On 23rd of May 2024 at 20:00 the British Go Association will be holding both an EGM and its annual AGM. As in recent years the meeting will be by ZOOM video call, for which a link will be provided nearer the date.

The EGM will be held first in order to consider some small changes to the Company Articles concerning the election of Directors. The AGM will follow immediately after, and will include amongst other things the election of Officers and Directors, and members of the Disputes Panel.

The first event of 2024 was Lancaster on 3rd February won by Peikai Xue (4d UCL) with 45 players. Report Results

The Ulster Open in Lisburn on 17th Feb was won by the only visitor from the UK mainland amongst the 14 players, Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans). Results

Cambridge’s annual Trigantius tournament was again held at the excellent St Philip’s Church venue. This time it was a week later than usual, on 16th March. Regrettably this was now out of term for local students, making attendance of 61 lower than 2023’s 79 players.

The fifth match of the C-League season was a five o'clock kick off against Kyrgyzstan. Scott, Jon and Tim won, but Bruno lost, meaning the team again won 3-1. As South Africa only drew with Slovenia, the team moved three points clear at the top of C-League with two matches to go.

League Page with game records

The second Lancaster Go Tournament was held on Saturday 3rd February, once again in Lancaster University’s maze-like Management School building. Despite the great travel difficulties caused by train strikes, the tournament still managed to host 45 players, only just shy of 49 the previous year. It was wonderful to see ranks from 4d to 37k represented and to welcome so many young faces, many coming from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS).

2024 sees the return of the Coventry tournament at the University of Warwick. There is a new enthusiastic head of the Go club there who is putting on his first event this year.

The date is Saturday 9th March, location details are on the events calendar, as is the entry form

Entries are a bit thin at the moment, so please do consider coming to support the rejuvenation of this event. Enter early, especially as the event is limited to 30 players this year due to room sizes.

The fourth match of the season was against Spain. Bruno, Scott and Des won, but Toby lost, meaning the team again won 3-1. This cemented their lead at the top of C-League.

League Page with game records

Bruno Poltronieri wrote: I won my game by 17.5 against Ignacio Cernuda. I was slightly ahead after the opening after the result on the bottom side, but started a questionable fight on the left. My opponent played some equally questionable moves and we came out of it roughly even. I then gained my lead gradually in the endgame.

This years congress will be at the Holiday Inn, Warwick, from the evening of Friday 5th to Sunday 7th April. Details are available on the events calendar https://www.britgo.org/tournaments. You can enter for any or all of the days as you wish.

The Winter 2023-24 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 shortly.

The qualification rules for the Candidates event require a player to have attained the necessary grade in a tournament ending during the 12 months prior to 31st March. In a desire to open up the event to as many people as possible, whilst not reducing the general standard, the Board have agreed that in 2024 the British Go Congress (which ends on 7th April) will also count as a tournament from which people can qualify for the 2024 Candidates.