The Winter 2016 - 2017 edition of the BGJ is now available for members to read.

The 7th round of the B-League on 7th February saw the UK playing top-of-table team Poland. Andrew Simons played his game a week early to fit in with the schedule of his opponent, the European pro Mateusz Surma. On the night the rest of the team did well, with wins for Daniel Hu and Toby Jon Diamond, meaning the UK was the first team to take a point off the leaders with a draw. Both Italy and Austria won, total 12 points each (one behind Poland), and the UK were in fourth place with 10 points.

Andrew Simons wrote: Last week I unsurprisingly lost against Mateusz Surma, the new European pro. The opening was reasonable enough, with a big wall and counter-counter-pincer joseki, and to avoid him sacrificing on a small scale I made some attachment, which he resisted, resulting in a trade that I'd seen in pro games before. I got what I thought was a vital point turn in the centre and then pushed out, rather than connecting on dame.

Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) was the winner at this year's Cheshire Tournament, held as usual at the Community Centre in Frodsham alongside the weekend Chess tournament. This time there was a record entry of 45 Go players, helped by a large contingent from Cheadle Hulme School and the revival of Liverpool Go Club. Also players travelled from as far as London, Swindon and Cambridge for the event.

As well as Alistair, the players winning all three games were Helen Harvey (4k Manchester), Joseff Thomas (6k Central London) and, all from Cheadle Hulme School, Lily Danson and Jack Nolan (both 14k), Lizzy Pollitt (24k) and Megan Upton (27k).

Martin Harvey, as CHS school trainer, kept the youngsters amused with some teaching and also ran a 13x13 event with 16 entrants. This was won by Liverpool's Nathan Boswell (12k) with 5/5, with Andrew Russell (3k Birmingham) and Peter Allen (4k Liverpool) winning the second prizes for 3/5.

Results

Jon Diamond writes: "I received a Facebook message on Sunday from Tony's sister saying that Tony had been found dead in his flat in Sheffield the previous day (28th January)."

"Tony was a long time Go player, who learnt in Cambridge more than 50 years ago. I last saw him last year at the British Open in Sheffield, where he’d been living for a number of years, but sadly he wasn’t playing. He had also only been to the Sheffield Club a few times recently."

"I have no other information about his death or funeral arrangements."

You can read about his career as one of our top players.

On Saturday 28th January 2017, the UK youth team completed their EYGTC season, with a close win against France by 3 boards to 2. This concluded the European Youth Go Team Championship 2016/17. Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

  Post-match comments (see below for comments prior to the games): 

Well done to the UK youth go team which won their match against France today 3-2. It was a very evenly matched set of boards on paper, so it was going to be an exciting match.

Our board 3, Josh Gorman had an early resignation, after one of his corners met an untimely end.
On board 5, Alexander Hsieh's game was exciting.

Andrew Simons won the Maidenhead-Hitachi Tournament for a second year running. The long final game, shown in the first picture, against Finland's Jesse Savo (4d) suddenly ended in overtime with an "oops" from his opponent, meaning Jesse took second place ahead of Alistair Wall.

Youngsters Roella Smith (7k Cambridge) and Lueming Yang (26k Oxford), pictured right with his prize basket ball, won all their games and Steve Bailey (7k Arundel) ended with 2.5. Both they and those on two wins went away with prizes, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Hitachi, who also provided the buffet lunch.

The UK team drew with a much stronger Netherlands team which had three 6d on it. With an all 3d UK team this was a very good result, despite ending 2-2.

Charlie Hibbert wrote: Hmm, I lost to Gilles van Eeden. I've been on a bit of a losing streak as of late. As is common when older players play black against me, I get forced into a calm game. I actually felt I was doing pretty evenly (both had lots of territory, he had more but I had potential) until I over-egged a moyo trying to catch up on cash, and my opponent exploited the weakness very well. After that I was scrubbing around trying to find something for a bit, before resigning.

Des Cann wrote: I lost by 22.5 to Peter Brouwer. I was happy with the start of the game, but it was probably balanced. The game got interesting when I felt he played too many moves capturing a corner, whilst I built a strong moyo with one of his groups in the middle of it.

On Saturday 7th January 2017, the UK youth team beat a combined team from Italy, Austria and Switzerland by 4 boards to 1. This was the second of the three rounds in the European Youth Go Team Championship 2016/17. Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

  Post-match comments (see below for comments prior to the games): 

Although on paper it should have been an easy match for us, actually the opposing team contained some rapidly improving juniors, which showed how out of date grades can be amongst keen juniors.

Josh Gorman was first to finish on board 3 with an easy win - soon followed by Edmund Smith on board 5, and our newcomer George Han on board 4 - also with comfortable wins.

Our top two boards had a tougher time.

The 43rd London Open was held at its usual venue of ISH International Students House (ISH) in London. This year we had the kind support of Google DeepMind for the event, as well as the London clubs and BGA.

112 players took part in the Open, with others joining in the side events. There was a very strong top group with visiting and local Chinese players and some Korean players including Korean professional Hajin Lee, now known as Haylee Maas since her marriage.

The 43rd London Open has got underway at its usual venue of ISH in London. This year we have the kind support of Google DeepMind for the event, as well as the London clubs and BGA.

Over a 100 players are taking part, with rounds 1 and 2 being battled on the first day, 28th December. There is a very strong top group with some visiting Chinese players and Korean professional Hajin Lee, now known as Haylee Maas since her marriage.

Some other strong players will be providing analysis, such as our own Andrew Kay and visiting pro Catalin Taranu.