British Go E-Journal: May 1995

Issue 4. May 1995

Tournament News

Irish Open (17/03/95-19/03/95)

It was advisable to arrive early at the Irish. It meant you could watch the St Patrick's Day parade, play in the International Match (which Ireland lost to the rest of the world) and miss the worst of the Irish Sea weather. In the tournament proper, a Grand Prix event for the first time, Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan) won all his games as expected. In a close last game struggle Des Cann (4 dan Leamington) beat Tony Goddard (5 dan Belfast) to come second. The other GP placings were taken by Messers Kraszek, Roads, Andrew Jones, Olsson, Manning and Mitchell; Dave Ward and Alison Jones were equal 10th. D. Robby (3 kyu France) won a prize for 5 wins. Dave Ward and Giani Della Giovanna (Belgium) won the Pair Go.

South London (18/03/95)

This fast play event over 8 rounds was held at Battersea Arts Centre and was won by Alistair Wall (4 dan Wanstead). Most other top players were in Dublin for the Irish Open.

Coventry (25/03/95)

Another fast play, this time with five rounds. Matthew Macfadyen won the top Swiss Section ahead of Teesside's Simon Shiu (3 dan). The other groups were won by: 1. Toby Manning and Alan Thornton (2 dan); 2. Brian Ellis (1 dan); 3. Matthew Holton and Tony Warburton (1 kyu); 4. Paul Barnard (1 kyu); 5. Martin Harvey (2 kyu); 6. John Lowe (4 kyu); 7. Jim Edwards (8 kyu); 8. Nick Fortescue (8 kyu); 9. Paul Clarke (12 kyu); 10. Daniel Dowling (18 kyu). The best team were the Leamington Beards and Jo Hampton won the 9x9.

British Go Congress (07/04/95-09/04/95)

The Wanstead Go Club were the hosts of a very successful British at the delightfully rural location of Felsted School in Essex. The only minor panic was when insufficient sets were present to play the lightning, so Paul Barnard and Steve Bailey were awarded a prize for playing with a demonstration set of coloured glass stones. The rest of the lightning went as expected, but the final saw a shodan, Chris Dawson, playing Brakenhale Schools' 12 kyu Mark Harrod. In a very laid back game Mark won becoming the weakest ever British Lightning Champion.

If the lure of the sunshine and the pleasant surroundings did not tempt you outside there was the 13x13 event between games. Organiser Francis Roads won 9/10 but young Daniel Cox had a game- win product of over 500.

In the Main event visitor form Sweden Ulf Olsson won with 5 wins. Equal second were Harold Lee and John Rickard. The only player with all six games won was Culcheth's David Bennett (15 kyu). Three players won five: Simon Butler (1 kyu Reading), Wayne Walters (4 kyu Wanstead) and Paul Clarke (10 kyu High Wycombe). Prizes were also awarded to those with 4/6.

In the Stacey Grand Prix for 1994-1995 Alistair Wall was the clear winner of most games above the bar, and the Youth Grand Prix was won by David King for the second year running.

Thames Valley Team Tournament (17/04/95)

At very short notice Wokingham Go Club hosted the second Thames Valley Team Tournament. It was too short notice for the home team to turn up and so out of the other 8 teams it was the Royal Standard (Beaconsfield) team that won (Jones, Hawdon and Jones) ahead of the Brakenhale Fellas and Furze Platt.

North East (22/04/95)

Another fast play event. This time six rounds, held in Darlington. Local player Simon Shiu won all six games ahead of Francis Roads. Richard Pearce (12 kyu) from Newcastle won 5/6.

Candidates Tournament (06/05/95-08/05/95)

The VE Bank Holiday say 36 players at Covent Garden battling for the right to play in the Challengers League with Messers Macfadyen, Cocke and Webber. The biggest battle was against the noise; apart from the usual buskers this year the fire bell, a parade of human insects and various WW2 aircraft fly-pasts had to be contended with. However the five on five who survived this were Cann, Hall, Rix, Shepperson and Chetwynd (who is still only 2 dan).

Bracknell (13/05/95)

This was not at ICL and not on FA Cup Final Day, but at a new rugby club venue with appropriate large photos on the wall to put you off your game. However T.Mark Hall was not distracted as he won with 3/3. Antonio Moreno (2 dan Bristol), Jo Hampton (1 dan West Wales), Andrew Ketley (3 kyu Cheltenham), Daniel Cox (6 kyu Brakenhale), Robert Finking (11 kyu) and Francis Weaver (30 kyu Brakenhale) also won 3.

News

Feng Yun

Miss Feng Yun, Chinese professional, was stated last time as being 8 dan, but is actually (only) 7 dan. She is still active in British Go - some of her problems have been circulating recently - despite not being here. Thanks to Harry Fearnley for the following beautiful problem that was discussed extensively on rec.games.go:

 7 . . . . . . . . . . .
 6 . . . . . . . . . . .
 5 . . . . # # # . . . . Black (#) to Play
 4 . . # # O O . # # . .
 3 . # O . . . . O # . .
 2 . # O . O O . O # . .
 1 . # . . . . . . # . .
 A B C D E F G H J K L

British Championship

On 22/04/95 Shutai Zhang, the Chinese Doctor from London, beat challenger Matthew Macfadyen to take the British Championship for 1994 by 3 games to 0.

AGM

The AGM of the British Go Association was held at the British at Felsted on 08/04/95. It is believed this was the first AGM to be held in a pub (The Checkers). The reworded constitution was accepted. The same Council was elected with Paul Hankin and Colin Adams replacing Paul Smith and Keith Osborne. Former Book Seller Bob Bagot was awarded a go ban as an honorarium for his services. Harold Lee is now a Life Member.

