UK Tournament Report

Central London's Florian Borchers (3k) won the Cambridge Bar-Low on tie-break from Roger Daniel (5k Central London) and Juan Leonardo Martinez-Hurtado (5k Cambridge), all on 3 out of 4. The Junior prize went to Melchior Chui (12k) from Cambridge. 11 players took part.

Results

The Candidates' was held over the May Bank Holiday weekend at ISH in London. 22 players took part. The best players were Andrew Kay (6 wins), Felix Wang (5 wins), Desmond Cann, Andrew Simons, David Ward, Alex Selby, Nick Krempel, Chong Han and Francis Roads (4 wins). Most of these will hopefully be playing the Challengers' League on the bank holiday weekend in June since there are eight places available as Matthew Macfadyen is not defending his title.

Results

There was a pleasingly high turnout for the 2012 British Go Congress, held again in Durham for the first time since 1996.

On the Friday evening, 30 players gathered in the magnificence of Durham School's dining hall, for the British Lightning. This year held as a five-round handicap Swiss tournament, the last round saw two former Durham players battling it out to win: Andrew Kay (4d, now of South London) was ultimately victorious over Alex Kent (2d, now in Bristol). Results

On Saturday morning 63 players congregated in the more prosaic concrete environment of the Students' Union for the British Open itself. After three rounds of Go, the BGA held its AGM; no doubt reports will be provided by officials, so the important thing to note from the tournament perspective are that the meeting was so unexpectedly short that San Marco's restaurant, booked for a meal for 30 players to follow the AGM, wasn't yet ready when we arrived!

The spring London International Team Tournament was very closely contested this year with Nippon (3 team wins and 8 individual wins) pipping Cambridge (3 team wins and 7 individual wins) in second and China (2 team wins but 8 individual wins) in third. This was a particularly surprising result as China won their first six games whilst Cambridge only managed 2!

In the handicap division South London Go Club won with 4 team wins and 10 individual wins, beating Twickenham with 4 team wins and 9 individual wins into second.

In the Open division only Felix Wang managed to win all 4 games, whilst in the Handicap division Rippei Hayashi, Gerry Gavigan, Colin Maclennan, Dan Peace and Paul Langley all won 4 games and extra prizes.

Overall 36 players in 12 teams took part and two divisions took part.

Results

The Wanstead team of Francis Roads, Adan Mordcovich, Richard Leedham-Green and Roger Daniel only lost one game to win the Thames Valley Team Tournament. Second was the home team, West Surrey, with Bracknell third and Lottie's Lovers from Swindon fourth.

Results

Paul Tabor, 1d, was the surprise winner at Arundel, when he beat tournament favourite Andrew Kay in the second round and then beat Tony Atkins (who had previously beaten Jon Diamond) in the final. Jonathan Reece, 2k Oxford, won the 9x9 side event and Jil Segerman (in a team with Roger Daniel) won the inventions quiz. 22 players took part.

Results

Andrew Kay, 4d South London, was the best of the 22 players at the second Welwyn Garden City Tournament. Also winning three games were Ludan Fang, 4k London, and Jon Robson, 10k Swindon. Prizes were presented by Barbara Kime from the local Bridge club, whose room was used for the tournament.

Results

Matthew Macfadyen (6d Leamington) was the best of the 30 players at the second Skye Tournament in Portree. He again won all six games to win the tournament. Second with four wins was Francis Roads (2d Wanstead) and third was Edwin Brady (1k St Andrews) with three wins. Colin Maclennan (11k Twickenham) won five games, and winning four were Ludan Fang (4k London), Quintin Connell and Wilf Dell (both 9k Glasgow). A large cheer went up at prize giving when it was announced the event would hopefully be run again in two years time.

Results

The 2012 Youth Championships had 13 competitors aged from 6 to 18, with strengths from 2 dan to 30 kyu. The library block at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire, served again as a great venue. Tian-Ren Chen from Loughborough regained the youth title, the previous year's winner not contesting it this year.

The Trigantius Tournament was won by Andrew Simons (3d Cambridge), beating Alex Rix (3d London) in his last game. Also on 3 out of 3 were Sue Paterson (4k, Brighton), Roger Daniel (5k, CLGC) and Richard Mullens (6k, St Albans).