Junior + ALL news

The UK Youth Team Captain, Alison Bexfield, writes:

The youth team is playing Germany on Saturday 15th December and teams have been chosen.

This is our 2nd match in the 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC).

The match is interesting. We narrowly won our opening match against Croatia. Germany may prove an even harder test. They have a very strong squad, but are wisely and sportingly giving mid-order players some match experience. We thus have an outside chance of winning it, but only if everyone plays up to their top level.

We wish the team luck especially Yanyi, who is making his debut for our team. Families, friends, Brits and Germans, and all Go-players are welcome to watch any of the matches on KGS.

The matches will all commence at 2pm UK time.

Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, brings us these 2 stories - the first pre-match, and the second post-match - to follow on from her UK Squad announcement. The 2018/19 European Youth Go Team Championship (EYGTC) is held online over four rounds, on KGS.

Pre-match

The UK Youth team is today (24th November 2018) playing its first international match of the season, with a game against Croatia. The UK is starting in the second half of the 12 national teams, so is playing another of the teams in our half of the draw.

My UK team selection takes account of a number of things, including selecting a team that could win the match, trying to make sure all team players have a chance to play at least one match in the tournament, and trying to make the games not too unbalanced.

Alison Bexfield, UK Youth Team Captain, writes:

I am pleased to announce this year's UK Youth Team for the European Youth Go Team Championship 2018/19 (EYGTC). This is held online over four rounds on KGS.

The standard in the UK team has increased every year, with this year no exception. I put together a talented UK Team Squad with up to 15 Juniors, and then I select a team of 5 for each match, from three age groups. Each match is played over five boards - one U20, two U16 and two U12.

Traditionally we have done quite well in the U12 age groups, but less so at the top end, where often board 1 is a mid-rank dan player.

On a pleasant autumnal day, this year - as ever - the splendidly organised Doki Doki Festival was held in Manchester, helped a lot by members of the friendly Japan Society North West (JSNW).

This is an exciting event, with all imaginable Japan-themed activities, stalls & competitions, attracting a huge and youthful attendance. For each such occasion, the organisers invite us back (we're the British Go Association - BGA), to give free Go demos to large numbers of the public. As ever, we quickly accepted.

17 BGA members kept 7+ demo-boards busy, from 10am to 6pm, after setting-up of our stalls from 8am. This number helped cover us at busy times, and enabled us to take refreshment & other breaks.

The second BGA Youth Residential Training was held like in 2017 at the PGL youth adventure centre at Caythorpe Court, not far from Grantham in Lincolnshire. The BGA group was made up of 10 boys and 10 girls aged 10 to 17 from Manchester, Letchworth, Cambridge, Lincoln and London areas, and five resident adults and two visiting teachers.

Wednesday 29th August had started wet in most areas, but by the time everyone had arrived at lunchtime the weather was fair, so the outside activities could be enjoyed. The two activities were the High Swing and Survivor (bushcraft training). After dinner the youngsters assembled in the three rooms of the classroom block for the first two rounds of a Go tournament, but also to enjoy some other games (such as Battle Sheep).

On Saturday 27th January 2018, the UK youth team played their third match, against Romania. The latter were 'on a roll', having won 5-0 in their previous match. We also lost by 0 boards to 5. This was in the European Youth Go Team Championship 2017/18 (EYGTC). Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

After two rounds, the UK were sitting in fifth place out of 12 teams, and so faced a strong team in the third round.
Some of our strongest players were not available but, even if they had been, it would have been an uphill battle to defeat Romania.

Charlotte Bexfield, Josh Gorman and Wenzhou Mei fought hard on boards 1-3, against much stronger opponents, but were unable to achieve an upset, with all losing their games as expected.

On boards 4 and 5, things were much tighter on paper, but we know from experience that Romanian youth grades are 'stronger' than UK ones.

Starting on Saturday 10th February 2018, the UK youth team played their fourth (& final) match, against Hungary. We lost by 2 boards to 3. This was in the European Youth Go Team Championship 2017/18 (EYGTC). Please follow that link for details of all countries' youth team squads.
So, the final Top 3 countries this year are as follows.
Winners = Russia;
Second = Germany;

The 24th annual European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) will be held in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, during the 2018 Easter holidays. This is the biggest youth competition in Europe, and there are already over 100 youngsters registered, from 8 countries, as at 21st January. There are three age groups: Under-12, Under-16 and Under-20. The BGA has arranged for a group of UK juniors to attend, with the support of DeepMind.

The UK party is 16-strong, as at 21st January - all with flights booked (also accommodation - in one hotel where our own evening 'UK team room' is available). Entry to the competition - and the UK group - is still open, however. The upper age cut-offs for U12 and U16 will be taken as at 31 August of 2006 and 2002 respectively.
The first three days include lectures, coaching and excursions and the last three days are the tournament. It is possible to attend just the tournament.

On Saturday 25th November 2017, the UK youth team played their second match, against Czechia. We won by 3 boards to 2. This was in the new season of the European Youth Go Team Championship 2017/18 (EYGTC). Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

  Post-match comments (see below for comments prior to the games): 

The UK Youth Go Team won their match against Czechia 3-2. This leaves the UK in fifth place out of the twelve teams after two rounds. The third round will take place in January.

Our team for the match comprised Yueran Wang, George Han, Edmund Smith, Alexander Hsieh and Zoe Walters. It was Zoe's first appearance in the team.

Yueran (playing up an age group on the U20 board) and Alexander (U12) outranked their opponents slightly on paper and were each able to land a comfortable win.

On Saturday 11th November 2017, the UK youth team played their opening match, against one of their hardest adversaries, Germany. We lost by 4 boards to 1. This was in the first round of the new season of the European Youth Go Team Championship 2017/18 (EYGTC). Please follow that link for names of the complete UK youth team squad.

  Post-match comments (see below for comments prior to the games): 

The UK Youth Go Team played Germany in the first round of the European Youth Go Team Championship yesterday (11 November). Due to a strong performance in the previous season, the UK were seeded into the top half of the draw, so this first match was always going to be tough.

We were outranked by at least 5 grades on boards 1, 3 and 5. Although our players - Tom Bradbury, Josh Gorman and Alexander Hsieh - fought hard, these 3 games ended as predicted with losses.