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Newsletter Archive


15-Oct: Recent arrivals to UK take Northern On a pleasant autumn day, Cheadle Hulme School once more hosted the 3-round "Northern" tournament, with 32 players competing - 11 of them CHS pupils. The latter included an intrepid foursome in the first year at CHS, who'd scarcely played on full boards before – but nonetheless had great fun, and learned a lot on the day! We were also pleased to see players who had travelled from as far as Edinburgh and Lincoln. The overall winner was Jingchen Sun, a 3 dan from China, pictured receiving...
14-Oct: Cambridge Dominate British Small Board Twenty five years ago Paul Smith and some others started the Cambridge Junior Chess and Go Club. In order to celebrate their first quarter century it was decided to run an event that would be attractive to both children and adults. After a five year gap, the British Small Board Championship was brought back. It was suspected the main reason for this was that Paul Smith was fed up of having the trophy for so long! The venue was the modern lofty hall in Storey's Field Centre, in the newly constructed district of Eddington, with a separate room for relaxing and...
14-Oct: Cakes and Tournament Celebrate 25 Years Twenty five years ago Paul Smith and some others started the Cambridge Junior Chess and Go Club. In order to celebrate their first quarter century it was decided to run an event that would be attractive to both children and adults. As the UK Go Challenge Finals were not held in the summer as normal, it was decided the event would be the finals for 2018-2019 (making deciding which age group players were in harder than normal). In order to make it interesting for adults it was decided to combine the event with the 2019 British Small Board Championship...
09-Oct: Announcement of 2019 Youth Go Squad The 2019 UK youth go squad has been selected. The team of fifteen players comprises a mix of U20, U16 and U12 players, who form a team to compete for the UK in the European Youth Go Team Championship, played online between November and February. Each of the four matches involves five players (one Under 20yo, two U16 and two U12). The UK team has improved in strength each year since the championship first started and this year is no exception. The prospect of making it into the youth team and acquiring one of the distinctive red team hoodies has boosted youth go in recent years. Team manager Alison Bexfield explains that she reviews the results from rated tournaments during...
07-Oct: Andrew Kay Wins First Game in Match The first game of this year's British Championship title match took place on Saturday 5th October, between Andrew Kay and Andrew Simons (the two top-placed players from this year's Challenger's League). After an entertaining game Andrew Kay came out on top, winning by resignation. As well as a live relay on KGS, Matthew Macfadyen commented on a clone of the game. The next game of the best-of-three title match is expected to take place in early November - more details to follow.
30-Sep: Tetsuro Yoshitake Wins Wet Sheffield This year 36 players took part in the annual Sheffield tournament, now in its fifth edition at Greenhill Library. Tetsuro Yoshitake (3d Nottingham) was the eventual winner with three wins and he is shown, right, receiving his prize. The next three places had to be separated by SOS to give second place to Toby Manning (1d Leicester), third to Richard Wheeldon (2k London) and fourth to Carl Roll (2k Nottingham). Winning all three games were Ashley Lester (7k Nottingham), Daffyd Robinson (13k Lincoln) and 4 from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) - Sam Barnett (13k), Amy Upton (13k), Morgan Pittaway (24k) and Jacob Rubert (29k...
28-Sep: Peikai Xue Wins Swindon Peikai Xue (2d London) won all three games to win the Swindon Tournament. 29 players took part at the now usual Conservative Club venue in Old Town. Jim Clare (1d Reading) was second on sos tie-break from Swindon's Tony Putman (1k) and Chirstain Scarff (1k), with two wins. The only other player to win all three games was the London junior player Scott Cobbold (6k). Both he and Aidan Putman (1k Swindon) went home with "prestigious" trophies, Aiden's for the 13x13 side event. Results
22-Sep: Joint Winners at Arundel Twenty-one players made it to Arundel this year. The organiser was especially grateful to those who had travelled many miles – some even braving the M25 – to experience Go in tournament conditions and enjoy the Arundel sunshine. This year there were two winners as shown in the picture: Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) and Jonathan Reece (1k), who was on a brief visit from his home in South Africa. Alistair and Jonathan both had two wins in the four person round robin of the top boards. Two people won all three of their games: Malcolm Hagan (7k Arundel) and Pierre Oliviere (11k...
