BGA Newsletter 308 November 2023

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, are available in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area.

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.

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.

UK Youth Beat Turkey 5-0

Our UK youth Go squad has played the first round of the European Youth Go Team Competition and won 5-0 against Turkey. The team for this round comprised Scott Cobbold, Alvina Kwok, Michael Mitcham-Harding, Ryan Zhang and Yanyi Xiong.

Pair Go

Bruno Poltronieri, 4 dan, and Joanne Leung, 2 dan, will be the UK's representatives at the IAPGC International Amateur Pair Go Championships to be held in Tokyo in December.

World Amateur Go Championships

Tim Hunt will be our representative at the World Amateur Go Championships to be held in China over December 14 - 20. Tim is 2 dan, from Milton Keynes. He was a member of the BGA Council from 2000 until 2008, serving as BGA Secretary in 2002-4. We wish him every success.

Alvina Kwok New British Youth Champion

Congratulations to Alvina Kwok, 2 dan, who is our new Under-16 and British Youth Go Champion. Shown left, she is the first girl to win the event since Maria Tabor in 2008. Alvina, who is originally from Hong Kong, defeated Scott Cobbold, 4 dan, and Ryan Zhang, 2 dan, on her way to the trophy.

Other prizewinners were: Under-18: Scott Cobbold, Under-14: Daniel Yang, Under-12: Ryan Zhang, Under-10: Aidan Fung and Under-8: Sophia Gan.

The British Youth Go Championship was held at Leicester Bridge Club, and run by Toby Manning and Tony Atkins.

Cheating

The EGF reports that the Bulgarian team captain and President of the Bulgarian Go Association, Tsvetomir Varbanov, was caught cheating by using AI during the Pandanet Go European Team Championship (PGETC), which is played online. As a result, they have disqualified Bulgaria from the PGETC for the seasons 2023-24 and 2024-25, and Tsvetomir Varbanov personally is disqualified from all Competitions and Events, and suspended for a period of five years. During this period he shall not attend any competitions or events, including the EGF AGM.

ADMIN

British Go Journal 205

The Autumn 2023 issue of the British Go Journal is now available as a pdf in the Members' Area on the BGA website. You will need to log-in as a Member here. Then go to the Members' Area and click on the journal picture. The link for sgf files, including the problems, for this edition is here.

CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
LETTERS
LEIPZIG GO SONG Francis Roads
ADVICE FOR DOING TSUMEGO – PART TWELVE Richard Hunter
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Toby Manning
UK NEWS Tony Atkins
EGF AGM REPORT Colin Williams
YOUTH NEWS Tony Atkins
BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP 2023: GAME 1 Artem Kachanovskyi
CLUB ZERO: ANATOMY OF FILMING Toby Manning and Tony Atkins
18th KPMC 2023 Alex Rix
WORLD NEWS Tony Atkins
BGA SECTION Toby Manning
TOURNAMENT HISTORIES XVIII: MSO GO OPEN Tony Atkins
EUROPEAN GO CONGRESS AT MARKKLEEBERG Francis Roads
SOLUTIONS TO THE JOURNAL PROBLEMS
ASSOCIATION CONTACT INFORMATION

Printed copies should start to arrive, with members receiving them in the next few days.

The copydate for the next edition is 1st January.

BGA Clubs Survey

Andrew Ambrose-Thurman writes: "If you run a Go Club and haven't had a chance to reply to our annual Club Survey yet (it was emailed to the club organisers mailing list a month or so ago), please do send us your thoughts - we discuss all the points you raise, and it helps us to take the BGA in the direction you want it to go. Thank you to everyone who has filled it in so far - and if you're a club organiser and haven't received the survey, please let me know!" andrew@ambrose.thurman.org.uk

Go-players at Universities and Colleges

A message from Sue Paterson, one of the Trustees: The Youth Go Trust is looking to encourage Go Clubs at universities and colleges. (This is the environment where many current Go-players had their first introduction to Go). An idea is to make contact with existing Board Game Societies with the offer of free equipment and possibly a friendly person to help explain the rules. It is likely that this would work better if there was a contact with someone on the inside. So if you are a student or someone with connections to academia, either way the Youth Go Trust would love to hear from you. If you are can help please contact Sue Paterson on suepat812@btinternet.com. If you would like to know more about the Youth Go Trust there is information, including the history of the YGT , at https://youthgotrust.org.uk/

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: British Small Board (Cambridge), Northern (Cheadle Hulme)
December: T Mark Hall Rapid Play (London), London Open
February 2024 Lancaster
March Cheshire (Frodsham), Cambridge Trigantius
April British Go Congress (provisional)