European Youth Go Congress, Kiev, Part 3

European Youth Go Championships
Kiev
Wed, 28 - Sat, 31 Mar 2018

Day 2 (of 3) of Kiev Tournament (continued from part 2)

In the morning, we played Round 3 of six. The spoils went to our five U20 (under age 20) players, as four won, and the loser was playing against one of our own!

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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European Youth Go Congress, Kiev, Part 2

European Youth Go Championships
Kiev
Thu, 29 - Sat, 31 Mar 2018

Day 1 (of 3) of Kiev Tournament (continued from part 1)

The remaining three squad members and their three mothers arrived safely on Wednesday afternoon, on the eve of the main tournament. We all went to a pizza restaurant, for some squad players to get to know newcomers.

On Thursday 29th, the tournament kicked off with an elaborate opening ceremony. This featured firstly a long and colourful Chinese dragon, then a superb circus troupe of youngsters. There were gymnasts, trapeze artists and girls climbing up silk ropes, acrobatically spinning back down, all very well rehearsed. The local Go pro Artem did some translation into English of words from various Ukrainian dignitaries who wished all players good luck and enjoyable games.

Then came the first of the day's two rounds of games.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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European Youth Go Congress, Kiev

European Youth Go Championships
Kiev
Thu, 29 - Sat, 31 Mar 2018

The first part of the UK Youth Go team - kindly sponsored by DeepMind - has arrived in Kiev, Ukraine for the 225-strong annual European Youth Go Congress; the remaining members joining us on Wednesday. Everyone is looking forward to the main event: two games per day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The team has been getting used to mounds of snow (it's still freezing overnight), signs mostly in Cyrillic, plus Ukrainian and Russian words.

On Monday Natasha, a Kiev resident and part-organiser of the tournament, took us on a tour of the wonderful, quaint and deep metro; we climbed the bell tower at St.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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Norway Draw Sees UK Slip to Second

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
Pandanet
Tue, 13 Mar 2018

In the seventh round of the European B-League, UK were matched against Norway placed fourth. With a staggered start time the match lasted from 19:00 to nearly 23:00 UK time. The match ended a draw with Andrew and Chris winning on the top boards, but Des and Jon losing on the other two. This left the UK in second place with 12 points, as Germany beat Denmark to go clear top with 13 points. Netherlands drew with Austria to stay third on 11 points. With just Netherlands and Sweden to go the UK team are still hopeful of promotion.

Andrew Simons wrote: I won my game against Jostein Flood.

I was black and started off with the AlphaGo (and 19th century) idea that approaching both his 3-4 points to prevent shimaris and then tenuki-ing was a good idea.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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Trigantius

Trigantius
Cambridge
Sat, 10 Mar 2018

The 42nd Trigantius took place in a spring-like Cambridge, again held at the University Social Club in Mill Lane. A recent record of 56 players (including two ghosts) meant the event got off to a late start. In addition in the afternoon there were 28 players in Paul Smith's Novices Tournament making it even more popular (though more crowded). This number included four adults and a large group of pupils from Harpenden Academy.

The main tournament saw the return of Sam Aitken (3d) who won all three, including a win secured against Andrew Simons (4d Cambridge), to become this year's holder of the Trigantius Trophy.
Other players on three wins were Alison Bexfield (1k Letchworth), Matthew Reid (1k Cambridge) and Sebastian Pountney (8k).

Last updated Sat Jul 21 2018.
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Rab Fulton wins in Skye

Skye
Portree
Sat, 3 - Sun, 4 Mar 2018

Skye had beautiful weather while the rest of the northern Europe got snowed under. As a result just 19 of the 33 who'd registered for the fifth Isle of Skye Go Tournament got through. Juliusz "Julko" Pruszynski tried to travel from Lodz to Skye by bus but only got as far as London; he was sorely missed.

Either Edwin Brady or Donald MacLeod were to have done the draw but both were snowed in. Nick Wedd started writing names and drawing lines on index cards but John Collins turned out to have the program on his laptop and did sterling service in spite of computer crashes forcing him to type it all out again on the Sunday morning. He got a prize and a cheer for his efforts.

John Collins and Carel Goodheir won leagues C and B of the Friday evening 9X9 contests with 5 and 4 out of 6 games respectively.

Last updated Thu Mar 08 2018.
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Eric retains South Manchester title

South Manchester
Cheadle Hulme School
Sat, 3 Mar 2018

Freezing national temperatures nonetheless, this year saw the South Manchester day retain its attendance from last year's inaugural day. Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) again kindly allowed use of their fine premises and, as in 2017, two events (Main and Fast) were held at the same time. The Main event, run by Chris Kirkham, attracted 20 players, while the Fast (run by Helen Harvey) featured 13 players. CHS was represented by 13 of its students (better than last year), while the Head of Physics, Mike Winslow, had given up his day to be on hand in case any issues arose.

Last updated Thu Mar 08 2018.
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Snow Almost Defeats Irish Open

Irish Open
Dublin
Sat, 3 Mar 2018

The worst snow in Ireland for 36 years struck during the week leading up to the Irish Open weekend. Helped on by Storm Emma, snow drifts stopped all public transport and flights for about two days and many of the 49 possible entrants were unable to arrive. The Irish Rapidplay, scheduled for the Friday evening, was cancelled and the Confucius Cup (Irish Open) was cut from a five-round European Grand Prix event with 1000 euro prize to a three round rapid play event all on the Saturday afternoon. It was held as in recent years in a top hotel, The Gresham Hotel, on O'Connell Street (shown here after most snow had melted).

The only top player whose flights arrived okay was Lukas Podpera, 7d Czechia. He won the event easily, with America's Yisheng Wang (5d) in second.

Last updated Thu Mar 08 2018.
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Jonathan Green Wins First Notts Kyu Event

Nottingham
Nottingham
Sat, 24 Feb 2018

29 players enjoyed teaching and a rapid tournament at the Dice Cup board game cafe in the centre of Nottingham for the first Kyu Player Teaching and mini-tournament. Teaching in the morning was given in three ability groups, by Chris Bryant (Sheffield), Toby Manning (Leicester) and Alison Bexfield (Letchworth); it was very much appreciated.

A 3 round McMahon tournament was held in the afternoon, with only 30 minutes per player and no overtime, which caught out a few (including one of the organisers!). Winning the tournament was Jonathan Green (4k Leamington) who is shown receiving his prize from Toby Manning.

Last updated Sat Mar 17 2018.
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London Go Centre Opens

LGC Opening
London Go Centre
Sat, 17 - Sun, 18 Feb 2018

The new London Go Centre was launched on the weekend of 17th and 18th February with an event that featured teaching, a tournament and more.

The previous London Go Centre was in Lambolle Place in London's NW3 between 1975 and 1978, when it closed as it was not financially viable. It had long been a dream of several London players to have a centre again, and when T Mark Hall left his estate to fulfill this aim a rebirth seemed a possibility. Various options were investigated by the trust set up in his name. These included acquiring a building for use as a Mind Sports Centre in conjunction with others such as Chess.

Last updated Fri Feb 23 2018.
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