Foreign Tournament Report

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Germany had been struggling in this year's B-League, but the grades of the team they fielded against the UK suggested this match was likely to go their way. Four interesting games ensued and the top three boards were won by Germany. However Alison Bexfield was the team's star player, with a very entertaining game giving her the only UK win of the evening. The loss meant the team slipped to fourth position with two matches to go.

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Daniel Hu wrote of his game: I lost by resign to Benjamin Teuber after losing a large group at the end. The game was mostly good for my opponent, but within +/- 5 points. This was after I backed down from an early fight, failing to punish an overplay in the lower left joseki and instead sacrificing my stones. The variation on the right was probably questionable, and in several variations I was probably too willing to sacrifice my stones.

It was an exciting match against Italy with some interesting games and the added excitement of Jon Diamond's game breaking just at the crucial point in a fight. In the end it ended honours even which left us third in the B-League just ahead of Finland, both on 7 points. At the top Netherlands beat Sweden to go a point clear of Italy with 10 points.

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Daniel Hu wrote of his game against Matias Pankoke: I was first to finish this time, in less than 2 hours, a surprisingly relaxing game. My opponent tenukied in the upper left which may be slightly questionable. A standard joseki ensued on the lower side, where he should get 2nd line territory on both sides and I get thickness on the 4th line and half an eye on the lower side. I'm not sure my clamp was best, but it was fighting spirit when he refused to play the simple one space jump. He certainly misplayed it, trying to save everything.

A late change on each team meant it was going to be close against Croatia in the fifth match of the season. In the end the UK lost three games to one, with Des Cann taking the only win. At the top of the B-League Italy drew and Netherlands won to equal Italy on match points. The UK stayed third, just ahead of Finland on board points tie-break.

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Alex Kent wrote: I lost by 2.5 points to Matej Zakanj (komi was applied retroactively as it was set incorrectly). The opening seemed very balanced - I played a slightly dodgy sequence in the lower left corner but this ended up working in the board position. We ended up with a situation where we each had a large framework in addition to some smaller territories. We traded moves for a while prodding each other's moyos before I messed up a bit and sacrificed a number of stones which I probably could have done more with.