A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

The first BGA Youth Residential Training was held at the PGL youth adventure centre at Caythorpe Court, not far from Grantham in Lincolnshire. The BGA group was made up of 19 youngsters aged 10 to 17 from Manchester, Letchworth, Cambridge and London areas, and five adults.

On arrival on Monday 14th August the youngsters were split into two by age for an afternoon of orienteering and raft building. Once dried out and fed, they assembled in the downstairs rooms of the Court for a short Go tournament, followed by Liar Dice and other games. Winner of the top group was Oscar Selby and Hilary Bexfield won both her games too.

Jon Diamond was the winner at the Arundel Tournament four years after his last win there. He won all four games, including beating Alistair Wall in the final, and is pictured receiving his prize from organiser Sue Paterson.

22 players met up at the usual event venue of the football club, in the shadow of the castle. They mostly came from southern England, including nine from the local club, but also one came from Lincoln Club and one from Paris. The latter, Stephane Gros-Lemesre (10k), made the trip memorable by winning all three games.

Results

The Leo Phillips Isle Of Man Go Festival was held at the Cherry Orchard in Port Erin, in memory of its former organiser, thanks to the efforts of Paul Smith. 35 people took part in the various Go events and there was sandcastle building, an eight-team quiz (won by team Marklom), a reading by Ingrid Jendrzejewski of some of her very enjoyable flash fiction stories and a chance to explore the island.

Lucretiu Calota, the Romanian 4d from St Alban's Club, won this year's Belfast Tournament with a perfect score of five. Second place was taken by Karl Irwin, 4d from Belfast Club. Local organiser James Hutchinson (2d) took third. In all 15 players took part in the friendly event, held as usual at the Boat Club. Lower down the rankings Kevin Farrell (8k Galway) did very well winning all five games and Rachel Plomp (16k Dublin) won three games.

Results

The after a gap in 2016, the UK Go Challenge Finals were back. This time the event was sponsored by Mindsports Academy (MSA) as part of their youth championship event, which meant free entry. As well as the usual certificates, all players received a MSA voucher, participant's medal and sports bag; the winner and second also received a trophy from MSA and all age group winners received a plaque from MSA too. The venue was the very pleasant function rooms of Stoke City's stadium, now called the bet365 stadium, but best known as the Britannia Stadium, which included the Stanley Matthews Bar.

14 young players took part in the Go.

The 25th Welsh Open – held in its constant, coastal town of Barmouth since 1993 (when Matthew Macfadyen gained the first of his 16 consecutive wins) – was held on the weekend of 24-25 June 2017. Organised again by Helen & Martin Harvey, the event passed off smoothly and enjoyably, despite Martin's sun dance needing improvement, although the rainy periods meant it was a good time to be indoors. 31 played in at least 1 of the 6 rounds, including two 3-dans, two 2-dans, 4 shodans and down to a 13-kyu. Participants could take a bow for having travelled from across the UK – from as far away as the Isle of Man, Durham and Winchester. Numbers at the evening meals were further-swelled by non-playing partners.

The now-customary venue – the large Min y Mor hotel and restaurant – once more provided draught Abbot Ale, 2 quiet playing rooms and an analysis lounge for game reviews.

Report from Andrew Ambrose-Thurman:

The rain was falling heavily as people made their way to the first morning of Durham Go Tournament 2017, this year held at Durham's Oriental Museum. Despite the downpour there was a reasonable turnout of 29, with this being several people's first tournament, and ranks ranged from 20k to 3d.

This year we decided to video the games on the top board and stream them live over the internet. We also projected the video onto a big screen in the side room, where people were reviewing games and playing in the side events.

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.

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

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