Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, brings us these 2 stories - the first pre-match, and the second post-match - to follow on from her UK Squad announcement. The 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC) is held online over four rounds, on KGS.

Pre-match

The UK Youth team is today (24th November 2018) playing its first international match of the season, with a game against Croatia. The UK is starting in the second half of the 12 national teams, so is playing another of the teams in our half of the draw.

My UK team selection takes account of a number of things, including selecting a team that could win the match, trying to make sure all team players have a chance to play at least one match in the tournament, and trying to make the games not too unbalanced.

Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, writes:

I am pleased to announce this year's UK Youth Team for the European Youth Go Team Championship 2018/19 (EYGTC). This is held online over four rounds on KGS.

The standard in the UK team has increased every year, with this year no exception. I put together a talented UK Team Squad with up to 15 Juniors, and then I select a team of 5 for each match, from three age groups. Each match is played over five boards - one U20, two U16 and two U12.

Traditionally we have done quite well in the U12 age groups, but less so at the top end, where often board 1 is a mid-rank dan player.

Jamie Taylor was the only one of our team to win a game in the third round match against Belgium. He wrote: I won my game against Lucman Bounoider, despite my best efforts. I think we were both a bit tired, as my opponent died big quite early on, then I made a colossal mistake to allow it to live instead. After that I think we both just started playing worse and worse, donating points to each other all over the board. Eventually he resigned, after I got out of several narrow scrapes, none of which I had any business being in in the first place. I can't complain though, a win's a win.

Alex Kent wrote about his board one game against Lucas Neirynck: I lost by resignation. As black I opened with a Kobayashi style fuseki, and instead of playing the "normal" two-space approach my opponent played the 3-3 invasion in the upper-right.

On Sunday 18th November the third and deciding game of the British Championship 2018, between Andrew Simons and Sam Aitken, took place in Cambridge. After a long game involving a big ko fight, Sam Aitken won by 14.5 points to win the match. The game relay is available; an audio commentary was also provided on KGS by Andrew Kay.

Sam had not previously played the title match; Andrew had in 2013, 2015 and 2017, winning it in 2015.

On a pleasant autumnal day, this year - as ever - the splendidly organised Doki Doki Festival was held in Manchester, helped a lot by members of the friendly Japan Society North West (JSNW).

This is an exciting event, with all imaginable Japan-themed activities, stalls & competitions, attracting a huge and youthful attendance. For each such occasion, the organisers invite us back (we're the British Go Association - BGA), to give free Go demos to large numbers of the public. As ever, we quickly accepted.

17 BGA members kept 7+ demo-boards busy, from 10am to 6pm, after setting-up of our stalls from 8am. This number helped cover us at busy times, and enabled us to take refreshment & other breaks.

The entry forms for the BYGC are now on the BGA Calendar - the event is in Aston on Saturday 1st December 2018. Please note the qualifying rules were initially incorrect and a modified form was issued on 15th November.

The Three Peaks Tournament was held, as the previous two years, at the Wheatsheaf in the centre of the picturesque small Yorkshire town of Ingleton. 34 players took part, but six played just the Saturday. The tournament ended in a tie as both Matthew Cocke and Chao Zhang ended with four wins out of five. Chao had beaten Matthew but had lost to Peikai Xue, who was third (just ahead of Alistair Wall). Chun Yin Wong (8k) from Lancaster was the only other prize winner for four wins. Bob Scantlebury won the prize for being the first to enter and a prize this year was given to the youngest competitor, Ryan Zhang, who is only 5.

Results

Our team lost all four games against Serbia. The result was not a surprise, as Serbia has an extremely strong team, quite likely the strongest in this league. They went top, just ahead of Sweden, after this match. Our team had fallen to eighth position after this round, round two. The next match will be on Tuesday 20th November, against Belgium.

Alex Kent wrote: I lost my game against Nikola Mitic by 17.5 points. I made an effort to play a slightly calmer/simpler opening than I normally do, which gave me a playable position early in the middle game. I may have made a few moves which were too meek - in particular my pincer on move 20 probably would have been more effective if it was closer to the action. I think I should have tenukied in a couple of places where I didn't. My opponent launched an effective splitting attack which built up his large potential on the left side - things came to a head soon after when a large ko developed on the lower side.

The Autumn 2018 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.

29 players took part in the 49th Wessex Tournament, held as in the previous ten editions at St. Mark's Community Centre in Bath. Chao Zhang from London was the easy winner and is seen collecting the trophy from organiser Ian Sharpe (right). His young son Ryan also received a special prize for being the youngest and fastest player.

Three other players on three wins also won prizes: Toby Manning (1k Leicester), Eric Hall (6k Swindon) and James Taylor (8k Warwick University).

Results