British/French Youth Match Ends in a Draw

On the afternoon of Wednesday 31st October, a match took place on KGS between a team of French and a team of British youth players. The French fielded a team of eight. The British team originally consisted of four players, each set to play two games: Henry Clay (1k), Melchior Chui (12k), Peran Truscott (13k) and Oscar Selby (14k).

In the event, Peran's computer and KGS took against each other, meaning that he was not able to join us. Heavy snow also made for a rocky start, delaying the French players (who were travelling from a youth camp to a college in Grenoble for the match). The French finally defeated the elements, and to avoid disappointing two of their players, Oscar Selby went above and beyond the call of duty. He played both boards three and four, for a total of four consecutive games - and he still managed to finish before anybody else!

Round one was played even, and round two at handicap -1. After the first round the score was 2-2, with Henry and Oscar both killing large groups for comfortable wins. In round 2 Henry won again, coming very close to death only to turn the tables and kill his opponent instead. On board two Melchior had an easy win, playing Black in a 4 stone game. The match ended in a 4-4 draw.

In France the event was attended by a local education councillor, and was covered by France3 (part of the TV station FranceTV), as well as a local newspaper, 'Le Dauphin Libéré'.