UK Youth Beat Czechia to End Second

The UK youth team played their final round match today in the European Youth Go Team Championship. The UK EYGTC team was drawn against Czechia and we knew that if we could win the match, and France could win against Romania, then we should finish in the medals. The same was true for our opponents. Both team managers tried to ensure we had a full team for the official match time so that it would be an exciting match. The date did coincide with the start of half term in the UK and so not all the UK team were available, however it gave us a chance to field more of our U12s instead.

Emily Gan finished first on board 5, taking a slightly surprising loss by 2.5 points despite having taken a good position early in the game. On board 4, where we were out graded on paper, we were helped by the Czechia player failing to turn up within the allotted time and so Samuel Wu won by default. On our top 3 boards Scott Cobbold delivered an easy win as expected from the grade difference. Boards 2 and 3 were even on paper, but both our players have shown in recent months that they are on top form and this proved to be the case. Gene Wong on board 2 and Yanyi Xiong (playing up an age group) on board 3 cruised to relatively easy wins by resignation, giving the UK a 4-1 win overall.

The official results are not out yet but it looks likely that this places the UK second overall (just ahead of Ukraine on board count). This is the third year in a row the UK has finished in the medals and reflects the consistent strength we have across the team.

All round four results