Youth Go News 40 - April 2025

Editor, Toby Manning.

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Your Newsletter

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NEWS

Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championship

The UK youth go team lost to Romania in the third round on 12 March. It was always going to be a tight match. Michael Mitcham-Harding and Yanyi Xiong on boards 2 and 3 succumbed to their stronger opponents. Lukasz Kudla then lost on board 5 to an opponent who looks to be improving rapidly. Lea Wong on board 4 fought a good game and was unfortunate to lose by half a point only. This left Ryan Zhang on board 1 playing an evenly matched game against another 4 dan to clinch the only win for the UK team, leaving the result 1-4 in favour of Romania.

On 2 April the team played Germany. The match was a close match up, but Yanyi, Michael and Zoe all lost. Lukasz scored a good win, but Andrew Volovich played a long game where he lost points in the end game to end 4.5 behind. This match loss left the team still in fourth and with a chance to finish third in the tournament if they can beat Croatia in the last round.

European Youth Go Team Competition

The UK Youth Go Team won against Italy in the second round on 22 February. This placed the UK second after Ukraine, both unbeaten after two rounds. Italy were not fielding their strongest team so it was a chance for the UK team to field its younger players. Even so, we outranked Italy and were clear favourites to win the match. Our players Aidan Fung, Audrey Fung, Blake Shamoon and Adam Siqi Chen were able to take convincing wins, while Lukasz Kudla has a somewhat surprising loss to a player who had definitely improved beyond his stated grade. The UK took the match 4-1. This was Adam's debut for the UK youth team.

The team won against Ukraine in the penultimate round on 15 and 16 March. For this round Ryan, playing on board 1, took the heat for the team by playing against their 6 dan; he lost by resignation. Aidan Fung on board 5 was also outranked and lost. This left the UK needing to win all three of the middle boards. Daniel Yang on board 4 gained a comfortable win. Belinda Chen on board 2 gave the spectators an exciting game which went down to a half point win in favour of the UK. Alvina Kwok on board 3 played on the second day and won by resignation. This 3-2 win left the UK in first place in the tournament, being the only team on 4 MMS points with one round to go.

On 4 and 5 April the team played Germany, the second time that week. The first day saw Daniel Yang win but Aidan lost. The other three games ended in resignation; Sung Hee Lim and Alvina both won, but Blake lost. This match win left the UK in first place out of twelve before the semi-finals and finals (a new feature for this year).

TOURNAMENTS

European Youth Go Championships were in Vatra Dornei in Romania from 6 to 9 March. In the 54 player Under-12 section our Ryan Zhang was third behind winner Bende Barcza of Hungary and runner-up Denys Lototskyi of the Ukraine. In fourth was Larion Syrotkin, a Ukrainian living in Cork, and Edinburgh’s Lukas Kudla was seventh. The 52-player Under-18 section was won by Olesia Malko from Ukraine, with runner-up Robert-Andrei Grosu of Romania and third Stjepan Medak of Croatia.

TEACHING/TRAINING

Youth Camp
It is definitely not too late to sign up for this year's camp with its mix of Go and physical activities. It is cheaper if you sign up by 1 May and the final deadline is 15 June. Note that the accommodation will be in dormitory rooms as before and the teachers will match their material to the levels of the campers.
Flyer for 2025

UK Go Challenge

Has your youth or school Go club run a heat in the 2025 Challenge? If not it is not too late to do so. All the information is on the UK Go Challenge website and we can even supply some things to help, such as small prizes.

Remember anyone can play in the Finals on 7 June, but it always better if you have run a heat first.

FUTURE EVENTS

7 June - UK Go Challenge Finals (Abingdon School)
13-16 August - Youth Camp (Lincolnshire)
8 November - British Youth (Leicester)
7 February - London Youth

ONLINE MEETINGS

The Tuesday evening club on playstrategy is currently suspended. We will send a news flash if it restarts.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Here are some useful resources/links:

BGA Website: Junior Pages
BGA Youth Go X ("Twitter") account @britishyouthgo, kept fairly active (369 followers)
Instagram - account is uk_youth_go - 143 followers
BGA Youth Go OGS (closed group, 156 members including adult organisers). If you are a new member, please complete this form.
BGA Youth Go Discord Channel

PROBLEMS

Black to play