Durham Features Tea Ceremony

On Saturday 7th June around 40 Go players descended on Elvet Hill House for the 2025 Durham Go Tournament. Ranks ranged from 7d down to a 30k player who played his second ever 19x19 game in Round 1, and there was also a good range of ages - including several youth players as well as a number of university students. Players came from across the UK, from London to Cardiff to Edinburgh.

Unusually, the side room was upstairs this year - due to our usual side room being filled with instruments for a student musical group. This did mean we had a notably larger room to review games (and consume tea and biscuits), though, so there were some advantages.

Over the years we've been experimenting with better ways to include technology - most of the entry fees were taken by card payments, the top board was live streamed to both the side room and on YouTube, and people could watch the results for each round coming in live as players entered them onto a tablet.

After the first three rounds we stopped for the evening's entertainment - an all-you-can-eat BBQ. Around 3/4 of the Go players came along, along with partners and people who couldn't make it to the tournament itself. By this time the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and - as is traditional when holding BBQs in the UK - the rain had started to fall, but there was plenty of room under gazebos and plenty of food, drink, Go playing, and convivial conversation. And the rain didn't last too long.

Alongside the BBQ we held a tea ceremony, where we were joined by the Durham University Chinese Tea Art Society who demonstrated various types of tea for people to compare and enjoy.

Sunday started bright and clear - soon the rain started to fall again, but by that time we were all inside playing Go and didn't really notice. After another three rounds the tournament (and the traditional Durham Goat Ornament) was won by Quan Wan (7d Manchester), with 5/6 on tie-break from Peikai Xue (4d UCL). Prizes were also given for winning 6/6: Alex Millington (5k Durham) and Joshua Sing Ching Fai (21k). The Lightning side event was won jointly by Joshua Sing Ching Fai and Rowan Litting (12k Durham), and the Small Board side event was won by Caleb Tin Nan Fai (19k). Results

Durham will be hosting the European Student Go Championship later in the year, so we hope to see all the student players again in October, and everyone again next June!