UK Tournament Report

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

The Candidates' Tournament, the first stage in the British Championship, was held for the first time in Edinburgh, to allow more Scottish players to take part.

The British Champion, Andrew Kay, requested to take part, despite being guaranteed a place in the Challengers' League by the rules, and convincingly won the event, for the third year running.

14 players attended the 2013 Cambridge Bar-Low, Mike Cockburn, 1 kyu from St Albans, won the tournament again, 12 years after he last won it. He scored an unbeaten 5 wins out of 5.

Prizes were also awarded to Roger Daniel, 5 kyu from London, with 4 wins, and Richard Mullens, 5 kyu from London City, third by tie-break, with 3 wins.

Results

The Stacey Grand Prix for 2013 ended with the British Open recently and although it was close right up to the end Toby Manning needed to win at least two more games in Stevenage than Andrew Simons to take the title.

He didn't, so Andrew went one place better than 2012 and won with a total of 29 wins. Toby came second with 26 wins, with Richard Hunter third on 17 wins.

Francis Roads, who has been the most consistent player over the years and winner eight times, only managed to come 7th this year.

Full details are here

In the first Birmingham Tournament since 2002, there were 38 entrants from all across the UK. Andrew Simons won the tournament. Other notable performances were Patrick Batty (6k London) and Anthony Pitchford (11k Chester) who both won all 3 games and Oscar Selby (10k Epsom) and Fassal Mahmood (5k Birmingham) who jointly won the 13x13 side event.

Results