Computer Go

Dr Michael Reiss of KCL is hoping to take his computer program to the World Computer Go Championships in Tokyo in September. Alan Scarff has got his program to about 5 kyu, but it is still learning.

Computer Software

[ This service is no longer available. ]

If you want a free PC computer game of go - shareware program no guarantee on strength of play - send a disc and your address to Nick Wedd.

Sample game

Attached is a sample game record from the "Canterbury European Go Congress" Booklet. It is in "Ishi" format suitable for Go Scribe or Many Faces of Go. All games in the booklet are available on disc from the Editor.

EGC 1992 Round 1
Black: Des Cann 4dan GB
White: Alexei Lazarev 6dan Rus
158 moves

MOVES: ko 65, 68, 71, 78, 81, 84, 87, 90, 93, 96, 99; 119 @ 67

Commentary by Des Cann

One of the consequences of being four dan is starting above the
bar, even in international tournaments. This means you have
the same McMahon grade as five and six dans. One of the features
of Geoff Kaniuk's draw program is that it always seems to match me
against a top six dan in the first round.

10 to 17: Playing this sequence prior to 18 to 20 is probably a
small gain  to white. Fighting spirit called for me to cut between
6 and 8 instead of playing 11.

40: I felt this wasn't urgent as this side is stable. 41 gives me
the initiative.

47: Better at 48.

52: If at 53 I would invade the lower side immediately and white
would be in trouble.

55 to 61: This is a nice ko for black at this time as the white
group on the left is only just secure.

77: Perhaps to early, this ko is harder for black.

91: This is loosing points, as the black dango this starts to
form is a liability, but black needs the ko threats.

100: Not big enough.

109: Should force at 110 or to the left of 53 first which I
believe would have given me a lead.

110: If at 115 I can double hane.

111: Another mistake, 125 would split white apart.

115: Correct is 118.

119: Correct is 124.

121: Correct is one above.

I was running out of concentration by this time and starting to
get paranoid about my group on the left. I connected my group
while white got in moves which transformed the game.

122, 124, 130: Secure the victory for white. I played on for
another twenty moves before resigning but the game is already
decided by 138.

Black resigns after 138.


EVENT
BOARDSIZE 19
B 1 r16
W 2 d17
B 3 q3
W 4 c5
B 5 p17
W 6 q5
B 7 r5
W 8 r6
B 9 r4
W 10 s16
B 11 s15
W 12 r15
B 13 s17
W 14 q16
B 15 r17
W 16 s14
B 17 t16
PRISONER s16
W 18 q7
B 19 o3
W 20 r11
B 21 d15
W 22 c13
B 23 c17
W 24 c18
B 25 c16
W 26 e18
B 27 e14
W 28 g16
B 29 d12
W 30 c11
B 31 c12
W 32 b12
B 33 d13
W 34 b10
B 35 b13
W 36 d3
B 37 a12
W 38 j3
B 39 l3
W 40 l17
B 41 c9
W 42 d11
B 43 e9
W 44 f11
B 45 b9
W 46 b11
B 47 g9
W 48 f10
B 49 f9
W 50 h11
B 51 j9
W 52 g4
B 53 k11
W 54 g14
B 55 r8
W 56 s7
B 57 r10
W 58 q10
B 59 q9
W 60 s10
B 61 s9
W 62 r9
PRISONER r10
B 63 g13
W 64 h13
B 65 r10
PRISONER r9
W 66 p9
B 67 p10
W 68 r9
PRISONER r10
B 69 h14
W 70 f13
B 71 r10
PRISONER r9
W 72 q11
B 73 p8
W 74 o9
B 75 q8
W 76 s8
B 77 s11
W 78 r9
PRISONER r10
B 79 g12
W 80 f12
B 81 r10
PRISONER r9
W 82 c14
B 83 b14
W 84 r9
PRISONER r10
B 85 f14
W 86 g15
B 87 r10
PRISONER r9
W 88 t10
B 89 t9
W 90 r9
PRISONER r10
B 91 h12
W 92 j12
B 93 r10
PRISONER r9
W 94 b15
B 95 c15
W 96 r9
PRISONER r10
B 97 j13
PRISONER h13
W 98 g11
B 99 r10
PRISONER r9
W 100 p4
B 101 t11
PRISONER s10 t10
W 102 p3
B 103 p2
W 104 o2
B 105 q2
W 106 n6
B 107 n3
W 108 o7
B 109 r12
W 110 k12
B 111 p12
W 112 p11
B 113 o11
W 114 o10
PRISONER p10
B 115 q12
W 116 h8
B 117 h9
W 118 n11
B 119 p10
PRISONER r11 q10 q11 p11
W 120 k7
B 121 l11
W 122 m13
B 123 l9
W 124 o12
B 125 o8
W 126 n8
B 127 n9
W 128 n10
B 129 m9
W 130 o13
B 131 m7
W 132 m6
B 133 l7
W 134 l6
B 135 n7
W 136 m4
B 137 m3
W 138 k4
B 139 l15
W 140 m15
B 141 m16
W 142 l16
B 143 m17
W 144 p15
B 145 l18
W 146 k18
B 147 m18
W 148 j17
B 149 d2
W 150 c3
B 151 n15
W 152 m14
B 153 g2
W 154 j2
B 155 e3
W 156 e4
B 157 o6
W 158 p7
COM
D. Cann 4dan GB
A. Lazarev 6dan Rus
158 moves White wins by resignation
ENDCOM

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