Junior + ALL news

The UK Junior team is currently lying in 9th place of the 12 teams in the European Youth Go Online Team Championship with two rounds to go. They lost 2 board to 3 against Czechi on 28th November. Edmund Smith and Aidan Wong won their games in the U12 section, where as Laurence Turner (U20), Alex Terry and Dylan Zhu Dong (U16) lost theirs.

The UK will be playing the combined team of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia in round 3 which is scheduled for Saturday 12 December. This is likely to be a close match with our strength in depth on the U12 boards countered by their U20 strength so the two U16 boards are likely to be critical.

The UK Youth Go team played Poland in the first round of the four round European Youth Online Team Championship and won 3-2. Lawrence had a tough game on board 1 against a strong dan player on the U18 board. However our strength in the U16s paid off with both Oscar and Alex winning their U16 boards. Both U12 boards were evenly matched in paper. Aidan had a close defeat but Alexander gained an easy win to clinch the match. The team will be playing Czechia next on 28 November.

Unfortunately there was not enough support for the British Youth Go Championship on the date planned (31st May) and we have had to postpone it until the autumn.

The UK Go Challenge Finals (13x13 boards) is going ahead though on Saturday 18th July in Letchworth Garden City. All young players of any level are welcome at that.

The UK had six players representing it at the European Youth Go Championships held over the weekend of 15th March in Zandvoort am Zee in the Netherlands.

Looking very smart in their UK Youth Team hoodies there was a good team spirit. After the first two rounds things were not looking good for the UK, but in the later rounds we did pick up more wins to end with a total of 14 points out of 36.

One of our players had a very exciting finish in the last round. After an epic game, in which her opponent had gone into three sets of overtime, Roella claimed a win by one point – after the additional extra 6 points komi courtesy of Ing overtime rules which give two penalty points per overtime set.

I am pleased to announce that the UK is fielding a national youth team in the first European Youth Go Team Championship (which is being held online for logistical reasons).

We have a squad of 12 players from which we select 5 players for each match of which one must be U20, two U16 and two U12. Well done to the 12 players who have been selected for the national youth squad:

• U20 Melchior Chui
• U20 Thomas Meehan
• U16 Hasan Nisar
• U16 Dylan Zhu
• U16 Charlotte Bexfield
• U16 Roella Smith
• U16 Kelda Smith
• U16 Alex Terry
• U12 Oscar Selby
• U12 Edmund Smith
• U12 Anthony Ghica
• U12 Hilary Bexfield

Our first match will be a tough one against Romania on 15 November. We will be updating the junior news pages with the team’s progress in this five round competition.

Alison Bexfield
BGA UK Youth Squad Manager

The cartoon booklet "Go An Introduction", where the Chess pieces learn to play from the Go stones, has been reissued. The new version uses pass stones at the end of the game just like in the UK Go Challenge and other tournaments. It also corrects the spelling error "altohether"!

You can see the online version or the PDF version or ask us to send your Go group some of the new printed ones.

Following on from the success of the European Youth Go Championship 2014 held in the UK, the British Go Association is forming a youth squad which is aiming to send a UK national team to the 2015 youth championships to be held in the Netherlands.

The Leader of the Youth Squad will be Alison Bexfield, 2 dan.

The youth squad is for any junior who will be under 16 on 31 August 2014 and who has progressed past the beginner stage (40 kyu -31 kyu) to reach at least novice stage (30 kyu and stronger). We will be running coaching events and encouraging participation at youth tournaments in the UK to develop the playing ability of squad members in a fun environment.

To reach the standard required to play for the UK in the European championships players will need to reach a minimum of 20 kyu or stronger for those aged up to 16. We will recommend which players we believe have made this standard in advance of the event.