12-Sep: Andrew Does Well in Korea In the 2019 Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship, our representative, Andrew Kay, came 9th out of 62 entries. He had 4 wins (against Cyprus, France, Argentina and Hungary) and 2 losses (to Korea, who came second, and Thailand). This is one of the best results ever in an international tournament by a British player. He is shown here playing the player from Hungary. The Irish representative, Ruari McCloskey, was 59th with 1 win (against India). The overall winner was He Xin of China with six wins. The group on five wins was...
09-Sep: Toby Wins Cornwall Again There was a disappointing turn-out at the Cornish Go Weekend which was held in Falmouth this year; it had, however, the same format as in previous years. On the Saturday morning Ian Marsh and Toby Manning led a teaching session, while the Handicap Tournament on Saturday afternoon was won by local man Miles Henderson Smith (11k), with Peter Collins (3k Bristol) being runner-up. Results On Sunday Toby Manning (1k Leicester) won the 3 round McMahon Tournament for the seventh time, while local man Paul Massey (1k) was the runner-up. Results
09-Sep: Zhang Chao Lectures after T Mark Hall Rapid On 7th September 2019 the second T Mark Hall Rapid Play Tournament was held at the London Go Centre. There were 22 entries ranging from 5 dan to 25 kyu, including several youngsters. The winner, with a clean sweep, was first time entrant Zhang Zhiqing (5d China). Second place went to another first timer, Gene Wong (3d), a youngster from Hong Kong. Third was Alistair Wall (1d). The battle below the bar was won by three 2 kyu players, Quentin Rendu, Richard Wheeldon and Paul Smith. Pierre Oliviere was the best-placed DDK and he also kindly brought along some of the youngsters. A...
03-Sep: Third Youth Camp Successful The third residential Youth Camp took place at Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire at the end of August, with 26 particpants. As before, it was a mixture of outdoor activities, Go games and mentoring, aimed at those in school year 6 or older, but a day longer than previous camps. The format included Go competition each evening with a four round tournament (Results), with even games as far as possible, won by Hilary Bexfield, 16k Letchworth, and a Pair Go tournament (Results) won by David Baldwin and Alexander Hsieh. Every morning was tuition...
27-Aug: Not All Go at MSO This year's Mind Sports Olympiad was held, like the previous five editions, at the JW3 community centre in London. As usual a large variety of games and mind sports, both new and traditional, was played over the eight days of the event. Several Go players and their families were seen in non-Go events, with some, like Natasha Regan, winning a Gold medal. Unfortunately the first Go event (9x9) scheduled for the Friday morning, 23rd August, was cancelled by the organisers as they thought there was only one entry...
21-Aug: Chinese Youth Event Final Report Here is the final report from UK team leader and team coach, Martin and Helen Harvey, from their base in Xi'an: 19 Aug (Day 4): Today was full of Chinese history and culture. In the morning, the organisers took us to visit Louguantai Temple, situated in the northern foothills of the Qin Mountains (70 km east of Xi'an), the birthplace of Taoism. It is a famous holy place for tourists to visit, founded in the Western Zhou Dynasty and flourishing in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is a beautiful and scenic spot, surrounded by mountains, a bamboo forest and decorative...
19-Aug: Narrow win for Richard Hunter in Isle of Man The 2019 Isle of Man Go Festival, held in memory of its creator, Leo Phillips, took place in Port Erin in a new venue, St Andrew’s Church Hall. Although attendance was a disappointing 21 the participants (and several spouses and friends) were a friendly lot and the congress spirit of previous years continued. The new venue proved a success. It was slightly nearer the sea providing a seaview from the kitchen window (the well equipped kitchen also doubling up as an analysis room). Although the cooler than usual for August and slightly breezy weather meant that no one took advantage of the garden to play outside while admiring the seaview. The main Open tournament was won narrowly on tie-break by Richard Hunter (1d Bristol) from...
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 2019 "I-GO" "The Belt and Road International I-Go Youth 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. There are 20 teams, from six countries. The 4 UK Team members are Edmund Smith, Rowan Borrow, Daniel Gascoyne and Amy Upton - the latter 3 from...
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 prize giving! 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,...

