Eric Hall, 5k from Swindon, was again the winner of the rapid play Cornish Handicap Tournament. He beat local player Sam Foster, 2k, in the final. Others of the 20 players who won 3/4 were Tony Atkins (1d Reading), John Culmer (1k Cornwall), Ian Marsh (1k Bracknell), Sue Paterson (4k Arundel) and Elinor Brooks (8k Swindon).

Results

The weekend, 9-10 November is part of an ongoing series of events and will bring together some of the UK’s strongest players for an intensive training weekend with the aim of increasing the number of UK players graded over 2400. It is being organised by Alison Bexfield and held in Letchworth Garden City with Guo Juan as the resident professional.

It is by invitation only, and these will be sent to BGA members with a grade over 2100. There is a maximum number of 16 players and priority will be given according to Go strength, with some preference towards younger players.

Final confirmation will be sent out to those people who have responded by 30 September.

If you think you should have received an invitation, but have not, please contact Alison Bexfield (email: alison at bexfield.com)

The Chinese professional and Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, Wang Runan (8p), visited the British Museum on Saturday 7th September. He spoke to a lecture theatre containing nearly 100 people interested in Chinese Culture, including some British Go players, on the subject of Weiqi (Go) in Chinese Culture. In particular, Mr Wang is keen to get the very early Go manual held by the British Library, the Dunhuang Go Manual, returned to China.

He then played simultaneous games against players from the BGA: Matthew Cocke, Michael Webster, Baoliang Zhang and Oscar Selby. Francis Roads gave a commentary on the Cocke game which was projected on a screen for all to watch.

We're pleased to announce that old tournament results have now been linked to the Tournament Records on our website. This will allow you to easily browse details of old events for each tournament, going back to 1996 in many cases.

See the London Open for an example.

We now have agreement to hold a stall at the Mind Sports Festival in Cardiff on September 14-15th. This will be run by the British Go Association in conjunction with the Cardiff Go Club.

There is some information about this and other Mind Sports Festivals here: http://www.mindsportsfestivals.com.

The Festival will host competitions for (currently): Chess, Scrabble and Magic, with about 400 registered competitors so far.

We expect to have good opportunities to promote Go to like-minded people during the Festival, when they have intervals in their play or are knocked out.

Andrew Kay ended 24th with 4 wins in the World Amateur in Sendai. He lost to Korea, beat Turkey, lost to Switzerland and beat New Zealand. In round 5 he beat Indonesia, then lost to Israel and Sweden, and beat Slovenia.

James Hutchinson for Ireland also won 4 and took 31st. He beat Belarus, Portugal, Bulgaria and Italy, but lost to France, Sweden, Lithuania and Denmark.

Unbeaten winner was Choi Hyunjae of Korea and Hu Yuqing of China was second with 7 wins. The group on six wins was Artem Kachanovskyi (UA), Ilja Shikshin (RU), Pavol Lisy (SK), Kwan King Man (HK), Nikola Mitic (RS). Japan came 8th.

Results

The British rep to the 34th WAGC, now on in Sendai Japan, Andrew Kay gave an interview to Ranka online. After two days he had won two games out of four, having lost to Korea, beating Turkey, losing to Switzerland and beating New Zealand. Results from Nihon Ki-in

This year's Northern Go Tournament was better attended and had more strong players than recent Northerns. There were twenty eight players at the event in Stockport Masonic Guildhall. The overall winner was Vit Brunner, 4d from Brno in the Czech Republic - beating Toby Manning, 2d from Leicester, in the final round. Also receiving a prize for winning all three of his games was David Wildgoose, 10k from Sheffield. Results

Main Tournament winner: Matthew Macfadyen (6d Leamington) 5/5. 2nd in main tournament: Matthew Cocke (5d Epsom) 4/5. Other main tournament prizewinners: Oscar Selby (9k Epsom) 5/5, Paul Barnard (1k Swindon) 4/5, Richard Wheeldon (5k South London) 4/5, David Cantrell (5k South London) 4/5, Jil Segerman (9k Brighton/Arundel) 4/5.

Afternoon tournament winner: Shigehiko Uno (4d Tokyo Nihonkiin) 3/3. Other afternoon tournament prizewinners: Brian Timmins (9k Shrewsbury) 3/3, Peter Collins (1k Bristol) 2/2.

Handicap Tournament winner Edmund Smith (15k Milton School, Cambridge); he beat Oscar Selby by 1 point in the final round.

The Go Open at the 17th Mind Sports Olympiad in London was won by Paul Taylor. He won his Gold by winning all four games, including the final where he beat tournament arbiter Tony Atkins into silver position by half a point. The bronze went to Michael Webster who squeezed out Alistair Wall on tie-break. The best kyu player prize went to Paolo Rosario from Portugal. 12 players took part Results

In the previous afternoon's 8-player 13x13 tournament, the gold medal was taken by Germany's Chris Volk who won all five games. Jay Rastall took silver for four wins, after his planned tennis day was rained off. Two players ended on three wins and played a play-off game. Martyn Hamer won and took the bronze, so loser Matthew Hathrell had to be content with his medals in other games including a gold for Dominion, a silver in Cribbage and bronze in both Blokus and Oware. Results