UK Tournament Report

Mannami Kana, 4p, helped the Nippon Club team win the Autumn London International Teams. Miss Mannami was in London to help the Nippon Club celebrate its 50th anniversary and was honoured guest at the tournament. As well as helping Mr Tanaka and Mr Nao win the event, she gave a commentary on the previous week's British Title game two (in which Matthew Macfadyen beat Vanessa Wong). Winning the new handicap sections were the St Albans team and the South London/City team.

Charles Fisher and his brother Freddie won half of the prizes at Shrewsbury. Charles, 1 dan London, was the event winner, beating the organiser, Gerry Mills, in the final. Freddie, 10k Shropshire, was one of two players on 2.5. The other was Pat Ridley, 11 k Chester. Pauline Bailey won a special prize for being Pauline. 32 players took part.

Results

The Belfast Open saw a fair crowd of 18 players and 1 ghost turning out to do battle. The winner was David Phillips (1 dan) of the Isle of Man, who gracefully lost his last round game thus creating a four way tie for second. Claas Roever (1 kyu) and James Hutchinson (1 kyu) shared second place on SOS, just ahead of Daniel Paraschiv (1 dan) and then Colin MacSweeny (2 kyu). On 4 wins was Julian Dragomir (7 kyu), visiting from Romania, and Costin Camarasu (15 kyu).

Results

Alistair Wall (3 dan Wanstead) won Swindon Tournament. The only other of the 28 players to win all three was Xinyi Lu (4 kyu Maidenhead). Two Swindon players, Aidan Putman (14 kyu) and Michael Fotheringham (30 kyu), got special prizes for their jigo.

Results

The two BGA teachers from the Saturday morning teaching session were the winners in the Cornish Go weekend's two tournaments. In the 16-player Cornish Lightning Handicap on the Saturday afternoon, Tony Atkins (2 dan Reading) was the winner in the final against John Culmer (1 kyu, West Cornwall) despite having to give a four-stone start. On the Sunday, Toby Manning (2 dan Leicester) won the 20-player Cornish Open. Again John Culmer was the player beaten in the last round. Toby collected the Devon and Cornwall Go Stone trophy, whilst Tony collected a new similar trophy (but serpentine and not wood) given in memory of a local player, Dominic Taylor, who had died recently.

Cornish Open Tournament and Cornish Lightning Handicap Tournament results.

Ivan Wong, a Chinese 1 dan research student at Manchester University, won the Northern Tournament on 5th September at the Stockport Masonic Guildhall. Unusually Ivan was the only player of the 24 there to win all three games and so was the only prize winner. Gerry Mills again brought the BGA bookstall, but for the last time.

The Isle of Skye Go Club hosted the first Skye Tournament at the Tongadale Hotel in Portree. 32 players took part in the main event, consisting of a mix of locals players and players from Scotland, England and even Switzerland. Winner was Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington) winning all six games. Second on four wins were Yohei Negi and Francis Roads, both 3 dan. Another six players won four, but the only player to win five out of six was Philipp Reinhard (3 kyu) from Zurich.

There were no British players winning Go Golds at this year's Mind Sports Olympiad. The event was held between 21st and 30th August at the Soho Theatre in the centre of London and had restricted space, meaning fewer events than normal. Six players played the 13x13 on the Friday afternoon, with Gold going to Spain's Paco Garcia de la Banda (3 dan). Silver went to Xinyi Lu (4 kyu) and silver to Vincent Frochot (8 kyu) from France. In the 12-player Open on the final Sunday, the Gold was won by Turkish 1 dan, Bulent Tuncel. Silver went to Paco and Bronze on tie-break to Alistair Wall (3 dan).

Go players took part in other games too, throughout the event, with some awards, such as Natasha Regan's Silver at Hare and Tortoise and Matthew Hathrell's Golds at Lost Cities, Continuo and Poker.

Oscar Selby, aged 7, became the youngest winner of a Manx Go event at the recent Isle of Man Go Week. He won the 13x13 and also the Rengo (doubles) with Matthew Cocke. Not much older was the winner of the Lightning Tournament, Barney Shiu.

Matthew Cocke just missed out on a top spot, losing the Open

30 players attended this year's MK, held at a new time of year and held in the newly built Hub and adjacent hall at the OU. Winner was Mathieu Delli-Zotti, a French 1 kyu now living in Brighton. Also winning three were Graham Philips (2 kyu) and Steve Bailey (4 kyu). The best team was Cambridge who won 2/3 of their games. Steve Bailey also won 4/5 games on the MK-Goban, but the prize went to Paul Smith for 5/9.

Results