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The British Congress returned to Edinburgh after 15 years, this time hosted by the New Melville Bridge Club. With leafy Corstorphine and Edinburgh Zoo as a backdrop, the venue offered a quiet and spacious setting for a long weekend of Go. Fifty-seven players, matching last year’s turnout, gathered to make up one of the strongest player fields in recent memory.

The Congress kicked off on Friday night with the traditional British Lightning Championship. Twenty-six players were split into six round-robin groups, battling fiercely for a place in the top 12 knockout bracket. Congratulations to Dohyup Kim (8d Seoul),…

On Saturday 7th June around 40 Go players descended on Elvet Hill House for the 2025 Durham Go Tournament. Ranks ranged from 7d down to a 30k player who played his second ever 19x19 game in Round 1, and there was also a good range of ages - including several youth players as well as a number of university students. Players came from across the UK, from London to Cardiff to Edinburgh.

Unusually, the side room was upstairs this year - due to our usual side room being filled with instruments for a student musical group. This did mean we had a notably larger room to review games (and consume tea and biscuits), though, so…

On 28th and 29th June, Barmouth's Dragon Theatre was again the venue for the Welsh Open. 43 players - 13 up on 2024 - took advantage of the two-day tournament - a rarity on the BGA calendar. The higher numbers enabled the hiring of a separate room, where many reviewed their games and non-players could relax and mingle. A standout feature for 2025 was that no fewer than 10 players were from the Welsh clubs of Cardiff (9) and Aberystwyth (1) - surely a record?

The weather was mixed, but there were chances to climb the cliffs for views of the town, its wide bay and the start of Snowdonia National Park's scenic mountainous region. It was great to see old faces and new, as it was also…

I'm very pleased to announce that Damen (Ho-Yeung Woo) has been co-opted onto the Board of Directors of the BGA. He will have responsibility for player development, a task he has already been sharing with Sam Bithell.

This brings the Board appointments up to eight again, and continues a general trend where the average age of the Directors is decreasing, surely a good sign for the future of Go in the UK.

The British Pair Go Championship moved to Nottingham for the first time this year, with the tournament being sponsored by Threedy Printers Limited.

In another first we saw new first-time champions of Ai Guan and Damen Woo, with Alison and Simon Bexfield taking second place and Lauren Hindmarch and Bjorn Eurenius taking third spot.

In the handicap section, we had three pairs on 3 wins. The overall title of handicap champions went to Helen Harvey and Soorena Zarafshani, with Olivia Jennison and Claude Robinson, and Renee Wong and Ryan Wong sharing second place.

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