Andrew Simons (3 dan) from Cambridge won the tie-break that separated the top players at the 56-player Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament. Second was Tom Brand (3 dan) from Reading and third was Nick Krempel (3 dan) from London. Winning 3/3 were David Ward (2 dan), Baron Allday (1 kyu), David Hall (8 kyu), Pat Ridley (11 kyu) and Jan Poslusny (9 kyu) from Prague.

On Sunday 16th January, Matthew Macfadyen beat Vanessa Wong in the fourth game of the 2010 British Championship match. This put Matthew 3-1 ahead in the 5-game match. Matthew is therefore the 2010 British Champion.

Congratulations to Roella Smith who held on to her lead to win the 2010 Youth Grand Prix. Jamie Taylor held on to second, and Roella's younger sister Kelda managed to get third place, just beating Barney Shiu.

Final results

Britain (Represented by Matthew Macfadyen, Jon Diamond, Des Cann and Andrew Simons) drew with Denmark in the third round, with Jon blotting his copy book (badly) this time.

Full details and game records at BGA Euroteams page

The team score is now one win, one loss and one draw.

There was a meeting of BGA Council on 28th November 2010. Here are the highlights:

The London Open was again sponsored by the Nippon Club, Pandanet and Winton Capital Management, but attendance was a little down this year, no doubt due to the extremely cold weather and snow-related travel difficulties that immediately preceded Christmas. Luckily this had disappeared by the time the London Open started and 99 players turned up to play in this, by now traditional 4 day event, finishing on New Year's Eve.

Wang Wei (6 dan), who had just moved from Cork to London (but is originally from China) was thought to be the favourite for the Open being the previous year's runner up. Indeed after four rounds only Wang Wei and Antti Tormanen (6 dan) from Oulu in Finland were unbeaten at the top - they played in round 5; Antti won after an epic battle. Annti then won his last two games to be unbeaten and take first place.

The second season of the online team league has now been concluded.

Congratulations to Dundee on winning the Championship - the eventual outcome depended on a game between Yohei Negi and Yangran Zhang played on 15th December, won by Yohei for Dundee over CLGC A who came a close second with Edinburgh not far behind.

In Division 2 Billericay Dickies just clinched the title on "goal difference" (one more game won) over St Albans to take the lead and win promotion.

In Division 3 CLGC B convincingly took the lead and the promotion spot. Second place were Cambridge B.

In Division 4 Edinburgh 2 convincingly won promotion to division 3.

Britain (Represented by Matthew Macfadyen, Jon Diamond, Des Cann and Andrew Simons) scored an excellent 3-1 victory against Belgium in the second round, with Jon maintaining his perfect record.

Full details and game records at BGA Euroteams page

28 players attended the UCC Tournament in Cork, the largest number yet. Seven nationalities, as well as Irish, took part including several Dutch. The winner was Willem-Koen Pomstra (5 dan) from Arnhem. Local 4 dan Tong-Yu Cao only lost to the winner, taking his usual second place. Przemyslaw Dyszscyk (2 kyu Poland) and Maxime Houssin (5 kyu France) won 4 games and Dublin's Jos Elkink (11 kyu) won all 5 games. Best beginner was Cork's Con Quigley (20 kyu).

Results

Sue Paterson (3 kyu Arundel) was the unbeaten winner of the West Surrey Handicap. She was one of 13 people who battled through the end of the snowy cold snap to take part. Runner up was Jonathan Reece (2 kyu Oxford) and also winning 3 were Frenchmen Philip Bourrez (2 kyu) and Max Bourget (8 kyu). Dawn Street (18 kyu) won 2/3. As usual Xinyi Lu won the 13x13, Tony Atkins won the quiz and this year Sue Paterson also won the Pits card game.

Results