British Championship 2009

2009 Champion: Matthew Macfadyen [1]

Title Match 25/07/09 - 26/09/09

Matthew Macfadyen 6d qualified in the Challengers' playoff to defend his title against Hui Wang 5d. This was the second time that Hui has qualified to appear in the Title Match series. Games were again commented live by Li Yue 6d, well known for her online teaching on KGS.

Matthew won the series 3-0.

Spectators were welcome to observe these games, but as space was limited, they had to contact the championships organiser ahead of time. The start time for all games was 10:00 and each player had a time limit of 3 hours with generous Canadian overtime of 10 moves in 10 minutes. There was a 1 hour break for lunch at 13:00 and games generally finished by 18:00.

The schedule for this year was:

1. Saturday July 25
   hosted by Kirsty and Matthew near Warwick
   Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
   Game One Comments [2] commentary by Yue Li.
   Game One Relay [3] raw record including moderated comments.

2. Saturday September 12
   Hosted by Andre Cockburn in Derby.
   Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
   Game Two Comments [4] commentary by Yue Li.
   Game Two Relay [5] raw record including moderated comments.

3. Saturday September 26
   hosted by Geoff Kaniuk in Cambridge, Won by Matthew Macfadyen by 3.5
   Game Three Comments [6] commentary by Yue Li with some corrections by Matthew.
   Game Three Relay [7] raw record including moderated comments.

   Note: The game was relayed as seen by the recorder: Matthew is along the left edge playing White, Hui Wang is along the right edge playing Black.

4. Saturday October 31
   hosted by the Milton Keynes tournament - Open University. Not needed.
   

5. Provisionally Saturday December 5
   hosted by Geoff Kaniuk in Cambridge. Not needed.
   

Challengers' League, London 26/06/09-29/06/09 [8]

With Des Cann and Alex Rix unable to compete, and Andrew Kay graduating, reserves Nick Krempel and Harry Fearnley joined the remaining qualifiers to participate in the 7 round all-play-all League held at the Nippon Club. Kiyohiko Tanaka became the reserve.

It was a weekend of surprises as Macfadyen lost to Wang, and then later to T Mark. Wang lost to Crosby and Cocke lost only to Hui and Macfadyen. By the end of round 7, Wang was in the lead on 6 wins and three players: Macfadyen, Cocke, and Hall were on 5. According to the tie-break rules which use the Candidates' ordering, Cocke was higher ranked than T Mark, so was selected for a playoff with Macfadyen. The final results with wins in [] and including the playoff were as follows:

1. Hui Wang 5d [6]  
2. Matthew Macfadyen 6d  [6]
3. Matthew Cocke 5d  [5]
4. T Mark Hall 4d  [5]
5. Matthew Crosby 2d  [3]
6. Stuart Barthropp 2d  [2]
7. Nick Krempel 3d  [1]
8. Harry Fearnley 2d  [1]

The playoff was won by Matthew Macfadyen and so he and Hui Wang will again compete for the British Championship Title over 5 games in various locations round the country.

Candidates' Tournament, Cambridge 02/05/09-04/05/09 [9]

22 players ranging in strength from 1 kyu to 5 dan gathered again on the May Day Bank holiday in Selwyn College, Cambridge for the 2009 Candidates' tournament. Matthew Cocke was the only player to gain 6 wins and last year's Challenger Hui Wang lost only to Matthew Cocke. There was a large group of players on 4 wins including 2 dan Stuart Barthropp and Matt Crosby. By the SoS tie break rules those who qualified for the Challengers' league are Matthew Macfadyen (automatic place), Matthew Cocke, Hui Wang, T Mark Hall, Desmond Cann, Stuart Barthropp, Alex Rix, and Matt Crosby. Nick Krempel gains a place as first reserve, second reserve being Andrew Kay on 3 wins.

Alex Kent deserves special mention as being the only 1 kyu to enter the tournament, coming all the way from Durham to play, and winning an impressive 3/6, beating a 1 dan, a 2 dan and a 3 dan.

Photos by Kiyohiko Tanaka: day 1 [10] day 2 [11] day 3 [12]

The list of players qualified for the 2009 British Go Championship [13] was based on their performance in tournaments played during 2008. The qualifying achievement for the Candidates' Tournament 2009 was to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament in 2008 in which the candidate played in all rounds.