Toby Manning (2d Leicester) won the Maidenhead Tournament with a surprise win over Andrew Simons (4d Cambridge) in the last round. Also winning all three games to claim two prizes were: Francis Roads (1d Wanstead), Paul Barnard (1k Swindon), Adam Heslop (4k Edinburgh), Malcolm Walker (7k No Club), Daniel Peace (9k Oxford), Colin Lee (11k North London) and Charlotte Bexfield (16k Letchworth). All those on two wins were rewarded with one prize.

Results

Also winning prizes were Charlotte Bexfield and Johannes Siven for 4/6 in the 13x13 side event. The box of chocolates for the best team was shared by members of three teams: Paratus, Arundel and Maidenhead, each with 6 out of 12.

It has been confirmed that two Japanese Professionals, Chizu Kobayashi 5p and Masaki Minematsu 6p are to visit the European Youth and British Go Congress over the weekend of Feb 28/March 3.

During the preceding week they will visit Oxford Go Club, and during the following week Chizu Kobayashi will visit Edinburgh Go Club.

This will be the first visit of a professional go player to Scotland for 15 years.

Some of you will have been aware that T Mark Hall, who died in December, left a bequest to British Go in his will. This was in two parts:

• his Go books, pictures and other ephemera were left to the British Go Association (BGA)
• a substantial sum was left to the Go community via a Trust, with the Trustees being John Fairbairn and the Officers of the BGA (President, Secretary and Treasurer).

We have arranged for the books etc. to be stored with the BGA Archive until a more suitable location can be found. Suggestions for this location are welcome. [We're mindful that the best locations might wish to be paid for housing it.]

Probate will probably not be for several months and the precise amounts involved won’t be known until then. Details about the setting up of the Trust also need to be worked out.

We will let you know when further details are settled.

The British Go Association will again be demonstrating Go at the London Anime and Gaming Con on Sunday 9th February. If you like anime, manga, cosplaying or video games you’ll enjoy London Anime and Gaming Con. The venue address is: The Rocket Complex, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 Holloway Road, London N7 8DB, and the convention is on both Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February from 11 am.

Playing Go in a sumo ring

Since I have moved to England in Autumn 2012, I have played more Go tournaments than I would have ever thought of. One day in Spring 2013 I logged on to an online Go platform and read about the Osaka Go camp August 2013 in Japan. It sounded like the right combination of joy and learning, and it didn’t take me long to sign up.

That was certainly one of my best decisions that year, so in this story I’d like to write you a bit about my experience in Japan.

The Go camp was held at a Sumo training center, so some of the tables were in a Sumo ring that you would now and then stumble over. Casual playing and invidual learning usually last till late in the night.

We had professional Go training and a camp league where we would play with each other.

Congratulations to Oscar Selby, 7 kyu from Epsom, for winning the 2013 Youth Grand Prix with an outstanding 1411 points - more than twice the number of his next challenger!

Second came Edmund Smith, 15 kyu from Milton (Cambridge), with 702 points and third was Melchior Chui, 12 kyu from Cambridge, with 499 points.

Full details for 2013 are here

Cash prizes to the top three players are provided from a fund set up in memory of John Rickard, 4 dan, and will be presented at the British Youth Go Championship.

The 4d from Nottingham, Yuanbo Zhang, came out top of the list of 109 players at the 40th London Open. His only loss was in round 6 to Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia, 5d, from France. Benjamin had already lost in round 1 to Andre Stadtler, 3d Germany, but lost on SOS tie-break to Yuanbo. Pierre Paga, 4d France, won 5 games to come third on tie-break from the UK's Andrew Simons, 4d.

A new UK player called Tethys, 17k, won 6 games out of six and all on 5 wins won prizes too: Doerte Rueten-Budde, 8k Germany, Patrick Pitters, 1k Germany, Francisco Divers, 1k London, and Stephan Kunne, 1d Germany. All on 4 wins received a certificate. Results

Also getting prizes were the Finnish winner and runner up in the Lightning: Mikko Siukola, 4d, and Janne Nikula, 1d.

Two teams representing Oxford and Cambridge came together at the venue of the London Open for a two round match. This was at the invitation of WBaduk who sponsored the match and broadcast the games on Korean Go Server with the aid of BGA game recorders. Players represented both the current students and alumni.

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table align=center> OxfordCambridge
Matthew Macfadyen
Tony Lou Yuxiang
Junnun Jiang
Andrew Simons
Alex Rix
Chris Bryant

We are delighted that the Nihon Ki-in are planning to send two professionals (Kobayashi Chizu 5p and Minematsu Masaki 6p) to the UK in February/March 2014 and will be present in Bognor Regis during our combined EYGC and British Go Congress.

Final confirmation of their visit and details of the locations around the UK they will be teaching at, hopefully including Scotland for the first time, are still to be decided.

David Ward died in Cambridge in December 2013.

David Ward will be remembered for his determination to succeed at Go. He was also very generous with his time, being willing to play others, no matter what level they were at. He contributed to British Go in many ways including being our analyst for many years, mentoring in the Shodan Challenge, running the London Open for several years and many articles in the British Go Journal.

Go was more than just a game for him, it was a soul mate. We have truly lost a Go friend.

David served on the BGA Council for a short period in 2004; in the same year he was the (unsuccessful) challenger for the British Championship. He was President of the Central London Go Club for many years.

In his memory his widow, Helen, donated the David Ward Cup with an endowment. The cup is awarded each year to the best placed British player at the London Open Go Congress.