15-Oct: Recent arrivals to UK take Northern

On a pleasant autumn day, Cheadle Hulme School once more hosted the 3-round "Northern" tournament, with 32 players competing - 11 of them CHS pupils. The latter included an intrepid foursome in the first year at CHS, who'd scarcely played on full boards before – but nonetheless had great fun, and learned a lot on the day! We were also pleased to see players who had travelled from as far as Edinburgh and Lincoln.

The overall winner was Jingchen Sun, a 3 dan from China, pictured receiving...

14-Oct: Cambridge Dominate British Small Board

Twenty five years ago Paul Smith and some others started the Cambridge Junior Chess and Go Club. In order to celebrate their first quarter century it was decided to run an event that would be attractive to both children and adults. After a five year gap, the British Small Board Championship was brought back. It was suspected the main reason for this was that Paul Smith was fed up of having the trophy for so long!

The venue was the modern lofty hall in Storey's Field Centre, in the newly constructed district of Eddington, with a separate room for relaxing and...

14-Oct: Cakes and Tournament Celebrate 25 Years

Twenty five years ago Paul Smith and some others started the Cambridge Junior Chess and Go Club. In order to celebrate their first quarter century it was decided to run an event that would be attractive to both children and adults. As the UK Go Challenge Finals were not held in the summer as normal, it was decided the event would be the finals for 2018-2019 (making deciding which age group players were in harder than normal). In order to make it interesting for adults it was decided to combine the event with the 2019 British Small Board Championship...

09-Oct: Announcement of 2019 Youth Go Squad

The 2019 UK youth go squad has been selected. The team of fifteen players comprises a mix of U20, U16 and U12 players, who form a team to compete for the UK in the European Youth Go Team Championship, played online between November and February. Each of the four matches involves five players (one Under 20yo, two U16 and two U12).

The UK team has improved in strength each year since the championship first started and this year is no exception. The prospect of making it into the youth team and acquiring one of the distinctive red team hoodies has boosted youth go in recent years. Team manager Alison Bexfield explains that she reviews the results from rated tournaments during...

07-Oct: Andrew Kay Wins First Game in Match

The first game of this year's British Championship title match took place on Saturday 5th October, between Andrew Kay and Andrew Simons (the two top-placed players from this year's Challenger's League). After an entertaining game Andrew Kay came out on top, winning by resignation. As well as a live relay on KGS, Matthew Macfadyen commented on a clone of the game. The next game of the best-of-three title match is expected to take place in early November - more details to follow.

30-Sep: Tetsuro Yoshitake Wins Wet Sheffield

Sheffield Winner (right)

This year 36 players took part in the annual Sheffield tournament, now in its fifth edition at Greenhill Library. Tetsuro Yoshitake (3d Nottingham) was the eventual winner with three wins and he is shown, right, receiving his prize. The next three places had to be separated by SOS to give second place to Toby Manning (1d Leicester), third to Richard Wheeldon (2k London) and fourth to Carl Roll (2k Nottingham).

Winning all three games were Ashley Lester (7k Nottingham), Daffyd Robinson (13k Lincoln) and 4 from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) - Sam Barnett (13k), Amy Upton (13k), Morgan Pittaway (24k) and Jacob Rubert (29k...

28-Sep: Peikai Xue Wins Swindon

Peikai Xue (2d London) won all three games to win the Swindon Tournament. 29 players took part at the now usual Conservative Club venue in Old Town. Jim Clare (1d Reading) was second on sos tie-break from Swindon's Tony Putman (1k) and Chirstain Scarff (1k), with two wins. The only other player to win all three games was the London junior player Scott Cobbold (6k). Both he and Aidan Putman (1k Swindon) went home with "prestigious" trophies, Aiden's for the 13x13 side event.

Results

22-Sep: Joint Winners at Arundel

Twenty-one players made it to Arundel this year. The organiser was especially grateful to those who had travelled many miles – some even braving the M25 – to experience Go in tournament conditions and enjoy the Arundel sunshine. This year there were two winners as shown in the picture: Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) and Jonathan Reece (1k), who was on a brief visit from his home in South Africa. Alistair and Jonathan both had two wins in the four person round robin of the top boards. Two people won all three of their games: Malcolm Hagan (7k Arundel) and Pierre Oliviere (11k...

