A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

The postponed Edinburgh Christmas Open saw a slightly reduced turnout at 33 players.

Having earlier been presented with the 2010 Scottish Championship trophy, David Lee (2 dan Dundee) also triumphed on the day. Runners up on 3/4 were Andrew Kay (4 dan Durham) and Matthew Scott (2 dan Newcastle).

The draw has now been done for Season 3 of the online team league.

There are 6 teams in each of divisions 1 and 2 so the intention is that each team will play 5 matches roughly a month apart between February and June.

There are 5 teams in each of divisions 3 and 4 so each team will play 4 matches roughly 6 weeks apart with one bye between February and June.

After some struggle with dates we were given permission to bend the rules and play this match over two days.

On day 1 (Tuesday) Des Cann lost, as he described it, an unloseable game and Andrew Simons won a lost one, so the score was 1:1.

Day 2 (Wednesday) didn't go according to plan, with Matthew Macfadyen having some shape problems and then losing after a ko struggle.

Andrew Simons (3 dan) from Cambridge won the tie-break that separated the top players at the 56-player Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament. Second was Tom Brand (3 dan) from Reading and third was Nick Krempel (3 dan) from London. Winning 3/3 were David Ward (2 dan), Baron Allday (1 kyu), David Hall (8 kyu), Pat Ridley (11 kyu) and Jan Poslusny (9 kyu) from Prague.

The annual British Go Congress is being held on 8th-11th April in the lovely location of Malmesbury Town Hall.

The website with full information and booking form is now available here

PLEASE NOTE the accommodation side is a little more difficult this year as there aren't that many hotels or B&Bs very close to the site

The closing date for the third season of our online Team League and the first season of our Individual League is 24th January, so if you're interested in joining you need to hurry.

More details are available here

On Sunday 16th January, Matthew Macfadyen beat Vanessa Wong in the fourth game of the 2010 British Championship match. This put Matthew 3-1 ahead in the 5-game match. Matthew is therefore the 2010 British Champion.

Congratulations to Roella Smith who held on to her lead to win the 2010 Youth Grand Prix. Jamie Taylor held on to second, and Roella's younger sister Kelda managed to get third place, just beating Barney Shiu.

Final results

Britain (Represented by Matthew Macfadyen, Jon Diamond, Des Cann and Andrew Simons) drew with Denmark in the third round, with Jon blotting his copy book (badly) this time.

Full details and game records at BGA Euroteams page

The team score is now one win, one loss and one draw.

There was a meeting of BGA Council on 28th November 2010. Here are the highlights: