Chinese Boys Dominate London Open

The 49th London Open was dominated by two Chinese boys who between themselves won all three tournaments. Some may remember Yue Wen from when he lived in London about five years ago and was 7k. He is shown here playing Charlie Akerblom on the top board. His brother Qi Wen was too young to compete then. Both youngsters opted to spend lockdown studying Go, together with taking lessons in both Japan and China, and nowadays at 7d are among the Chinese children attempting to pass the pro test. Both surely the youngest ever event winners at the London Open.

As usual the event was played over the last four days of the year at the London Go Centre, attracting several players from mainland Europe, including Catalin Taranu (shown below) who was the resident pro giving lectures and game analysis sessions.

In all there were 84 players in the Open, plus there were ten more strong European players playing in the 7th European Grand Prix Finale, some of whom joined in the side events.

Yue Wen (7d LGC) won the Open with six wins, on tie-break from Yicheng Xiao (7d UCL), having only lost to third place Mingyuan Sun (6d Nottingham) who topped the group on five wins.

Players in the top room during round 6:

Best below the 5d bar were Tik Wai Cheung (4d Nottingham), Linghan Wang (3d) and Wai Yi Chung (4d). Tik Wai also won the David Ward Cup for best British player.

Tournament Director Richard Wheeldon against George Wang:

Prizes were also awarded to the best SDKs Kam Chuen Leung (1k LGC), Steffen Mazanek (1k Dresden) and Bjorn Eurenius (2k Lancaster), and best DDKs Egor Dunaev (11k Oxford) who won all seven, Joe Monk (12k Epsom) and Mei Wang (12k Trier). Maxim Dunaev (8k Oxford) also did well winning all seven and Jonathan Decembry (7k Luxembourg) won six. Results

SDKs (Single Digit Kyus) during round 6:

The Friday night Pairs tournament was naturally won by the brothers Yue Wen and Qi Wen playing together. The second place prize was split between runners-up Yaoling Yang and Yicheng Xiao, and Mark Baoliang Zhang and Mei Wang who won three games out of three lower down the ranking.

On the Saturday night double-elimination Lightning was won by Qi Wen and second was Yicheng Xiao.