UK News

For Saturday 2nd July the friendly Japan Society North West (JSNW) asked the BGA team if we'd like to return, to run stalls at their Japanese festival.

We signed up for 3 stalls, unsurprisingly - we've featured at many JSNW Japan Days or Doki Doki festivals over the years, as Calendar and News-followers will know.

Some events have also been held in Manchester (see below).

Details of the 2022 British Congress are now available on its web page Congress Info.

Entries are open.

One impact of Covid has been disruption to the Terry Stacey Grand Prix, which is an annual event that runs across tournaments between the British Go Congresses. The following have been agreed by the BGA Council to cover this situation, both now and in the future.

Rhubarb the Clown (aka Martin Solity 5k) appeared on ITV's "Midsommer Murders" on 14th January. In circus-themed episode 6 of series 20 "Send in the Clowns", Rhubarb is one of three clowns seen in the last scene of the episode.

The first game of this year's British Championship title match took place on Saturday 5th October, between Andrew Kay and Andrew Simons (the two top-placed players from this year's Challenger's League). After an entertaining game Andrew Kay came out on top, winning by resignation. As well as a live relay on KGS, Matthew Macfadyen commented on a clone of the game. The next game of the best-of-three title match is expected to take place in early November - more details to follow.

In the 2019 Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship, our representative, Andrew Kay, came 9th out of 62 entries. He had 4 wins (against Cyprus, France, Argentina and Hungary) and 2 losses (to Korea, who came second, and Thailand). This is one of the best results ever in an international tournament by a British player. He is shown here playing the player from Hungary.

The Irish representative, Ruari McCloskey, was 59th with 1 win (against India).

The overall winner was He Xin of China with six wins. The group on five wins was Korea, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Germany (Arved Pittner), Thailand and USA. Eighth was Hong Kong. Results

On Sunday 18th November the third and deciding game of the British Championship 2018, between Andrew Simons and Sam Aitken, took place in Cambridge. After a long game involving a big ko fight, Sam Aitken won by 14.5 points to win the match. The game relay is available; an audio commentary was also provided on KGS by Andrew Kay.

Sam had not previously played the title match; Andrew had in 2013, 2015 and 2017, winning it in 2015.

On Saturday 13th October the second game of the British Championship, between Andrew Simons and Sam Aitken, took place at Andrew's house in Cambridge. After a fighting game, Sam Aitken won by 4.5 points to level the match. The game relay and a commentary by Matthew Macfadyen are available. The deciding game will be announced on the BGA events page, with again live online relay in the British Room on KGS.

Marcus Bennett died recently after a short illness caused by cancer. Marcus was one of the main players of the Bournemouth Club for over 30 years. He was the club secretary from 1994 and ran the Bournemouth Tournament, being the main contact between 1990 and 1998. He was also on BGA Council from 1997 to 1999 and earned his shodan diploma (1d) in 1994. He is shown here receiving a prize at the 1990 Coventry Tournament.

The new club contact is Kevin Drake who said their dear friend will be sadly missed.

On Saturday 21st July the first game of the British Championship, between Andrew Simons and Sam Aitken, took place. After more than 6 hours of play, Andrew Simons won by 2.5 points after Sam failed to successfully invade a large corner of Andrew's.

The title match is best-of-three.

Matthew Macfadyen gave a commentary on KGS. Both the raw game record, and the version with Matthew's commentary, are available here.

A commentary by Andrew Simons is available here.