The Summer 2023 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.

On 24-25 June, the switch back to Barmouth's Dragon Theatre proved popular with the 30 attendees, who took advantage of a rare whole-weekend tournament on the BGA calendar. The theatre was the tournament's very first venue in the seaside town, back in 1993. It felt good for the event to be supporting a fine, renovated community amenity, for this 29th edition.

The weather was mixed, but there were chances to climb the cliffs for views of the town, its wide bay and the start of Snowdonia national park's scenic mountainous region.

The Cheshire, which had been postponed from March because of a train strike, took place on Saturday 1st July at Frodsham Community Centre. North-west clubs were well represented: Liverpool club provided five of the 32 players, Manchester eight players, Lancaster four players and Chester four players.

The 2023 Durham Go Tournament was held in Elvet Hill House, next to the Oriental Museum, as has become traditional over the last few years. This year Andrew was able to be there in person to help with the organisation, having not contracted Covid!

As they ended second in the C-League, the UK team had to play a five-board play-off match against B-League’s Finland. The opposition fielded three 5d players and so seemed likely to win, and in fact did so by winning all five boards. So Finland stay in B-League, joined by Ireland who replace demoted South Africa. [See here for League Page with game records.]

Yicheng Xiao (6d UCL) won all his games to win both the Open and the Lightning at the fourth Not the London Open. He won all six games in the 58-player Open, whilst Chun Fang (6d Edinburgh) only lost to the winner to take second and Yiyang Ding (5d) was third by tie-break. To win the Sunday evening lightning he had to beat Scott Cobbold in the final.

The BGA is now running an online club. It runs every two weeks on Saturday at 19:00. The next few dates are 10th June, 24th June, 8th July, 22nd July, 5th August and 19th August. Normal club nights are also interspersed with teaching events and tournaments (but you can simply just play if you wish). It is held on the BGA’s discord server and OGS Group 13219. Please advertise this at your own clubs and to anyone you think might be interested.

The BGA has decided to restart the online leagues which ran last year. The format will be broadly similar as the previous edition with four players in a group playing a double round robin (so six games each) over 12 weeks. If you would be interested in playing, please email daniel.l.milne@gmail.com with your name, OGS username and grade (BGA/EGF if available, best guess if not). The deadline for entry is the end of June 2023, with the leagues starting in mid-July.

The Spring 2023 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.