UK Tournament Report

The Swindon Go Club hosted this year's British Go Congress in the delightful historic town of Malmesbury. Early summer weather made it too good to stay in doors and many took the chance to visit the Abbey or the beautiful Abbey House Gardens.

The Friday Evening British Lightning had 18 players, by a fortunate coincidence, thus making the draw easy – 3 tables of six for the round robin. A further happy coincidence was a tie for first place on one table, generating 4 winners for the knockout stage. In the final, Andrew Kay beat Sandy Taylor.

Chong Han (5 dan Loughborough) won the main tournament on a SOS tie break from Andrew Kay and Vanessa Wong. Prizes also went to everyone on 5 wins (there were none on 6), and those on 3 out of 3 on the first day. The tournament was blessed with two jigos, so four additional prizes were awarded to the happy participants in the two “perfect games”.

The second Matthew in a row has won Arundel. This year it was Matthew Cocke (5 dan Epsom) who was the best of the 26 players, taking the first place previously won by Matthew Macfadyen. Winning all three games were Michael Webster (1 kyu London) and Adan Mordcovich (5 kyu Wanstead). All those on two wins received prizes including runner up Francis Roads (3 dan Wanstead). After the event many players went on to enjoy the evening of a sunny day in the Black Rabbit.

Results

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p> The 2011 Youth Championships had 24 competitors aged from 7 to 18, with strengths from 2 dan to 30 kyu. The new library block at Bloxham School in Oxfordshire served as a great venue. Mazhar Warraich from Aston won the youth championship with 4 straight wins including beating Tian-Ren Chen from Loughborough.

David Ward (3 dan) won his local tournament, the Cambridge Trigantius, without having to share the title as he did in 2000. 36 players took part at St Columba's Church in the centre of the city. Other players winning all three games were Michael Charles (1kyu St Albans), Brook Roberts (4kyu Cambridge) and Jan Poslusny (6kyu Prague). The 13x13 was won by Juan Leonardo Martínez-Hurtado (15 kyu Cambridge) and the animal puzzles were solved by Patrick Batty (South London).

Nine novices, including four complete beginners, attended the parallel novices' event. No prize was awarded, because the tournament turned into another teaching session instead, but special commendations must go to Jack Chen, Sam Austin and Mark Slatter for their progress during the day.

Results

Chong Han (5 dan Loughborough) won his first UK tournament by taking with ease the 8th Nottingham. Also winning 3 were Roger Daniel (5 kyu London), Maria Tabor (6 kyu Nottingham), David Crabtree (9 kyu Chester) and Andrew Russell (12 kyu Birmingham). Mike Charles won the 9x9 prize and Toby Manning the quiz prize.

Results

After a two year gap the Oxford Tournament returned, on the same day as the Cheshire, and attracted 51 players. Andrew Simons beat off three London players to win the event. Others winning three games were Sue Paterson, Brook Roberts, Peter Harold-Barry, Richard Wheeldon, Julia Woewodskaya and Kieran Smith.

Results

The Cheshire tournament was rather small this year, thanks to a clash with the Manchester football derby and other factors, but much enjoyed by those who attended. In the top group Alex Rix (3 dan London) was the winner, beating Tony Atkins (2 dan Reading) in the final. In the Handicap Section, the winner on 4/5 was Matt Marsh (7 kyu Sheffield). On 3/5 were Brian and Kathleen Timmins (9 kyu/14 kyu Shrewsbury) and Reg Sayer (13 kyu Stafford). 14 players took part.

Results

The postponed Edinburgh Christmas Open saw a slightly reduced turnout at 33 players.

Having earlier been presented with the 2010 Scottish Championship trophy, David Lee (2 dan Dundee) also triumphed on the day. Runners up on 3/4 were Andrew Kay (4 dan Durham) and Matthew Scott (2 dan Newcastle). Also receiving prizes for 3 wins were Jenny Radcliffe (4 kyu Durham), Eevi Korhonen (7 kyu Tampere), Rob Payne (9 kyu Edinburgh), Andrew Bate (10 kyu Durham) and William Grayson (12 kyu Edinburgh), who was 3/3 as a ghost.

The Scottish championship 2011 semi-finals were decided to be David Lee v Martha McGill and Piotr Wisthal v Glynn Forsythe.

Results

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.

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.