UK Tournament Report

The spring London International Team Tournament was very closely contested this year with Nippon (3 team wins and 8 individual wins) pipping Cambridge (3 team wins and 7 individual wins) in second and China (2 team wins but 8 individual wins) in third. This was a particularly surprising result as China won their first six games whilst Cambridge only managed 2!

In the handicap division South London Go Club won with 4 team wins and 10 individual wins, beating Twickenham with 4 team wins and 9 individual wins into second.

In the Open division only Felix Wang managed to win all 4 games, whilst in the Handicap division Rippei Hayashi, Gerry Gavigan, Colin Maclennan, Dan Peace and Paul Langley all won 4 games and extra prizes.

Overall 36 players in 12 teams took part and two divisions took part.

Results

The Wanstead team of Francis Roads, Adan Mordcovich, Richard Leedham-Green and Roger Daniel only lost one game to win the Thames Valley Team Tournament. Second was the home team, West Surrey, with Bracknell third and Lottie's Lovers from Swindon fourth.

Results

Paul Tabor, 1d, was the surprise winner at Arundel, when he beat tournament favourite Andrew Kay in the second round and then beat Tony Atkins (who had previously beaten Jon Diamond) in the final. Jonathan Reece, 2k Oxford, won the 9x9 side event and Jil Segerman (in a team with Roger Daniel) won the inventions quiz. 22 players took part.

Results

Andrew Kay, 4d South London, was the best of the 22 players at the second Welwyn Garden City Tournament. Also winning three games were Ludan Fang, 4k London, and Jon Robson, 10k Swindon. Prizes were presented by Barbara Kime from the local Bridge club, whose room was used for the tournament.

Results

Matthew Macfadyen (6d Leamington) was the best of the 30 players at the second Skye Tournament in Portree. He again won all six games to win the tournament. Second with four wins was Francis Roads (2d Wanstead) and third was Edwin Brady (1k St Andrews) with three wins. Colin Maclennan (11k Twickenham) won five games, and winning four were Ludan Fang (4k London), Quintin Connell and Wilf Dell (both 9k Glasgow). A large cheer went up at prize giving when it was announced the event would hopefully be run again in two years time.

Results

The 2012 Youth Championships had 13 competitors aged from 6 to 18, with strengths from 2 dan to 30 kyu. The library block at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire, served again as a great venue. Tian-Ren Chen from Loughborough regained the youth title, the previous year's winner not contesting it this year.

The Trigantius Tournament was won by Andrew Simons (3d Cambridge), beating Alex Rix (3d London) in his last game. Also on 3 out of 3 were Sue Paterson (4k, Brighton), Roger Daniel (5k, CLGC) and Richard Mullens (6k, St Albans).

Sin Voon Chin, 3d Birmingham, won the 9th Nottingham Tournament. The student from Brunei beat Toby Manning in an exciting game in the last round. Out of the 34 players the others winning all three were Laurence Ogden, 4k Manchester, David Wildgoose, 11k Sheffield, and local players Carl Roll, 5k, and Brent Cutts, 8k. Jonathan Green got a special mention for entering the quiz.

Results Photos

Since the 1960s Oxford has not done very well in its Go matches against Cambridge. Even by normal standards, 2011 was a particularly bad year -- Oxford lost 6-0. However, in the run-up to this year's match, Oxford's spirits were high. Their line-up included a 5 dan undergraduate, and a 4 dan chef, from China, as well as a 4 dan visiting professor from Korea. To combat this, Cambridge's team included one visiting Chinese 4 dan. On paper, therefore, Oxford were the clear favourites.

Victory did not come easy, however. The first round saw a game between an Oxford 2 dan (name withheld, to protect the guilty) and Sam Rodrigues (3 kyu) from Cambridge. It was a game of two ladders -- one was in the mind of the Oxford 2 dan, and the other was on the all-too-real Go board. After they had played 15 moves each in the ladder, it became apparent, even to the 2 dan, that Sam's mind had also contained the correct image of the real world.

This year's Oxford was the largest UK tournament apart from the London Open for 4 years. 87 players of all strengths took part, including a large contingent from Cambridge who would play the varsity match the following day and many young players encouraged by the included novices' event. Winner in a Cambridge-Oxford final was Lingjun Miao (4d) who beat Korean player Yousang Baik (4d). Players on 3 wins receiving book token prizes thanks to sponsor Hoyle's Games were: Paul Barnard (1k Swindon), Bogdan Ghica (3k Newmarket), Julia Woewodskaya (8k London), David Crabtree (9k Chester), Yvonne Margetts (15k Epsom), Pauline Bailey (16k West Surrey) and Edmund Smith (28k Milton). Junior prizes were awarded, thanks to GoGoD who donated 3 CDs, to Adan Mordcovich and Roella Smith in the U18 section, Anthony Ghica, Kelda Smith and Hammod Munir in the U15, Edmund Smith, and Rebecca Margetts in U12 and Isabelle Margetts in U9.