UK Tournament Report

The first event of 2024 was Lancaster on 3rd February won by Peikai Xue (4d UCL) with 45 players. Report Results

The Ulster Open in Lisburn on 17th Feb was won by the only visitor from the UK mainland amongst the 14 players, Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans). Results

Cambridge’s annual Trigantius tournament was again held at the excellent St Philip’s Church venue. This time it was a week later than usual, on 16th March. Regrettably this was now out of term for local students, making attendance of 61 lower than 2023’s 79 players.

The second Lancaster Go Tournament was held on Saturday 3rd February, once again in Lancaster University’s maze-like Management School building. Despite the great travel difficulties caused by train strikes, the tournament still managed to host 45 players, only just shy of 49 the previous year. It was wonderful to see ranks from 4d to 37k represented and to welcome so many young faces, many coming from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS).

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.

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).

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.

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.

The event took place as usual at St Marks Community Centre in Bath. Turnout was good, after a few late withdrawals and some on the day entrants they had 36 players and one unnecessary ‘ghost’. It was especially pleasing to see a number of new faces. Possibly the main downside of the day was the parking; Bath Council seems to be making a good job of deterring all traffic from the city centre. The organisers will look into what can be done for next year.

The Sheffield Tournament had 38 entrants, reports organiser David Wildgoose. The bar was set at 1k providing six players above the bar and was eventually won by Peikai Xue (4d UCL). Five players gained prizes for winning all three of their games. Other than Peikai they were all from Cheadle Hulme: Megan Upton (14k), James Zhao (16k), Claude Robinson (27k) and Pip Hawkes (34k). Results

The Edinburgh Open was again held at the "St Columba's by the Castle" Episcopal Church Hall. This year, nice weather meant they could use the garden of the church hall as a review space. Overall turnout was up on last year with 29 players and pleasingly included three first-time tournament players.

The bar was set at 2k, which made for a very competitive field of seven players who could win the competition. Local player Grzegorz Kudla (2k) won the tournament with three wins from three games, following a tense final game with Ai Guan (Birmingham 1k).