British Go E-Journal: May 1998

Issue 22. May 1998

Tournament News

Candidates' Tournament 14/03/98 & 15/03/98

The new format for the British Championship saw a four-round Candidates' held at the Nippon Club in Piccadilly, London. 20 players from 3 dan to 1 kyu entered. In order to get reserves in case of an odd number, a small side event of 4 players was run, which included Francis Roads at 4 dan and stronger than any in the main section. The top 9 were: on 4/4 Martin Smith (1 dan), Jim Clare (3 dan); on 3/4 Phil Achard (1 dan and just recovered from pneumonia), Tony Atkins (2 dan) and Bill Brakes (3 dan), Jay Rastall (2 dan); on 2/4 Simon Goss (2 dan), Geoff Kaniuk (1 kyu), David Keeble (1 dan).

Irish Open 18/03/98 - 21/03/98

22 wise players played in this year's Irish Open in Dublin the weekend after St. Patrick's Day. Yuki Shigeno (professional 2 dan) was in town for the week and attended the go club, the tournament and a reception held at the Japanese ambassador's held in her honour. Yuki analysed many games and taught much to the players in return for being taught about Guinness, liar dice, joker go, pits and Mornington Crescent. In the Friday night fast play after five rounds, despite the plus one handicap, it was Yuki and Christoph Gerlach (5 dan D) who were on four wins. Christoph won the play off to win the top prize. On 3/5 were Tony Atkins, Des Cann, Scott Hopkins, Mathias Kegelmann and Noel Mitchell.

In the Irish Open nobody could beat Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan) who became the first person to win the event twice. Second on 4/5 was Christoph Gerlach and third was young Dutchman Emil Nijhuis (4 dan) on tie break from Des Cann (4 dan), neither of whom could beat the top two. Fifth was Tony Atkins (2 dan), sixth was Michael Marz (1 dan), seventh and eighth were top Irish players Noel Mitchell (2 dan) and Stephen Flinter (1 dan), ninth was Colin Adams (1 dan) and tenth was Scott Hopkins (1 kyu). Prizes went to EGF vice-president Alan Held (3 kyu) for 4/5, to Mathias Kegelmann for the best 2/5 and to those on 3/5: Scott Hopkins, Bernard Palmer (1 kyu), Paul Brennan (7 kyu) and Fergus O'Connell (15 kyu). Colin Adams and Fred Holroyd were rewarded for constantly supporting the event and Ernad Mulaomerovic (16 kyu) for best improvement despite only playing for a couple of weeks.

Monday's Handicap Tournament attracted 10 die-hards. First on 3/3 was the American living in Dublin, Scott Hopkins. Second was Des Cann, third was Colin Adams and fourth equal were pals from Birmingham Michael Marz and Mathias Kegelmann. Scott was awarded the overall weekend prize.

Bournemouth 04/04/98

No player stronger than 2 dan entered this year's Bournemouth at West Parley Village Hall. Alan Thornton (2 dan St. Albans) got his first ever tournament win. The others of the 38 going away with engraved drinking glasses were Alex Bell (4 kyu Portsmouth), Jim Edwards (6 kyu Wycombe) and D. Smeed (14 kyu Hursley) for 3/3, and Peter Fisher for entering first.

International Teams 08/03/98

The London International Team event saw tests for five teams of 6. Reading and Wanstead could only manage an honourable equal fourth on 9 points. The hosts Nippon Club scored 11, but the top tussle was between title holders Cambridge and the Central London Go Club. The very last game to finish determined that Cambridge were to win again by 16 points to 15. Only player on 4/4 was S.J. Kim of Cambridge. Those on 3/4 were Alex Selby, Alan Thornton, Dan Micsa, Shutai Zhang, John Fairbairn, Gerhard Stettner and T. "Ayzen" Takahashi.

TTTTTT 13/04/98

The TTTTTT (Tony's Tideless Thames'n' Tributaries Team Tournament) held again at Burpham on Easter Monday. Ten teams of three took part. Holders Reading went down to Swindon Beehive in round 2, so it was to be a new winner as the other team unbeaten was High Wycombe who had managed a full team for the first time. In the third round they wiped out the Beehive to take the Broken Go Stone Trophy for the first time. Second equal on board difference were Reading and the "SSSSSSSS" (two of the "S" were "Scratch Side"). There were Easter eggs for all, special eggs going to the Wycombe team of Paul Clarke, France Ellul and Jim Edwards; to those on 3/3: Simon Goss, Tony Atkins and Paul Barnard; to Shawn Hearn (32 kyu) for winning the 10x10 and runner up Aaron Dixson (26 kyu), both of Brakenhale.

