UK Youth Team Win to End Third

The UK Youth Go Team won against Russia B team to finish third overall in the European Youth Go Team Championship. This is an excellent result especially since our team this year had so many new faces. Russia was again champion, with France (who had beaten UK in round one) in second.

In the final round we had the slight edge on paper, but the Russia B team comprises rapidly improving U12 players where paper grades might well be out of date. We knew that a win would put us in the medals provided that Germany lost to Russia A (which they subsequently did). In that scenario the number of boards we won by would be critical to determining our position between second and third - so no pressure on the team!

Isabella took our first win comfortably on board 2, never in any danger, played two days early. Scott also showed off his skills with another excellent win on board 3. George had the mostly evenly matched game and it was an exciting game to watch, with both players having good chances through the game - unfortunately George could not hold on to an earlier lead and lost by 5.5 points. On board 1 Claire won her game by resignation. In the final game, played the day after the main match games, where we were significantly outgraded on paper, Andrew fought valiantly but was not able to overcome his much stronger opponent. This meant we won the match by three games to two.

Well done to our team of Jacob Zhang, Yuji Claire Chen, Edmund Smith, Isabella Zheyu Qui, Scott Cobbold, Sam Barnett, Gene Wong, Daniel Chun Yang, Lea Wong, Spike Shamoon, George Han, Derek Duan, Jin Cheng, Andrew Volovich and Lukasz Kudla.

Claire and Scott deserve special mention for being unbeaten in their two games whilst my team player award goes to Isabella - making her debut for the team this year and achieving two wins out of the three matches she played.

Alison Bexfield, Team Manager