Youth Go News 44 - December 2025

Editor, Toby Manning.

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Your Newsletter

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NEWS

Pandanet European Go Team Championships

This is an online Go team competition played between European countries. We select a squad of 12 players; the team for each match is then picked from the squad. Each team consists of 5 players, of whom one must be Under 12* and one must be a girl (all team members must be Under 18*. )

*On 1 January 2026.

All squad members must be British citizens. We interpret this to mean that you either: a) hold a British Passport, or b) were born in the UK.

If you believe you should qualify to represent the UK but do not meet either of these requirements then please let us know and we will see what we can do.

If you wish to be considered for the squad then please email the team manager, Alison Bexfield, at alison@bexfield.com before Christmas (25 December).

Games will normally be scheduled for Wednesday evenings at 20:00, but it may be possible to amend this in specific cases.

Young Pros

Some of you may remember the young brothers Yue Wen and Qi Wen who were playing in the London area and in various tournaments. Following several periods of studying Go in the far east they both became professionals earlier this year. In 2017 Yue was only 9k, but in 2023 he was 7d and won the London Open and also won the 2025 Trigantius. Qi won the 2024 British. A lot of their early playing was at the London City Go Club. For this year's London Open they are visiting to give advice to kyu players from 16:00 on Monday 29 December. Tournament Details

TOURNAMENTS

China Team Event

We took part in the 3rd Quzhou Lanke Youth International Child Friendly Amateur Weiqi Tournament. This is for teams of 3; we only had 2 players, Ryan Zhang 3d (on the left) and Lukasz Kudla 5k (centre) who were able (and qualified) to play, so we recruited a strong Romanian youth, Dragos Boldeanu (right) to make up the team entitled "UK International". Toby Manning (back) went as team Manager.

The 20 teams played a 7-round unseeded Swiss. Consequentially there were many mismatched games.

The team ended up with 3/7, having defeated Australia, Chile and “Quzhou International” (a team of 5-year old girls from the International Go School in Quzhou), and having lost to Croatia, Thailand, the USA and Malaysia. Individually Ryan achieved 5/7, and Lukasz 2/7.

A notable result was that of the "EGF International" team, made up of players from Ukraine, Hungary and Germany, who came 3rd overall behind winners Korea and second place China.

As is usual in these international events the Chinese organisation was exemplary, with accommodation in an International Hotel and a large food buffet.

North America-UK

Lukasz Kudla (5k), Adam Siqi Chen (9k), Joshua Sing Cheng Fai (9k) and Caleb Tin Nam Fai (13k) took part in matches organised by the American Go Honor Society. Teams were mixed, containing players from North America as well as the UK; Lukasz Kudla's team came second in Division A, and Caleb Tin Nam Fai's team was second in Division B.

BYGC

Alvina Kwok regained the British Youth Go Champion title at the British Youth Go Championship. Despite the previous winner Ryan Zhang being away at the KPMC in Korea, she still had to play well, as Hayes Lee, a player only recently arrived in the country, was playing well to only lose to Alvina and claim an open under-14 title.

In all 36 plays from 3d to 36k took part at the new venue of Lady Bay Church in Nottigham. Prizes were awarded to all on 3 or 4 wins, those with fighting spirit (no wins) and the section winners (and runners up):

U18: Alvina Kwok
U16: Daniel Yang (Andrew Volovich)
U14: Audrey Fung (Lukasz Kudla)
U12: Aidan Fung (Caleb Fai)
U10: Joshua Fai (Ezreal Yang)
U8: -

Novices Winner was Leo Zhang (24k CHS) with 5/5.

Results

KPMC

For the first time ever the Korea Prime Minister Cup had an event alongside for players aged under 16, hence Ryan Zhang was present at the KPMC with Toby Manning who was playing in the main event. A Pair Go event was held with a senior partnering with a junior to celebrate this. The event was held in mountainous Taebaek and guest of honour was Lee Sedol 9p.

Ryan won three games out of six to end 19th out of 28. He lost to Thailand and Romania, beat Mongolia, Spain and Denmark and finally lost to Canada. Tsai Ming Ruel of Chinese Taipei was the winner, ahead of Hong Kong and China. Top Europeans were Stjepan Medak (Croatia), Bende Barcza (Hungary) and Larion Syrotkin (Ukraine) who ended in the top ten. Results

In addition a Pair Go Tournament was held with 4 rounds. Toby Manning (who represented the UK in the main event) and Ryan Zhang got 2/4 in this handicap event,

TEACHING/TRAINING

The next "Double-digit kyu" teaching will be on Sunday 11 January at 14:30. If you are 10 kyu or weaker and wish to attend, please email youth-chair@britgo.org before January 9.

FUTURE EVENTS

7 February 2026 - London Youth
Location: London Go Centre, Dalling Rd, London W6 0JD. 5-round McMahon with Fischer time 20 minutes + 5 seconds. Registration 10:10–10:30, prize-giving by 16:00. Entry fee £5. C Entry Form Contact Toby Manning ynews AT britgo.org

25-28 March 2026 - European Youth Go Championships - Croatia
So we can arrange a team captain, if you intend to go please contact Toby Manning ynews AT britgo.org (without commitment).

ONLINE MEETINGS

None planned

BADGES

USEFUL RESOURCES

Here are some useful resources/links:

BGA Website: Junior Pages
BGA Youth Go X ("Twitter") account @britishyouthgo, kept fairly active (379 followers)
Instagram - account is uk_youth_go, now with regular updates - 280 followers
BGA Youth Go OGS (closed group, 156 members including adult organisers). If you are a new member, please complete this form.
BGA Youth Go Discord Channel

PROBLEMS

Black to play