With one event gone (Coventry), Matthew Macfadyen took an early lead:
1. Matthew Macfadyen 3 2. Tony Atkins 2
The Youth Grand Prix started after the 2007 London Open. After the BYGC, which counts double points, 50 young players had played in a tournament. With a strong swhowing from Aston at Coventry and from Cambridge at the Bar-Low, it has become a contest between the two clubs. The points are:
1. Danielle Ward 356 2. Owen Walker 352 3. Matthew Hathrell 336 4. John Perkins 332 5. Peran Truscott 304 6. Huw Tallis 296 7. Langdon Truscott 292 8. Ken Dackombe 288
The hunt to find the British Champion 2008 is on. Over the May Bank Holiday the Candidates' Tournament selected the seven players to join defending champion Bei Ge in the Challengers' League. This will be in June and will select the two players for this year's best of five title match.
The long events are a good way to score points; Tim Hunt's second at the 5-round Three Peaks saw him catching Matthew Cocke. Shaoyou's win at London gave him the lead, but Tim was not far behind and caught up at Maidenhead. Shaoyou's win at Cambridge put him ahead with just 6 points at the British remaining this lead proved uncatchable. Final places:
1. Shaoyou Ouyang 23 2. Tim Hunt 21 3. Alistair Wall 18 4= Francis Roads 15 4= Phil Beck 15 6. Jaeup Kim 14 7= Matthew Cocke 13 7= Toby Manning 13
Guo Juan was the teacher at the 2007 London Open.
The BGA has recognised the new dan grades of:
6th April 2008: 2 dan Nick Krempel 2 dan Phil Beck 1 dan Alex Bell
In Korea in early 2008, Diana Koszegi from Hungary has been made pro 1 dan. Alex Dinerchtein and Svetlana Shikshina have been promoted to pro 3 dan, also in Korea.
A question on "The Weakest Link" on 06/05/08: "What two letter word is the national board game of Japan and an instruction to proceed?" Answer: "Yahtze????"
In the BBC TV documentary "The Shogun" (BBC 2 29/03/08) about the rise of the first Shogun, Tokagawa Ieyasu, both Ieyasu and his son and top general were seen playing Go. Ieyasu mused his battle strategy over a game, while in a second scene the players were urged to finish more quickly as it was time for battle.
In "Diagnosis Murder" episode "Deadly Games", BBC1 07/03/08 and 21/12/06, Dick van Dyke as Doctor Mark Sloan plays Weiqi (Go) to get inside the mind of a potential assassin who also plays. Several scenes feature study and playing of the game, and there is some explanation of the rules and strategy.
On 09/01/08 on their 20:00 Radio 2 programme, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie mentioned Go. One of their listeners had said that Othello was based on Go. Mark said that he knew people that play Go and that Go is "quite a thing". Stuart asked whether Go was the game that if computers ever play it we are all in trouble. Stuart also asked whether it was very artistic and stated it is definitely "No Cluedo". On 07/03/08 Harry Fearnley was interviewed on Radio Oxford.
This page is part of the British Go E-News.
It is part of the British Go Association web site.
It was last updated 2008-05-06.