UK Tournament Report

Alex Kent (3d Bristol) won the 44th Wessex tournament in Bath. He beat another Bristol player - Simon Shiu (2d) - in the last round. Also winning all three games were Chris Volk (3k Reading) and James Lepoittevin (21k Bristol). Paul Atwell has been involved in organising the event for 44 years and managed to be one of the 36 players as well this year, but was not one of the prize-winners.

Results

Though the number of attendees was down, the players at the East Midlands Tournament liked the new venue of the Thorpe Astley Community Centre. This is a new wood-clad building in a suburb to the west of Leicester, just in the shadow of Leicester Forest East motorway services. Despite the pouring rain, you could watch the dog-walkers in the surrounding playing fields through the glass wall.

The return of the bookshop was appreciated by the players, and the organiser's thanks go to Roger Huyshe. Also the players' thanks go to the organiser, Peter Fisher, for organising efficiently and getting the prize-giving ready 45 minutes earlier than planned.

The winner's prize went to Yuanbo Zhang (4d Nottingham) and the others on three wins were Lucas Meurin (3k Birmingham), Richard Leedham-Green (4k Lincoln) and Andrew Russell (4k Birmingham).

Results

The Autumn London International Teams was won by the Oriental team consisting of Young Kim (5d), Yangran Zhang (4d) and Kiyohiko Tanaka (3d), from Korea, China and Japan respectively. CLGC B finished next, ahead of CLGC A, Asia, Wanstead and Twickenham. Players winning all three games were: Young Kim (5d), Mark (Baoliang) Zhang (1d), Stephen Martingale (6k) and Colin Maclennan (9k).

Results and photo link

Numbers were up on last year, likely due to Catherine's homemade lunches. As an experiment, they had a formal game review session at tiered levels, between rounds two and three, and most players chose to attend, enjoy and debate. The schedule accommodated this with the main time preserved, but byoyomi made more aggressive.

Toby Manning was again the overall winner. Unusually, no others won three games, so Chris Kirkham (3k) gained a prize for second place (over the losing finalist, Helen Harvey (1k), on a tiebreak) and Tony Pitchford (10k) won a random draw prize.

Results

After 13 years of trying, John Culmer (1k Cornwall) won the event he organises, the Cornish Open. He topped the list of 22 players by beating Ian Marsh (1k Bracknell) in the final. Also winning 3/3 were Cornish players Robert Churchill (11k) and Matt Dodkins (20k).

Results

Eric Hall, 5k from Swindon, was again the winner of the rapid play Cornish Handicap Tournament. He beat local player Sam Foster, 2k, in the final. Others of the 20 players who won 3/4 were Tony Atkins (1d Reading), John Culmer (1k Cornwall), Ian Marsh (1k Bracknell), Sue Paterson (4k Arundel) and Elinor Brooks (8k Swindon).

Results

This year's Northern Go Tournament was better attended and had more strong players than recent Northerns. There were twenty eight players at the event in Stockport Masonic Guildhall. The overall winner was Vit Brunner, 4d from Brno in the Czech Republic - beating Toby Manning, 2d from Leicester, in the final round. Also receiving a prize for winning all three of his games was David Wildgoose, 10k from Sheffield. Results

Main Tournament winner: Matthew Macfadyen (6d Leamington) 5/5. 2nd in main tournament: Matthew Cocke (5d Epsom) 4/5. Other main tournament prizewinners: Oscar Selby (9k Epsom) 5/5, Paul Barnard (1k Swindon) 4/5, Richard Wheeldon (5k South London) 4/5, David Cantrell (5k South London) 4/5, Jil Segerman (9k Brighton/Arundel) 4/5.

Afternoon tournament winner: Shigehiko Uno (4d Tokyo Nihonkiin) 3/3. Other afternoon tournament prizewinners: Brian Timmins (9k Shrewsbury) 3/3, Peter Collins (1k Bristol) 2/2.

Handicap Tournament winner Edmund Smith (15k Milton School, Cambridge); he beat Oscar Selby by 1 point in the final round.

The Go Open at the 17th Mind Sports Olympiad in London was won by Paul Taylor. He won his Gold by winning all four games, including the final where he beat tournament arbiter Tony Atkins into silver position by half a point. The bronze went to Michael Webster who squeezed out Alistair Wall on tie-break. The best kyu player prize went to Paolo Rosario from Portugal. 12 players took part Results

In the previous afternoon's 8-player 13x13 tournament, the gold medal was taken by Germany's Chris Volk who won all five games. Jay Rastall took silver for four wins, after his planned tennis day was rained off. Two players ended on three wins and played a play-off game. Martyn Hamer won and took the bronze, so loser Matthew Hathrell had to be content with his medals in other games including a gold for Dominion, a silver in Cribbage and bronze in both Blokus and Oware. Results

There was much fun and many games at the Isle of Man Go Festival. The 11th Go Week on the Isle of Man was held as before in Port Erin and attracted a good crowd from the UK, Ireland and even as far as Japan.

The 42 player Open was won for the first time by Matthew Macfadyen. Often in the past he had acted as teacher and not played in the Open. This time he did play and won all five games, beating Matthew Cocke into second place. Oscar Selby, 9k, also won all 5 games. Results

The second main tournament was the Afternoon Tournament, which had 30 players. The winner this time was the same as in 1999 being Shigehiko Uno from Japan. He beat Belfast's James Hutchinson into second place in the last of three rounds. Brian Timmins, 9k, also won all three games. Results

The Handicap Tournament was won by Edmund Smith, 15k. Results