In the first Birmingham Tournament since 2002, there were 38 entrants from all across the UK. Andrew Simons won the tournament. Other notable performances were Patrick Batty (6k London) and Anthony Pitchford (11k Chester) who both won all 3 games and Oscar Selby (10k Epsom) and Fassal Mahmood (5k Birmingham) who jointly won the 13x13 side event.

Results

Letchworth Garden City Go Club met for the first time on Thursday April 18.

Nine people attended, including organizer Alison Bexfield 2d and husband Simon 1d. There was also a three-strong contingent, ranging in strength from 25k to 5k, from the Stone Free Go Friendly Association in nearby Stevenage and two other Letchworthians including a complete beginner, as well as two enthusiasts from further afield.

Ms Bexfield, who recently organised the very successful British Go Congress 2013, took on the three Stevenage players simultaneously as well as providing and checking teaching materials from the BGA for the new starter between moves!

She was pleased with the turnout and hopes, with further publicity, to attract more players in the future.

The club will meet at 8pm every Thursday during school term-time at the Central Methodist Church Hall, a couple of minutes drive from J9 of the A1(M).

Another poor result leaves us still in last place in the second division. This time we didn't lose, but only drew against Belgium - our third draw this season and still no win.

Andrew Simons played on Monday, but as he said "Forgot to eat beforehand, didn't concentrate, didn't read, didn't win." Really careless...

Bei Ge's opponent didn't turn up or something, so he won by default.

Jon Diamond got into a poor position early in the middle game, creating some outside thickness for his opponent. Struggling to compete he made a reasonable fist of it, then having cut some stones off just failed to kill them (could he have done so?), ending up with a ko for seki and a significant loss. When his opponent cut a few more stones off as compensation the margin was just too much.

Des Cann retrieved some of our pride, capturing many stones (it felt quite easily).

Cambridge ran away with the Open Division at the Spring London International Teams. All three members of the team (Andrew Simons, David Ward and Jonathan Chin) won all three games.

The South London Go Club won a very closely contested Handicap Division by their match result against second placed Twickenham. Ryohei Oda came within a point of winning all three games, leaving match organiser Jonathan Turner to overcome handicaps of 6, 7 and 8 stones to be the only player in that division to win all his games.

Results

Zebin Du, a Chinese 4d from Nottingham University, won the British Open winning all 6 games. Second was Yuanbo Zhang, also 4d, with 5 wins. A group of 4d came next with 4 wins: Andrew Kay, T Mark Hall, and Andrew Simons. Winning 5 games lower down were Alan Thornton (1k St Albans), Peter Collins (3k Bristol), Peter Harold-Barry (5k St Albans), Andrew Russell (6k Birmingham), Pat Ridley (10k Chester) and Oscar Selby (12k Epsom). Prizes were awarded by divisions:

Division 1 (1-3d) : First Christian Scarff (4 wins), Second Harry Fearnley (3 wins)
Division 2 (1-4k): First Alan Thornton (5 wins), Second Peter Collins (5 wins)
Division 3 (5-8k): First Peter Harold-Barry (5 wins), Second Andrew Russell (5 wins)
Division 4 (9-12k): First Patrick Ridley (5 wins), Second Oscar Selby (5 wins)

The game records used by Michael Redmond 9p at his UK teaching events between 30/03/13 and 05/04/13 have been made available as zipped files.

Strong Players Training (Windows) Other Lectures (Windows)

Strong Players Training (Linux) Other Lectures (Linux)

The BGA AGM was held during the British Go Congress at Stevenage between 18:45 and 19:45 on 6th April.

• The previous minutes were accepted, as were the accounts for 2012, presented by the Treasurer and approved by the Auditor.
• The President, Secretary and Membership Secretary also presented reports.
• The officers, auditor and three council members were re-elected. Fred Holroyd rejoined Council after being elected and Roger Huyshe was elected to Council for the first time.
• There were no other motions for consideration.
• Under Any Other Business there were items about combining the BGC 2014 with the European Youth Go Championship at Bognor Regis at the end of March/beginning of April, future possibilities for charity registration, about the BGA sets and possible ways for Outreach.

A new junior club is starting on 18th April - Letchworth Junior Chess and Go Club. The club will be a place for youngsters aged 8 - 14 to come and play (or learn) Chess and Go.

These are some of the things you can expect provided at the weekly club meetings:

• Chess sets and Go sets for playing friendly games
• Teaching tips for improving at chess and Go
• Club Chess ladder
• Club Go ladder
• Termly Chess and Go tournaments
• Puzzle sheets

Follow the above link for full, up-to-date details.

The fifth season of the BGA Online League is now under way.

To balance the divisions out, I have moved Belfast and Billericay up to division 1, Glasgow up to division 2 and then done the draw for matches in each division.

As last year there are two matches between each pair of teams, a notional "home" and "away" match. Please try to complete at least one match if you can't fit in both matches. If you do play both, please try to field a different set of three players for each match against the same opposing team if possible.

If you have any problems and difficulties please don't hesitate to ask me or an "old hand" if available.

I hope everyone enjoys themselves this season and we look forward to seeing some interesting games!

John Collins

Although I've written in the forthcoming British Go Journal that all Council members are offering themselves for re-election, it turns out that two of the existing members have recently decided not to for a variety of personal reasons.

We thank them for their efforts and hope that they will still continue working with the BGA to promote and develop Go in the UK.

Nominations for Council members are therefore solicited - this could be yourself or someone else!

Please contact one of the Council members if you're interested or have a suggestion as someone who might be suitable.

Most of the involvement does not involve travelling, but there are typically three face-to-face meetings (mostly in association with a tournament) - last year they were in Cambridge, Leicester and London.