Foreign Tournament Report

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

The result of the UK match against Switzerland is uncertain as one game was not finished. Bruno played his game early on the Sunday morning and won, but on the Tuesday night both Alex and Jamie lost. Jon's game against Frédéric Schlattner was, however, abandoned after connection issues meant his opponent dropped out four times.

League Page with game records

The UK drew their second match in the B-League of the Pandanet Go European Team Championship, against Turkey, with the last two games ending within a few seconds of each other. Black won all four games by resignation. This left them ninth in the table.

League Page with game records

The UK lost their first match, against Sweden, in the new season of the B-League in the Pandanet Go European Team Championship, one game to three. This left the team
eighth out of ten in the table.

League Page with game records

The London Go Centre, with help from the British Go Association (including Matt Marsh as Tournament Director), ran the 2021 edition of the European Women's Go Championship. Unfortunately was is not held in London at the Go Centre (as originally planned for 2020), but was played online on OGS. The online games attracted audiences of up to 80 and Diana Koszegi (2p) analysed some on Twitch (will be uploaded later on the LGC YouTube channel). During the final round she commented with Benjamin Drean-Guenaizia (6d) live on three games, the top two boards and Julia Volovich's game.

The London Go Centre, with help from the British Go Association, is currently running the 2021 edition of the European Women's Go Championship. Unfortunately it is not in London, but is being played online on OGS.

You can follow the games and get results at http://online-go.com/group/9843.

Thirty players took part in the first round. Of the 13 above the 1d bar, the winners were from Russia, France and Germany.

For the final game of the season our team had to play another mid-table team, Turkey. With Des Cann dropping out of the match at short notice, captain Sandy Taylor stepped in and led the team to a three-one victory. Daniel Hu and Alison Bexfield were the other winners. This left the team in fifth position in the B-League after Germany beat top team Netherlands to stay in fourth. Italy was the runner up and Finland was third.

League Page with game records

Daniel Hu wrote of his game against Kaan Malçok: I played solid shapes for a moyo game. My opponent made a few too many weak groups and though I spent a long time wondering if I was able to kill their big group that invaded my area, I decided it didn't work due to a shortage of liberties on the lower side. Still, I could attack by using some driving tesujis.

For the second match in a row in the B-League, Alison Bexfield was the team's star player, with the only win. Finland thus won the match three games to one. Germany won their match which moved the team down to fifth position, with just one match to go.

League Page with game records

Alex Kent wrote of his game against Javier-Aleksi Savolainen: I lost my game by resignation. The opening had an interesting bit of symmetry on the bottom side which meant it was miai to lean on the each of our 3-4 stones. I gave my opponent too much scope to lean on (and potentially separate) the top side, so I fell a bit behind. My assessment was that I was nearly alive in the centre so my opponent's wall wasn't worth as much, but this proved to be inaccurate! I should probably have tried to treat my central stones more lightly.