British Championship 2010

2010 Champion: Matthew Macfadyen

Title Match 19/09/10 - 16/01/11

Vanessa Wong, studying in Shrewsbury, won her playoff game against Richard Hunter in the Challengers' and so qualified to play for the 2010 Title Match against current champion Matthew Macfadyen, who also qualified in the Challengers' with a flawless 7/7 win. The games were again commented by Li Yue 6d online KGS teacher based in Barcelona.

The schedule for the first three games was quite crisp as Vanessa has an intensive schooling regime:

1. Sunday September 19
   hosted by Concord School in Shrewsbury
   Won by Vanessa Wong by resignation.
   Game One Comments commentary by Yue Li.
   Game One Relay raw record including a few moderated comments.

2. Sunday October 10
   hosted by Matthew and Kirsty in Barford.
   Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
   Game Two Comments commentary by Yue Li.
   GameTwo Relay raw record including moderated comments.

3. Sunday October 24
   hosted by Concord School in Shrewsbury. Unfortunately Yue Li had problems (along with many others) connecting to KGS so there were just a few comments from her. User BGAadmin allowed all comments as long as people were sensible, which for the most part they were!
   Won by Matthew Macfadyen by resignation.
   Game Three Complete Comments full commentary completed by Yue Li after the match.
   Game Three Comments some commentary by Yue Li, but mainly others.
   Game Three Relay raw record including un-moderated comments.

4. Sunday January 16 2011
   hosted by Matthew and Kirsty in Barford.
   Won by Matthew Macfadyen by 20.5 points .
   The play after lunch became very fast and the recorders could not keep up. Matthew has provided a record to reconstruct the final position, but some of the final ko moves may not be in the exact order.
   Game Four Comments commentary by Yue Li.
   Game Four Relay Matthew's correction of the record - uncommented.
   

Challengers' League, London 28/05/10-31/05/10

Both Matthew Macfadyen and Vanessa Wong earned their places at the Challengers’ League held over a long weekend at the Nippon Club in central London. Matthew convincingly won all 7 of his games, beating Vanessa in the last round. However Vanessa had earlier lost to Nick Krempel in round 3, so, when Richard Hunter only lost to Matthew and Vanessa, there had to be a play-off between Vanessa and Richard, which Vanessa won.

Nick Krempel, Tim Hunt and Andrew Simons ended with three wins, Matthew Scott with 2 and Kiyohiko Tanaka, who was also acting as host, ended on 0. Thanks go to him for hosting and to Nick Wedd for acting as referee.

The Title Match will be scheduled on various weekends over the coming months, often alongside a tournament.

Candidates' Tournament, Cambridge 01/05/10-03/05/10

Held at Selwyn College, Cambridge, 34 players took part in the first stage of the 2010 British Championship. The venue was the Diamond at Selwyn College and 26 of the players joined in a meal at the Bella Italia restaurant.

Vanessa Wong (5 dan) won the tournament at her first attempt, winning all 6 of her games. This was Vanessa’s first UK adult title, having previously won the Under-12 Championship. Andrew Simons (2 dan Cambridge) and Matthew Scott (1 dan Newcastle) both won five games proving the next generation is starting to snap at Matthew Macfadyen’s heels. Matthew, as champion, did not have to play, but was on hand for intensive analysis of games. Richard Hunter (4 dan Bath), Tim Hunt (3 dan Milton Keynes) and Nick Krempel (3 dan London) took the next three places in the Challenger’s League. The final place went to Kiyohiko Tanaka (3 dan London) who just squeezed out Alex Selby (4 dan Cambridge) on second tie-break.

The list of players qualified for the 2010 British Go Championship was based on their performance in tournaments played during 2009 and until end of March 2010. The qualifying achievement for the Candidates' Tournament 2010 was to have an EGF rating of 1900 or higher immediately after the end of at least one tournament in 2009 or early 2010 in which the candidate played in all rounds.