British Go E-Journal: September 1999

Issue 24       September 1998

Tournament News

Norwich 08/08/98

Only 16 people attended this new biennial event in East Anglia's premier city. The venue was an old city centre church, a cool venue on a hot day, a location hoped to be good at attracting passers by. Winner of the dan section was Paul Smith (2 dan Cambridge) on 3/3. Matthew Woodcraft (2 kyu Cambridge) won the kyu section with 3/3 and also on 3/3 was Philip Beck (4 kyu Cambridge).

Mind Sports Olympiad

Held between 24/08/98 and 30/08/98 at the Novotel Hotel, Hammersmith London, some 2500 players from 45 countries took part in many and various games. Events ranged from the ever popular bridge, chess and crossword solving, to the less popular mind mapping, creative thinking and puzzle solving. Media event of the week was the Rummikub Champion insisting on defending his title whilst relaxed in a bath and sipping champagne. Go was of course featured with a sales and teaching stand, manned by Adam Atkinson and friends, all week, four different tournaments and as one of the written tests in the decamentathalon. Unfortunately, due to lack of publicity, the numbers in the go events were rather low: Main 14, 13x13 6 (4 at first), 9x9 18 and weekend 22. Winners of non-go medals were Piers Shepperson (mixed pairs bridge), Ezra Lutton (Continuo and Junior Pentamind), Josiah Lutton (Junior Pentamind), Demis Hassabis (Continuo and Pentamind) and Paul Smith (Puzzle Solving, Decamen- tathalon, IQ, Entropy and Pentamind). The Go medal winners were:

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Main	Zhang Shutai	Shoichi Sakagi	Vladimir Danek
Weekend	Migaku Hayashi	Shoichi Sakagi	Vladimir Danek
13x13	Vladimir Danek	Gerhardt Stettner	Reiko Monna
9x9	Migaku Hayashi	Des Cann	Francis Roads
9x9 Junior	Ezra Lutton	James Heppell	Josiah Lutton

Worthy of special mention were Pavel Spacek (18 kyu) with 6/6 and arbiter Seong-June Kim's second placing (medal exempt) in the weekend event.

European Go Congress

Only 360 people attended the 42nd European Go Congress in Mamaia Romania from 25/07/98 to 07/08/98. This was a hot holiday resort on the Black Sea adjacent to Constantza, with no air conditioning and the occasional mad dog that attacked some players. None of the 7 British players won more than half their games. Winner of the main event was Lee Hyuk, the Korean from Moscow, who scored 10/10. On 8/10 were Robert Mateescu (Romania) who is the European Champion now and Franz-Josef Dickhut (Germany). Next placed on 7/10 were Sumikura, Gerlach, Khmyrov and Jannsen. The Weekend event was also won by Lee Hyuk on tie-break from Sumikura Yasuyuki.

US Go Congress

3 Brits attended the 14th US Go Congress in Santa Fe, New Mexico. High altitude meant dry heat to accompany the beautiful views, but the lack of air did not dampen the Brit's results. Tony Atkins won the 2 dan section, Francis Roads came 3rd in the 4 dan section and Jim Clare came 3rd in the 5 dan section, despite being British 3 dan. Britain won the Team Tournament beating Canada in the final. Francis Roads was second in the lightning from Jie Li (China) who also won the Open, ahead of Martin Mueller. No less than 16 professionals were present. Francis Roads also won first prize in the Bob High Memorial Song contest. Joanne Phipps won the World Amateur Women's Championship place and also the Pair Go with husband Ned.

News

World Amateur

The results of the World Amateur held in June in Tokyo have not been reported here yet. The full results are at: http://www.joy.or.jp/nihonkiin/news/jal/index-e.htm [ but they are not there any more ]. But a summary is:
1. Kim Chan Woo Korea 8-0 (first time Korea won),
2. Hiraoka Japan 7-1,
3. Zhao China 6-2,
4. Chou Chinese Taipei 6-2,
5. Mun DPR Korea 6-2,
6. Wang Hong Kong 6-2,
7. Janssen Netherlands 6-2,
8. Hsiang USA 5-3,
24. T.Mark Hall UK 4-4,
47. Chris Rafferty Ireland 2-6.

50 countries took part.

T.Mark Hall's wins were Portugal, Norway, Brazil and Croatia, and losses were Mexico, Taipei, Singapore and Hungary. Japan lost to Netherlands and China lost to USA and Canada.

British Championship

On 22/08/98 at the Chess and Bridge Shop, Euston Road, near to Regent's Park in London, Matthew Macfadyen beat Challenger Edmund Shaw in the first game of the British Championship title match. Edmund resigned on move 145. Commentary on the game was provided by T.Mark Hall and the players. The third of the best of five series will be on 26/09/98 at the Milton Keynes Tournament.

Stacey Grand Prix

After Devon the points table leaders were: Matthew Macfadyen (14), Michael Marz (9) and Francis Roads (8).

European Grand Prix

Final placings for 1997-1998 after the European Congress: 1 Viktor Bogdanov (86),
2 Vladimir Danek (81),
3 Guo Juan (76),
4 Csaba Meroe (69),
5 Lee Hyuk (57),
12 Matthew Macfadyen (32.5),
15 Shutai Zhang (27).

The 1998 GP Tournament winners were: Russia - Lee Hyuk, Finland - Bogdanov, Poland - Danek, Croatia - Matoh, Germany - Guo, Netherlands - Guo, Hungary - Bogatskiy, Italy - Bogdanov, Slovenia - Meroe, Austria - Danek, Ireland - Macfadyen, Spain - Kong, Czech - Soldan.

BGA EGM

This will be held at the Northern Go Congress Manchester on 12/09/98. The agenda item is a change to the constitution.

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