UK Tournament Report

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

The 25th Milton Keynes Tournament was held at the Open University's sports pavilion. The 34 players were able to enjoy the heat wave by sitting on the balcony between matches.

Bruno Poltronieri (2d) from Warwick University won the event. He beat Toby Manning in the last round, who thus came second. Mike Cockburn (1k) was third. Graham Blackmore (13k) and Brent Cutts (8k) also won all three games.

The East Midlands team - Toby Manning, Peter Fisher, Andre Cockburn and Brent Cutts - won the team prize with an highly respectable score of 8 wins out of 12.

The winner of the infamous Milton Keynes Board Tournament was one of the event organisers, Tim Hunt with 4.5 wins out of 6.

Results

In an exciting conclusion to the Welsh Open at Barmouth, three players entered the last round with a chance of winning the tournament. In fact all three won their games, but it was Welshman Dylan Carter (1d Cardiff) who came out on top, by half a SOS point. Second and third places went to Richard Hunter (3d Bristol) and Toby Manning (2d Leicester). John Green (4k Leamington) and Colin Maclennan (10k Twickenham) also won four games out of five. There were 27 players overall, and 18 players and spouses enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the Min-y-Mor Hotel (the tournament venue) on the Saturday evening. The weather, however, could best be described as ideal for indoor games.

Results

Durham's annual Go tournament was held in the Elvet Riverside lecture buildings this year. They had 27 people play over the course of the weekend, with ranks ranging from 20k to 5d. Many of the entrants were students, including some who had only learned this year. On the Saturday night - in a change from tradition - instead of going to a restaurant they instead held a Go BBQ where, despite the unexpected rain, there was much food eaten and Go played.

The tournament was won by Alex Kent (3d Bristol, but formerly of Durham), with Sandy Taylor (2d also Bristol, formerly of Durham) coming second. The side events - lightning and small board - were won by Carel Goodheir (10k Skye) and Josh Green (11k Durham) respectively.

Kirsty Healey and Matthew Macfadyen regained the Pair Go crown at the 2013 British Pair Go Championships. Defending champions Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke came dressed as a medieval queen and king, and so won the best-dressed competition, but lost the final by 12.5 points.

Jon Diamond made a clean sweep at Arundel, winning all three games, with Andrew Jones runner-up with 2.5 wins (komi was 7 points). He received the new trophy donated by Pauline and Steve Bailey, a miniature traditional decorated Go board, from the official Arundel Town Crier.

22 players made it to the usual playing venue, the Football Club, immediately opposite the entrance to the famous Castle, and included players from both the distant Swindon and Leicester Go clubs.

Prizes were awarded to the winners of the first two games. In addition to the above these included Roger Daniel, Oscar Selby and Pauline Bailey.

Reigning British Champion, Andrew Kay 4d, and fellow Cambridge University graduate Andrew Simons, 4d, have emerged as the finalists for the British Go Championship from the Challengers' League held at ISH in London.

After 14 years away from Glasgow, the Scottish Open returned to the congenial setting of the University’s Gilchrist Postgraduate Club, and featured 25 players. Proceedings kicked off on the Friday evening with 6 players from Glasgow and Skye playing simultaneous games against Di Wu (4 dan Durham).

Di also won the tournament with a perfect 6/6, followed by David Lee (3d Dundee) on 5/6. The only other player to record 5 wins was Gary Craig (15k Glasgow). Prizes for 4 wins were taken by Martin Harvey (5k Manchester), Greg Cox (10k Dundee) and Carel Goodheir (11k Skye). The final prize went to third placed Jurriaan Dijkman (4k Skye). Thanks to the sponsors, everyone took home a bar of natural soap from www.caurnie.com, and also a bottle of Monkey Jump ale, courtesy of the Skye Go Cub.

Results

Jon Diamond regained the Bracknell title after a four year gap. He beat Sandy Taylor, 2d Bristol, in the last round to win the 38 player event. The only other player to win all three was young Oscar Selby, 11k Epsom. Oscar Selby also won the 13x13. Wanstead won the team prize, which included retaining the Broken Go Stone Trophy. The Go problem prize was won by Malcolm Walker, 7k and the caption contest was won by Tony Atkins.

Results