7th Pair Go Win for Natasha and Matthew

British Pair Go
Hatfield
Sat, 3 Jun 2017

The British Pair Go Championship was again held at the Red Lion in Hatfield and the organisers, Francis Roads and Jenny Rofe-Radcliffe, were again pleased as there was an increase to 17 pairs, despite several of the stronger pairs not taking part this year. Most of this number was a large group from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) and Manchester, which was recognised by the organisers presenting Martin and Helen Harvey with a special prize for arranging this.

In the top group the 2016 champions, Joanne Leung and Bruno Poltronieri, did not do so well and it came down to a final between Alison and Simon Bexfield and Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke.

Last updated Mon Jun 10 2019.
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Daniel Hu and Andrew Simons to Play Title Match

Challengers' League
West London
Sat, 27 - Tue, 30 May 2017

Both Daniel Hu and Andrew Simons won six games out of seven to top the list at the Challengers' League. Andrew won in their mutual game, but lost to Charles Hibbert on time, when his flag fell earlier than expected. Charles was third with 5 wins, Tim Hunt won 4, Andrew Kay and Alex Rix 3, Joanne Leung won 1 and Des Cann took eighth place.

Daniel and Andrew now go on to play the title match over the coming months.

Results

Last updated Tue May 30 2017.
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Boris Runs and Wins Scottish Open

Scottish Open
Edinburgh
Sat, 27 - Sun, 28 May 2017

The Scottish Open took place at the offices of Skyscanner in the modern Quartermile One building in Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, on 27th and 28th May. 20 players made it along, some having met the night before for some lightning Go and socialising at the "Noughts and Crosses" Games Cafe on Morisson Street.

Prizes were awarded to the top three ranked players: Boris Mitrovic (2d Edinburgh) with 6 wins, Paul Smith (1k Cambridge) with 5 wins and Neil McLean (1k Aberdeen) with 3 wins. Prizes also went to the three 5kyus who each won 4 of their 6 games: Edmund Smith (Cambridge), Stephen Chester (Edinburgh) and Niall Paterson (Glasgow).

Results

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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Ke Jie Ends in Tears vs AlphaGo

AlphaGo
Sat, 27 May 2017

AlphaGo won the third game of the the match bringing its opponent, Ke Jie, to tears and winning the match 3-0.

BBC Radio News reported that it had been announced that AlphaGo would no longer play humans.

On the previous day (Friday 26th) AlphaGo had beaten a team of Chinese pros, who could discuss the game, by resignation. Its only loss of the week was with a Chinese professional partner against itself and another Chinese professional partner in a Pair Go game.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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AlphaGo Beats Ke Jie Twice in Match

AlphaGo
Thu, 25 May 2017

The last man-machine match was held in Wizhen in China, between top Chinese play Ke Jie and Deepmind's AlphaGo. The first game on 23rd was very close with AlphaGo just winning by half a point. The second on 25th was a very complicated fight with AlphaGo winning by resignation to clinch the best-of-three match.

Also this week, Deepmind's founder, Demis Hassabis, was the guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

For more details of the match read the media reports in the national press or the Deepmind report which has game records at the bottom.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
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UK Team Ends Fourth in B League

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
Pandanet
Tue, 16 May 2017

The last round of the B-League on 16th May saw the UK playing Italy. Board one was played a day early. The match was drawn with wins on boards 3 and 4.

Andrew Simons wrote: I'm afraid I lost my game last night against Allesandro Pace. I was happy with how the opening went, and played a shoulder hit I'd seen in a Lee Sedol game to counter his influence strategy. Once I played the last big opening point on the left he played a strange attachment underneath and rather than directly answering I went for a leaning attack. He then played a loose move (f7 rather than f8, afterwards he said it was misclick) which allowed me to clamp to get the side but instead I got carried away and played what was essentially an endgame move at e2 so he fixed the clamp problem in sente. He then played a sharp attachment which I answered submissively and couldn't break into his moyo due to his own clamp tesuji.

Last updated Thu Jul 13 2017.
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David Woodnutt

We have heard from Alex Eve that David Woodnutt died at home of bowel cancer on Saturday 6th May 2017, aged 69.

Alex writes: “In 1969 he was the first person for five years who I could play Go with who I hadn't taught. He had learnt Go from the New Scientist article in early sixties. He founded the Sussex University Go Club in 1969. I next met him in Buckingham, around which we both lived a long while, and renewed friendship.” He later moved to Kington in Herefordshire.

David was on the BGA Council from 1991 to 1995 and was the journal editor from issue 119 to 132 (2000-2003). He became shodan in 1992 and reached two dan in 1999. He also enjoyed Pair Go, shown here playing with his wife Alison in 1995.

Alison is of course very sad after her loss and our thoughts go out to her at this time.

Last updated Fri May 19 2017.
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BGJ 179 Now Available in Members Area

The Spring 2017 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.

Last updated Mon May 15 2017.
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Lucretiu Calota wins at Bracknell

Bracknell
Wokingham
Sun, 14 May 2017

The top player at the 39th Bracknell Go Tournament was Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans) who beat Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) in the final (pictured). Chao Zhang (6d London) and Jim Clare (1d Reading) took third and fourth places, and Paul Barnard (2k Swindon) took fifth with three wins. Others of the 36 players winning three were Casey Alexander (10k Arundel), Alexander Hsieh (10k Cambridge Juniors) and Lueming Yang (20k Oxford).

Arundel won the team prize, by one win, over the junior team of "A Football Stuck in a Bush Squad". Nobody competed in the 13x13, but winning the puzzle-solving were Jonny Evans (10k London City) and Cate Howe (28k Cheadle Hulme School). Best haiku-writer was Richard Wheeldon.

Results

Last updated Sat Jan 19 2019.
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Daniel Hu Wins Candidates'

Candidates'
London
Sat, 29 Apr - Mon, 1 May 2017

The Candidates' Tournament was held over the April-May Bank Holiday weekend at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in West London. 18 of the possible players took part to determine who would play in the next stage of the British Championship, the Challengers' League, on the next bank holiday at the same venue.

Thanks to the organiser, Matt Marsh, setting up a webcam, Chris Bryant was able to rebroadcast the top board game online and it gave a chance to see some of the game on YouTube. Also the players were able on the Sunday to help review some of the games in the parallel Bar-Low Tournament.

Last updated Fri Jul 14 2017.
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