It is with great sadness that we have to report that Gerry died on Monday 14 November after a year battling cancer.

As you all know his grade was 1 dan, achieved in 1986, but much more importantly he was our Bookseller for more than 10 years. On his retirement from this role in 2010 he had been appointed a Life Member of the BGA, at which occasion this picture was taken.

The funeral will be at the Shrewsbury crematorium at 2.00 on Friday November 25, followed by a light buffet at a local hotel - venue yet to be decided.

Donations will be collected at the service and will be for the Severn Hospice where Gerry spent his final days. According to Simon Mills it is a truly wonderful place.

The BGA will be represented there by our Treasurer, Toby Manning.

Andrew Kay stopped Matthew Cocke's run of three titles in a row at the Three Peaks Tournament in Grange-Over-Sands. Andrew beat Matthew in their fourth-round game to allow Andrew to increase his current titles to four. Andrew Simons also won four wins to come third, only losing to Matthew. Other players winning four out of five were Chris Kirkham (4k Manchester), Ron Bell (4k Borders), Adrian Abrahams (10k Lancaster) and Eggert Fruchtenicht (13k Lancaster). Tony Pitchford was given a sepcial prize for helping out on day 1 when organiser Bob Bagot was not there. 38 players took part.

Results

It is with regret that we have to report the very tragic death of Xinyi Lu at the age of 26.

He was not just a Go player, but also an organiser and promoter of the game, being a BGA Council member from 2007 to 2010.

Xinyi died in an accident, while on holiday in China, at the beginning of October. His parents have created a website in his memory, some of you may wish to add your condolences there: https://sites.google.com/site/tributetoxinyi/

We offer our condolences to his parents and family.

The rockets of the National Space Centre were appropriate for November 5th, but luckily none were fired during the East Midlands Go Tournament. Chong Han (5 dan) from Loughborough was the winner beating Francis Roads, Jon Diamond and Tony Atkins along the way. Two other of the 40 players won all three games, namely Chris Bryant (9 kyu) from St Albans club and Paul Reade (14 kyu) from Leamington. Francis Roads and Alistair Wall were awarded plaques for supporting the small small-board side tournament.

Results

Yunlong Liu, 3d, a temporary student in Scotland, won the 42nd Wessex Tournament in Bath. He beat the defending champion Andrew Kay by 2 points in the final. The only other player of the 30 participants to win all 3 games was Dylan Carter, 2k, from Cardiff.

Results

Andrew Kay, representing the UK, placed 22nd in the 6th KPMC in Pohang Korea. He beat Morocco, Slovenia and Hong Kong, but lost to France, Canada and Thailand to win 3/6. Also winning 3/6 below the dan-bar was Ireland's Rory Wales in 49th place.

Results (off-site)

Ms Kobayashi Chizu, 5p, visited the UK in the middle of October. She gave two interesting game reviews to the players at the Autumn London International Teams match. Further details and results of this match, won by China A, are available. On the Monday she visited Oxford which ended with a very enjoyable Chinese meal attended both by local players and others from slightly further away such as Matthew Macfadyen. The following day in London Kobayashi-sensei met with officials from the BGA in her position as Overseas and Publications Director of the Nihon Ki-in.

The winner of this year's Shrewsbury tournament was Toby Manning, after a long struggle with Baron Allday, who creatively made eyes for two wandering dragons only to find his safe corner die as a result. Toby collected his prize at a run and departed to catch a plane to Kosovo, now less of a war zone than the Go board. Kathleen Timmins also won three games. Although numbers were down on last year, those present enjoyed the tournament and commented that the shift to Sunday had made travel and parking trouble free.

Results

The British team lost their first match in the new season of the. Pandanet Go European Team Championship. Their B-League fixture against Belgium ended as a 3-1 defeat. The team of Bei Ge, Des Cann, Alex Selby and Andrew Simons battled hard, but only won on board 4.

Despite having trouble getting the community centre unlocked, the Swindon Tournament went well and attracted 36 players. Winning again after a gap of six years was Bei Ge (5 dan), who beat Francis Roads in the last round. Francis led the Wanstead club to victory in the team prize. The only other player to win all three games was young Aidan Putman (12 kyu) from Swindon, so a special prize went to Adan Mordcovich (2 kyu) for two good wins.

Results