The second game in the best-of-three British Go Championship was won by Nick Krempel by a narrow 2.5 points after an epic 6hr30 (plus lunchtime) battle. As Matthew Macfadyen, the incumbent Champion, had won the first game, there would be a winner-takes-all final to take place in London on a date then to be determined.

Players who are interested can see the game record, with kibitzers' comments, courtesy the KGS Archives.

Andrew Simons, 3 dan from Cambridge, increased the territory of his titles by adding Milton Keynes to Oxford, Maidenhead and the Small Board. The only other person out of the 26 at this year's MK to win all three was local player Richard Scholefield, 9 kyu.

The team prize was rather inhospitably won by the 'Concrete Cows' team with 7/9, and Alex Selby won the MK Go competition with a modest, though perfect, 2/2.

Results

Adan Mordcovich from London is the new champion of the UK Go Challenge. He also won the Under-18 Boys section forcing Aston's Mazhar Warraich to take second in the section and overall. Hamzah Reta, also from Aston, was third overall and Under-16 Boys Champion.

Aston won the schools trophy and their Ibraheem Mustafa won the Under-12 Boys. Thomas Meehan from Solihull won the Under-14 Boys.

Milton School players cleaned up in the younger age groups and won the Junior School Cup. Roella Smith was Top Girl winning the Under-12 and her sister Kelda won the Under-8s. Their brother Edmund, aged 6, won the Boys Under-8 and Mark Slatter won the Boys Under-10.

Prizes were also awarded to many others for good results or solving puzzles.

A special award of UK Go Challenge Meijin Organiser was given to Mr Mike Lynn for supporting the event from its start up to his forthcoming retirement.

Results

For the first time ever the Welsh Open was tied. Winners with 4 out of 5 were Durham 2 dans Alex Kent and Sandy Taylor, continuing Durham's dominance of recent tournaments. David Phillips (1 dan) from the Isle of Man also finished on 4, but had a lower SoS, so was third. Others winning prizes were: for 4 wins Edward Blockley (5 kyu Worcester) and Peter Timmins (9 kyu Shrewsbury) and for 3 wins and a Jigo, Roger Daniel (5 kyu London). 30 players took part and enjoyed the foul weather on Saturday and the usual brilliant Barmouth standard on Sunday. In between 20 people (players and partners) enjoyed a meal at the Min-y-Mor Hotel (the venue) on Saturday night.

Results

The 8th annual Durham Go Tournament took place in the lecture theatres of Elvet Riverside - the usual six-round McMahon tournament with lightning and small board side events. 42 players took part, a pleasingly high turnout, and for the first time the tournament was won by a Durham player, recent acquisition Andrew Kay, who was the only player to win all six games. Another Durham dan player, Alex Kent, won five games, as did Andre Cockburn of Nottingham and Pat Ridley of Chester. On four wins were Yuhan Jin of Teesside, Sandy Taylor of Durham, Alan Thornton of St Albans, Scott Owens of Cambridge, Robin Zigmond of Durham and Paul Taylor of Durham. The small board event was won by David Sinclair of Durham, with Ludan Fang of CLGC in second place. Andrew Kay managed to find the time to win the lightning side event as well as the main. 35 players and family visited a local restaurant on Saturday evening in Durham's traditional friendly manner.

Natasha Regan celebrated her 40th birthday by winning the British Pair Go Championship for a second year running with Matthew Cocke. This time they beat Kirsty Healey and Matthew Macfadyen in the final. The handicap winners from 2008, Sam McCarthy and John Collins, won the handicap section again. Best dressed pair was Jenny Radcliffe and organiser Francis Roads.

Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke took 11th place (the 9th best country) at the European Pair Go Championship in Istanbul, Turkey. They lost to Czechia, France and Germany, but beat Poland and two pairs from Turkey. Best of the 31 pairs taking part was the pair from Hungary, Rita Pocsai and Pal Balogh. Czechia was second and Ukraine third.

Results

The match between the party of visiting retired Japanese Go players and the BGA/London team ended very close. With one result to come in it was tied at 8 all. The outstanding game, the bottom board, decided it in Japan's favour 9-8. Winning for the British side were Nick Krempel, Alex Rix, Jonathan Chetwynd, Michael Webster, Jonathan Turner, Xinyi Lu, Jiri Keller and Roger Daniel. After the match most players then went on for a meal in China Town.

The UK representative at the 32nd WAGC was Alex Selby from Cambridge. He won 3 games to take 43rd place. His first game was a loss to former World Champion Hirata of Japan. He then lost to Nechanicky of Czechia and Trippel of Switzerland, before beating Neville Smythe of Australia. He then lost to Minieri of Italy, beat the player from Azerbaijan, lost to Pedersen of Denmark and won the last game against Mexico. James Hutchinson of Ireland was 36th with 4 wins against Denmark, Argentina, Portugal and Brazil. The unbeaten Champion was Bai of China. Second was Choi of Korea. The group on 6 wins were Eric Lui (USA), Thomas Debarre (France), Hirata (Japan), Jun Fan (Canada) and Franz-Josef Dickhut (Germany). 57 countries took part at the Shimane prefectural hall in Matsue, a ancient castle town in the west of Japan.

Matthew Macfadyen, British Champion 2010, won all seven games in the Challengers' League to earn the right to defend his title. This year he will be playing Nick Krempel (3 dan London), who won five games in the League, in a best of 3 final. Hui Wang and Alistair Wall just missed out on playing for the title by one win each.

Results