As the autumn term gets underway and we start thinking of the exciting Go events in 2014, including the European Youth Go Championships coming to England, let's remind ourselves about one of the exciting events earlier this year.

23 youngsters competed in the 2013 finals of the UK Go Challenge, held at Milton C of E Primary School near Cambridge. It was especially good to see two brothers from Bungay at their first event.

Congratulations go to the top 3 overall place-winners: 1. Oscar Selby, 2. David Robson, 3.

After 13 years of trying, John Culmer (1k Cornwall) won the event he organises, the Cornish Open. He topped the list of 22 players by beating Ian Marsh (1k Bracknell) in the final. Also winning 3/3 were Cornish players Robert Churchill (11k) and Matt Dodkins (20k).

Results

Eric Hall, 5k from Swindon, was again the winner of the rapid play Cornish Handicap Tournament. He beat local player Sam Foster, 2k, in the final. Others of the 20 players who won 3/4 were Tony Atkins (1d Reading), John Culmer (1k Cornwall), Ian Marsh (1k Bracknell), Sue Paterson (4k Arundel) and Elinor Brooks (8k Swindon).

Results

The weekend, 9-10 November is part of an ongoing series of events and will bring together some of the UK’s strongest players for an intensive training weekend with the aim of increasing the number of UK players graded over 2400. It is being organised by Alison Bexfield and held in Letchworth Garden City with Guo Juan as the resident professional.

It is by invitation only, and these will be sent to BGA members with a grade over 2100. There is a maximum number of 16 players and priority will be given according to Go strength, with some preference towards younger players.

Final confirmation will be sent out to those people who have responded by 30 September.

If you think you should have received an invitation, but have not, please contact Alison Bexfield (email: alison at bexfield.com)

The Chinese professional and Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, Wang Runan (8p), visited the British Museum on Saturday 7th September. He spoke to a lecture theatre containing nearly 100 people interested in Chinese Culture, including some British Go players, on the subject of Weiqi (Go) in Chinese Culture. In particular, Mr Wang is keen to get the very early Go manual held by the British Library, the Dunhuang Go Manual, returned to China.

He then played simultaneous games against players from the BGA: Matthew Cocke, Michael Webster, Baoliang Zhang and Oscar Selby. Francis Roads gave a commentary on the Cocke game which was projected on a screen for all to watch.

We're pleased to announce that old tournament results have now been linked to the Tournament Records on our website. This will allow you to easily browse details of old events for each tournament, going back to 1996 in many cases.

See the London Open for an example.

We now have agreement to hold a stall at the Mind Sports Festival in Cardiff on September 14-15th. This will be run by the British Go Association in conjunction with the Cardiff Go Club.

There is some information about this and other Mind Sports Festivals here: http://www.mindsportsfestivals.com.

The Festival will host competitions for (currently): Chess, Scrabble and Magic, with about 400 registered competitors so far.

We expect to have good opportunities to promote Go to like-minded people during the Festival, when they have intervals in their play or are knocked out.

Andrew Kay ended 24th with 4 wins in the World Amateur in Sendai. He lost to Korea, beat Turkey, lost to Switzerland and beat New Zealand. In round 5 he beat Indonesia, then lost to Israel and Sweden, and beat Slovenia.

James Hutchinson for Ireland also won 4 and took 31st. He beat Belarus, Portugal, Bulgaria and Italy, but lost to France, Sweden, Lithuania and Denmark.

Unbeaten winner was Choi Hyunjae of Korea and Hu Yuqing of China was second with 7 wins. The group on six wins was Artem Kachanovskyi (UA), Ilja Shikshin (RU), Pavol Lisy (SK), Kwan King Man (HK), Nikola Mitic (RS). Japan came 8th.

Results

The British rep to the 34th WAGC, now on in Sendai Japan, Andrew Kay gave an interview to Ranka online. After two days he had won two games out of four, having lost to Korea, beating Turkey, losing to Switzerland and beating New Zealand. Results from Nihon Ki-in

This year's Northern Go Tournament was better attended and had more strong players than recent Northerns. There were twenty eight players at the event in Stockport Masonic Guildhall. The overall winner was Vit Brunner, 4d from Brno in the Czech Republic - beating Toby Manning, 2d from Leicester, in the final round. Also receiving a prize for winning all three of his games was David Wildgoose, 10k from Sheffield. Results