British Championship: 2003

Title Match

The winner of the British Championship was decided by the title match, a best-of-five match between the defending champion, Matthew Macfadyen, and Matthew Cocke, the winner of the Challenger’s tournament. This was Matthew Cocke’s third challenge. He also challenged in 2002 and in 1999.

Matthew Macfadyen defeated Matthew Cocke 3 games to 0 in the Title Match, and was awarded the John Barrs Goban, and a prize of £250. Matthew Cocke received £100.

The first game of the title match took place alongside the Epsom Go Tournament on Saturday, 9th August 2003, with sponsorship by Forbidden Technologies plc. The game was won by Matthew Macfadyen who killed a large group in the middle game.

The second and third games took place at the Mind Sports Olympiad in Manchester on 16th and 17th August.

Game 1 record
Game 2 record
Game 3 record

Challenger’s Tournament

The Challenger’s Tournament took place from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th May 2003 as part of MSO Cambridge 2003. It was was won by Matthew Cocke with a perfect seven wins out of seven. The full results page has links to records of some of the games.

Candidates’ Tournament

The Candidates’ Tournament took place on alongside the Leamington Go Tournament on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March 2003.

As shown in the full results, six people qualified for the Challenger’s league:

1. Quentin Mills, 4 wins, 9 SOS.
2. Alistair Wall, 3 wins, 10 SOS.
3. Andrew Jones, 3 wins, 9 SOS.
4. David Ward, 3 wins, 9 SOS.
5. Alex Rix, 3 wins, 9 SOS.
6. John Hobson, 2 wins, 9 SOS.

Tim Hunt also had 2 wins and 9 SOS, but lost out on the tie break, which was nigiri. The ranking of the three people tied for third place was also determined randomly. (This is probably irrelevant, but may have been required as a tie-break in the Challenger’s.)

Players who qualified for the 2003 Championship