BGA Newsletter 329 August 2025

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, are available in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area. This is the most reliable way to view the Newsletters, as some email clients can corrupt the formatting of the pictures.

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

British Go Congress, 12th - 13th April 2025

The full report has recently been posted on the BGA page, with the usual links to the match details and photo gallery.
The AGM, held during Congress, was reported in the June 2025 Newsletter.

BGA Tournament Winners

None since the Welsh Open, reported in the July issue.

European Go Congress

The Congress website is here, and pictures of the event by photographer Harry van der Krogt can be found here.

President Colin Williams writes:
A very successful European Congress in Warsaw has just finished, where the traditionally popular weekend event attracted 562 players. There was a healthy British contingent who generally did well, and certainly those I spoke to were enjoying themselves.

In the Nations & Teams Cup we were possibly the only country to field two full teams, each team needing five players including one female and one junior (not the same person). Our A Team in the Nations Cup knock-out went out to Korea, who were fielding a team of four 7 dans and one professional! Our B Team won 3 out of 4 in the Open Teams Cup, in the end coming equal third with our A team. As a member of the B Team I need to point out that in the official results table we came ahead of the A team on alphabetical order (‘UK Plan B’ coming before ‘United Kingdom’). The only opponent we had in common was France, whom we both beat.

More importantly we registered our interest in hosting the 2028 EGC, which was met with general enthusiasm from other countries. At present no other countries have indicated an interest. You will be hearing much more about this in due course.

From Toby Manning:
Congratulations to our Junior player Alvina Kwok, 3d, who came equal third out of 49 in the Women’s Tournament at the European Go Congress.

And from Ai Guan (sent during the event):
The 2025 European Go Congress is in progress in Poland. This year the venue is a fine 4-star hotel on the outskirts of Warsaw, with a spa and Brit-friendly temperatures! Around 600 players have made it, increasing as the weekend approaches. We are expecting 30 players from the UK.

A special shoutout to three volunteers from the UK: Paul Smith, Matthew Partridge and Jin Zhao, for their tireless efforts in keeping everything running smoothly.

And from the Editor, more notable Brits:
In the European Championship, 32 players compete in a double knockout to become the European Champion. The UK's Ho-Yeung (Damen) Woo was knocked out in the 2nd round by Andrii Kravets, who went on to gain 2nd place in the final.

Ho-Yeung also came 3rd out of 390 participants in the Rapid Tournament, and Chi-Min Oh came 7th out of 562 participants in the "China Town" Weiqi Cup.

European Student Go Championship 2025

Andrew Ambrose-Thurman writes:
Students from across Europe will be heading to the historic city of Durham in the North East of England this October for a fun weekend of Go - including a 5 round tournament details here and the chance to qualify for the World Students Go OZA Championship in Tokyo, plus a host of tours and other social events.

The championship is open to all full time university or college students, aged between 16 and 29 on August 1st, who are nationals of an EGF member country. Up to three players in the championship can qualify for the World Students GO OZA Championship in Tokyo!

ADMIN

Next BGJ

The copydate for BGJ 213 is 1st October.
We look forward to Belinda Chen's interview with three-times European Go Champion Fan Hui.

New BGJ Editor

We are pleased to announce that Quintin Connell has volunteered to become the Editor of the BGJ. The plan is for him to share the next edition (213, Autumn) with the present editor Pat Ridley, and to take over fully from issue 214.

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: Manchester New Event, Youth Go Camp (Caythorpe, Lincolnshire), Mind Sports Olympiad (London), Newcastle
September: Nottingham, Confucius Cup (Dublin), Swindon
October: Sheffield, European Students' (Durham), Wessex (Bath)
November: Bar Low (London), Three Peaks (Yorkshire), British Youth (TBA), Northern (Manchester)
December: Edinburgh Christmas, T Mark Hall Rapid (London), London Open