UK Tournament Report

The second game of the 2016 British Go Championship best-of-three title match was played on Saturday 3rd December, at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in West London. With Charles Hibbert one game up, Junnan Jiang had to win to stay in the match.

The game was relayed on OGS, thanks to Jonathan Green, but the start was nearly an hour later than its 11:00 advertised start. It was also video streamed. The game continued after a shorter than usual lunch break (the time limits are three hours each), and got into a very exciting fight. Despite Junnan being in overtime he kept a clear head and forced the resignation at about 17:30

This tied the match and the third game would have to be arranged.

British Championship page with game records.

The annual Coventry Tournament remained at its usual venue of the Science Concourse of the University of Warwick, but a new team of students was in charge. The club president, Sylvester Cardorelle, said that the tournament was a success and he had a great time organising it alongside his team: Rajiv Daxini (Secretary) and Shuwen Kang (Treasurer).

Proving himself to be the best of the 30 players was Philip Leung (3d) from the local club, who previously won the event in 2014, and second was Sam Aitken (4d) who only lost to the winner in round two. Michael Kyle (8k) from Manchester was the only other player to win all three games.

Results

Due to late arrangement, an unfortunate clash with the Coventry tournament and general timing for many players, attendance was particularly low, resulting in just two teams of three at this year's (autumn) edition of the London International Teams. Nonetheless it was an interesting, close run event, held at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club at Goldhawk Road.

The highlight for organiser Jonathan Turner was a nameless player's tragi-comic oversight that a group was dead from late mid-game right up to counting, resulting in a rather surprised look as their opponent started removing the stones.

The Three Peaks returned to Ingleton, near to where it started at the Marton Arms. The venue this time was the Wheatsheaf in the High Street, with its own B+B rooms, but still the beautiful Yorkshire countryside was not far away.

There were thirty players taking part this time, with Eric Yangran Zhang (4d Manchester) winning the event by winning all his games. He is shown receiving the Goban trophy from organiser Bob Bagot. Other prize-winners with 4 out of 5 were James Richards (3k Edinburgh), Bob Scantlebury (8k Sheffield), Ai Guan (8k Lancaster), Alan Stokes (10k Manchester) and Pat Ridley (11k Chester). The Team Prize was won by Chester's Pat Ridley, Tony Pitchford and Dave Horan.

The results were delayed in publication because of a computer problem.

After a three year break of holding the title, Alex Kent won the Wessex title at the annual tournament at St Mark's Community Centre in Bath by beating Alistair Wall in the last round. Alex is pictured right, being congratulated by organiser Ian Sharpe, before receiving the trophy.

The drawmaster, David King, was pleased at an increase in numbers to 38 players and there were enough doughnuts to go round. Of those players, those winning a trophy and cash prize for three wins were Alan Thornton (1k St Albans), Helen Harvey (3k Manchester), young George Han (5k) and Malcolm Walker (6k).

Results

The second Sheffield Go Tournament, though not as well attended as the first, was still very successful, which meant they could again make modest cash prizes to the winner and runner-up. The winner was Xinyi ‘Sugar’ Liu (3d); she is pictured receiving first prize from organiser Bob Scantlebury. The runner up was Alistair Wall (2d). On three wins were youth players Edmund Smith (7k) and Daniel Gascoyne (17k), and also Michael Kyle (9k) and David Wildgoose (10k). Two youth players were also awarded prizes for two wins, namely Tom Bradbury (14k) and Lily Danson (15k). Matthew Jackson (37k) won a special prize for entering his first ever tournament, and Zaki Betesh (4k) won the Fighting Spirit prize.

The Swindon tournament was back after a one-year break, with different premises and alternative day (Saturday). The new venue was the Swindon Conservative Club, situated in the old town, with its own free parking. Nearby is the town's museum, which provided an interesting distraction for some.

The winner was Alistair Wall (2d Wanstead), who beat Ngoc-Trang Cao in the final. Prizes were given for three wins to George Han (18k No Club) and for 2½ wins to Paul Barnard (2k Swindon).

The Cornwall Tournaments were held, as last year, in The Lugger on Penzance's seafront. This time the weather was good enough to sit outside between games, as long as you did not mind the odd sea breeze. The Saturday started with the traditional teaching session led by Toby Manning and Tony Atkins, on subjects such as the middle game and basic life-and-death shapes.

The afternoon of the Saturday was the Cornish Lightning Handicap Tournament, with neatly 16 players taking part. The player who came out unbeaten, despite the grade-difference-plus-two handicap, was Tony Atkins (1k Reading). He beat Peter Collins (4k Bristol) in the final.

Results

18 players took part in the Cornish Open on the Sunday.

The Northern - held annually since 1975 - stepped back to its educational roots this year, with a new venue at Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) in Cheshire. The very attractive and spacious venue attracted 37 competitors (23% up on last year). Most encouragingly, 11 competitors were youngsters.

The winner was Xinyi "Sugar" Liu; she is a 3 dan from China studying in Manchester. She won a cash prize and the Red Rose Trophy, seen receiving it from organiser Chris Kirkham (with CHS' Head of Physics - Mike Winslow behind).

Baoliang Zhang, 1 kyu from Manchester, was runner-up.

The 20th Mind Sports Olympiad was held, like the previous two editions, at the JW3 centre in London's NW3 district. As usual hundreds of games enthusiasts came together to compete for medals in many different games, both ancient and modern, unusual and traditional, including Go. This year the Go prize money was increased, thanks to support of the MSO by Google DeepMind and other sponsors. This meant big increases in turnout for the Go events, and it was also good to see that about half the players were women and children. The two small-board Go events were played on Sunday 28th August, and the Open on Bank Holiday Monday, 29th August.

The 9x9 had a pleasing 17 players. Michael Webster was unbeaten to take the gold and the sixty pound first prize.