BGA Newsletter 338 May 2026

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, will be found in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area. In Newsletters after August 2025 the images have clickable links for viewing them full size. Full-size images from earlier Newsletters may be found via the BGA All News pages.

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.

NEWS

Pandanet Go European Team Championship

In the eighth match of the PGETC 2025–2026 season the UK team played Ireland and won 4-0. The last match was also a win, 3-1 over Finland - congratulations go to the team who ended a clear second in League B behind the Netherlands who will be promoted. The UK will play off against the bottom-but-one team in League A for promotion.

Youth Team

The youth team played Czechia in the fifth and last round of the Pandanet Youth Teams, losing 2-3.
We ended up bottom of League A, with no wins, and have been duly relegated to League B.

British Go Congress

The British Go Congress returned to Cambridge this year. 66 players competed in the British Open, with a further 7 joining for the Lightning only, making this one of the largest Congresses in recent years.

Yuanzhen Li (6d) won the British Open and Michael Cheung (5d) the Lightning. The Terry Stacey Trophy, awarded for the most above-bar wins over the past year, went to Changhao Huang (5d). There were a great many other prizes; all the winners are pictured here. Full report.

Becky Li and Zeyu Qiu to play Title Match

In Candidates' at University of Warwick, congratulations go to Zeyu Qiu (6d, LGC) who swept 1st place with 6/6 wins. Becky Li (1d, UCL) took 2nd after a remarkable run through a very strong field, finishing on 5/6 with her only loss being to Zeyu. The two will proceed to a best-of-three Title Match to determine the 2026 British Go Champion. Full report of Candidates' and Aspirants.

Major European Tournaments

Following the London Open in December, the European Grand Prix circuit has continued with two further Class B events: the Paris International and the Old Hunter’s Cup in Prague. These are two of the largest European events, with 177 and 158 players respectively this year.

Seven UK players headed to Paris, with outstanding performances by Bao Yifan 6D coming 2nd place, and Xi Wu 6D coming 4th. In Prague, five UK players competed, making the UK the country with the most players in the top 15: Xi Wu 6D in 2nd place, Damen Woo 6D in 4th, Yuanzhen Li 6D in 5th, Yifan Bao 6D in 7th, and Michael Cheung 5D in 14th.

Full standings and full event details can be found on the official tournament websites for Paris and Prague.

BGA Tournament Winners

Full results here.
British Lightning - Michael Cheung
British Open - Yuanzhen Li
Candidates' - Zeyu Qiu
Aspirants - Daniel Guest

European Go Yearbook 2025

The European Go Journal team have produced a book showcasing European Go in 2025. They selected the best articles from last year’s EGJ and added bonus content not published elsewhere. The Digital Edition costs €15 while the Printed Edition is €55 (including Worldwide Delivery).

ADMIN

Annual General Meeting Reminder

The 2026 AGM of the BGA will be held online via ZOOM on the evening of Thursday May 28th. here is the Agenda, and associated papers.

BGA President and upcoming EGM

The Board is saddened to inform the membership that Colin Williams has resigned as President. He held the role from 2024, and before that spent 4 years as BGA Secretary. During his time as President, Colin oversaw important developments including the modernisation of internal processes, progress on branding refresh, expanded social media engagement, and increased national and international visibility, including preparations for a UK bid for the European Go Congress. Colin's tireless work is greatly appreciated.

Colin writes: "In mid-March I had chest pains, which were diagnosed in A&E as a heart attack. There followed a several week stay in hospital. This event added to a previous heart bypass in 2018 and although I have made a strong recovery it has caused considerable worry for my family which I don’t want to repeat. Hence I have decided to make several changes to my lifestyle and commitments.

As a result I notified the Board of my decision to resign as BGA President with immediate effect. I appreciate the timing is awful with the AGM looming, for which I apologise, but in reality I have little choice.

I have been an Officer of the BGA for six years now, which has always been a privilege, and has usually been a pleasure. I will of course continue to play Go, and look forward to attending tournaments again after a short break. I look forward to meeting you in person at one of them in the future."

Toby Manning, who was Colin's predecessor as President, has been appointed by the Board to replace Colin, and will serve at least until we hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on Wednesday 17 June at 19:00 by Zoom for members to determine who should be President going forward. Details are given below. Members who wish to stand for President need to put themselves forward by 20 May.

The Board wishes Toby the greatest success in this transitional role and thanks him for his support.

Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) – process and motions

When Colin resigned as President it was too late for anyone other than Toby to stand for President at the AGM; the deadline for nominations other than the incumbent at the time had already passed. However, the Board wishes to give the members the opportunity to have a new President without waiting for a year. Accordingly we will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on 17 June at which the position of President can be contested.
If there are any nominations for President, other than Toby Manning, the membership will vote on who shall be the BGA President. There will be two motions as follows (where '[X]' is the name of the person nominated by two members):

1) We note that the timing of the resignation of Colin Williams as President means that the Membership did not have the opportunity to approve the election of the President at the recent AGM. We believe that it is in the best interests of the BGA to have new energy in the role, and that [X] is best placed to move the BGA forward. We therefore instruct the Board to take the following actions:
* To co-opt [X] onto the Board
* To require Toby Manning to resign as President
* To appoint [X] as President

2) In the event Motion 1 is passed, to co-opt Toby Manning, if he and the incoming board are willing, back onto the Board as an ordinary member.

The Board will follow these instructions if the relevant motion(s) are passed (Article 9). Toby has personally committed to resign in the event that Motion 1 is passed.
If the motion fails to pass then Toby will continue as President for the year.

This procedure therefore provides a pseudo-election for President.

The Board requires 2 members to propose/second the motion, and for [X] to indicate their willingness to stand by 4 weeks before the meeting, i.e. by 20 May (Article 31). Applications should be sent to secretary@britgo.org. [and members will be informed via the Newsletter Distribution - Ed.] In the event that this does not happen then the EGM will be cancelled and Toby Manning will continue as President until the 2027 AGM.

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: Sheffield University, Not the London Open, Online Lesson 5, Ulster, Welsh Open (Barmouth), BGA AGM (online)
June BGA EGM (online), Durham, Cambridge Youth, Online Lesson 6
July European Go Congress (Turkey)
August Mind Sports Olympiad (London)
September European Women (London), Cambridge Youth, Nottingham, Swindon, Confucius Cup
October European Women's Championship (London), Sheffield, Wessex, Three Peaks