BGA Newsletter 275 February 2021

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

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.

BGA Online Congress 2021 - Entries are open

Message from BGA Secretary Colin Williams:
The BGA is proud to announce that the first BGA Online Congress is now open for entries. Full details and the entry form can be found on BGA Online Congress or via the BGA events calendar. Our intention is to provide a friendly event, offering people the opportunity to play good quality Go during the current pandemic.
There are several events included, with the main tournament being a 6 round McMahon event, which will count as Class ‘C’ for EGF rating purposes.
It is the first time we have organised an online event on this scale, so please bear with us if we encounter any small administrative glitches.
I hope to see you there.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship: UK Lose to the Netherlands

The UK lost three games to one in their fourth match of the season. A strong Netherlands team meant this result was likely and only Daniel Hu, on board one, managed a win. As Italy beat Turkey they moved top of the B-League, whilst the UK slipped to third behind Netherlands on board points tie-break.

European Youth Go Team Championship: UK Youth Gobble Up Turkey

Report from Alison Bexfield:
Our UK youth team won 5-0 against Turkey. Having narrowly lost to Romania in round 2 we were facing a relatively inexperienced team from Turkey. This gave us the chance to offer a game to those members in the squad who had not played in the first two rounds.
Even though on paper we comfortably outranked our opponents on every board, the lack of over the board rated games during lockdown means that the stated grades do not always reflect reality for rapidly improving young players and so we could not be complacent. However, our team of Jayden NG (Under 20), Edmund Smith (Under 16), Lea Wong (Under 16 - actually Under 12, but was playing up), Yanyi Xiong and Alexander Timperi (both Under 12) all played solidly to deliver a 5-0 win for the UK.
There is one round remaining in the tournament: we play Ukraine on February 13th (although one game has already been played, which George Han won by 5.5 points, putting us 1-0 up).

Go News in English

This is streamed on Twitch, courtesy of Manja Marz of the Jena International Go School (Germany). Each week there is a 30 minutes programme, including Go News from around the world (who won which tournament, what is currently happening in the Go world) and various interviews with Go players, but also about Go politics and looking sometimes behind the scenes. There are also Tsumego competitions and so on in which everybody can participate and win prizes.

ADMIN

BGJ 194 is now available

The Winter 2020-21 edition of the British Go Journal is now available in the Members' Area. Printed copies have been sent out. Contributions for the next edition should be with the editor by 31st March.

Correction

We apologise for an error in last month's Newsletter. In Toby Manning's update "Purchase of London MindSports Centre" the second paragraph should read: "The purchase was made by a company set up for the specific purpose of purchasing and owning the building: MindSports Property Limited (MPL). Toby is a Director of this company. The T Mark Hall Foundation is investing £300,000 in MPL. The London Go Centre is investing £100,000 in MPL after having received a donation of £100,000 from TMHF. The remaining investment is from Bridge players associated with the Young Chelsea Bridge Club (YCBC). We are in discussions with the Chess community to see if they also wish to invest."

EVENTS COMING SOON

Restrictions due to the risk of infection with Covid-19 continue. Anyone thinking of planning a face-to-face event should think carefully about whether social distancing and related regulations in their part of the UK can be fully met.

Government guidelines may be found at:
* England
* Scotland
* Wales
* Northern Ireland

Face-to-face events are provisional. Tournament organisers will be responsible for safety and legal compliance. Various Online events are being planned. For further details see https://www.britgo.org/tournaments

February/March, BGA Online Congress
May, Bar Low, Not the London Open
June, Pair Go (provisional), Cheltenham (provisional), Welsh Open
July, UK Go Challenge Finals (Online)
August, Youth Training Residential
September, European Women's Go Championship
November, Doki Doki
December, London Open