (instead of fluorescent tube) lighting, better kitchen equipment, etc. and they achieved their target on September 25. The Foundation contributed £1,800. Sugar and Dice will be offering Liverpool Go Club and British Go Association members free gaming sessions for playing Go at Sugar and Dice for 3 months from their opening; please see their web-site (www.sugaranddice.co.uk) for more... |
25-Sep: Wall Blows Away All Challenges at Swindon
The Swindon tournament was back after a one-year break, with different premises and alternative day (Saturday). The new venue was the Swindon Conservative Club, situated in the old town, with its own free parking. Nearby is the town's museum, which provided an interesting distraction for some. The winner was Alistair Wall (2d Wanstead), who beat Ngoc-Trang Cao in the final. Prizes were given for three wins to George Han (18k No Club) and for 2½ wins to Paul Barnard (2k Swindon). A sportsmanship prize was awarded to Paul Smith (on left... |
21-Sep: UK Team Wins First Match of New SeasonWe were drawn against Belgium in our first match of the new season of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship B League. We won the match 3-1. Chris Bryant said: My game went pretty smoothly - played unorthodox fuseki to make my opponent uncomfortable and built up a massive centre. Made a couple of silly reading mistakes but kept enough to win by 1.5. Des Cann wrote: Not happy with my game. Played a bit vague in the early middle game and soon found myself forced to defend where I was attacking. Never recovered. Daniel Hu wrote: My opponent played some solid joseki. I didn’t bother to invade. Then a few more of that most basic 4-4 joseki. He entered my side, but I just made good shape and didn’t bother to... |
13-Sep: Toby Stops a Tony Cornwall Double
The Cornwall Tournaments were held, as last year, in The Lugger on Penzance's seafront. This time the weather was good enough to sit outside between games, as long as you did not mind the odd sea breeze. The Saturday started with the traditional teaching session led by Toby Manning and Tony Atkins, on subjects such as the middle game and basic life-and-death shapes. The afternoon of the Saturday was the Cornish Lightning Handicap Tournament, with neatly 16 players taking part. The player who came out unbeaten, despite the grade-difference-plus-two handicap, was Tony Atkins (1k... |
05-Sep: Xinyi Liu wins the 2016 Northern
The Northern - held annually since 1975 - stepped back to its educational roots this year, with a new venue at Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) in Cheshire. The very attractive and spacious venue attracted 37 competitors (23% up on last year). Most encouragingly, 11 competitors were youngsters. The winner was Xinyi "Sugar" Liu; she is a 3 dan from China studying in Manchester. She won a cash prize and the Red Rose Trophy, seen receiving it from organiser Chris Kirkham (with CHS... |
30-Aug: Big Attendance at MSO Go EventsThe 20th Mind Sports Olympiad was held, like the previous two editions, at the JW3 centre in London's NW3 district. As usual hundreds of games enthusiasts came together to compete for medals in many different games, both ancient and modern, unusual and traditional, including Go. This year the Go prize money was increased, thanks to support of the MSO by Google DeepMind and other sponsors. This meant big increases in turnout for the Go events, and it was also good to see that about half the players were women and children. The two small-board Go events were played on Sunday 28th August, and the Open on Bank Holiday Monday, 29th August. ... |
21-Aug: Sun Sai wins at Arundel
Fortunately Southern trains were working properly so the Londoners arrived without mishap, and, despite a few withdrawals for illness and the like, 20 players made it to Sussex for the 2016 Arundel Tournament. Any non-playing partners who came along could enjoy some of the cultural activities of the Arundel Festival which was on, whilst their other halves sweated over the Go board. The tournament was won by the London Open winner Sai Sun, 5d, who had flown in from Beijing a few days earlier and is pictured with the Arundel Trophy. The runner up was Romania's Lucretiu Calota, 4d, from St... |
20-Aug: Charles Hibbert wins First Title Game
The game was relayed on KGS, thanks to Matt Marsh, starting about ten minutes later than its 10:30 advertised start. In a clone of the game, Matthew Macfadyen reviewed the game whilst in progress. The game continued after the usual lunch break (the time limits... |
02-Aug: British Go Journal 176British Go Journal 176, including a short story by author Bill Brakes, is now available online to members at http://www.britgo.org/bgj/bgj176 |
25-Jul: 60th European Go CongressThe 60th European Go Congress ran from 23rd July to 6th August in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was held at the Hotel Azimut, a couple of kilometres south of the historic centre of the city. 456 players took part in round one, including seven Europeans with pro status and six players from Britain. Winner of the Main Tournament was Kim Young-Sam 7d. It was a very narrow result as four players had 8 points by the end of round 10. Ilya Shikshin 1p was second place with merely 1 SOS point fewer than Kim. Third was Chan Yitien 7d with the same SOS as Ilya, but 2 fewer SODOS points. A very close and exciting finish! Ilya Shikshin had earlier in the fortnight become the European Champion by beating Israel's Ali Jabarin 1p in the... |
25-Jul: Ukraine win the Pandanet Go European Team ChampionshipThe top four teams of the A-League of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship came together to play the over-the-board finals at the European Go Congress in St Petersburg, Russia, on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd July. The first round saw a win for Russia against France (3-1) and Ukraine beating Romania (4-0). Round two saw a win for Russia over Romania (3-1) and a draw for France and Ukraine. The final round featured the crucial match between Russia and Ukraine. This ended in Ukraine's favour (3-1) to give them the title for the first time. It looked like Romania-France would be a draw, but the clock that had caused a loss on time was found on appeal to be faulty thus France won it (3-1). So 1st Ukraine (5 points),... |
01-Jul: UK Go Challenge Finals CancelledBecause of a problem with the venue, the UK Go Challenge Finals scheduled for 2nd July in Aston have been cancelled. It is hoped to reschedule to the autumn. |
25-Jun: Jitka Wins at a Showery MK
The Milton Keynes Tournament moved to a new location within the Open University campus, as someone had thought the weather suitable for cricket making the pavilion not available. The split-level foyer to the Berrill Building provided a very light and pleasant location (except when the dark clouds rolled in), with the lower level suitable for coffee, analysis and game of MK Go. Admittedly there was a lot of sunshine between the heavy rain and it didn't spoil the day of Go-playing. |
22-Jun: Wenshi Chen Wins Brian Timmins Plaque
The 24th Welsh Open was held again at the now-traditional venue of the Min-y-Mor Hotel, in the coastal resort of Barmouth. For those who arrived early, on the sunny Friday, there were friendly games and refreshments in the hotel during the evening. On the also sunny Saturday, there was the usual evening meal held at the hotel, enjoyed by 24 players &/or partners, and the fun continued into the night on the wet Sunday, after the tournament. There were 35 players in all in the Welsh Open, with 8 players above the bar, at shodan or stronger, competing for a... |
30-Apr: British Go Journal 175British Go Journal 175, including a report on the AlphaGo v Lee Sedol match, is now available online to members at http://www.britgo.org/bgj/bgj175 |
