London Open Under Way

London Open
LGC
Fri, 28 - Mon, 31 Dec 2018

The 45th London Open got under way on Friday 28th December at its new venue of the London Go Centre. The event had to be limited in numbers because of the size of the venue, but still more than 80 players sat down to play the first round. Representing 14 countries, the players ranged from 30k to 7d, including some children, and there was a large party from Germany. Top British youth player Tom Bradbury is seen right in a warm up game before the event started. The person to beat this year is likely to be Oh Ch-Min (7d) from France, who is seen at the bottom in his first round game. Teaching this year is being provided by European professional Ali Jabarin, from Israel, who is shown in an analysis below.

Last updated Tue Jan 01 2019.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Club President Wins in Edinburgh

Edinburgh Christmas
Sat, 15 Dec 2018

The annual Edinburgh Christmas competition - a challenging format of four 45-minute main-time rounds with overtime starting at 30 stones in 5 minutes - was won convincingly by club president, Boris Mitrovic (2d), who beat the other four players starting ‘above the bar’ and was the only entrant to win in all four rounds.

James Richards (1k), Alistair Wall (1d) and Roger Daniel (6k) each won three of their four.

The competition lost out badly to the weather, with only 17 of the 21 entrants actually playing at the event in the hall of St Columba’s by the Castle Episcopal Church.

Results

Last updated Mon Dec 17 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Germany Too Strong for our UK Youth team

European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC)
Venue: http://www.gokgs.com/ in the Euro Youth teams room
Sat, 15 Dec 2018

The UK Youth team played a strong German team, on Saturday 15th December, and lost 4-1.

This was our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

Last updated Mon Dec 17 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

UK Youth team announced for Sat. 15 Dec.

European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC)
Venue: http://www.gokgs.com/ in the Euro Youth teams room
Sat, 15 Dec 2018

The UK Youth Team Captain, Alison Bexfield, writes:

The youth team is playing Germany on Saturday 15th December and teams have been chosen.

This is our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

The match is interesting. We narrowly won our opening match against Croatia. Germany may prove an even harder test. They have a very strong squad, but are wisely and sportingly giving mid-order players some match experience. We thus have an outside chance of winning it, but only if everyone plays up to their top level.

We wish the team luck especially Yanyi, who is making his debut for our team. Families, friends, Brits and Germans, and all Go-players are welcome to watch any of the matches on KGS.

The matches will all commence at 2pm UK time.

Last updated Fri Dec 14 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

UK Team Slump to Bottom of B-League

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
Pandanet
Tue, 11 Dec 2018

Our team lost three games to one against a strong team from the Netherlands. This put our team down to bottom place in the Pandanet B division, behind Denmark. After four rounds, in the B League out of A-D, four teams have three wins: Serbia, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. This win left Netherlands in fifth place. The next match will be on Tuesday 22nd January, against Austria.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost by resignation against Geert Groenen, but I feel I played a lot better this game (at least in the opening) so I'm not too regretful! Probably the hardest choice I faced early on was how to handle my opponent's 3-3 invasion on move 28. I ultimately played the double-hane variation, but it was a bit of a toss up between that and the keima-and-try-to-retain-sente one.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Youth Championship Grows in Size

British Youth Championship
Aston
Sat, 1 Dec 2018

The 2018 British Youth Go Championship (BYGC) featured 57 competitors, aged from 5 to 18. This is believed to be the second largest such event (the largest was in 2005 with 74). There were two minibuses from Cheadle Hulme School and groups from two new clubs, Rednock School (Dursley) and Sheffield Chinese School. The event would have been bigger but the Edinburgh team had to withdraw through illness and there were no locals from the host, King Edward VI (Aston) School.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Philip Leung Wins Coventry Again

Coventry
Warwick University
Sat, 24 Nov 2018

The 2018 Coventry Tournament was held on 24th November in its usual Warwick University location. This year 38 players took part and Philip Leung (4d University of Warwick) won the event for the third time in a row and the fourth time overall. This is particularly noteworthy as Philip was also the event organiser. Honghao Lu (2d Manchester University) and Peikai Xue (1d Central London) were first and second runner up respectively, with two wins out of three, both only losing to the winner. The picture shows Philip (right) with Peikai. James Taylor (8k University of Warwick) and Rowan Borrow (15k Cheadle Hulme School) were the other prize winners for three wins.

Results

Last updated Sat Dec 15 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

UK Youth team wins 3-2 against Croatia

European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC)
Venue: http://www.gokgs.com/ in the Euro Youth teams room
Sat, 24 Nov 2018

Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, brings us these 2 stories - the first pre-match, and the second post-match - to follow on from her UK Squad announcement. The 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC) is held online over four rounds, on KGS.

Pre-match

The UK Youth team is today (24th November 2018) playing its first international match of the season, with a game against Croatia. The UK is starting in the second half of the 12 national teams, so is playing another of the teams in our half of the draw.

My UK team selection takes account of a number of things, including selecting a team that could win the match, trying to make sure all team players have a chance to play at least one match in the tournament, and trying to make the games not too unbalanced.

Last updated Mon Nov 26 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Some new UK Juniors in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship

European Youth Go Team Championship
Venue: http://www.gokgs.com/ in the Euro Youth teams room
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 - Sat, 16 Feb 2019

Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, writes:

I am pleased to announce this year's UK Youth Team for the European Youth Go Team Championship 2018/19 (EYGTC). This is held online over four rounds on KGS.

The standard in the UK team has increased every year, with this year no exception. I put together a talented UK Team Squad with up to 15 Juniors, and then I select a team of 5 for each match, from three age groups. Each match is played over five boards - one U20, two U16 and two U12.

Traditionally we have done quite well in the U12 age groups, but less so at the top end, where often board 1 is a mid-rank dan player.

Last updated Sun Nov 25 2018.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.

Jamie Taylor Only Winner Against Belgium

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
Pandanet
Tue, 20 Nov 2018

Jamie Taylor was the only one of our team to win a game in the third round match against Belgium. He wrote: I won my game against Lucman Bounoider, despite my best efforts. I think we were both a bit tired, as my opponent died big quite early on, then I made a colossal mistake to allow it to live instead. After that I think we both just started playing worse and worse, donating points to each other all over the board. Eventually he resigned, after I got out of several narrow scrapes, none of which I had any business being in in the first place. I can't complain though, a win's a win.

Alex Kent wrote about his board one game against Lucas Neirynck: I lost by resignation. As black I opened with a Kobayashi style fuseki, and instead of playing the "normal" two-space approach my opponent played the 3-3 invasion in the upper-right.

Last updated Tue Jan 05 2021.
If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.