UK Tournament Report

Challengers' League

Young Vanessa Wong, currently studying in Shrewsbury, is to play the British Championship Title Match against reigning champion Matthew Macfadyen.

Both players earned their places at the Challengers' League held over a long weekend at the Nippon Club in central London. Matthew convincingly won all 7 of his games, beating Vanessa in the last round. However Vanessa had earlier lost to Nick Krempel in round 3, so, when Richard Hunter only lost to Matthew and Vanessa, there had to be a play-off between Vanessa and Richard, which Vanessa won.

Nick Krempel, Tim Hunt and Andrew Simons ended with three wins, Matthew Scott with 2 and Kiyohiko Tanaka, who was also acting as host, ended on 0. Thanks go to him for hosting and to Nick Wedd for acting as referee.

The Title Match will be scheduled on various weekends over the coming months, often alongside a tournament.

Scottish Open

Yohei Negi from St. Andrews made it three in a row with his win at the 2010 Open. Second this year was Chi Pan Yau from Hong Kong, who only lost to Yohei. All the players on three wins also got prizes, which consisted of cash plus a bottle of Cairn O’Mohr local fruit wine. 27 players took part, all going away with traditional pot of marmelade. In the Friday evening rapidplay, Jennie Radcliffe got the prize for the best win/games ratio with 5/7, and Robbie Goetschalckx took the endurance prize having played a dozen or more games.

42 players took part in the Bracknell Tournament held again at the community centre in Woosehill, Wokingham. Winner was Felix Wang who beat previous winner Jon Diamond in the last round. Felix became the first holder of the new trophy given in memory of former organiser Clive Hendrie Also winning three were Helen Harvey (3 kyu Manchester), Elinor Brooks (8 kyu Swindon) and Malcolm Law (10 kyu Brighton). Neil Cleverly won the caption contest and Jim Clare won the Go Puzzle competition again. Michael Harrington (17 kyu Bracknell) won the 13x13 and the team prize was won by Swindon. Gerry Mills got a special prize for supporting the event with the bookshop over many years.

Results

34 players took part in the first stage of the 2010 British Championship at the Diamond at Selwyn College, Cambridge; 26 of the players joined in a meal at the Bella Italia restaurant.

Vanessa Wong (5 dan) won the tournament at her first attempt, winning all 6 of her games. This was Vanessa's first UK adult title, having previously won the Under-12 Championship. Andrew Simons (2 dan Cambridge) and Matthew Scott (1 dan Newcastle) both won five games proving the next generation is starting to snap at Matthew Macfadyen's heals. Matthew, as champion, did not have to play, but was on hand for intensive analysis of games. Richard Hunter (4 dan Bath), Tim Hunt (3 dan Milton Keynes) and Nick Krempel (3 dan London) took the next three places in the Challenger's League. The final place went to Kiyohiko Tanaka (3 dan London) who just squeezed out Alex Sleby (4 dan Cambridge) on second tie-break.

Results

Bar-Low, Cambridge

19 players from 1 kyu to 19 kyu attended the Bar-Low kyu-players only tournament in Cambridge. This year it was again part of the mind sports weekend and held in Whewell's Court of Trinity College. James Murray (2 kyu London) was the winner with four out of five. Second on tie-break was Graham Philips (1 kyu Cambridge), who only lost to the winner. Third was Benjamin Ellis (5 kyu Leicester) who actually beat the winner but lost to two other players. Roella Smith (14 kyu) from the Cambridge juniors also won 4 games.

London International Teams

Unfortunately Cambridge had to withdraw at short notice, so only two teams attended the spring International Teams match. As usual it was held at the Nippon Club in Piccadilly. Each team member played all the members of the other team. It was the Oriental team of Chinese and Japanese players that were the best. Their players Felix Wang and Gunji Takao won all 5 games, and they won 17 games overall. The Occidental team scored 8 and settled for second place.

The 43rd British Go Congress was held in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. 74 players took part in the British Open, held at the University Union building, Teviot Row House. Andrew Kay (4 dan Cambridge) won with 6/6. Jon Diamond (4 dan Silver Springs) was in second place with 5/6. Also winning 5 was local player Boris Mitrovic (8 kyu).

In this handicap event the winners were Bracknell (3/3); runners up were Maidenhead (2/3).

Players winning 3/3 were Ian Marsh, Edmund Shaw and France Ellul.

Tony Atkins won the 10x10 side tournament.

Full results

Arundel Tournament

The second Arundel Tournament was held at the football club, in the shadow of the castle. 30 players took part and the winner was Matthew Macfadyen (6 dan Leamington). Second was Matthew Cocke (4 dan Epsom) and third Alistair Wall (3 dan Wanstead). Steve Bailey (5 kyu West Surrey) and Malcolm Law (13 kyu Brighton) won 3/3 and Neil Cleverly (7 kyu Bournemouth) got a prize for winning his first 2. Xinyi Lu (5 kyu Maidenhead) won the 9x9 and the Brighton Belles were the best team.

Fife Tournament

21 players took part in the 2010 Fife Tournament, held as usual in the Age Concern Hall in Cupar. The top three players had to be separated by a tiebreak. Winner on 3 wins was David Lee (2 dan Dundee); in second was Sandy Taylor (1 dan Durham) also on 3 wins, followed by Martha McGill (3 kyu Edinburgh) on 4 wins. Also on 4 wins was Jenny Radcliffe (5 kyu Durham) and on 3 wins was Donald Spy (10 kyu Dundee).