Despite the first appearance by Vanessa Wong on top board for our team our poor start to the season continues and we're now in the Relegation Zone for the first time.

We had another loss to the Swiss, with Bei Ge managing our solitary win by a substantial margin. Vanessa had much technical trouble starting her game (getting to grips with Pandanet for the first time can be tricky), with her playing White when it should have been Black, and lost by resignation.

A veil should be drawn over the other two games...

Full season results

Matthew Cocke won a three way tie at the Three Peaks. Andrew Simons and Richard Hunter were the two losing out by SOS when three top players ended on four wins. Also on 4 wins were Roger Huyshe (3k), Mike Cumpsty (3k), Dave Crabtree (8k) and Brian Timmins (9k). 42 players took part in the event, held as previously at the Commodore Inn in Grange-over-Sands.

Results

Our second match of the season was against Denmark and ended in a 2-2 draw.

On board 1 Chong Han's game soon plunged into a fight when he pushed into the centre, presumably expecting his opponent to block before connecting on the edge, but Jannik Rasmussen resisted and disconnected the groups. The ensuing fight spread across the board and although all the groups survived Chong didn't have enough territory and resigned.

Jon Diamond also lost on board 2 against Uffe Rasmussen. He meant to play 131 at 132, but something happened in the client software when he played his move. He thought it was played (with 2 presses), but apparently it didn't take in some fashion and then played at a different point.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 31st October, a match took place on KGS between a team of French and a team of British youth players. The French fielded a team of eight. The British team originally consisted of four players, each set to play two games: Henry Clay (1k), Melchior Chui (12k), Peran Truscott (13k) and Oscar Selby (14k).

In the event, Peran's computer and KGS took against each other, meaning that he was not able to join us. Heavy snow also made for a rocky start, delaying the French players (who were travelling from a youth camp to a college in Grenoble for the match). The French finally defeated the elements, and to avoid disappointing two of their players, Oscar Selby went above and beyond the call of duty. He played both boards three and four, for a total of four consecutive games - and he still managed to finish before anybody else!

Round one was played even, and round two at handicap -1.

Toby Manning was our representative at the Korean Prime Minister's Cup this year. On day the first day he easily defeated the Korean "ghost", followed this with by a narrow loss (9.5 points) to Thailand and managed a close victory (1.5 points) against Denmark. On the second day he lost to New Zealand (by 1 liberty) and to Vietnam (4 1/2 points), and beat Norway, ending up with 3 out of 6.

James Hutchinson of Belfast, but playing for Ireland, also got 3 out of 6, beating Cyprus, Ecuador and Chile, and losing to France, Lithuania and Colombia.

The competition was won by Korea.

Results

Richard Hunter was the winner of this year's Wessex Tournament. He beat Sandy Taylor in the last round to collect the trophy and one of the bottles of wine donated by Bob Hitchens. Also winning three and being similarly rewarded were Dylan Carter and young Oscar Selby.

Results

"We are pleased to announce that we are going to hold the 10th World Students Go Oza Championship from Feb 25 to March 1 in 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

To select 16 students to proceed the championship in Tokyo, we are going to have two preliminary rounds on the Internet. Please read the following page for details. http://igooza.nikkei.co.jp/students/11th/index-we.htm Here is the entry form: https://sec.pandanet.co.jp/event/igooza_nikkei/11th_student_ws/form.htm

University/College students under the age of 30 can participate in the preliminary rounds. We would like as many students as possible to participate in the Internet tournament using "Pandanet".

The application deadline is Nov 25th.

Please also let your young friends know about this tournament.

Thank you for your support in advance. If you have any questions, please email me gakusei15league@gmail.com

Thank you very much"

Update The preliminary rounds will be held on Sunday 9th December - the n

With great regret we have to announce that Norman Tobin died on 20th October 2012, after a long illness.

Norman was a long-time member of the British Go Association, starting in the 1970s, was Newsletter Editor in 1987-8, Honorary Secretary 1982-5 and President from 1985 to 1991. He was also a significant donor to the Association prior to his final illness.

His daughter writes "Playing Go was a big part of his life and I especially remember him going to Japan with the Go Association some years ago (Ed: the 1991 International Pairs Go Championship). As children we were taught to answer the phone and explain to visitors from Japan how to get to the Central London Go Club in Covent Garden, so that they could play while they were in England."

His funeral will be at 11:30am on Thursday 1st November at the Breakspear Crematorium, Ruislip. Further details c/o Wright Funeral Services 01494 863101.

Cambridge A won all four matches, including beating unbeaten hosts Nippon A in the final round, to win the the autumn edition of the London International Teams. In the Handicap Division it was the South London Go Club team that won all their matches, and only lost one game, to win for the third time in a row. Cambridge B was second.

Players winning all four games were Shinichi Nao, Alex Rix, Jonathan Turner, Patrick Batty, David Cantrell and Nick Fry.

Results

Belated congratulations to Ingrid Jendrzejewski and Alex Selby on the birth of their daughter, Rosalind Margaret, on 1st October at 2:50pm, weighing in at 7.5 lbs.