A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities
Here is the fiinal report from UK team captain and team coach, Martin and Helen Harvey:
19 Aug (Day 4): Today was full of Chinese history and culture. First in the morning, the organisers took us to visit Louguantai Temple, situated in the northern foothills of Mount Qinling, Zhouzhi County (70 km east of Xi'an), the birthplace and sacred place of Taoism in China. It is a famous holy place for tourists to visit, founded in the Western Zhou Dynasty and flourishing in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It was a beautiful and scenic spot surrounded by mountains, a bamboo forest and decorative buildings. Whilst there the teenagers dressed up in traditional costume, sang, played games of Go and practiced bow and arrow shooting, much to the delight of the media cameras. Great fun was enjoyed by all. In the afternoon, we visited Hanyangling Mausoleum Museum, located on the bank of Weihe River in the northern suburbs of Xi’an City.
The 2019 Isle of Man Go Festival, held in memory of its creator, Leo Phillips, took place in Port Erin in a new venue, St Andrew’s Church Hall. Although attendance was a disappointing 21 the participants (and several spouses and friends) were a friendly lot and the congress spirit of previous years continued. The new venue proved a success. It was slightly nearer the sea providing a seaview from the kitchen window (the well equipped kitchen also doubling up as an analysis room). Although the cooler than usual for August and slightly breezy weather meant that no one took advantage of the garden to play outside while admiring the seaview.
The main Open tournament was won narrowly on tie-break by Richard Hunter (1d Bristol) from Sandy Taylor (2d Cambridge), but Sandy got his revenge by winning the Afternoon Tournament.
Two European teams, one from France and one from the UK, were invited thanks to Fan Hui to take part in the first 'the Belt and Road' International I-Go Invitational Tournament for Teenagers. This runs from 16th to 22nd August in Xi'an in China.
Here is the first report from UK team captain and team coach, Martin and Helen Harvey:
The UK Team are enjoying the first few days of their trip to Xi'an in China. There are 20 teams invited, from six countries. We have opted for Cheadle Hulme School as the UK team name, as most of the other teams have a school name. In round one of seven we played Yanta Road (from Xi'an) and in round two we played Xifei (also Xi'an). In round three, which has just started, we play Nanshan (the Taiwan team), which has a 7D, 6D and two 5D. Today will have been a tough and tiring, but a good learning experience. Yesterday morning we were all bused to visit the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
Congratulations to Lizzy Pollitt (facing the camera), 18 kyu from Cheadle Hulme School, for winning Group E of the Pair Go tournament at the annual 2-week European Go Congress, in Brussels this year.
Partnering a 2 dan from China, Li Feng, they won 5 out of their 6 games, including the final. Their prizes - presented by Martin Stiassny, EGF President - were nice wood-mounted shields plus a cash prize, on top of the Pair Go T-shirts generously awarded to all competitors.
It's been a successful week for Lizzy, on her debut EGC, as she also won 3 of her 4 games in the Main tournament - the Open European Championship Main Tournament.
The Summer 2019 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.
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The sun shone well for the 27th annual Welsh Open Go Tournament, held as ever in the coastal town of Barmouth, nestling at the foot of beautiful Snowdonia. 36 players vied over the two days, in the fine Min-y-Mor hotel, where many players had booked rooms, with others opting for the many nearby B+Bs. One intrepid youngster, whilst disabled, travelled solo from Potsdam in Germany, for his first-ever UK trip. The main organiser Helen Harvey was pleased both with the numbers and being sung Happy Birthday at prizegiving! We were pleased to have a group of Chinese dan-players leading the field, plus four players who made it over from Nottingham for the weekend, and the return of old faces Eric and Elinor from Swindon.
In celebration of 25 years of Go in Durham, Durham Go Tournament 2019 was suitably festive - from the Go Club cupcakes to the 25 Year t-shirts (0.25% of the 10,000 year ko!)
The weekend started with players meeting in the pub for a meal on the Friday night. There were 36 entries to the tournament - 15 either current Durham players or alumni of the Durham club, and 18 people who had no connection with the Durham club at all. In total 16 clubs were represented; it was particularly good to see the fledgling Beverley Go Club in attendance.
Durham is a friendly, 6-round, weekend-long tournament. This year it was, for the third year running, held at the Oriental Museum.
The 38th British Pair Go Championship was held at its now regular venue, the Red Lion in Hatfield. As well as serving lunches and drinks, this has a garden to sit in (when it is not raining), is very close to the railway station and has some nearby shops (including that Hertfordshire delight, a Simmons bakery).
Some of the stronger pairs could not play this time; for instance Natasha Regan was lecturing on Go at the Cheltenham Science Festival. However, thanks to the minibus from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) there were still 15 pairs, many including youngsters.
Wang Chen of China won the 40th World Amateur Championship in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Second, with just a loss to the winner, was Lee Jaesung of Korea. The group on six wins was: Hong Kong, USA, Pal Balogh of Hungary, Canada and Dmytro Bogatskyy of Ukraine. The other places went to the best on five: Japan, Singapore and Indonesia.
The UK Rep, Andrew Kay, was 27th out of 59 with four wins. With three wins on the first two days, day three didn't go so well with losses to Pal Balogh of Hungary and Timotej Suc of Slovenia. On the final day he lost to Jan Simara of Czechia, but beat Ioan Grigoriu of Romania.
Noel Mitchell for Ireland also won four in 36th place.
The World Amateur is underway in Japan, in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. The opening ceremony on 1st June featured a drama of the slaying of the local eight-headed dragon and the city encouraging players to visit the castle and the large local lake. Play got underway the next day with the usual Asian and other strong countries winning two; after two days Korea, China, Japan and Hong Kong were the ones on four.
The UK representative, Andrew Kay, lost as expected to the Korean player, but then won his next three against Lloyd Rubidge of South Africa, Martin Li of Sweden and Stjepan Mestrovic of Croatia. This put him 13th of 59 with two days left to play.
Noel Mitchell for Ireland lost to Pal Balogh of Hungary, Carl Mendez of Chile and Bahadur Tahirbayov of Azerbaijan, but then beat Cristobal Marvan of Mexico.
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