Go in Britain: 1985

The second Cheshire tournament was win for Richard Granville. The organiser's son, Peter Timmins, was one of the other prize winners. British Champion Matthew Macfadyen won the Not the Oxford run by Francis Roads at Wanstead. Furze Platt hosted and won the Schools and also hosted the Youth, at which the winners were Sam Perlo-Freeman, Nicola Oswald and Jason Cobbold.

The 1985 British Go Congress was held in Worcester and was slightly worrying in that hardly any top dan players attended. Matthew Macfadyen won easily with a clean six, with Richard Granville (3 dan), John Smith (2 dan) and Brian Chandler (2 dan) all getting four wins. At the AGM a new BGA constitution was passed allowing index linked subscriptions. Richard Granville stood down as president and so Norman Tobin was elected to that role with Tony Atkins taking over as Secretary. Jeff Ansell was reappointed Treasurer, but following Jeff's death form a stroke during Amsterdam, Andrew MacPherson took on this role.

24 players from 2 kyu to 6 dan played in the Candidates and the top seven were Diamond, Granville, Smith, Chandler, Thompson, Hazelden and Symes. Five of these joined Stacey, Barty and Rickard in the Challenger's League, from whom Terry Stacey emerged victorious with the right to challenge Macfadyen for the British title.

Jim Bates was our representative at the World Amateur in Tokyo. He finished 12th with 4/7. Jian Hong Wang of China was the winner. The European Congress was held on the Dutch island of Terschelling, ideal for cycling, bird watching and turning pink in the sun. Ronald Schlemper won all 9 games and a play-off for second was won by our own Matthew Macfadyen from Pierre Colmez of France. The first US Congress was held in Maryland and was won by Thomas Hsiang.

In the Autumn of 1985 Richard Granville won the Northern ahead of John Smith and Eddie Shaw (3 dan). At Wanstead Matthew Macfadyen beat Terry Stacey to take first prize. West Germany won the first European National Team Tournament in Warsaw; the British team of Macfadyen, Barty, Granville and Rickard were third.

Having Challenged for most of the previous seven years Terry Stacey finally won the 1985 British Championship 3-1 against Macfadyen. Korean J.Y Lee won the Nottingham, Jim Barty the Wessex, H. Washita the Edinburgh and Tony Atkins (1 kyu) the Black Bull Handicap.

Andre Moussa of Paris cleaned up at the London Open winning first prize, ahead of Macfadyen and Diamond, and winning the Lightning.

More BGA history