43 at Candidates and Inaugural Aspirants

This Early May Bank Holiday saw 43 players gather in the Leicester County Bridge Club (St Oswalds) for a long weekend of Go.

20 players competed in the Candidates' Tournament, the highest turnout in a decade. Congratulations to Yaoling Yang (7d Bristol) who swept 1st place with 6 out of 6 wins, and Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans) who took 2nd place with 5 wins, losing only to Yaoling Yang. The two will go on to play a best-of-three Title Match to determine the 2025 British Go Champion. We were delighted to see the top 8 rounded out with two juniors: British Youth Champion Ryan Zhang (3d London City) in 7th with 4 wins and London Youth Champion Kwun Yin Ng (2d) in 8th leading the field on 3 wins. Results

For the first time, selected top boards of Candidates' were live-streamed via the BGA YouTube channel. We are extremely grateful to Michael Cheung for transcribing and commentating the Round 5 and Round 6 game live on OGS.

The remaining 23 players played in the inaugural Aspirants' Tournament, held alongside Candidates' and open to non-qualifying players. In the end, Conor Hunt (4k Brighton) claimed the tightly contested title of the first Aspirants Champion with 5 wins, with Tim James (3k Nottingham) placing 2nd and Florian Pein (3k Lancaster) in 3rd. All were awarded cash prizes, along with Leandro Soriano Marcolino (8k Lancaster), the only other player to achieve 5 wins. Finally, small Go-related prizes were awarded to George Austin-Sydes (5k Nottingham), for top below the bar, and to Joshua Sing Ching Fai (21k), for most DDK wins. Results

It was heartening to see many Aspirants making use of the long rounds and easy access to strong players to get in-depth game reviews. Our thanks go to all the Candidates who tirelessly provided their insights, and to Peter Fisher for acting as ghost.