UK Tournament Report

On 29th and 30th June, Barmouth's Dragon Theatre was again the venue for Welsh Open. The weather was mixed, but there were chances to climb the cliffs for views of the town, its wide bay and the start of Snowdonia national park's scenic mountainous region.

Feeling a bit isolated from the rest of the Go community, John Shafer, teacher at Tonbridge School in Kent, ran the first Tonbridge Tournament with the support of Colin Williams, president of the BGA.

Eleven male-female pairs made it to the 2024 British Pair Go Championships. This time the organiser, Pat Ridley, used the Leicester County Bridge Club in the north of Leicester as the venue, following on from its use for Youth and Candidates' events.

2024 marks 30 years of Go in Durham, and coincidentally Round 1 of the Durham Go Tournament started with 30 people playing - with ranks ranging from 4d to 24k. It was held in Elvet Hill House, next to the Oriental Museum, as it has for the last few years.

The Not the London Open was held as usual at the London Go Centre over the second May Bank Holiday Weekend. The organisers were very pleased with 50 entrants from 7 dan to 19 kyu and also that professional Stanislaw Frejlak attended to give game reviews and commentaries.

The first event of 2024 was Lancaster on 3rd February won by Peikai Xue (4d UCL) with 45 players. Report Results

The Ulster Open in Lisburn on 17th Feb was won by the only visitor from the UK mainland amongst the 14 players, Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans). Results

Cambridge’s annual Trigantius tournament was again held at the excellent St Philip’s Church venue. This time it was a week later than usual, on 16th March. Regrettably this was now out of term for local students, making attendance of 61 lower than 2023’s 79 players.

The second Lancaster Go Tournament was held on Saturday 3rd February, once again in Lancaster University’s maze-like Management School building. Despite the great travel difficulties caused by train strikes, the tournament still managed to host 45 players, only just shy of 49 the previous year. It was wonderful to see ranks from 4d to 37k represented and to welcome so many young faces, many coming from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS).

The 49th London Open was dominated by two Chinese boys who between themselves won all three tournaments. Some may remember Yue Wen from when he lived in London about five years ago and was 7k. He is shown here playing Charlie Akerblom on the top board. His brother Qi Wen was too young to compete then.