BGA Newsletter 241 April 2018

Contributions for the Newsletter are always welcome, both from our members and others. We ask that they be Go-related and “newsy". The place for debate and general discussion is currently Gotalk; however, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter. Instructions: Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it brief, and give web-links and contact details. It's good to include pictures. If they are on the internet, send me the URL. If not, attach the picture files to your email. Send your contribution to newsletter@britgo.org to arrive by the first day of the month.

Jil Segerman, Newsletter Editor

NEWS

The full set of recent news items, including further details of some of the items shown here, are on our News Pages, and on News Headlines.

British Go Congress

The 51st British Go Congress was held in Bristol. It started on the Friday with a teaching session and then, after a showing of the AlphaGo film, the British Open Lightning. This was won by Alex Kent (3d); he beat the previous winner, Xunrui Zhao (3d) from London, into second place.

In the British Open, Xunrui Zhao who was the winner scoring victories in all six games. In second place was Jon Diamond (3d) and third was Sandy Taylor (2d). Winning five games were Richard Bentley (3k Durham), Ai Guan (6k) and Chun Yin Wong (10k), both from Lancaster Club. The top placed Single Digit and Double Digit Kyu, that had not won five games, were also rewarded: Paul Smith (1k) and Songbai Wang (10k). All the above received BGC engraved medals. 58 players competed in the tournament. In a vital last round contest, Toby Manning beat Alistair Wall to take the trophy in the annual Stacey Grand Prix by 27 points to 25.

European Youth Go Congress, Kiev

It has been a great opportunity for 209 youngsters from across Europe to mix, have fun, see other cultures, hear & see strange languages - and of course improve their Go-playing.

UK Youth Go team finished up, by 26 wins to 23 defeats - a good improvement on last year's EYGC in Grenoble. Considering the still very young squad, we can be very happy, as the bulk of the team will be young enough to play in their current age groups for quite some years yet. All our players won at least two games out of six.

It's also been a great chance for UK players to get to know their Squad leader - Alison Bexfield - better. Indeed, she's taken the opportunity to watch several of their games and review them with the players involved.

Here is a nice 4.5-minute video of the tournament; UK players can be spotted from when 2'53'' remains (the time counts down) - enjoy!

The team is supported by DeepMind and the Castledine-Barnes Trust

London Go Centre

The new London Go Centre was launched on the weekend of 17th and 18th February with an event that featured teaching, a tournament and more. The star teacher was Catalin Taranu, 5p, flown in specially from Romania. The rounds were slightly staggered so each group could get a chance to learn.

36 players took part in the tournament. As advertised the top four players battled for the right to play a game with the professional. Daniel Hu (5d) won and got to play Catalin, who proved rightly that 5p is better than 5d.

It had long been a dream of several London players to have a Go centre, and when T Mark left his estate to fulfill this aim a rebirth seemed a possibility. Alex Rix said a few words of welcome on behalf of the T Mark Hall Trust.

After a buffet on the Saturday most of the players settled down for an emotional showing of the AlphaGo movie, an appropriate feature of a great opening weekend for the Centre.

ADMIN

AGM

At the BGA AGM on Saturday 7th April, the new Council was elected (although in fact the number of nominations equalled the number of vacancies, so there was no actual election), with the following results:-

• President: Toby Manning
• Treasurer: Richard Wheeldon
• Secretary: Jonathan Chin
• Ordinary Council Members: Gerry Gavigan, Matt Marsh, Pat Ridley, Andrew Russell, Neil Sandford
• Auditor: Tony Pitchford.

Annual Awards were presented: Player of the Year was Tom Bradbury ; Young Player of the Year was Alexander Hsieh; President's Award went to Gerry Gavigan for his work in setting up the London Go Centre.

FUTURE EVENTS

Further details on http://www.britgo.org/tournaments

• Candidates' Tournament, Saturday 5th - Monday 7th May, London Go Centre. Closed event, i.e. by qualification only; you can check online if you may qualify.
• Bar-Low, Sunday 6th May, London Go Centre
• Bracknell, Sunday 13th May, Wokingham
• Welwyn Garden City, Saturday 19th May
• Challengers' League, Saturday 26th - Tuesday 29th May
• Not the London Open, Saturday 26th - Monday 28th May, London Go Centre
• British Pair Go Championships, Saturday 2nd June, Hatfield
• Durham, Saturday 9th – Sunday 10th June
• Scottish Open, Saturday 23rd - Sunday 24th June, Edinburgh
• Welsh Open, Saturday 30th June - Sunday 1st July, Barmouth
• 5th Annual World Collegiate Wei-Chi Championships, during week Monday 9th – Sunday 15th July, Cambridge
• UK Go Challenge Finals (for juniors), Saturday 14th July, Cambridge
• Mind Sports Olympiad, Sunday 19th – Monday 27th August, London
• Youth Training Residential, Wednesday 29th - Friday 31st August, near Grantham
• Penzance (Cornwall), Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September.

Later

• London Open, Friday 28th–Monday 31st December (provisional).

Overseas

The European Go Federation's Tournament Calendar includes the Major European Tournaments and a World Tournament Calendar.