British Go Congress 17/04/98 - 19/04/98

For the 31st British Go Congress a break was made with tradition, abandoning schools and colleges and venturing into industry. British Aerospace, Chester, provided the venue allowing use of their spacious work's dining hall. The congress was also the first ever held in Wales (about two miles across the border) and also the first not to provide on site accommodation. Battle commenced with the British Lightning run by Tony Atkins and his playing card draw system; exactly 32 players made this work especially well. All vied to get the Ace of Hearts and for the second year the player with this lucky card at the end of five rounds was Des Cann (4 dan Leamington). Others with the cards for four wins were losing finalist Michael Marz (1 dan Birmingham), Michael Zhang (2 dan London), Paul Barnard (1 dan Swindon), T. Mark Hall (4 dan London) and Baron Allday (1 dan West Wales).

74 players took part in the British Open. This year the grade range was remarkably small, from 6 dan to 12 kyu only. Nine of the players this year had an added interest as the top eight women would score points towards trips to the Women's World amateur. The separate qualifying tournament of previous years was replaced by the Ladies Go and Social Weekend held in March in Leamington Spa and featuring training by Guo Juan. Matthew Macfadyen won all six to take the British Open title to go with his British one. Francis Roads won five to hold second place. Three players of the top group ended on four out of six. As the top four places received trophies from KNTO a tie break had to be done. Third went to Chinese 3 dan from Scotland Xiaoning Shi, fourth was Des Cann and fifth was T.Mark Hall. Patrice Vicente (4 kyu) won 4 with one draw to win a prize. Two players won a creditable five namely Ron Bell (9 kyu Reading) and Dave Skidmore (12 kyu Nottingham). The Nippon Club Team Cup went to Leamington Spa who narrowly squeezed out Reading into second. Runaway winner in the continuous 13x13 was Anna Griffiths (8 kyu Maidenhead) with 10/12; Jo Hampton (2 dan West Wales) was rewarded too for scoring 9.5/18 in a vain attempt to catch Anna.

Grand Prix

Winner of the Terry Stacey Grand Prix for the most games won "above the bar" in the year was Francis Roads. Runner up was Matthew Macfadyen. Winner of the WKD title (most losses by a 2 dan) was Tony Atkins.

Challenger's League 02/05/98 - 04/05/98

This year the format of the Challenger's League was a 24 player tournament over six rounds on three days with 2 hour time limits. The worthy 24 were selected by their position last year, their five dan grade, their being our representative at the World Amateur or by their coming in the top half of the Candidates' Tournament. This meant no less than four 5 dans, down to three strong 1 kyus. The final ordering after tie breaking was: Shaw (6/6); Cocke, Goddard (5/6); Matthews, Shepperson, Cann, Roads (4/6); Clare (3.5/6). The best on 3/6 were Hall, Martin Smith (soon to be 2 dan), Wall and Ward.

Bar-Low 03/05/98

32 kyu players fought over five rounds and ended with a four-way tie between Nick Wedd (Oxford), Jonathan Chin (Cambridge), Pengfei He (Cambridge) and Robert Salkeld, all 1 kyu. Robert Beigler (10k Newcastle) also won 4/5.

An innovation was voting for the level at which the bar should be set. The organisers found that they could reasonably set it at either 3-kyu or at 5-kyu, so they asked the 4- and 5-kyus to vote. They voted nem. con. to put themselves above the bar; and justified this by playing well against the 1-kyus.

Bracknell 09/05/98

62 players found their way to the Brownlow Memorial Hall. Winner was Michael Zhang (3 dan CLGC). On 3/3 were Eric Hall (3 kyu Swindon), Bill Streeten (4 kyu Wanstead), Graham Lamont (7 kyu Portsmouth), Nick Gonzalez (15 kyu Reading) and James Taylor (20 kyu Epsom Downs). Winner of the 13x13 based on a points system was David Grimster (16 kyu Bracknell).

Promotions

Simon Shiu and Antonio Moreno are now both 4 dan. Martin Smith is 2 dan. Ian Marsh is 1 dan.

News

Korean Go/Tourism Trip

KNTO are trying to organise a go/tourism holiday in Korea from 30/08/98 to 05/09/98. Visits will be made to historic sites in Seoul and Kyongju, plus visits to go clubs and to the Women's World Amateur Championships. Cost likely to be 400-500 USD plus cheap air fares.

BGA AGM

This was held at the British Go Congress Chester on 18/04/98. Agenda items included reports, elections and so on and discussions on the five-year eligibility rule for the British Championship (to remain), whether BGA subscriptions should be increased for 1999 (going up by a pound) and whether they should be allowed to start any quarter (to be referred to an EGM later).

Go Tuition

[ This service is no longer available. ]

National Trainer Matthew Macfadyen is running private seminar days during and a scheme to teach by email.

Other events: Summer School Course at Marlborough School starting 19/07/98

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