In an exciting conclusion to the Welsh Open at Barmouth, three players entered the last round with a chance of winning the tournament. In fact all three won their games, but it was Welshman Dylan Carter (1d Cardiff) who came out on top, by half a SOS point. Second and third places went to Richard Hunter (3d Bristol) and Toby Manning (2d Leicester). John Green (4k Leamington) and Colin Maclennan (10k Twickenham) also won four games out of five. There were 27 players overall, and 18 players and spouses enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the Min-y-Mor Hotel (the tournament venue) on the Saturday evening. The weather, however, could best be described as ideal for indoor games.

Results

Durham's annual Go tournament was held in the Elvet Riverside lecture buildings this year. They had 27 people play over the course of the weekend, with ranks ranging from 20k to 5d. Many of the entrants were students, including some who had only learned this year. On the Saturday night - in a change from tradition - instead of going to a restaurant they instead held a Go BBQ where, despite the unexpected rain, there was much food eaten and Go played.

The tournament was won by Alex Kent (3d Bristol, but formerly of Durham), with Sandy Taylor (2d also Bristol, formerly of Durham) coming second. The side events - lightning and small board - were won by Carel Goodheir (10k Skye) and Josh Green (11k Durham) respectively.

Martin is the BGA Junior section web-master (June 2013).

Feel free to contact him via this link.

Channel 4 showed 9-year-old Oscar Selby (8.9 kyu, Epsom Go club) on Tuesday 18/6/13, in its series 'Child Genius'. The series of 4 episodes (shown each Tuesday at 9pm) follows a competition among 21 highly-gifted children, aged 7-11, run in association with British Mensa, to find the UK's ultimate child genius.

The last 2 episodes are broadcast on Tues. 25 June & Tues. 2 July.

The programme notes for episode 2 start: "Mild-mannered nine-year-old maths machine Oscar, who became the youngest person ever to get an A* in GCSE Maths aged seven, is a competition favourite but, away from the familiarity of maths, how will he fare in the unknown territory of this week's general knowledge round?". Watch the episodes on 4OD (Channel 4 catch-up).

Each week, 5 children exit the competition. How far can Oscar go?

The BGA is to run the European Youth Go Championship 2014. It is being held on the weekend of 28th to 31st March 2014 at Butlin's in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Young players from all over Europe are expected to attend and compete in three age categories. BGA members will be able to join the weekend as the British Go Congress is to be run alongside.

Kirsty Healey and Matthew Macfadyen regained the Pair Go crown at the 2013 British Pair Go Championships. Defending champions Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke came dressed as a medieval queen and king, and so won the best-dressed competition, but lost the final by 12.5 points.

Jon Diamond made a clean sweep at Arundel, winning all three games, with Andrew Jones runner-up with 2.5 wins (komi was 7 points). He received the new trophy donated by Pauline and Steve Bailey, a miniature traditional decorated Go board, from the official Arundel Town Crier.

22 players made it to the usual playing venue, the Football Club, immediately opposite the entrance to the famous Castle, and included players from both the distant Swindon and Leicester Go clubs.

Prizes were awarded to the winners of the first two games. In addition to the above these included Roger Daniel, Oscar Selby and Pauline Bailey.

Reigning British Champion, Andrew Kay 4d, and fellow Cambridge University graduate Andrew Simons, 4d, have emerged as the finalists for the British Go Championship from the Challengers' League held at ISH in London.

After 14 years away from Glasgow, the Scottish Open returned to the congenial setting of the University’s Gilchrist Postgraduate Club, and featured 25 players. Proceedings kicked off on the Friday evening with 6 players from Glasgow and Skye playing simultaneous games against Di Wu (4 dan Durham).

Di also won the tournament with a perfect 6/6, followed by David Lee (3d Dundee) on 5/6. The only other player to record 5 wins was Gary Craig (15k Glasgow). Prizes for 4 wins were taken by Martin Harvey (5k Manchester), Greg Cox (10k Dundee) and Carel Goodheir (11k Skye). The final prize went to third placed Jurriaan Dijkman (4k Skye). Thanks to the sponsors, everyone took home a bar of natural soap from www.caurnie.com, and also a bottle of Monkey Jump ale, courtesy of the Skye Go Cub.

Results

With the completion of the 2012/13 season we're pleased to announce that Chris Bryant is taking over from Andrew Simons as team captain for the next season. We'd like to thank Andrew for his efforts in the past season and hope he continues to be part of the team.

We need to reverse our relegation from Division 2 as soon as possible, so we're asking our strongest players to contact Chris if you're interesting in playing for 2013/14, starting this September/October.