UK Tournament Report

For the second weekend running, Yohei Negi was equal on game points with 2 others at the top of the table, but this time a tie-breaker was in use, and he won ahead of Matthew Scott and Sandy Taylor by one SOS point, retaining the Welsh Open title he won last year. Also finishing with 4 out of 5, below the bar (which was at 2d), were Richard Mullens and Richard Scholefield. It is pleasing to report that 39 players took part, an increase on last year. The weather was glorious, and go players enjoyed paddling in the sea, walking along the beach, promenade and hills at the back of Barmouth, and open-air Go in front of the Min-Y-Mor Hotel. The same venue has been booked for next year's tournament, to take place 25th-26th June 2011.

Results

This weekend has seen the biggest Durham Go Tournament ever, with 54 people gathering at St John's College, Durham for two days and a lot of Go.

Since it was the biggest Durham tournament ever, having a mere one winner seemed paltry, so in the absence of meaningful tie-breaks, the tournament was won jointly by Matt Reid, Yohei Negi and Matt Crosby, all on five wins.

The tournament was enlivened on the first day with regular reports from Andrew Kay, who had been expected to arrive in Durham on Friday evening, but had chosen to hitch-hike, and spent much of Saturday on the road, finally getting to Durham about 9pm, by which time three rounds were over and 35 players had eaten in a Chinese buffet.

British Pair Go Championships

This year the Pair Go Championships, the 20th, were held again at the Foxcombe Lodge Hotel, Boars Hill near Oxford, thanks to new proprietor Gary Adams. Last year's winners Kirsty Healey and Matthew Macfadyen lost in round two to Alison and Simon Bexfield, but Alison and Simon lost the final. The winners were Natasha Regan and Matthew Cocke, who took the championship for the first time in five years. In the 10-pair handicap group, the winners for the second year running were young Kelda Smith and her father Paul Smith, from Cambridge. The best dressed pair competition again featured top-hatted winners: Sarah Wright and Alistair Turnbull won with reigning world best dressed champions, Kirsty Healey and Matthew Macfadyen, taking second spot. Paul and Kelda Smith also won the RE quiz with 20 points.

Challengers' League

Young Vanessa Wong, currently studying in Shrewsbury, is to play the British Championship Title Match against reigning champion Matthew Macfadyen.

Both players earned their places at the Challengers' League held over a long weekend at the Nippon Club in central London. Matthew convincingly won all 7 of his games, beating Vanessa in the last round. However Vanessa had earlier lost to Nick Krempel in round 3, so, when Richard Hunter only lost to Matthew and Vanessa, there had to be a play-off between Vanessa and Richard, which Vanessa won.

Nick Krempel, Tim Hunt and Andrew Simons ended with three wins, Matthew Scott with 2 and Kiyohiko Tanaka, who was also acting as host, ended on 0. Thanks go to him for hosting and to Nick Wedd for acting as referee.

The Title Match will be scheduled on various weekends over the coming months, often alongside a tournament.

Scottish Open

Yohei Negi from St. Andrews made it three in a row with his win at the 2010 Open. Second this year was Chi Pan Yau from Hong Kong, who only lost to Yohei. All the players on three wins also got prizes, which consisted of cash plus a bottle of Cairn O’Mohr local fruit wine. 27 players took part, all going away with traditional pot of marmelade. In the Friday evening rapidplay, Jennie Radcliffe got the prize for the best win/games ratio with 5/7, and Robbie Goetschalckx took the endurance prize having played a dozen or more games.

42 players took part in the Bracknell Tournament held again at the community centre in Woosehill, Wokingham. Winner was Felix Wang who beat previous winner Jon Diamond in the last round. Felix became the first holder of the new trophy given in memory of former organiser Clive Hendrie Also winning three were Helen Harvey (3 kyu Manchester), Elinor Brooks (8 kyu Swindon) and Malcolm Law (10 kyu Brighton). Neil Cleverly won the caption contest and Jim Clare won the Go Puzzle competition again. Michael Harrington (17 kyu Bracknell) won the 13x13 and the team prize was won by Swindon. Gerry Mills got a special prize for supporting the event with the bookshop over many years.

Results

34 players took part in the first stage of the 2010 British Championship at the Diamond at Selwyn College, Cambridge; 26 of the players joined in a meal at the Bella Italia restaurant.

Vanessa Wong (5 dan) won the tournament at her first attempt, winning all 6 of her games. This was Vanessa's first UK adult title, having previously won the Under-12 Championship. Andrew Simons (2 dan Cambridge) and Matthew Scott (1 dan Newcastle) both won five games proving the next generation is starting to snap at Matthew Macfadyen's heals. Matthew, as champion, did not have to play, but was on hand for intensive analysis of games. Richard Hunter (4 dan Bath), Tim Hunt (3 dan Milton Keynes) and Nick Krempel (3 dan London) took the next three places in the Challenger's League. The final place went to Kiyohiko Tanaka (3 dan London) who just squeezed out Alex Sleby (4 dan Cambridge) on second tie-break.

Results

Bar-Low, Cambridge

19 players from 1 kyu to 19 kyu attended the Bar-Low kyu-players only tournament in Cambridge. This year it was again part of the mind sports weekend and held in Whewell's Court of Trinity College. James Murray (2 kyu London) was the winner with four out of five. Second on tie-break was Graham Philips (1 kyu Cambridge), who only lost to the winner. Third was Benjamin Ellis (5 kyu Leicester) who actually beat the winner but lost to two other players. Roella Smith (14 kyu) from the Cambridge juniors also won 4 games.

London International Teams

Unfortunately Cambridge had to withdraw at short notice, so only two teams attended the spring International Teams match. As usual it was held at the Nippon Club in Piccadilly. Each team member played all the members of the other team. It was the Oriental team of Chinese and Japanese players that were the best. Their players Felix Wang and Gunji Takao won all 5 games, and they won 17 games overall. The Occidental team scored 8 and settled for second place.

The 43rd British Go Congress was held in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. 74 players took part in the British Open, held at the University Union building, Teviot Row House. Andrew Kay (4 dan Cambridge) won with 6/6. Jon Diamond (4 dan Silver Springs) was in second place with 5/6. Also winning 5 was local player Boris Mitrovic (8 kyu).