BGA Newsletter 325 April 2025

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, are available in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area. This is the most reliable way to view the Newsletters, as some email clients can corrupt the formatting of the pictures.

Contributions are always welcome, both from our members and others. We ask that they be Go-related and "newsy". The place for debate and general discussion is the BGA open mailing list Gotalk. However, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter. A brief introduction to Gotalk, with a link for joining, is on the BGA page Go on the Internet.

Instructions for Contributors: Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it fairly brief, and give web-links and contact details. It's good to include pictures. If they are on the internet, send me the URL, otherwise attach the picture files to your email. Send your contribution to newsletter@britgo.org to arrive by the first day of the month.

Jil Segerman

NEWS

Pandanet Go European Team Championship

The seventh match of the B-League season, on 18th March, was against Serbia. There were wins by resignation for Jake Game, Ryan Zhang and Bruno Poltronieri, but Scott Cobbold lost by 3.5. This win left the team safely mid table. Round 8 will be on 15th April against Finland.

Pandanet Go European Youth Team Championship

In the penultimate round of the Championship the youth team lost 4 - 1 to Germany. We now lie 4th out of 6 in League A

European Youth Go Team Competition

Whereas the Championship has stringent eligibility requirements (all players must be nationals), those of the Competition are much laxer. After 3 rounds the UK team was at the top of the table; in the 4th round we got our revenge against Germany, winning 3-2. We therefore retained our position at the top of the table.

BGA Tournament Winners

Full results here
Trigantius - Yue Wen
Ulster - Tom Coulthard

Youth Grand Prix 2025

Young players entering tournaments throughout the year win points towards the Youth Grand Prix prizes. Any grade can enter, even beginners; currently the top three players are: 1st Olivia Jennison 20k, 2nd Yicheng Jiang 1d, 3rd Joshua Fai 23k.

Skye Tournament, Tuesday 13th–Wednesday 14th May

It's just over six weeks till the Skye Go Tournament. This was the last UK face-to-face tournament before covid but sadly couldn't be the first after it. The Tongadale Hotel is no longer available, and there was no weekend venue availble in the centre of Portree. So this time it's a midweek tournament. Apologies to any won't be able to come for that reason.

There is an extra attraction this year - a large concrete go board set in the paving in the centre of Portree.

If you're planning to come could you please use the BGA entry form. Knowing roughly how many are coming would be a help. Accommodation appears to be very much booked up, but organiser Carel Goodhier may be able to help; email carelgoodheir AT gmail.com

Pair Go Tournament Sunday June 14th

Plans are falling into place. The venue, somewhere in the Midlands, is still to be decided. There will be the usual prizes for above and below the bar, as well as the traditional Quiz, Best Dressed, Fighting Spirit. Full details will be posted on the Events page, meanwhile please feel free to contact organiser Barry Chandler barry.chandler@gmail.com or Alison Bexfield alison@bexfield.com

Film "The Thinking Game"

Toby Manning and Natasha Regan both attended the launch "party" at the Science Museum.

Toby: "The film is a biopic about Sir Demis Hassabis and Google DeepMind. It mentioned the match against Lee Sedol as part of the development of AI, and culminated with the award of the Nobel Prize for the development of AlphaFold (what shape do proteins adopt?).
I did not think the film was as good as "Alpha Go"; it was, in my view, too adulatory (Demis could do no wrong) and, while it is worth a view, I would not go out of the way to see it."

Natasha: "For me it was a huge honour to be invited to the screening, and very cool and exciting to see how Go inspired Demis's work that later led him to be able to publish the folding of all proteins - work that is helping scientists around the world make breakthroughs, and work that won Demis his Nobel prize.
I do agree with Toby that I preferred AlphaGo as a film (I consider AlphaGo a classic and one of my all-time favourite films). That said I would definitely recommend my friends (and especially my go-playing friends!) to go and see "The Thinking Game". The interview afterwards is also fascinating and I heard Demis talk in a way that I hadn't heard him talk before, about benefits but also risks of AI.
So please do go and see the film if you can!"

