BGA Newsletter 332 November 2025

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, will be found in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area. In Newsletters after August 2025 the images have clickable links for viewing them full size. Full-size images from earlier Newsletters may be found via the BGA All News pages.

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

European Student Go Championship 2025

Durham Go Club was excited to host the 2025 European Student Go Championship. The weekend started with cultural events, beginning with a tour of Durham's UNESCO World Heritage Site - including the 900 year old Cathedral and Castle. Guests then enjoyed an evening in a typical British pub, with the opportunity to play Go and meet some of the Durham student players.

The Championship was a 5 round Class A McMahon tournament based in some Durham University buildings adjacent to the fascinating Oriental Museum, which includes in its collection several ancient Go related artefacts. We were particularly delighted that Lukáš Podpěra (7d) from Prague in the Czech Republic was able to join us and offer reviews and teaching across the weekend (pictured).

More photos are available here, and videos of games and teaching are on the Durham Club YouTube channel

UK Youth in China

We took part in the 3rd Quzhou Lanke Youth International Child Friendly Amateur Weiqi Tournament. This is for teams of 3; we only had 2 players, Ryan Zhang 3d (left) and Lukasz Kudla 5k (centre) who were able (and qualified) to play, so we recruited a strong Romanian youth, Dragos Boldeanu to make up the team entitled "UK International".

The team ended up with 3/7, having defeated Australia, Chile and “Quzhou International” (a team of 5-year old girls from the International Go School in Quzhou), and having lost to Croatia, Thailand, the USA and Malaysia. Individually Ryan achieved 5/7, and Lukasz 2/7.

Toby Manning (at the back) was Team Leader.

Pandanet - Draw with Sweden

In the first game of the 2025-2026 B-League season the UK team had to play newly demoted Sweden. The match ended a draw which is a good result against a strong country. Further information here.

Korean Prime Minister's Cup

Toby Manning and Ryan Zhang are playing in the KPMC in the city of Taebaek, about 4 hours east of Seoul. Toby is playing in the main section (57 countries represented), Ryan in the Youth section (28 countries are represented). Over the weekend Ryan and Toby played in a Pair Go Tournament where they got 2/4. The main events start on Monday 10th.

BGA Tournament Winners

Full results here.
Wessex - Yifan Bao
Bar Low - Jose-Manuel Pavon
Three Peaks - Yangran Zhang
British Youth - Alvina Kwok

ADMIN

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: Northern (Cheadle Hulme)
December: Edinburgh Christmas, T Mark Hall Rapid (London), London Open
January 2026 Lancaster (provisional)
February London Youth, Coventry, Ulster Open (Belfast)
March Cambridge Trigantius
April British Go Congress
May Candidates (British Championship) and Aspirants, Welsh Open (Barmouth)
July European Go Congress (Turkey)