Foreign Tournament Report

Having recently been togther at the youth team tournament in China (with Lukasz Kudla), Toby Manning and Ryan Zhang met up again in Korea for the Korea Prime Minister Cup (KPMC). The event was held in mountainous Taebaek and guest of honour was Lee Sedol 9p.

For the first time ever the KPMC had an event for players aged under 16, hence why Ryan was present. A Pair Go event was held with a senior partnering with a junior to celebrate this.

In the first game of the 2025-2026 B-League season the team had to play newly demoted Sweden. The match ended a draw which is a good result against a strong country. This placed the team sixth, behind Sweden and the four winning teams of that round: South Africa, Ireland, Belgium and Croatia. The next match is on 18th November against Netherlands.

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The last round in the 2024-2025 season was against Switzerland. The games were all started at different times and by the advertised start time the UK was 2-1 with just Alison Bexfield's game to go. Unfortunately she lost and the match was tied, but since Belgium didn't lose the UK team was going to stay fifth anyway.

Italy won the B-League, despite losing the last match to second placed Netherlands. Croatia was third ahead of Belgium. Lithuania was demoted and Serbia will be in the play-off.

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In the 8th game of the season the team had to play lower-placed Finland. Finland had trouble getting together four players, with talk of games at different days and times, but in the end it was only board one that started early and the UK had to quickly find a reserve player as one of the selected team thought there was no game for them. The match ended a draw leaving the UK in fifth place, with just one match to go, against Switzerland on 13th May.

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The seventh match of the B-League season, on 18th March, was against Serbia. There were wins by resignation for Jake Game, Ryan Zhang and Bruno Poltronieri, but Scott Cobbold lost by 3.5. This win left the team safely mid table. Round 8 will be on 15th April gainst Finland.

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The sixth match of the B-League season, on 25th February, was against Belgium. Three games were played the day before at Belgium's request, with wins for Scott Cobbold and Bruno Poltronieri, but a loss for Jake Game. On the Tuesday Michael Cheung could not clinch the win and so the match was drawn. It left the team in fifth place. Round 7 will be on 18th March against Serbia.

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The fifth match of the B-League season, on 4th February, was a win against Lithuania. All four players won by resignation. This moved the team up to fifth place. Round 6 will be on 25th February against Belgium.

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Michael Cheung wrote about his game: I got a lucky win against Vladas Zaleskas; it was a game determined by my opponent's blunder.

The fourth match of the B-League season, on 7th January, was a draw against Italy who are at the top of the table. A good job by our winners Damen and Jake! That kept the team in seventh, in the bottom half of the table but in the safe zone. Round 5 will be on 4th February against Lithuania.

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Damen Woo wrote about his game against Alessandro Pace: It started with a good opening, I got a decent lead and kept it until the end.

All the games in the UK team's third match ended in resignation. Unfortunately it was three-one in Croatia's favour, with Bruno's long game ending with him being the only UK winner. This loss moved the team down from third to seventh in the B-League. Italy won again (against Finland) to stay at the top, with Netherlands beating Lithuania to take second place.

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The UK team played well against a very strong Netherlands team in the second match of the season, but lost three games to one, with Damen Woo being the only winner and Bruno's long game ending with him half a point behind. This meant losing the top position in the B-League earned in round one.

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