BGA Newsletter 271 October 2020

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.

Second Youth Squad Training Tournament

We held our second online British youth training tournament on 6th September, reports Alison Bexfield. Any British youth player who has reached at least 20 kyu in strength is invited to these events, where we run a three round tournament online with even games to test the players in tournament conditions and see who has been improving. We expect players wanting to be selected for the British Youth Team to try to participate in these events.

This time we were missing some of our top players who were in transit back to schools, but still had an excellent turnout of 32 players (including our ghost) and we had a closely fought top group with six players all around 3 kyu in strength. This group included a couple of players who have risen rapidly in strength over the past six months. One of these rising stars, Sam Barnett (U16, Cheadle Hulme), was undefeated to take first place. Other players who finished on three wins included Megan Upton (U16, 15kyu, Cheadle Hulme) and Lytton Yao (U12, 18 kyu, Edinburgh).

UK Go Challenge Finals

The online youth event for October, held on the afternoon of the 4th, was the delayed finals of the 2019-2020 UK Go Challenge. 33 young players battled over six rounds on 13x13 boards. This time the winner was Ryan Zhang from London. Second was Cyrus Shek from Ayrshire and third was Gene Wong from Fernhill Primary School. They won Boys Under-8, Under-12 and Under-10 respectively. Other age group winners were Scott Cobbold, Robbie James and David Baldwin for the boys and Liann Wong, Annie Walters, Lea Wong, Julia Volovich and Hilary Bexfield for the girls.

Strong Players Teaching Games

The BGA is sponsoring a series of teaching games; recorded and available on the London Go Centre YouTube channel. Strong UK players play a game against Antti Törmänen (1 dan professional) and the game is then discussed. The first such game was with Daniel Hu 5d, and the second was against Alex Rix 2d.

Although the commentary is designed for dan-players, we are sure that kyu-players can get something out of the commentary. Players of any strength can look at over 50 other videos indexed by topic in the playlists. Daniel Hu's latest contribution is Unplayed AI Joseki Part 1.

ADMIN

Oxford Go Club On-line open to all

Harry Fearnley writes:
"We meet regularly on the OGS Go server, with Zoom: Tuesdays, 18.30-23.00, and Saturdays, 10.00-13.30. All for free. Interested? Please contact the Club Secretary at harryfearnley@gmail.com phone 01865 248775"

IN ADDITION, Harry offers to other clubs:
"I have a paid-for Zoom account which allows unlimited length meetings. If you would like to use this for your club meeting, I can be the (first) host, and then make you the host for the rest of the meeting. This offer is subject to my availability, and must not clash with either of the Oxford Go Club meetings (Tuesday evening, and Saturday morning)."

BGA Analyst

Paul Barnard, who has been our Analyst since 2014 , is standing down from the role for health reasons. The BGA is therefore looking for a dan player to take over the role. If you think you might be interested, please contact player-development-chair@britgo.org to discuss.

2020 Pandanet Go European Team Championship

The next season of the Pandanet online league is about to start; following our results last year we're still in League B.

We need to formally submit the names of our 12-member squad by October 13. Team members must be British citizens and BGA members. There is approximately one match per month, played over 4 boards. Please let captain Sandy Taylor (alexanderjohntaylor@gmail.com) if you'd like to be in the team this year; in practice you will probably need to be 2 kyu or stronger to get into the squad.

EVENTS COMING SOON

On-Line League

The start of the on-line league has been unavoidably delayed, so there is still time to enter your team, with games to be played between November and June: we currently have 5 teams registered. Please contact Matt Marsh: matt@crazedbytes.net

NOTE: Coronavirus

The latest UK guidance on meetings (published 9th September 2020 and effective from 14th) and HSE advice (was https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/assets/docs/risk-assessment.pdf) is that meetings of up to 6 people, and educational meetings of more than 6, are now possible. The BGA recognises its advice of 28th June is no longer appropriate. With a rapidly changing situation keeping any such advice up-to-date is difficult. Anyone thinking of planning a face-to-face event should think carefully about whether social distancing and related regulations can be fully met.

The face-to-face events listed below have not yet been cancelled, because they may be able to go ahead. Tournament organisers are responsible for safety, and legal compliance.

Various Online events are being planned.

Events not cancelled at time of going to press include:
THIS MONTH
NOVEMBER
BGA Online event
Online Youth
T Mark Hall Rapid Play, London
Bar-Low, London
DECEMBER
British Youth Go Championship (online)
Edinburgh Xmas
London Open

LATER
April, British Go Congress
June, Welsh Open
August, Youth Training Residential