12-Sep: Andrew Does Well in Korea

In the 2019 Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship, our representative, Andrew Kay, came 9th out of 62 entries. He had 4 wins (against Cyprus, France, Argentina and Hungary) and 2 losses (to Korea, who came second, and Thailand). This is one of the best results ever in an international tournament by a British player. He is shown here playing the player from Hungary.

The Irish representative, Ruari McCloskey, was 59th with 1 win (against India).

The overall winner was He Xin of China with six wins. The group on five wins was...

09-Sep: Toby Wins Cornwall Again

There was a disappointing turn-out at the Cornish Go Weekend which was held in Falmouth this year; it had, however, the same format as in previous years.

On the Saturday morning Ian Marsh and Toby Manning led a teaching session, while the Handicap Tournament on Saturday afternoon was won by local man Miles Henderson Smith (11k), with Peter Collins (3k Bristol) being runner-up. Results

On Sunday Toby Manning (1k Leicester) won the 3 round McMahon Tournament for the seventh time, while local man Paul Massey (1k) was the runner-up. Results

09-Sep: Zhang Chao Lectures after T Mark Hall Rapid

On 7th September 2019 the second T Mark Hall Rapid Play Tournament was held at the London Go Centre. There were 22 entries ranging from 5 dan to 25 kyu, including several youngsters. The winner, with a clean sweep, was first time entrant Zhang Zhiqing (5d China). Second place went to another first timer, Gene Wong (3d), a youngster from Hong Kong. Third was Alistair Wall (1d). The battle below the bar was won by three 2 kyu players, Quentin Rendu, Richard Wheeldon and Paul Smith. Pierre Oliviere was the best-placed DDK and he also kindly brought along some of the youngsters. A...

03-Sep: Third Youth Camp Successful

The third residential Youth Camp took place at Caythorpe Court in Lincolnshire at the end of August, with 26 particpants. As before, it was a mixture of outdoor activities, Go games and mentoring, aimed at those in school year 6 or older, but a day longer than previous camps.

The format included Go competition each evening with a four round tournament (Results), with even games as far as possible, won by Hilary Bexfield, 16k Letchworth, and a Pair Go tournament (Results) won by David Baldwin and Alexander Hsieh.

Every morning was tuition...

27-Aug: Not All Go at MSO

This year's Mind Sports Olympiad was held, like the previous five editions, at the JW3 community centre in London. As usual a large variety of games and mind sports, both new and traditional, was played over the eight days of the event. Several Go players and their families were seen in non-Go events, with some, like Natasha Regan, winning a Gold medal.

Unfortunately the first Go event (9x9) scheduled for the Friday morning, 23rd August, was cancelled by the organisers as they thought there was only one entry...

21-Aug: Chinese Youth Event Final Report

Here is the final report from UK team leader and team coach, Martin and Helen Harvey, from their base in Xi'an:

19 Aug (Day 4): Today was full of Chinese history and culture. In the morning, the organisers took us to visit Louguantai Temple, situated in the northern foothills of the Qin Mountains (70 km east of Xi'an), the birthplace of Taoism. It is a famous holy place for tourists to visit, founded in the Western Zhou Dynasty and flourishing in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is a beautiful and scenic spot, surrounded by mountains, a bamboo forest and decorative...

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

The 2019 Isle of Man Go Festival, held in memory of its creator, Leo Phillips, took place in Port Erin in a new venue, St Andrew’s Church Hall. Although attendance was a disappointing 21 the participants (and several spouses and friends) were a friendly lot and the congress spirit of previous years continued. The new venue proved a success. It was slightly nearer the sea providing a seaview from the kitchen window (the well equipped kitchen also doubling up as an analysis room). Although the cooler than usual for August and slightly breezy weather meant that no one took advantage of the garden to play outside while admiring the seaview.

The main Open tournament was won narrowly on tie-break by Richard Hunter (1d Bristol) from...

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 2019 "I-GO" "The Belt and Road International I-Go Youth 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. There are 20 teams, from six countries. The 4 UK Team members are Edmund Smith, Rowan Borrow, Daniel Gascoyne and Amy Upton - the latter 3 from...

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 prize giving! 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,...

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