British Open Held In Lancaster

The British Go Congress was held the weekend before Easter in the Welcome Centre on the campus of the University of Lancaster and the local club was thanked for their help in the organisation. The Congress was generously sponsored by SmartGo and the prizes included vouchers for SmartGo products.

The Friday evening British Lightning had groups of four players playing all-play-all leagues, the winners going on to the knock-out stage. As planned the final was played next day; it was won by Changhao Huang (5d Liverpool), with Zherui Xu (4d Cambridge) runner-up.

The British Open was played over six rounds with 48 players, ranging from 5 dan to 37 kyu. There was fierce competition for the title, which was won with five out of six by Leshan Feng (5d Liverpool). He was followed by three players on four wins: Zherui Xu was placed second on tie-break from Tianyi Chen (5d Liverpool). Narrowly missing out was Changhao Huang in fourth.

Prizes for five wins lower down were awarded to Giles Englebert (6k Oxford), Marco Praderio (9k Lancaster) and James Zhao (27k Cheadle Hulme School). Alexandros Theodosioia (37k Cheadle Hulme School) only played one day but won all three and Scott Cobbold (1d Wanstead) won the prize for Best Junior. Prizes were also awarded for the best-placed players in three ranges: 1-10 kyu - Gokul Subramanian (1k Cambridge); 11-20 kyu - Gerry Gavigan (11k LGC); 21+ kyu - Yasmin Giles (25k Lancaster). James Zhao also received a prize for winning the most games in the informal 13x13 competition.

Results