BGA Newsletter 276 March 2021

FROM THE EDITOR

Contributions 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 the BGA open mailing list Gotalk. However, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter. A brief introduction to Gotalk, with a link for joining, is on the BGA page Go on the Internet. See also the BGA temporary Coronavirus page.

Instructions for Contributors: Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it fairly brief, and give web-links and contact details. It's good to include pictures. If they are on the internet, send me the URL, otherwise 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

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.

Ratings Changes

Recent Research has demonstrated that the calculation of the European Go Ratings needed revising. There has been deflation in the ratings resulting in European Grades being higher than those in the United States or the Far East. The European Go Federation established a Commission (convened by Toby Manning) to examine this issue; the Commission recommended a revised algorithm for establishing Ratings, and this has now been implemented.

For stronger dan players there is often almost no difference between the "old" and "new" rating; for the big bulk of players around 1 dan there is a change of bit less than 1 rank upwards, so for example a 1 kyu with 1992 rating points (GoR) has now 2068 GoR and can play as 1 dan. For a single or double digit kyus the change can be up to 140 rating points, it depends on how many games they have played.

The rating system has also been extended from 20 kyu down to 30 kyu. This give beginners an easier start into the world of rated games and prevents a "pile-up" at 20 kyu.

Lorenz Trippel and Julien Corcessin (both Switzerland) currently run the EGD, and would appreciate some help, particularly in raising the system to current web standards. If you are knowledged in the areas of PHP programming, databases, web design or simply want to help update the documentation or help validating tournaments please don't hesitate to contact them (secretary@egf.org)

Pandanet Go European Team Championship

In the fifth match of the season the UK lost three games to one to Croatia, with Des Cann taking the only win. At the top of the B-League Italy drew and Netherlands won to equal Italy on match points The UK stayed third, just ahead of Finland on board points tie-break. Our players' notes on their games are here

European Youth Go Team Championship

UK Youth Beat Ukraine to End Second! This is the first time we had been in the top three. Russia beat Czechia in the last round and, as predicted, took first place (having won the event for six of its seven years history). Romania beat Hungary and took third place.

In the final match George Han beat Mariia Chernova by 6.5. Daniel Chun Yang lost to Vsevolod Ovsiienko but Jacob Zhang beat Valerii Krushelnytskyi, both by resignation against higher graded dan players. Lea Wong won her game against Bohuslav Onyshchuk by 24.5 to ensure the match was won. Sam Barnett rounded off the match by beating Olesia Malko by 23.5.

Team manager Alison Bexfield writes: "I am really pleased that all of our team were able to play in at least one of our four matches. (This is with the exception of Ryan who, for technical difficulties in accessing the online server, was not able to play this year). Our two newcomers to the squad this year jointly take star player. Both Sam and Lea played in three of the four matches with both winning all their games. Our youth captain, Jacob, has also played exceptionally well against some very strong opposition, winning against a five dan in the final round. I'd like to thank all the team for their contributions. It is a team event and every one has contributed to the team's success. "

The UK team was:
U20 players Jacob Zhang 3d, Jayden Yui-Him Ng 1d
U16 players Sam Barnett 2k, Edmund Smith 3k, Scott Cobbold 3k
U12 players Daniel Chun Yang 1d, Ryan Zhang 2k, George Han 3k, Lea Wong 5k, Yanyi Xiong 9k, Alexander Timperi 10k.
Further details here

BGA Online Congress

Report from Colin Williams:
The inaugural BGA Online Congress took place between Saturday 20th February and Sunday 7th March. As expected, despite all our preparation there were lessons we had to learn in how to run a virtual event of this size, but overall the feedback has been very positive. Research by Tony Atkins showed that the Open Tournament was in player numbers the largest event run from the UK since we hosted the European Congress in 1992.

We were very grateful for the tolerance of those few participants who had games defaulted at the last minute due to their opponent not turning up.

Results are shown here.

To summarise it in numbers:
* The Open tournament had 245 entrants from 36 countries, with 80 players from the UK.
* The Youth tournament had 72 competitors
* The Small Board event had 42 competing over 6 rounds
* The RenGo tournament had 40 competitors
* Over 900 competitive games of Go were played
* Over 70 prizes were issued
* Mateusz Surma (2p) gave by video two teaching lectures and four reviews of selected tournament games – all of which will soon appear on a new BGA YouTube channel.
* Despite a low entrance fee, and a free youth tournament, overall a small profit was made to go towards BGA funds.
The congress management team was Tony Atkins, Toby Manning, Matt Marsh and Colin Williams.

New: European Go Journal

The European Go Journal is a monthly journal about the game of Go, officially supported by the European Go Federation (EGF). The author is Artem Kachanovskyi, 2 dan professional of the EGF. Details here and subscribe here. The first edition is available free of charge.

ADMIN.

BGA AGM

The 2021 AGM will be held, like last year, as a virtual meeting using ZOOM. It will be on Friday 7th May, at 20:00. Meeting link details will be posted to the members' area of the website nearer the date.

British Go Journal

A reminder that the deadline for contributions for the next issue is 31st March. Please send your contributions to journal@britgo.org.

EVENTS COMING SOON

Restrictions due to the risk of infection with Covid-19 continue. Anyone thinking of planning a face-to-face event should think carefully about whether social distancing and related regulations in their part of the UK can be fully met.

Government guidelines may be found at:
* England
* Scotland
* Wales
* Northern Ireland

Face-to-face events are provisional. Tournament organisers will be responsible for safety and legal compliance. Various Online events are being planned. For further details see http://www.britgo.org/tournaments

May, Bar Low, Not the London Open
June, Pair Go (provisional), Durham (Online), Cheltenham (provisional), Welsh Open (provisional)
July, UK Go Challenge Finals (Online)
August, Youth Training Residential (provisional)
September, European Women's Go Championship
November, Doki Doki
December, London Open