British Go E-Journal: January 1998

Issue 20. January 1998

Tournament News

Three Peaks 08/11/97-09/11/97

This was held at the Marton Arms in the Yorkshire Dales. This year it was won by Francis Roads (4 dan Wanstead) on tie break from Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead) and organiser Toby Manning (3 dan Leamington). Paul Callaghan (14 kyu) also won 4 out of 5.

Swindon 23/11/97

70 players attended the fifth Swindon again held at the Allied Dunbar Club. Paul Barnard flew back from Pakistan in time to help Dave King run a well organised event. The winner was Simon Shiu (3 dan Bristol), continuing Simon's run of tournament victories. On 3/3 were: Dan Micsa (1 dan Reading), Niculae Mandache (1 kyu Bristol), Chris Scarff (1 kyu Swindon), David Knight (10 kyu Epsom Downs), Graham Brooks (Swindon 12 kyu), Richard Hawkes (Bristol 15 kyu), Alistair Brooks (Swindon 25 kyu). In the 13x13 Laura Coe (Brakenhale 12 kyu) won a silver trophy nearly as tall as her self for a score of 12/14; the runner up was Nichola Hurden (Brakenhale 18 kyu).

West Surrey 07/12/97

58 players attended the West Surrey Handicap Tournament at Burpham Village Hall near Guildford. The previous day around 30 pupils learnt better go techniques from dan level teachers Paul Margetts, Des Cann, Simon Goss and Tony Atkins. Topics studied were tesuji, yose, danger points, middle game and handicap technique.

Winner of the tournament was David Ward (3 dan London) who beat Jim Clare (3 dan Reading) in the final. Also on four wins were Derek Molloy (1 kyu Brighton), Anna Griffiths (8 kyu Furze Platt) and Alexander Bruckner (8 kyu Brighton). Those on three wins as well as Jim Clare were Tony Atkins (2 dan Reading), Michael Charles (2 dan Stevenage), Marcus Bennett (1 dan Bournemouth), Jim Sadler (1 dan Brighton), Edward Blockley (2 kyu Worcester), Steve Ashing (7 kyu Worcester), Elinor Brooks (7 kyu Swindon), Steve Ashton (10 kyu Brighton), Philippe Bourrez (11 kyu West Surrey), Graham Horsley (12 kyu West Surrey), Steve Smith (15 kyu Hursley), Kevin Ashmore (29 kyu Brakenhale) and Aaron Dixson (32 kyu Brakenhale).

To avoid only David Hall from getting his traditional booby prize all other players were awarded a lollipop, however David did win a game this year avoiding his third duck in a row anyway. In the continuous 13x13 the prize winners were Paul Barnard (1 dan Swindon) for most wins, Tom Blockley (5 kyu Worcester) for best percentage and Francis Weaver (7 kyu Brakenhale) for persistence. Steve Baileys' silly competition for this year was to come up with go terms that mention things botanical, zoological, biological or anatomical. Winner was Tony Atkins with 30 terms, ahead of Pauline Bailey and Neil Cleverly.

Brussels GP

Won by Park ahead of Guo and Danek. T.Mark Hall (4 dan) was equal fourth.

National Small Board at Cambridge 30/11/97

Eighteen players took part in this event in Cambridge on November 30. The winner was Yongcheol Shin (3d, Cambridge) and the other prizewinners were William Brooks (17k, Cambridge St Pauls, 5/6), Clive Witcomb (22k, Cambridge Parkside, 5/6), Alan Thornton (2d, Hatfield, 5/6), Matthew Woodcraft (2k, Cambridge, 4/6), Simon Goss (2d, Bracknell, 4/6).

The competition took place in the same room as a chess tournament attended by 84 players, almost all of them juniors. During the lunch break Paul Smith and others taught 27 of the young chess players how to play Go.

Fujitsu Cup

Britain's Matthew Macfadyen got to play this year as a reserve instead of Frenchman Andre Moussa. The other reserve Frank Janssen was absent as he was becoming a father for the first time. The tournament proved really good for Romania, who only lost to each other. Cristian Pop put MAcfadyen out in round one but lost the final to the new FJ Cup champion, Catalin Taranu.

Anglo-Japanese 14/12/97

Held as usual at the Nippon club two closely matched teams fought a very close match. The Anglos were strong at the top and the Japanese at the bottom. Luckily for the Anglos David Ward arrived in time for the last two rounds avoiding two walk-overs and allowing the Anglos to scrape home by two points.

London Open 01/01/98-04/01/98

146 players from 16 countries attended this at the Highbury Roundhouse in North London. Although part of the European Grand Prix circuit not so many strong players from overseas attended this year.

After six rounds the GP points were awarded according to the following ranking: 1 Guo Juan, 2 Shutai Zhang, 3 E. Sim (4 dan Singapore), 4 Matthew Cocke (5 dan UK), 5= Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan UK) and T.Mark Hall (4 dan UK), 7 John Rickard (4 dan UK), 8 Francis Roads (4 dan UK), 9 J. Fincke (4 dan D), 10 Caspar Nijhuis (4 dan NL).

The top two and two at random from the next six played in the semi-finals: Guo beat Rickard and Zhang beat Macfadyen. In the final Ms Guo Juan, the 7 dan from Netherlands, beat Shutai Zhang, the 7 dan living in London, by half a point. Third in the tournament was Cocke on 6/8. On 5/8 and fourth on tie-break was Rickard and fifth was Macfadyen. Players lower down winning 7/8 were Michael Zhang (1 dan China) and Ines Teles de Menezes (14 kyu Portugal). On 6/8 were B. Maison (3 kyu Belgium) and Anna-Marie van Berkel (10 kyu NL); France Ellul (3 kyu UK) won 5/6.

Also all players who won 5/8 who stayed to the closing ceremony received a prize, as did three players in the lottery: Dieter Lanz, Robin Upton and Shastri Stettner.

The Lightning was played over two days. The first day saw tables play a five round contest and survivors played another five rounds on four tables two nights later. Then came semi-finals in which Emil Nijhuis (5 dan NL) beat Miguel Teles de Menezes (16 kyu P) on 20 stone handicap, and G. Dickfeld (3 kyu D) beat M. Gonzalez-Carnicier (5 kyu E) on two stones. In the final Nijhuis beat Dickfeld giving 7 stones. The night in between was occupied with the rengo where the teams were selected according to height: the winning team was called Jozu. The continuous 13x13 was won by young Philip Marshall (9 kyu Isle of Man) with 13 out of 18; worthy mentions went to Emil Nijhuis for 7/7 and Ron Bell (9 kyu UK) for 5/7.

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