UK Tournament Report
Tetsuro Yoshitake Wins Wet Sheffield
— Tony AtkinsThis year 36 players took part in the annual Sheffield tournament, now in its fifth edition at Greenhill Library. Tetsuro Yoshitake (3d Nottingham) was the eventual winner with three wins and he is shown, right, receiving his prize. The next three places had to be separated by SOS to give second place to Toby Manning (1d Leicester), third to Richard Wheeldon (2k London) and fourth to Carl Roll (2k Nottingham).
Winning all three games were Ashley Lester (7k Nottingham), Daffyd Robinson (13k Lincoln) and 4 from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) - Sam Barnett (13k), Amy Upton (13k), Morgan Pittaway (24k) and Jacob Rubert (29k). These CHS 4 had all been to this year's summer Go camp. The group of 11 from CHS competing at Sheffield won 61% of their games on the day.
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Peikai Xue Wins Swindon
— Tony AtkinsPeikai Xue (2d London) won all three games to win the Swindon Tournament. 29 players took part at the now usual Conservative Club venue in Old Town. Jim Clare (1d Reading) was second on sos tie-break from Swindon's Tony Putman (1k) and Christian Scarff (1k), each with two wins. The only other player to win all three games was the London junior player Scott Cobbold (6k). Both he and Aidan Putman (1k Swindon) went home with "prestigious" trophies, Aidan's for the 13x13 side event.
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Joint Winners at Arundel
— Tony AtkinsTwenty-one players made it to Arundel this year. The organiser was especially grateful to those who had travelled many miles – some even braving the M25 – to experience Go in tournament conditions and enjoy the Arundel sunshine. This year there were two winners as shown in the picture: Alistair Wall (1d Wanstead) and Jonathan Reece (1k), who was on a brief visit from his home in South Africa. Alistair and Jonathan both had two wins in the four person round robin of the top boards. Two people won all three of their games: Malcolm Hagan (7k Arundel) and Pierre Oliviere (11k Harpenden). Although there was only one dan player in the tournament, there was a good showing of double-digit-kyus – seven in all.
Results available soon
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Toby Wins Cornwall Again
— TobyManningThere was a disappointing turn-out at the Cornish Go Weekend which was held in Falmouth this year; it had, however, the same format as in previous years.
On the Saturday morning Ian Marsh and Toby Manning led a teaching session, while the Handicap Tournament on Saturday afternoon was won by local man Miles Henderson Smith (11k), with Peter Collins (3k Bristol) being runner-up. Results
On Sunday Toby Manning (1k Leicester) won the 3 round McMahon Tournament for the seventh time, while local man Paul Massey (1k) was the runner-up. Results
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Zhang Chao Lectures after T Mark Hall Rapid
— Tony AtkinsOn 7th September 2019 the second T Mark Hall Rapid Play Tournament was held at the London Go Centre. There were 22 entries ranging from 5 dan to 25 kyu, including several youngsters. The winner, with a clean sweep, was first time entrant Zhang Zhiqing (5d China). Second place went to another first timer, Gene Wong (3d), a youngster from Hong Kong. Third was Alistair Wall (1d). The battle below the bar was won by three 2 kyu players, Quentin Rendu, Richard Wheeldon and Paul Smith. Pierre Oliviere was the best-placed DDK and he also kindly brought along some of the youngsters. A special "fighting spirit" prize was awarded to another first timer - Ellis Martin (20k) from Sir John Lawes School - who hung in there despite having no success.
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Not All Go at MSO
— Tony AtkinsThis year's Mind Sports Olympiad was held, like the previous five editions, at the JW3 community centre in London. As usual a large variety of games and mind sports, both new and traditional, was played over the eight days of the event. Several Go players and their families were seen in non-Go events, with some, like Natasha Regan, winning a Gold medal.
Unfortunately the first Go event (9x9) scheduled for the Friday morning, 23rd August, was cancelled by the organisers as they thought there was only one entry (Paco Garcia de la Banda from Spain), but it turned out there was an error in their registration system which was not passing that event over to their tournament system; some people were disappointed not to play.
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Narrow win for Richard Hunter in Isle of Man
— TobyManningThe 2019 Isle of Man Go Festival, held in memory of its creator, Leo Phillips, took place in Port Erin in a new venue, St Andrew’s Church Hall. Although attendance was a disappointing 21 the participants (and several spouses and friends) were a friendly lot and the congress spirit of previous years continued. The new venue proved a success. It was slightly nearer the sea providing a seaview from the kitchen window (the well equipped kitchen also doubling up as an analysis room). Although the cooler than usual for August and slightly breezy weather meant that no one took advantage of the garden to play outside while admiring the seaview.
The main Open tournament was won narrowly on tie-break by Richard Hunter (1d Bristol) from Sandy Taylor (2d Cambridge), but Sandy got his revenge by winning the Afternoon Tournament.
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Welsh Run Out of Beer
— Martin HarveyThe sun shone well for the 27th annual Welsh Open Go Tournament, held as ever in the coastal town of Barmouth, nestling at the foot of beautiful Snowdonia. 36 players vied over the two days, in the fine Min-y-Mor hotel, where many players had booked rooms, with others opting for the many nearby B+Bs. One intrepid youngster, whilst disabled, travelled solo from Potsdam in Germany, for his first-ever UK trip. The main organiser Helen Harvey was pleased both with the numbers and being sung Happy Birthday at prize giving! We were pleased to have a group of Chinese dan-players leading the field, plus four players who made it over from Nottingham for the weekend, and the return of old faces Eric and Elinor from Swindon.
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Durham Tournament at 25
— Tony AtkinsIn celebration of 25 years of Go in Durham, Durham Go Tournament 2019 was suitably festive - from the Go Club cupcakes to the 25 Year t-shirts (0.25% of the 10,000 year ko!)
The weekend started with players meeting in the pub for a meal on the Friday night. There were 36 entries to the tournament - 15 either current Durham players or alumni of the Durham club, and 18 people who had no connection with the Durham club at all. In total 16 clubs were represented; it was particularly good to see the fledgling Beverley Go Club in attendance.
Durham is a friendly, 6-round, weekend-long tournament. This year it was, for the third year running, held at the Oriental Museum.
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Joanne and Bruno Make it a Double
— Tony AtkinsThe 38th British Pair Go Championship was held at its now regular venue, the Red Lion in Hatfield. As well as serving lunches and drinks, this has a garden to sit in (when it is not raining), is very close to the railway station and has some nearby shops (including that Hertfordshire delight, a Simmons bakery).
Some of the stronger pairs could not play this time; for instance Natasha Regan was lecturing on Go at the Cheltenham Science Festival. However, thanks to the minibus from Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) there were still 15 pairs, many including youngsters.
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