BGA Newsletter 267 June 2020

FROM THE EDITOR

Contributions are always welcome, both from our members and others. We ask that they be Go-related and "newsy". The place for debate and general discussion is the BGA open mailing list Gotalk. However, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter. A brief introduction to Gotalk, with a link for joining, is on the BGA page Go on the Internet. See also the BGA temporary Coronavirus page.

Instructions for Contributors: Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it fairly brief, and give web-links and contact details. It's good to include pictures. If they are on the internet, send me the URL, otherwise attach the picture files to your email. Send your contribution to newsletter@britgo.org to arrive by the first day of the month.

Jil Segerman

AGM

The AGM of the BGA is normally held at the British Congress, but that was not possible this year - and there are no prospects of holding a quorate AGM with members present in person over the next few months. We therefore accept that we are in breach of Constitution, which requires the AGM to be held by the end of June (and, by implication, requires it to be face-to-face).

It appears that Government restrictions may be significantly relaxed in early July. In order to hold the AGM before this happens, while giving Members sufficient warning, Council has therefore decided to hold an on line AGM on Tuesday, July 7 at 20:00. We are attempting to make the arrangements comply with the spirit of the constitution, if they do not comply with its letter.

The meeting will be held via Zoom, and all members will be able to participate.

Voting (should that be necessary) will be via the Zoom software, and not by the election of tellers.

You do not need to register with Zoom to take part, nor to download any software: you will simply need a device with a browser.

We are today publishing a draft Agenda and Associated documents. This is within the Members' area, so you will need to login.

Members who wish to have additional items included on the Agenda should submit them to the Secretary (secretary AT britgo DOT org) by 30 June (see Constitution clause 28). Nominations for Officers (President, Secretary and Treasurer) must be received by 23 June, (clause 38) and nominations for ordinary Council Members, and Auditor, by 6 July.

A further communication, with instructions about logging into the AGM, will be sent out shortly before the Meeting.

NEWS

The full set of recent news items, including further details of some of the items shown here, are on our News Pages, and on News Headlines.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship

The final match of the season, played on Pandanet, was on 19th May when we managed a draw against Belgium. This left us in sixth position. Serbia won the B-League and Italy was second.

First BGA Realtime Online Tournament

The BGA held its first realtime online tournament on the 2020 VE Day Bank Holiday weekend. 42 players took part in a three-round Mcmahon tournament on OGS, with one game per day. Zherui Xu (4d Cambridge) came out the eventual winner with three wins. Gokul Ramanan Subramanian (2k Cambridge) took the highest placed below-the-bar prize.

The intention is to run another of these tournaments each month whilst we're unable to run face-to-face tournaments - look out for information about the June tournament.

Online Youth Group

Paul Smith writes: "The meetings on OGS for youth players and parents are continuing every Sunday from 4pm to 6pm. There are junior players from 25-kyu up to 2-kyu and about half a dozen parents joining in as well. New members are very welcome, please contact Paul Smith (paul361smith@gmail.com) for details of how to join.

On 1 June some of our youth players from this group joined in the Dutch youth group on OGS organised by Dave de Vos. We won 6 out of 8 games played against the Dutch junior players (and Alexander Hsieh won a handicap game against Dave) but this wasn't a competition, the point was just mostly to play with some different players and have fun. If there are any other groups on OGS (for example any UK club groups) who we could have a joint meeting with please let Paul know.

On 7 June we started a match on KGS between 12 British youth players and a team of 12 youth players organised by Go teacher Li Ang in China. Lea Wong won the first game for our team against Jiao Si Tan from China. There will be two games now each weekend. Each player will play until they lose when the next member of the team will take over, once one team has run out of players then the other team has won. The British team is Lea Wong, Caleb Monk, Yanyi Xiong, Alexander Timperi, Alexander Hsieh, Jonah Burnstone-Cresswell, Scott Cobbold, Edmund Smith, Gene Wong, Tom Bradbury, Daniel Chun Yang and Jayden Ng.

On 15 June we will play some games with the Scotland Youth Team group on OGS.

ADMIN.

BGA Journal

We are still seeking a volunteer to take over as Editor of the Journal. This is the second time of asking, and it seems to me that if no one is forthcoming, there eventually will be no BGJ. Therefore, I am sure the BGA Council would be glad to hear from anyone who might consider taking on a less-onerous job, for example: fewer issues per year, on-line-only format, or job-share. Creative thinking welcomed; email council-discussion@britgo.org Or to find out more, contact our current stop-gap editor Bob Scantlebury on journal@britgo.org

Clocks

The BGA now has a full set of digital clocks, and therefore has some analogue clocks which are surplus to requirements. These are available for purchase by members at £5 for one, £8 for 2 or £10 for 3 (this includes postage and packing). If you wish to buy any please contact the President (president AT britgo.org).

EVENTS COMING SOON

Events not cancelled at time of going to press include:
JULY
Not the London Open
AUGUST
Mind Sports Olympiad, Online
Youth Training Residential near Grantham, Lincolnshire
SEPTEMBER
Cornwall
T Mark Hall Rapid Play, London
European Women's Championship, London
OCTOBER
Wessex
Three Peaks
NOVEMBER Doki Doki Festival (Manchester)
British Youth Go Championship

LATER
December, London Open

OVERSEAS
The European Go Federation's Tournament Calendar includes the Major European Tournaments and a World Tournament Calendar.