Foreign Tournament Report

The UK team beat Norway 3-1 in the third match of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship C League season. Unfortunately for Ireland their top board didn’t show up and, despite wins for Gavin Rooney and Philippe Renaut, they could only draw, with penalty points for the missing game. However this meant that the UK team moved up from second to top place. [See here for League Page with game records.]

In the second match of the season in the C League, the UK team played Spain. Unfortunately for them their number one player, Óscar Anguila, was ill and so the team order was shuffled up with a reserve on board three. In the match the UK players outplayed their opponents to win all four games which moved the team up to second place.

Leading the C League with two wins is Ireland who beat Slovenia three games to one, with wins for Karl Irwin, Philippe Renaut and John Courtney, but a loss for Gavin Rooney.

League Page with game records

In the first match of the season, now in the C League, the UK team played Bulgaria. Des Cann's game ended quickly with a win and new captain Bruno Poltronieri also won. Unfortunately Jamie Taylor and Scott Cobbold both lost, leaving the match drawn and the team in third position out of 8.

However later the Bulgarian board 4 player's results were discounted in all matches so the UK gained an extra board win changing the match into a 3-1 win.

Our representative in this year's KPMC, Bruno Poltronieri, came 28th out of 52 in this prestigious event, with 3 wins out of 6.

He beat players from Lithuania, Italy and Brazil, and lost to Colombia, Sweden and Singapore.

Full results at http://kpmc.kbaduk.or.kr/eng/result/gameTable.asp

The UK team beat Croatia 4-0 in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship on 24th May to give the team its first and only win of the season. Congratulations to Daniel Hu, Bruno Poltronieri, Alex Kent and Des Cann for this convincing win in the last round. To avoid relegation they needed South Africa to lose their last round match, but South Africa defeated a weakened Italian team 3-1. This meant that the UK team ended bottom of League B and have therefore been relegated to League C for the 2022-2023 season. Germany and Austria both won to take first and second places respectively.

The UK team lost to Germany 0-4 in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship on 3rd May. The cemented Germany in second place in the B League behind Austria. The UK stayed bottom behind South Africa in 9th and Croatia in 8th, the opponents in the last match on 24th May.

League Page with game records

The seventh match of the season was against Finland. At their request Bruno played board one on the previous Saturday and the games on the Tuesday were at staggered times. In the end Bruno was the only winner and the loss put the team in bottom place of the B League, on tie-break behind South Africa.

Because Russia and Belarus have been removed from the leagues, there is only one relegation place now this season.

League Page with game records

The UK team lost to Austria 3-1 in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship on 8th March; congratulations to Jamie Taylor who provided our win. We are now 9th (out of 10) in league B and in the potential relegation zone: everything now probably depends on our last match against Croatia who are just above us in the Table unless we can beat one of the higher teams.

League Page with game records

For the February match the UK was against Italy who are in the top half of the league table. All our team lost to give Italy a win. The teams below (Croatia and South Africa) both lost, so the team stayed eighth.

League Page with game records

Following the abandonment of a game in the match against Switzerland in December causing the team to lose the match, the team was hoping to do better against South Africa. Indeed when Bruno Poltronieri played the first board on the Saturday before and beat the very strong Victor Chow, a win looked possible. On the match Tuesday, in the other games, Des Cann won his game, but Jon Diamond and Alison Bexfield lost making the match drawn; the team stayed in eighth place, just above the relegation zone.

League Page with game records