BGA Newsletter 337 April 2026

FROM THE EDITOR

This issue, and previous newsletters, will be found in the Newsletter Archive in the Members' Area. In Newsletters after August 2025 the images have clickable links for viewing them full size. Full-size images from earlier Newsletters may be found via the BGA All News pages.

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

Pandanet - Switzerland

In the sixth match of the 2025–2026 B-League season the UK team played Switzerland winning 4-0. Congratulations to Michael Cheung, Bruno Poltronieri, Jake Game and Ryan Zhang. This made the team third after leaders Croatia had their first five match wins voided after a player used AI.

Further information here.

Youth Team

The youth team played Germany in the third round of the Pandanet Youth Teams, but lost 0-5. They also lost to Croatia in round four by the same margin.

Further information here.

BGA Tournament Winners

Full results here.
Trigantius - Yuanzhen Li
MSO GP Go 13x13 - Lucas Neirynck

AlphaGo: 10-Year Anniversary

Ten years ago, the AlphaGo AI system became the first program to defeat a world champion in the game of Go. The significance of this event lies in the famous "Move 37" in the second game of the match. This was the first time that an artificial intelligence system showed its ability to go beyond human knowledge and reasoning, and create new knowledge.

DeepMind's Thore Graepel explains the significance of this event in the BBC "Inside Science" series, episode: "Is the Earth warming faster that we expected?". See also the article by Demis Hassabis on the deepmind.google website. And Daniel Hu's paper "Alphazero on Go" on the LGC website showing the influence on Go strategy.

ADMIN

Annual General Meeting Reminder

The 2026 AGM of the BGA will be held online via ZOOM on the evening of Thursday May 28th.

This year Sebastian Pountney is standing down as Secretary, and Sam Bithell is also standing down as a Director, so as always we welcome applications to join the Board.

Key dates for the AGM are:
* Nominations for Officers and Directors must be received by April 16th
* Any motions (resolutions) that members want to submit must be received by April 16th
* The agenda will be issued by April 30th
* Any amendments to ordinary resolutions must be received by May 24th
* Proxy votes must be registered by May 27th

Full details of the above are in the company articles, which are linked from this page.

British Go Congress, Friday 10th–Sunday 12th April - Reminder

Entries are still open for the 2026 British Go Congress, to be held at Stephen Perse Foundation (Senior School), Union Rd, Cambridge CB2 1HF.

As usual this event will begin with the British Lightning Championship on Friday evening, followed by the British Open Championship on Saturday to Sunday (6-round McMahon, Class A rated with Fischer time 45 minutes + 15 seconds).

EVENTS COMING SOON

This Month: British Go Congress (Cambridge), Online Lesson 4
May Candidates (British Championship) and Aspirants, Sheffield University, Not the London Open, Online Lesson 5, Ulster, Welsh Open (Barmouth)
June Durham, Cambridge Youth, Online Lesson 6
July European Go Congress (Turkey)
August Mind Sports Olympiad (London)
September European Women (London)