After some time in the role Pat Ridley has decided it is time for him to step down as the BGA Pair Go coordinator. I am happy to say that Barry Chandler has stepped up to do the job, and a handover between the two is currently in place.

Barry will mainly report to Ai Guan in her overall role as Tournament Coordinator. I'm sure we all wish him well in his future efforts to manage and advertise Pair Go in the UK.

My thanks go to Pat for all his past efforts.

The fifth match of the B-League season, on 4th February, was a win against Lithuania. All four players won by resignation. This moved the team up to fifth place. Round 6 will be on 25th February against Belgium.

League Page with game records

Michael Cheung wrote about his game: I got a lucky win against Vladas Zaleskas; it was a game determined by my opponent's blunder.

The first tournament of 2025, on Saturday 25th January, was the Coventry Tournament. Warwick Go Society hosted the annual event in the Faculty of Arts Building at Warwick University, which provided a modern and eye-catching venue for the 44 entrants. This year the event ended with joint winners: Yifan Bao (5d) and Chenhe Yuan (5d), who both won all three wins. They are shown here with organiser Xiheng Yao (left).

I am pleased to announce that Peter Fisher has agreed to take over from Chris Kirkham as our new Membership Secretary. There will be a hand-over period for the next month or so, after which Peter will be in full control. For queries please continue to use the standard e-mail address of mem at britgo dot org

Many thanks to Chris for the many years of service he has given in the role.

At an EGM yesterday the EGF formally ratified Turkey as the hosts for the 2026 EGC.

The event will be 25th July to 8th August, at Ankara Hacettepe University, Tunçalp Özgen Congress and Cultural Center.

Ankara is home to Türkiye’s first Go club (1988) and the founding location of the Türkiye Go Association (1995), which still operates its headquarters in the city. The university offers an official, academic-credit Go course for students.

As usual full details will appear in due course on the EGF calendar.

In case people are interested I have just been told of a new thriller-genre novel that uses the game of Go as a high level structuring mechanism. The name of the book is "The Aji of Dead Stones" and it can be found on amazon.co.uk. The writer is apparently a lapsed Go player using a pseudonym.

The fourth match of the B-League season, on 7th January, was a draw against Italy who are at the top of the table. A good job by our winners Damen and Jake! That kept the team in seventh, in the bottom half of the table but in the safe zone. Round 5 will be on 4th February against Lithuania.

League Page with game records

Damen Woo wrote about his game against Alessandro Pace: It started with a good opening, I got a decent lead and kept it until the end.

All the games in the UK team's third match ended in resignation. Unfortunately it was three-one in Croatia's favour, with Bruno's long game ending with him being the only UK winner. This loss moved the team down from third to seventh in the B-League. Italy won again (against Finland) to stay at the top, with Netherlands beating Lithuania to take second place.

League Page with game records

The Autumn 2024 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read in the Members' Area, with printed copies being sent out to those that receive them.

Congratulations to Ryan Zhang (3d) who was Under-12 champion and became British Youth Go Champion for the first time. However he was not the best of the 37 players as Chenhe Yuan (5d), just arrived in the UK, won all six games to take the Open title.