UK Tournament Report

Lucretiu Calota, the Romanian 4d from St Alban's Club, won this year's Belfast Tournament with a perfect score of five. Second place was taken by Karl Irwin, 4d from Belfast Club. Local organiser James Hutchinson (2d) took third. In all 15 players took part in the friendly event, held as usual at the Boat Club. Lower down the rankings Kevin Farrell (8k Galway) did very well winning all five games and Rachel Plomp (16k Dublin) won three games.

Results

The 25th Welsh Open – held in its constant, coastal town of Barmouth since 1993 (when Matthew Macfadyen gained the first of his 16 consecutive wins) – was held on the weekend of 24-25 June 2017. Organised again by Helen & Martin Harvey, the event passed off smoothly and enjoyably, despite Martin's sun dance needing improvement, although the rainy periods meant it was a good time to be indoors. 31 played in at least 1 of the 6 rounds, including two 3-dans, two 2-dans, 4 shodans and down to a 13-kyu. Participants could take a bow for having travelled from across the UK – from as far away as the Isle of Man, Durham and Winchester. Numbers at the evening meals were further-swelled by non-playing partners.

The now-customary venue – the large Min y Mor hotel and restaurant – once more provided draught Abbot Ale, 2 quiet playing rooms and an analysis lounge for game reviews.

Report from Andrew Ambrose-Thurman:

The rain was falling heavily as people made their way to the first morning of Durham Go Tournament 2017, this year held at Durham's Oriental Museum. Despite the downpour there was a reasonable turnout of 29, with this being several people's first tournament, and ranks ranged from 20k to 3d.

This year we decided to video the games on the top board and stream them live over the internet. We also projected the video onto a big screen in the side room, where people were reviewing games and playing in the side events.

The British Pair Go Championship was again held at the Red Lion in Hatfield and the organisers, Francis Roads and Jenny Rofe-Radcliffe, were again pleased as there was an increase to 17 pairs, despite several of the stronger pairs not taking part this year. Most of this number was a large group from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) and Manchester, which was recognised by the organisers presenting Martin and Helen Harvey with a special prize for arranging this.

In the top group the 2016 champions, Joanne Leung and Bruno Poltronieri, did not do so well and it came down to a final between Alison and Simon Bexfield and Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke.

Both Daniel Hu and Andrew Simons won six games out of seven to top the list at the Challengers' League. Andrew won in their mutual game, but lost to Charles Hibbert on time, when his flag fell earlier than expected. Charles was third with 5 wins, Tim Hunt won 4, Andrew Kay and Alex Rix 3, Joanne Leung won 1 and Des Cann took eighth place.

Daniel and Andrew now go on to play the title match over the coming months.

Results

The Scottish Open took place at the offices of Skyscanner in the modern Quartermile One building in Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, on 27th and 28th May. 20 players made it along, some having met the night before for some lightning Go and socialising at the "Noughts and Crosses" Games Cafe on Morisson Street.

Prizes were awarded to the top three ranked players: Boris Mitrovic (2d Edinburgh) with 6 wins, Paul Smith (1k Cambridge) with 5 wins and Neil McLean (1k Aberdeen) with 3 wins. Prizes also went to the three 5kyus who each won 4 of their 6 games: Edmund Smith (Cambridge), Stephen Chester (Edinburgh) and Niall Paterson (Glasgow).

Results

The top player at the 39th Bracknell Go Tournament was Lucretiu Calota (4d St Albans) who beat Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) in the final (pictured). Chao Zhang (6d London) and Jim Clare (1d Reading) took third and fourth places, and Paul Barnard (2k Swindon) took fifth with three wins. Others of the 36 players winning three were Casey Alexander (10k Arundel), Alexander Hsieh (10k Cambridge Juniors) and Lueming Yang (20k Oxford).

Arundel won the team prize, by one win, over the junior team of "A Football Stuck in a Bush Squad". Nobody competed in the 13x13, but winning the puzzle-solving were Jonny Evans (10k London City) and Cate Howe (28k Cheadle Hulme School). Best haiku-writer was Richard Wheeldon.

Results

The Candidates' Tournament was held over the April-May Bank Holiday weekend at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in West London. 18 of the possible players took part to determine who would play in the next stage of the British Championship, the Challengers' League, on the next bank holiday at the same venue.

Thanks to the organiser, Matt Marsh, setting up a webcam, Chris Bryant was able to rebroadcast the top board game online and it gave a chance to see some of the game on YouTube. Also the players were able on the Sunday to help review some of the games in the parallel Bar-Low Tournament.

After a year's break, the Bar-Low tournament returned, thanks to organiser Jonathan Green at a new comfortable venue - The Young Chelsea Bridge Club, home of the West London Go Club. It was held as usual alongside the Candidates' Tournament.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, the entry fees were cheap, 17 players taking advantage of this. The generous prizes meant that more than half of the competitors made at least their entry fee back, as well as everyone taking home some sweet treats.

Alison Bexfield (1k, Letchworth) was the winner, having secured victory before the last round started. Roger Huyshe (5k, Manchester), Roger Daniel (7k, London) and Lueming Yang (23k, Oxford) also all did well, winning four games out of five.

Results

The fiftieth British Go Congress was held in Cambridge. The location was the very modern Centre for Mathematical Sciences which lies on its own campus near to Churchill College (which provided accommodation).

The event started on the Friday afternoon with a teaching session with tutors Toby Manning and Matthew Macfadyen. In the evening the Lightning Tournament was run on an extended round-robin system, after which the top two players played a final. Richard Mullens (6k) valiantly took second place to Xunrui Zhao (2d London).

After two days of play in the Open the prize winners were:
British Open Winner: Qinmeng Zhang (7d)
6 wins: George Han (5k)