Youth Go News 41 - June 2025

Editor, Toby Manning.

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NEWS

Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championship

It was an exciting final round of the Pandanet Youth Go European Team Championship 2025. The UK team was playing Croatia in the final round on 23 April and whichever team won would finish third of the six teams in League A. On paper we were the slight underdogs but we had a chance. Lukasz Kudla on board 5 was the first to finish giving the UK an expected win. Yanyi Xiong on board 2 was playing an opponent 8 grades stronger and succumbed by resignation. Ryan Zhang on board 1 had a tough 4 dan opponent and lost a fight to also lose by resignation. Andrew Volovich on board 3 was facing an opponent 5 grades stronger but played really well to take a good position and it looked like he was going to win on territory. However in time pressure he made a couple of unforced errors which gave his opponent back the game. Lea Wong's game on board 4 was evenly matched and long. Lea played well to take the win by 10.5 points. So 3-2 to Croatia meaning Croatia took third place behind Ukraine and Romania. An added twist to the final round was that France unexpectedly lost to Germany by defaulting on board 1. This gave Germany an extra win to move them up ahead of the UK meaning the UK finished fifth overall in League A.

European Youth Go Team Competition

The UK played Romania in the semi-final of the European Youth Team Competition. This is the first year this competition has held semi-finals and finals after the usual four rounds. After the four rounds the UK team was undefeated and top of the table. The semi-final was a rematch of the first round against Romania which the UK had won 3-2, although only two of the UK players from the first match were playing this time. Romania delayed it a week so the games were played on the weekend of 3 May. Our boards 3, 4 and 5 outranked their opponents and our team members of Daniel Yang, Sung Hee Lim and Blake Shamoon duly delivered wins - although Daniel kept us on the edge of our seats with a close 3.5 point win. This gave us the match with our two top boards still to play evenly matched games. Ryan Zhang was able to defeat his 4 dan opponent. However Alvina Kwok, playing the following morning, unfortunately lost a group to her 3 dan opponent giving the UK a 4-1 result to take a place in the final against Germany (who had beaten Ukraine).

In the final, the teams were fairly evenly matched with the UK having a very slight edge on paper. Ryan played first on board 1, losing to the German 6 dan. Sung Hee Lim took a good win on board 4 against an opponent one grade weaker on paper. With the UK expected to win on board 5 where Lukasz outgraded his opponent (which he duly did), this left the UK needing to win one of two evenly matched boards. Alvina played well to take a win on board 2, whilst Daniel lost an exciting game on board 3 with groups on both sides dying, leaving the UK the victors 3-2.

This was the UK youth team's first major win in this competition since it started and shows the strength in depth we have in the team. Compared with other countries we have strong female players and strong U12 players. Of our squad of 14 players for this competition all but three were able to play at least one game. Those three, Michael, Andrew and Yanyi, did play games in the European Youth Team Championship running parallel to this one.

Alvina was UK player of the event - always willing to turn out for the team, playing 5 of the 6 games and winning 3 of them. Special mention also to Sung Hee who was new to the team this year and who won all three of the games he played, to Daniel, who has been a team member for many years and this year saw three good wins out of four, and to Blake Shamoon who won three of his four games in the U12 age group.

Our full team was: Ryan Zhang, Belinda Chen, Alvina Kwok, Daniel Yang, Lea Wong, Michael Mitcham-Harding, Sung Hee Lim Jun, Yanyi Xiong, Aidan Fung, Andrew Volovich, Audrey Fung, Lukasz Kudla, Blake Shamoon, Adam Siqi Chen.

I'd like to thank Paul Smith from the UK together with the other European organisers for organising another great European youth competition.

Alison Bexfield, UK youth team manager

TOURNAMENTS

ST MARY'S SCHOOL GO TOURNAMENT report from Paul Smith

The 1st St Mary's School Go Tournament was held at St Mary's School, Cambridge on the evening of Wednesday 21 May. There were 24 players, ranking from 6 kyu to beginner level. The top players played on 19x19 boards with a half hour time limit, and the others played on 13x13 with 15 minutes per game (or no clocks, for the less experienced players). Everyone who attended the full event played between 3 and 5 rounds.

There were five children from St Mary's School; the others were from various schools in the area including Milton Primary School and St Faith's School which have their own school Go clubs too. It was particularly good to see three children from the Leys School who have not played in a Go competition before.

As well as the tournament, there was a chance to play against the Go-playing robot, and to watch an episode of the anime Hikaru no Go. The school provided some tasty food and drinks and some nice prizes for the winners.

Prizes went to the overall winner Andrew Volovich, Tomasz Kedzior who won the intermediate section and Oliver Trowell who won the lower section. There were additional prizes for Fane Dhamari and Max Volovich who both, despite both being only 8 years old, put in strong performances in the top section of the tournament; and to Agustin Besa who was the youngest player.

Many thanks are due to Mrs Peck from St Mary's School who came up with the idea for the event and organised it so well, to St Mary's School for providing the venue, refreshments and prizes, to Andrea Smith for handling the Go robot, and to everyone else who was involved in helping and in publicising the tournament.

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.

There were two heats of the UK Go Challenge in Cambridge. The one in the North Cambridge branch of the Cambridge Junior Chess & Go Club was won by Charly Vander Linden and the one in the South Cambridge branch of the Cambridge Junior Chess & Go Club was won by Angus Ku.

Unfortunately the Finals on 7 June have been cancelled through lack of entries.

TEACHING/TRAINING

Youth Camp
It is still not too late to sign up for this year's camp with its mix of Go and physical activities although the discount date has passed. 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

FUTURE EVENTS

7 June - UK Go Challenge Finals (Abingdon School) ** Cancelled **
13-16 August - Youth Camp (Lincolnshire) - enter by 15 June
8 November - British Youth (Leicester)
7 February 2026 - London Youth

ONLINE MEETINGS

The Tuesday evening club on playstrategy is back on from 17:30 to 19:00 term time. For details, parents/carers should contact Paul Smith, email paul361smith AT gmail DOT com.

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