UK Youth Team Win 3-2 Against Romania

The UK Youth Go Team won against Romania in round 3 of the European Youth Go Team Championship this weekend. Player of the Match goes to Edmund for stepping up at very short notice to ensure we did not default a game.

One of the newest squad members, Jin Cheng, was making his debut for the team. He had a good game on board 4, but could not quite achieve a win and lost by 11.5 points. Next to finish was Scott Cobbold, who took an easy win by resignation after he had surrounded a large eyeless group of his opponent. Andrew Volovich on board 5 made full use of his time limit, eventually taking a win by 6.5 points (actually 9.5 but was miscounted). Isabella Qiu on board 2 started her game later and had an exciting game (for the spectators) involving a large ko. Isabella held her nerve and took a 9.5 point win. That left the team 3-1 up with the final board to play Sunday morning. Due to a mix up on agreed times, our original board 1 turned out to be unavailable. Edmund Smith stepped up at very short notice to play on board 1 against a strong Romanian 4 dan. Edmund had an exciting game, surrounding and attacking his opponent's central stones, but this took up a lot of his time leaving him short of time in the latter stages of the game where his opponent's greater experience prevailed. So the UK team finished with a match win 3-2. This puts them in the top quarter of the leader board, sitting joint third. So the fourth and final round should be exciting.

At the top, Russia remained unbeaten; Germany and France also won their matches.