Junior News

The 2013 British Youth Champion is Tian-Ren Chen, retaining the title he won last year. Second was Matei Mandache, a fellow-student at Loughborough School.

The Castledine Trophy was won this year by Loughborough, who beat Aston by 2 games to 1.

The Best Primary School award went to Sandilands, Manchester. They entered five 8- and 9-year-olds, who enjoyed some successes in this their first-ever tournament away from their school.

The event was held on 17th March, at the new venue of King Edward VI (Aston) School, Birmingham.
The event attracted 27 competitors aged from 7 to 18, with strengths from 37 kyu to 1 dan.

A prize (a nice Easter egg) was awarded to each of the winners and runners-up in each age group (Under-8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18), as well as those with 3 or 4 wins. There were also prizes for the 3 children who correctly answered all the Go-puzzles on an A4 hand-out.

Congratulations to the top three players in the 2012 Youth Grand Prix, who receive cash prizes thanks to the family of the late John Rickard. First was Edmund Smith, 19k Milton, with 748 points. Second was Adan Mordcovich, 1d Wanstead, with 611 points, and third was Oscar Selby, 14k Epsom, with 590 points. The 2013 Grand Prix is already under way.

Final Points 2012     Youth Grand Prix description

On the afternoon of Wednesday 31st October, a match took place on KGS between a team of French and a team of British youth players. The French fielded a team of eight. The British team originally consisted of four players, each set to play two games: Henry Clay (1k), Melchior Chui (12k), Peran Truscott (13k) and Oscar Selby (14k).

In the event, Peran's computer and KGS took against each other, meaning that he was not able to join us. Heavy snow also made for a rocky start, delaying the French players (who were travelling from a youth camp to a college in Grenoble for the match). The French finally defeated the elements, and to avoid disappointing two of their players, Oscar Selby went above and beyond the call of duty. He played both boards three and four, for a total of four consecutive games - and he still managed to finish before anybody else!

Round one was played even, and round two at handicap -1.

The Finals of the UK Go Challenge were held on Sunday 24th June in Cambridge. 22 young players took part, both those who had not played in a heat and those that had. It was won by Satoru Oshima from Brighton who is 1 dan, yet only 8 years old. Roella Smith was second and Peran Truscott was third.

Results

Adan Mordcovich from London is the new champion of the UK Go Challenge. He also won the Under-18 Boys section forcing Aston's Mazhar Warraich to take second in the section and overall. Hamzah Reta, also from Aston, was third overall and Under-16 Boys Champion.

Aston won the schools trophy and their Ibraheem Mustafa won the Under-12 Boys. Thomas Meehan from Solihull won the Under-14 Boys.

Milton School players cleaned up in the younger age groups and won the Junior School Cup. Roella Smith was Top Girl winning the Under-12 and her sister Kelda won the Under-8s. Their brother Edmund, aged 6, won the Boys Under-8 and Mark Slatter won the Boys Under-10.

Prizes were also awarded to many others for good results or solving puzzles.

A special award of UK Go Challenge Meijin Organiser was given to Mr Mike Lynn for supporting the event from its start up to his forthcoming retirement.

Results

UK GO Challenge Finals

Roella Smith from Milton near Cambridge won this year's UK Go Challenge Finals. 29 of the best players from 5 school heats and other youngsters took part. Roella was also top girl. She beat the top boy, Barney Shiu, into second place by a half-point win in their game.