UK Youth Team lose to Romania

On Saturday 27th January 2018, the UK youth team played their third match, against Romania. The latter were 'on a roll', having won 5-0 in their previous match. We also lost by 0 boards to 5. This was in the European Youth Go Team Championship 2017/18 (EYGTC). Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

After two rounds, the UK were sitting in fifth place out of 12 teams, and so faced a strong team in the third round.
Some of our strongest players were not available but, even if they had been, it would have been an uphill battle to defeat Romania.

Charlotte Bexfield, Josh Gorman and Wenzhou Mei fought hard on boards 1-3, against much stronger opponents, but were unable to achieve an upset, with all losing their games as expected.

On boards 4 and 5, things were much tighter on paper, but we know from experience that Romanian youth grades are 'stronger' than UK ones.
George Han on board 4 became embroiled in a complicated fight, which might have sealed his game, but unfortunately was one liberty behind in the race and had to resign. Alexander Hsieh, on board 5, did not have enough territory at the end of the game.

  Alison Bexfield, Team Captain