The 49th London Open was dominated by two Chinese boys who between themselves won all three tournaments. Some may remember Yue Wen from when he lived in London about five years ago and was 7k. He is shown here playing Charlie Akerblom on the top board. His brother Qi Wen was too young to compete then.

The 7th European Grand Prix Finale was held alongside the London Open at the London Go Centre on the weekend of 28th-31st December.

Ten top players, who had won places at qualifying events, took part, split initially into two groups. The UK's Damen Woo (shown here against Mateusz Surma with game broadcaster Tony Claasen) won his group unbeaten, as did Lukas Podpera in the other.

The UK youth team narrowly lost to France by two boards to three in the second round of the European Youth Team Competition. Our U12 boards, Ryan Zhang and Yanyi Xiong, both picked up wins. Ryan's game was particularly exciting culminating in a half-point win, with Yanyi again performing strongly against a higher-rated player to gain a 7.5-point win. Our two U16 boards, Alvina Kwok and Daniel Yang, fought hard but were not able to defeat their slightly stronger opponents. On the top board Scott Cobbold had an exciting game against Linh Vu Tu, a 4 dan, but ultimately had to resign.

Because the 2022 edition of the British Small Board Championship was delayed until February, the 2023 edition on the afternoon of Saturday 18th November became the second of the year. Both were held in Pembroke College Old Library in Cambridge, but the second attracted four fewer players with 34. There was an overall winner prize of £25 provided by the BGA and this went to local student Tunyang Xie (5d).

The second match of the C-League season was against Slovakia. Scott, Alex and Jamie all won, but Bruno lost, meaning the team won 3-1. South Africa also scored a second match win (against Norway) to put them top, with us just behind in second.

League Page with game records

It was a rainy November Sunday in Greater Manchester, writes organiser Chris Kirkham, but the atmosphere in the Go tournament was even better than usual. The attendance, at 56 players, was the largest it has been for many years, and the location, in the underpass of Cheadle Hulme School, even better than in recent years, when it was in the dining room above.

Congratulations to Alvina Kwok (2d) who is our new Under-16 and British Youth Go Champion. Shown left, she is the first girl to win the event since Maria Tabor in 2008. Alvina, who is originally from Hong Kong, was the best of the 38 players and defeated Scott Cobbold (4d) and Ryan Zhang (2d) on her way to the trophy.

The Autumn 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 shortly.

Our UK youth Go squad has played the first round of the European Youth Go Team Competition and won 5-0 against Turkey. The round was meant to be played on Saturday 11th November, but as this clashed with the UK youth championship Turkey kindly agreed to play the games early.

There were 32 kyu-graded players in this year's Bar Low. The event was hosted as before at the London Go Centre thanks to their organising team of Gerry, Richard and Peter. Thanks to the event's continuing ongoing anonymous sponsor all the prize winners, shown in the photo left, were able to order a Go book of their choice up to £25.