British Pair Go Finds New Home

The British Pair Go Championship moved to Nottingham for the first time this year, with the tournament being sponsored by Threedy Printers Limited.

In another first we saw new first-time champions of Ai Guan and Damen Woo, with Alison and Simon Bexfield taking second place and Lauren Hindmarch and Bjorn Eurenius taking third spot.

In the handicap section, we had three pairs on 3 wins. The overall title of handicap champions went to Helen Harvey and Soorena Zarafshani, with Olivia Jennison and Claude Robinson, and Renee Wong and Ryan Wong sharing second place.

Results

We saw an increase in numbers with 15 pairs entered and Martin Harvey making an even number as a ghost for the top group.

There was a wide range of grades with the top ranking pair at 3 dan right down to 35kyu. The good spread of grades and a flexible draw meant that handicaps all stayed within a 9-stone range, with many games being even or low stone handicaps. There was also variety in pairs, with some long standing partnerships returning but also new ones being forged, and a great mix of young and older players.

The top board in Rounds 2 and 3 was live-streamed and kindly reviewed by Michael Cheung 5D. The games can be watched here on the BGA YouTube channel. We expect a couple more reviews to appear in due course.

Best dressed pairs were the siblings Amelia and Leonhard Chapman, and Lauren and Bjorn, as judged by Martin. Brielle Wong won the quiz on motorway services.

We would like to thank Cheadle Hulme School and teacher David Barnett for bringing a big group, the players from Nottingham Go Club who stepped in to partner with some of the female players, and Alison and Ai for organising the event.

The June date proved difficult for some pairs who would have liked to take part and we will be looking at the date for next year to see if there is a better month.