Our team lost again by three games to one, this time against Austria. The only win was by Joanne Leung, making her debut in the League on board 4. The next match will be on Tuesday 19th February, against Switzerland.

Andrew Simons wrote: I lost on time against Viktor Lin, from a good position that had just turned bad in an overtime panic. We had a nice opening fight when he allowed my powerful cut at p3: we both had weakish groups running out to the centre, but I got to cover the head at m11 and he didn't make much territory on his half of the board in the process. A fight on the lower side ended with an exchange, capturing a load of cutting stones for good profit to settle my groups. I think c4 was a mistake though (e3 or h2 better), as although I got a ponnuki and sente I lost chances to attack his group which didn't actually have eyes yet; he was obviously going to steal the base of my ponnuki next and pretend to attack it.

There was much fun and games at the Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament. As usual it was held at the Whitebrook Park headquarters of Hitachi Europe, though news was shared that due to potential company relocation it might be the last. In between rounds, as well as playing 13x13 games, most of the ten youngsters taking part played different games with Alison, the non-playing organiser. In addition, as well as wine and mystery envelope prizes, the prize table contained a large selection of board games as shown right.

The winner of the tournament was the former Chinese professional, Chao Zhang (6d London), shown right. He beat Jon Diamond, Alex Kent and Andrew Simons to take the title.

Alison Bexfield, Team Captain, sent us 2 posts on Sat. 12 Jan. re this UK Youth Go Team match.

--- Pre-match ---
The British youth go team are back in action today, playing Hungary.
This is our 3rd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

Our line-up for today's match is:
U20 Yueran Wang
U16 Edmund Smith
U16 Josh Gorman
U12 Yanyi Xiong
U12 Emily Oliviere

We welcome Emily from Harpenden to the squad as our newest member, making her debut today. She joins the squad after a strong showing at the British Youth championships (which I use for talent spotting).

Three boards commenced play at 2pm and we have won on board 4 with a convincing win by Yanyi. The other two - boards 1 and 3 - are currently still playing. Boards 2 and 5 start play at 4pm. All games take place on the KGS server.

--- Post-match ---

The group which has been meeting in Letchworth and Stevenage as Letchworth Go Club (adults) has reconstituted as the Stevenage (North Herts) Go Club and will no longer meet in Letchworth, but only in Stevenage, every Tuesday from 7.30pm till closing time (11pm). The first meeting is on 8th January 2019 at:

Cafe Green, IBIS Hotel, Danestrete, Stevenage, SG1 1EJ.

The BGA's flagship tournament - the [45th] London Open - started as usual on Friday 28th December and ran until 31st December at its new venue of the London Go Centre. The event was limited in numbers because of it was being run at the London Go Centre for the first time and the organisers wanted to make sure things worked with a smaller venue, but still 89 players (including ghosts) took part. Next year they will be able to accept more registrations. Representing 14 countries, the players ranged from 30k to 7d, including some strong children, and there was a large party from Germany. The teaching this year was provided by European professional Ali Jabarin, from Israel, who is shown in an analysis.

The 45th London Open got under way on Friday 28th December at its new venue of the London Go Centre. The event had to be limited in numbers because of the size of the venue, but still more than 80 players sat down to play the first round. Representing 14 countries, the players ranged from 30k to 7d, including some children, and there was a large party from Germany. Top British youth player Tom Bradbury is seen right in a warm up game before the event started. The person to beat this year is likely to be Oh Ch-Min (7d) from France, who is seen at the bottom in his first round game. Teaching this year is being provided by European professional Ali Jabarin, from Israel, who is shown in an analysis below.

The annual Edinburgh Christmas competition - a challenging format of four 45-minute main-time rounds with overtime starting at 30 stones in 5 minutes - was won convincingly by club president, Boris Mitrovic (2d), who beat the other four players starting ‘above the bar’ and was the only entrant to win in all four rounds.

James Richards (1k), Alistair Wall (1d) and Roger Daniel (6k) each won three of their four.

The competition lost out badly to the weather, with only 17 of the 21 entrants actually playing at the event in the hall of St Columba’s by the Castle Episcopal Church.

Results

The UK Youth team played a strong German team, on Saturday 15th December, and lost 4-1.

This was our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

The UK Youth Team Captain, Alison Bexfield, writes:

The youth team is playing Germany on Saturday 15th December and teams have been chosen.

This is our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

The match is interesting. We narrowly won our opening match against Croatia. Germany may prove an even harder test. They have a very strong squad, but are wisely and sportingly giving mid-order players some match experience. We thus have an outside chance of winning it, but only if everyone plays up to their top level.

We wish the team luck especially Yanyi, who is making his debut for our team. Families, friends, Brits and Germans, and all Go-players are welcome to watch any of the matches on KGS.

The matches will all commence at 2pm UK time.

Our team lost three games to one against a strong team from the Netherlands. This put our team down to bottom place in the Pandanet B division, behind Denmark. After four rounds, in the B League out of A-D, four teams have three wins: Serbia, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. This win left Netherlands in fifth place. The next match will be on Tuesday 22nd January, against Austria.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by resignation against Geert Groenen, but I feel I played a lot better this game (at least in the opening) so I'm not too regretful! Probably the hardest choice I faced early on was how to handle my opponent's 3-3 invasion on move 28. I ultimately played the double-hane variation, but it was a bit of a toss up between that and the keima-and-try-to-retain-sente one.