ADMIN

2025 AGM

The 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held online by Zoom at 20:00 on Thursday 22nd May. Details here. Please note the deadlines for nominations: Officer and Director positions 10th April, Disputes Panel 8th May.

NEW: Safeguarding

The BGA takes safeguarding issues seriously and has policies in place for safeguarding children and young people, and for adults at risk of harm. It also has a policy for online abuse. Please see the article by our Child Protection Officer Sue Paterson in the forthcoming BGJ 211 and also see the BGA "Safeguarding" web page. This is important to all members, not just event organisers.

New Social Media Co-ordinator

Craig Maclean from the Durham club has volunteered for the above role. He comes highly recommended, having done a similar job for the Durham club for some time now. In particular their use of social media has resulted in many more students returning to the club after their first visit.

Craig will be settling into the role over the next few months, and will be looking to issue a regular stream of informative social media content. Exactly how this will operate will be explained in subsequent communications.

BGA Online League

The online leagues are once again open for entry. The leagues will require participants to play an average of one game every two weeks on OGS, with time settings of 30 mins+10s/move and appropriate handicap. It will be an EGD class D rated event.

There are quite a large number of players now taking part with a wide range of ranks from 22k to 3d so you are likely to get well-matched games. Could anyone who wants to enter please email leagues@britgo.org with their rank and OGS username.

9th Annual World Collegiate WEICHI Championship 2025, Singapore 26 July - 1 August 2025

This is for undergraduate students. DEADLINE: Those interested should contact the BGA President by April 13th. President@britgo.org

Full details here

The 6th World Baduk Championship, South Korea 3rd – 5th June 2025

This is for strong players aged 44 or over. DEADLINE: Those interested should contact the EGF President Martin Stiassny by 16th April martin.go.europe@gmail.com

The Korean Baduk Association is hosting an event they call the World Championship, a single-elimination knockout tournament for 16 players, which is for players born in 1980 or earlier. The EGF has an invite for one place, and will hold an online qualification event in late April. Apparently the Korea Baduk Association will cover expenses apart from the airfare. Further details.

Martin Stiassny writes: "Here's an interesting tournament, where Europe will get one seat, like in the last few years, when Rob van Zeijst represented Europe. Please spread the information in your countries. I assume that there will be more than one interested player, so we need an online-qualification-tournament. Therefore herewith I set a deadline on the 16th April for "showing interest" in this event. The qualification tournament will happen in the second half of April, while the deadline for nominating our European representative is the 30th April. So I wait on emails of interested players!"

Ing Stones Giveaway

From Jonathan Chin:
Since 2018 I have been storing 7 sets of Ing stones/bowls in my loft for the BGA as loan stock but they are no longer required for this purpose. If anyone wants any of the sets, you can have them for the cost of postage and packing. The rest will be going to the recycling centre. The stones are plastic-coated and are quite heavy (~3.5kg per set). Note that there is a possibility that they contain lead. Contact go@jhnc.org, if interested.

Book and Equipment Offers

One of our sponsors, Hoyles of Oxford, is running a sale on Go Books, which can be found here. Additionally there is an exclusive offer for BGA members: £20 off their full size ceramic Go sets, reducing the price from £99.95 to £79.95. You need to enter GOSET20 at the basket to redeem that offer.

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: British Go Congress (Edinburgh), Online group lessons with Eunkyo Do 1p and Tik Wai Cheung 4d
May Candidates (British Championship) and Aspirants (Leicester), Skye, Not the London Open, Annual General Meeting (AGM, online)
June Durham, UK Go Challenge Finals, Pair Go (location somewhere in the Midlands TBA), Tonbridge, Welsh Open (Barmouth)
July European Go Congress (Warsaw, Poland)
August Youth Go Camp (Caythorpe, Lincolnshire), Mind Sports Olympiad (London), Newcastle
September Nottingham, Confucius Cup (Dublin)