General News: 2006

Promotions 2006

The BGA promoted the following players within the dan grades in 2006:

5 dan Bei Ge
5 dan Ben He
3 dan Paul Christie5
2 dan Sam Aitken
2 dan William Brooks
2 dan Paul Taylor
1 dan Nick Krempel
1 dan Paul Tabor

British Championship 2006

The tournament system for the British Championship 2006 was changed. The Candidates' Tournament reverted from 4 to 6 rounds over 3 days, and the qualification level was relaxed. No players retained places in the Challenger's League, apart from the previous champion who competed in the League also. The title match was between the top two in the League, Bei Ge from Milton Keynes and defending champion Matthew Macfadyen from Leamington.
Game 1 was at the Epsom Tournament on 08/07/06, with live commentary by Guo Juan on KGS. It was won by Bei Ge.
Game 2 was held at Milton Keynes on 24/09/06 and won by Matthew by resignation. It was also live on KGS with commentary by Guo Juan.
Game 3 was played on 07/10/06 in Cambridge at David Ward's House. It was again broadcast live on KGS. The player holding white won again. This time it was Bei Ge who won by resignation.
Game 4 was played on 19/11/06 at the Swindon Tournament. Matthew won by resignation to level the match.
Game 5 was on 02/12/06 in Oxford and was won by Bei Ge, by resignation, taking white. This means Bei Ge is the new British Champion.

Stacey Points 2006-2007

There were three events up to Barmouth; there are some new names on the list, thanks to the varied attendance at the long events in Scotland and Wales. David Ward did well at Wales and Durham to take the lead and Chris Barnett became the first 4 kyu in the top 5 (because of low bars at Scottish and Durham). After Epsom David ward was leading but after Milton Keynes the presistance of young Will Brooks put him in the lead. After Swindon:

1. William Brooks      18
2. David Ward          13
3. Simon Goss          12.5
4= Alan Thornton       11
4= Alex Selby          11

BGA Shodan Challenge

John Hall

Sadly John Hall has died. Allan Scarff discovered his body at his home on the club meet night Wednesday 12th October. John ran the small but friendly Newcastle Go Club from his home, where folk met to play go, talk rubbish and partake of John's excellent coffee and cakes. Those who remember John from tournaments or Monmouth Club, will join Newcastle Club in saying "We will miss a true English gentleman". Newcastle Go Club no longer meets.

National Go Week

New Malden Baduk Hall Closes

The New Malden Baduk Hall opened in south-west London on Friday 28th October 2005. It was planned to be open every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m, but was often not and in June 2006 Mr Kim, the proprietor, announced it was closing until further notice due to lack of support. The hall was at 9 Coombe Road, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4PX, at the rear of "Park Jun's Beauty Shop", right by New Malden train station. On 9th December 2005 local MP Edward Davey (then Lib Dem shadow Education Secretary) attended to learn about Baduk (Go) and how it might be used to help integrate the local Korean population into general society more, especially among the school children.

Wedding

Congratulations to Belfast Go Club member, Tiberiu Gociu, who married Alina at Galati in Romania on 9th June 2006.

BGA AGM 2006

This was held at the BGC at Lancaster on 08/04/06. A new council was elected. Former President Simon Goss writes:
"At the AGM on Saturday evening, T Mark Hall, Bill Streeten and I stood down as BGA officers and the following were elected in our stead:
President ... Ron Bell
Treasurer ... Steve Bailey
Secretary ... Fred Holroyd
Please welcome the new team and give them your support.
I would like to thank everyone for putting up with me for the last five years. It has been a very exciting, and instructive, period in my life, and I'm most grateful for it."

Korean Pros Visit

Stacey Points 2005-2006

With three events up to the Scottish Open, Francis Roads took an early lead. Toby Manning closed the gap a little at Barmouth as Francis was not there. Alistair Wall scored points at both the Northern (MSO) and Cornwall to take the lead from Francis. He held on to the lead after Milton Keynes, but lost it again by missing Wanstead. He drew equal again at the Wessex (where Francis was missing), but Francis retook the lead at Swindon and kept it after London and Maidenhead. However at Oxford Alistair drew level and with New Malden and Cambridge went top. Bei Ge was in third place, catching up with points at Leamington. Final points were available at the British, but none of the top 3 were there; Ben He's 6 wins allowed him to catch up to equal third. So final places are:

1st Alistair Wall    24
2nd Francis Roads    21
3rd Bei Ge           19
3rd Ben He           19
5th Tim Hunt         16
5th Alan Thornton    16
7th Li Shen          15

New Vice-Presidents

BGA Council has bestowed the honour of Vice-President of the BGA on Peter Wendes. This in recognition of the work he has done for the last three years as a Go teacher and promoter and as the BGA Education Officer. Peter does a lot of contact making for the BGA in the embassies and among members of parliament, including the present Home Secretary, whom he has met twice (once as Education Minister and once in his current post). T.Mark Hall has also been made Vice-President recognising the 20 years he had been BGA Treasurer up to April 2006.

Go Players on TV

Tim Hunt was mentioned on "Have I Got News for You" (21/04/06 BBC1, 24/04/06 BBC2). A passage of his from "Winky World", their guest publication, was quoted in their missing words round. Former active player Barry Simmons took part in "Mastermind", with his semi-final appearance shown on 18/09/06. Another former active player, Hugh Williams, was a contestant and large money winner on "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire".

Go on TV

In "Diagnosis Murder" episode "Deadly Games", BBC1 21/12/06, Dick van Dyke as Doctor Mark Sloan plays Wei-qi (Go) to get inside the mind of a potential assassin who also plays. Several scenes feature study and playing of the game, and there is some explanation of the rules and strategy.

In the first episode "Criminal Minds", shown on Channel 5 on 07/09/06, the FBI agents find a Go board in a suspect's house. They derive that he was playing himself (it is on a turntable) and that his player profile is extreme aggressor.

The movie "A Beautiful Mind" was also shown again on TV during 2006.