UK Tournament Report

At the 16th MSO in London the Go gold medals went to Francis Roads and Felix Wang.

In the 13x13 event eight players from 3d to 10k played over five rounds. Francis Roads won his first four games and, despite stumbling in the last game against Michael Dixon (10k), was the winner. Taking the silver was Spain's Paco de la Banda (3d) who also won 4 but lost to Francis. Matthew Hathrell (3k) took bronze only losing to the top 2.

The MSO Open had 16 players from 4d to 15k including a family of Germans who had arranged their holiday around the event. Clear winner with 4 wins was Felix Wang, 4d, who had won the event previously in 2009. Silver went to the best of the players on 3 wins Adan Mordcovich (1d) who lost to the winner, but had beaten Francis Roads who got the bronze. Just losing out on the tie-break for third were Alsitair Wall and Bruno Poltronieri.

Results MSO 13x13

34 players gathered in the Sports Pavilion at the OU, overlooking the cricket pitch, which saw a mixture of sunshine and showers during the day.

Overall winner was Andrew Simons (3d Cambridge), who beat Phil Beck in the final game. Also on three wins were Oscar Selby (18k Epsom), Gary Gibson (7k Wanstead) and Fred Holroyd (7k Milton Keynes).

Wanstead got an impressive 7/9 in the team competition, but were then disqualified because they all left before prize-giving; so the winning team was the Tricky Tesuji's (Natasha Regan, Oscar Selby and Peter Collins) with 6/9.

Most importantly, in the Milton Keynes Go side event, the prize for most wins went to Oscar Selby with a very impressive 6/11. The prize for highest percentage went to Tim Hunt for 3/5, only just ahead of Chas Walton who had 4/7.

Results

Thirty-six players turned out for the Welsh Open, held at Barmouth for the 20th year. Richard Hunter (3d Bristol) won with 5 out of 5. Other prizewinners with 4 out 5 were Toby Manning (tournament runner-up), Edward Blockley (5k Worcester), Huw Mort (10k York) and Colin Maclennan (10k Twickenham).

The tournament was fortunate to be visited by two Korean lady professionals; Juyeon Ko (8p) and Sohyun Park (3p). Ms. Ko gave a lecture before the start of the tournament on dealing with non-joseki moves, and the two gave a simultaneous display against 17 players on Saturday evening, winning all their games and spending time afterwards with each player to discuss critical moments.

Results

Andrew Kay (5d South London) retained his title by winning this year's Durham Tournament. Reduced to one day, because of hosting the British earlier in the year, the event attracted 19 players from as far away as Edinburgh and southern England. Second on tie-break from Matthew Crosby (3d Edinburgh) was Boris Mitrovic (1k Edinburgh) who went away with the prize of a month's subscription to Dinerchtein's Insei League. Unattached player John Green (4k) won all three games and Martha McGill (1k Edinburgh) was rewarded for not losing any games (she had one win and two jigos). The event finished an hour early and gave plenty of time to allow players to stand in the rain and watch the Olympic torch arrive in the city, before going on to an Italian restaurant. The weekend was completed by a barbecue on the Sunday.

Results

Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke retained the British Pair Go Champions title for a third year. They won the top group of the 22nd Pair Go Championships beating Jenny Radcliffe and Francis Roads, the organiser, in the final. Winning the fighting spirit prize were Jackie Chai and John Johnstone.

In the handicap group there were 6 pairs including several children and a 5d Korean lady. Winners were Helen and Martin Harvey, playing in the handicap section as Helen was still recovering from injury. They beat the youngsters Rebecca Margetts and Oscar Selby in the final, proving that 26 stone handicaps can be overcome. The handicap fighting spirit prize was won by Yvonne and Paul Margetts.

Sam McCarthy and John Collins won both the best dressed couple prize and the chemistry quiz.

Results

The Challengers' League is the penultimate event in the Championship cycle. With Matthew Macfadyen in retirement, there is a new sense of interest in who will win take the title this year - it will definitely be a new name on the trophy.

Eight of the UK's finest players descended on the Nippon Club, London from June 1st to 4th, for the all play all event. In first place, with 6 wins from 7, was Andrew 'the Great Destroyer' Kay. There was nearly a 4 way tie-break for second place, but cream rises to the top, and Nick 'Slowhand' Krempel, played his way to a 5th win, taking outright second.

These two will now meet in the best-of-three Title Match, which will be relayed via KGS. Watch out for more detailed announcements when plans have been finalised.

Andrew Kay, 4d South London, added a ninth title to his current collection by winning the Bracknell Tournament. Only one other player won all three games and that was Daniel Peace, 12k Oxford. Jil Segerman won the 13x13 with 2/2 and Jim Clare won the problem competition as the only entry. The Black Rabbits won the team prize and Paul Barnard won the caption competition. 26 players took part.

Results

Central London's Florian Borchers (3k) won the Cambridge Bar-Low on tie-break from Roger Daniel (5k Central London) and Juan Leonardo Martinez-Hurtado (5k Cambridge), all on 3 out of 4. The Junior prize went to Melchior Chui (12k) from Cambridge. 11 players took part.

Results

The Candidates' was held over the May Bank Holiday weekend at ISH in London. 22 players took part. The best players were Andrew Kay (6 wins), Felix Wang (5 wins), Desmond Cann, Andrew Simons, David Ward, Alex Selby, Nick Krempel, Chong Han and Francis Roads (4 wins). Most of these will hopefully be playing the Challengers' League on the bank holiday weekend in June since there are eight places available as Matthew Macfadyen is not defending his title.

Results

There was a pleasingly high turnout for the 2012 British Go Congress, held again in Durham for the first time since 1996.

On the Friday evening, 30 players gathered in the magnificence of Durham School's dining hall, for the British Lightning. This year held as a five-round handicap Swiss tournament, the last round saw two former Durham players battling it out to win: Andrew Kay (4d, now of South London) was ultimately victorious over Alex Kent (2d, now in Bristol). Results

On Saturday morning 63 players congregated in the more prosaic concrete environment of the Students' Union for the British Open itself. After three rounds of Go, the BGA held its AGM; no doubt reports will be provided by officials, so the important thing to note from the tournament perspective are that the meeting was so unexpectedly short that San Marco's restaurant, booked for a meal for 30 players to follow the AGM, wasn't yet ready when we arrived!