European Youth Go Congress, Kiev

The first part of the UK Youth Go team - kindly sponsored by DeepMind - has arrived in Kiev, Ukraine for the 225-strong annual European Youth Go Congress; the remaining members joining us on Wednesday. Everyone is looking forward to the main event: two games per day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The team has been getting used to mounds of snow (it's still freezing overnight), signs mostly in Cyrillic, plus Ukrainian and Russian words.

On Monday Natasha, a Kiev resident and part-organiser of the tournament, took us on a tour of the wonderful, quaint and deep metro; we climbed the bell tower at St. Sophia's monastery and ate near the Maidan square.

That afternoon we joined 40 Ukrainian children for a Go lecture from Artem, a Ukrainian professional. After that, 7 UK youngsters, 2 Ukrainians and 1 Russian played simultaneous games against Artem and, although he won them all, he gave players some good tips on their play.

On Tuesday morning came another Artem lecture, then UK vs Ukraine games, which we recorded, for analysis and review later by UK coaches Martin and Helen Harvey and by the strongest players, all great practice for Thursday onwards. We'll be outnumbered and outranked by Ukrainian and Russian players, but the event is another great opportunity for all the group of top UK youngsters to improve their Go skills, whilst team-bonding & experiencing new cultures in one of the furthest European countries from home.

The group is pictured, proudly sporting their "UK Youth Go Team" (and DeepMind logo-ed) hoodies, popular with all the squad. UK coaches Helen and Martin Harvey are in the centre on the front row.