BGA Newsletter 310 January 2024

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, are available in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area.

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.

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.

49th London Open

The main event, the London Open, was played over the last four days of the year at the London Go Centre, attracting several players from mainland Europe. Resident pro Catalin Taranu gave lectures and game analysis sessions.

Winner of the 84-player London Open was Yue Wen (7d), shown here flanked by second placed Yicheng Xiao (7d, left) and third placed Mingyuan Sun (7d, right).

Michael Cheung 4D, was first below the bar and also the strongest British player so was awarded the David Ward Cup; second below the bar was Linghan Wang, 4D, 3rd below was Wai Yi Chung 4D.

Prizes were also awarded to the best SDKs Kam Chuen Leung (1k), Steffen Mazanek (1k) and Bjorn Eurenius (2k), and best DDKs Egor Dunaev (11k) who won all seven, Joe Monk (12k) and Mei Wang (12k). Maxim Dunaev (8k) also did well winning all seven and Jonathan Decembry (7k) won six.

The Friday night Pairs tournament was won by Yue Wen playing with his brother Qi Wen. Qi Wen also won the Saturday night Lightning.

See the London Go Centre YouTube Channel for game records and other material.

7th European Grand Prix Finale

The 7th European Grand Prix Finale was held alongside the London Open at the London Go Centre on the weekend of 28th-31st December.

The ten top players were split initially into two groups. The UK's Damen Woo (shown here against Mateusz Surma with game broadcaster Tony Claasen) won his group unbeaten, as did Lukas Podpera in the other. In the final knockout games, Cornel Burzo was the overall winner.

33rd International Amateur Pair Go Championship

Joanne Leung and Bruno Poltronieri represented the UK in the 33rd IAPGC in Tokyo. They won 2 out of 5 games, and were one of the pairs chosen to receive a Best Dressed Prize. Tournament winners were Chen Si and Wang Chen from China. Full results here.

World Amateur Go Championships

Tim Hunt (2d), from Milton Keynes, was our representative at the World Amateur held in Shenzhen, China, in December 2023. He defeated Chile, India and Mexico while losing to Slovenia, Austria, Czechia and Belgium, and finished on 3/7, making him joint 35th out of 46. The event was won by Korea (with 7/7) followed by China (6/7). The picture shows Tim (right) playing Mexico, taken from official photos.

Kathleen Timmins

From Toby Manning: " I regret to inform you that Kathleen Timmins, BGA Membership Secretary from 1998, until 2007, has just died. She was married to the indefatigable Brian Timmins (Membership Secretary 1985 - 1991, and Journal Editor 1998 - 2000), who died in 2015. She was a regular attender at Tournaments, at 13 kyu, until 2017. I remember her fondly from her time as Membership Secretary at a time when the job was very different from today, involving letters and phone calls rather than email."

ADMIN

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: London Youth
February Lancaster, MSO GP (online), Ulster, Oxford
March Cheshire (Frodsham), Cambridge Trigantius, European Youth Go Tournament (Hamburg, Germany)
April British Go Congress (Kennilworth), Rip-Off (Dublin)
May Candidates', Not the London Open
June Durham, Pair Go (Leicester), Welsh Open (Barmouth)
July European Go Congress (Toulouse, France)
August Youth Camp (provisional), Mind Sports Olympiad