The 2020 BGA Accounts have been made available in the member's area of the website, and as a supporting document for the AGM Agenda at https://www.britgo.org/history/councilnews

The final game of the match, that started on KGS on 7th November, was held on Saturday 10th April. Played using the Supergo format (last team standing) the match came down to the final players, of the fifteen on each team, playing a head-to-head.

The previous weekend the UK's last player, Jayden Ng, had beaten five-game winner Ka Yau Chau. Hong Kong's last player of the team, put together by Liana Ao 4p, was Webber Tse. In a difficult game, Jayden fought bravely against the 5d, but lost a big group and another in time trouble before finally running out of time. This made Hong Kong the winners 15-14.

Match Details with game records and YouTube links.

The agenda for the BGA AGM, to be held on Zoom at 20:00 on Friday 7th May, is now available in the Members' Area at www.britgo.org/history/councilnews.

More papers are likely to be added in the coming days.

Colin Williams, Secretary.

The BGA now has its own YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbbc2yTdNeRDWScNzyihiXw containing initially some of Mateusz Surma's recent lectures and game reviews.

This follows on from the success of the London Go Centre channel.

It was an exciting match against Italy with some interesting games and the added excitement of Jon Diamond's game breaking just at the crucial point in a fight. In the end it ended honours even which left us third in the B-League just ahead of Finland, both on 7 points. At the top Netherlands beat Sweden to go a point clear of Italy with 10 points.

League Page with game records

Daniel Hu wrote of his game against Matias Pankoke: I was first to finish this time, in less than 2 hours, a surprisingly relaxing game. My opponent tenukied in the upper left which may be slightly questionable. A standard joseki ensued on the lower side, where he should get 2nd line territory on both sides and I get thickness on the 4th line and half an eye on the lower side. I'm not sure my clamp was best, but it was fighting spirit when he refused to play the simple one space jump. He certainly misplayed it, trying to save everything.

The 2021 AGM will be held, like last year, as a virtual meeting using ZOOM.

It will be on Friday 7th May, at 20:00. Meeting link details will be posted to the members area of the website nearer the date.

Anyone wishing to submit a motion for the meeting please e-mail it to secretary@britgo.org by Friday 2nd April, with the names of both supporting members.

In the European Youth Go Team Championship, our UK youth team won 4-1 against Ukraine.

George Han played his game early and beat Mariia Chernova by 6.5. On the day of the match, Daniel Chun Yang lost to Vsevolod Ovsiienko but Jacob Zhang beat Valerii Krushelnytskyi, both by resignation against higher-graded dan players. Lea Wong won her game against Bohuslav Onyshchuk by 24.5 to ensure the match was won. Sam Barnett rounded off the match on the following Tuesday by beating Olesia Malko by 23.5.

This meant the UK took second place overall, the first time we had been in the top three. Russia beat Czechia in the last round and, as predicted, took first place (having won the event for six of its seven-year history). Romania beat Hungary and took third place.

Team manager Alison Bexfield said: "I am really pleased that all of our team were able to play in at least one of our four matches.

A late change on each team meant it was going to be close against Croatia in the fifth match of the season. In the end the UK lost three games to one, with Des Cann taking the only win. At the top of the B-League Italy drew and Netherlands won to equal Italy on match points. The UK stayed third, just ahead of Finland on board points tie-break.

League Page with game records

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by 2.5 points to Matej Zakanj (komi was applied retroactively as it was set incorrectly). The opening seemed very balanced - I played a slightly dodgy sequence in the lower left corner but this ended up working in the board position. We ended up with a situation where we each had a large framework in addition to some smaller territories. We traded moves for a while prodding each other's moyos before I messed up a bit and sacrificed a number of stones which I probably could have done more with.

The Winter 2020-21 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.

The UK lost three games to one in their fourth match of the season. A strong Netherlands team meant this result was likely and only Daniel Hu, on board one, managed a win. As Italy beat Turkey they moved top of the B-League, whilst the UK slipped to third behind Netherlands on board points tie-break.

League Page with game records

Daniel Hu wrote about the longest game of the evening: I won by resignation playing white against Geert Groenen. We started off with a 3-3 MYT flying dagger joseki, that I knew the variations for, knowing I had a severe cut. I think it's meant to be a good result for me. However, my opponent worked hard to attack that cutting group and I prematurely counterattacked seeing my opponent's shape was so bad on the right. I was just unable to capture the cutting stones and so my own group was attacked with Black profiting by capturing most of the lower side.