Junior News

We're now in December - the final month of the 2014 Youth Grand Prix (YGP).

Cash prizes of £50, £30 and £20 will soon be decided.

With 11 months' results now in, the current standings suggest that the top 3 will come from these 4 players (grade, club and - most importantly, here - current YGP points are in brackets):

Edmund Smith (10k Milton 595)

Melchior Chui (9k Cambridge 510)

Kelda Smith (17k Milton 508)

Charlotte Bexfield (10k Letchworth 480)

Can Melchior, Kelda, Charlotte - or anybody else - stop Edmund regaining the title he lost last year to Oscar Selby?

The UK youth go team, as you would know from previous news items, is one of 13 teams signed up to the European Youth Go Team Championship. Follow that link to see the 12 players currently registered in the UK team.

In the second round of matches, the UK team beat Italy on Sat. 29th November.

Well done to Thomas, Oscar, Alex, Edmund and Anthony for their 4-1 win, which places the UK currently 6th out of the 13 teams taking part. Every board does count, as board-wins form part of the tie-break if teams have equal match-points.

As expected, Alex and Edmund had convincing wins on boards 3 and 4 respectively. Oscar also claimed his win, but unfortunately this was due to Italy not showing up on that board. They will receive a yellow card for that. Thomas had a tough game on board 1, and his much stronger opponent prevailed.

The UK youth team played Romania on KGS on the afternoon of Saturday 15th November, in the first round of the European Youth Go Team Championship. The team played well against some very strong competition. They were hugely outranked on the first 4 boards, but had an even match on board 5, where Edmund did well to turn his game around from a difficult position into a convincing win by resignation. They lost the other four games, although post game analysis on board 3 revealed a slightly early resignation by our player (Dylan), who had played some excellent middle game moves and actually had the slightly better position.

All in all a good start against one of the strongest teams – the next matches should be easier. The second match is against Italy on 29th November.

Well done to everyone who played.

Alison Bexfield
BGA UK Youth Squad Manager

Romania 4 - 1 UK
U20

National Youth Squad members will have received invitations to join the junior online club which will meet on Sunday evenings 8:00 - 9:00 pm. This will use a private room on the KGS server. The aim is for junior squad members who live a long way from other players to be able to meet and play with other juniors in a dedicated online club room. Members will also be able to ask Alison Bexfield (squad leader) and Roger Huyshe (BGA online coach) for analysis and advice to help improve their play. To join this club you will need parents permission to play on KGS and a KGS name. You will need to contact Alison to be given permission to join the private club room as access is restricted to members only.

Our Youth Squad leader Alison Bexfield is running a 6-round rapid-play tournament in Letchworth on Saturday 8th November 2014. There will be two separate junior sections included in this event. The Junior Open is for juniors who are confident players (stronger than 20 kyu) and the novice section is for those newer to the game or who have not achieved success in tournaments to date.

This is one of a series of events Alison is planning, to create more chances for juniors to play against each other.

You can find more details about this event in this flyer.

Don’t forget that some assistance with travel costs may be available from the Castledine–Barnes Trust.

Congratulations to Oscar Selby, 7 kyu from Epsom, for winning the 2013 Youth Grand Prix with an outstanding 1411 points - more than twice the number of his next challenger!

Second came Edmund Smith, 15 kyu from Milton (Cambridge), with 702 points and third was Melchior Chui, 12 kyu from Cambridge, with 499 points.

Full details for 2013 are here

Cash prizes to the top three players are provided from a fund set up in memory of John Rickard, 4 dan, and will be presented at the British Youth Go Championship.

As the autumn term gets underway and we start thinking of the exciting Go events in 2014, including the European Youth Go Championships coming to England, let's remind ourselves about one of the exciting events earlier this year.

23 youngsters competed in the 2013 finals of the UK Go Challenge, held at Milton C of E Primary School near Cambridge. It was especially good to see two brothers from Bungay at their first event.

Congratulations go to the top 3 overall place-winners: 1. Oscar Selby, 2. David Robson, 3.

Congratulations to youngsters Rebecca Margetts and Oscar Selby, who finished top of the handicap section at this year's British Pair Go Championship, above 14 players (nearly all adults). This meant that they got their hands on the trophies (pairs go-bowls), which just eluded them when they lost in the final in 2012. There's clearly proof in the old adage "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.". Well done, Rebecca and Oscar, especially as their combined average grade of 22.5 kyu was 7 whole grades stronger than the year before. Could anybody beat them in 2014?

Channel 4 showed 9-year-old Oscar Selby (8.9 kyu, Epsom Go club) on Tuesday 18/6/13, in its series 'Child Genius'. The series of 4 episodes (shown each Tuesday at 9pm) follows a competition among 21 highly-gifted children, aged 7-11, run in association with British Mensa, to find the UK's ultimate child genius.

The last 2 episodes are broadcast on Tues. 25 June & Tues. 2 July.

The programme notes for episode 2 start: "Mild-mannered nine-year-old maths machine Oscar, who became the youngest person ever to get an A* in GCSE Maths aged seven, is a competition favourite but, away from the familiarity of maths, how will he fare in the unknown territory of this week's general knowledge round?". Watch the episodes on 4OD (Channel 4 catch-up).

Each week, 5 children exit the competition. How far can Oscar go?

A new junior club is starting on 18th April - Letchworth Junior Chess and Go Club. The club will be a place for youngsters aged 8 - 14 to come and play (or learn) Chess and Go.

These are some of the things you can expect provided at the weekly club meetings:

• Chess sets and Go sets for playing friendly games
• Teaching tips for improving at chess and Go
• Club Chess ladder
• Club Go ladder
• Termly Chess and Go tournaments
• Puzzle sheets

Follow the above link for full, up-to-date details.