Junior Tournament Report

Scott Cobbold retained the British Youth Go Champion title by winning all his games at the championships held on Saturday 21st January. The event, covering the school year 2022 to 2023, was held, as was the 2021 British Youth Go Championships, at the Leicester County Bridge Club. 48 youngsters from 5 to 18 years old battled for the age group titles and awards were also given for best player below the 5k bar and for the best Novice.

The UK youth go team played Turkey in round 3 of the 4 round European Youth Go Team Championship.

In the second match in the European Youth Go Team Championship, the UK youth team played Hungary. Another five youngsters from our EYGTC team took part, with games spread over the two days of the weekend.

The first online youth event of the autumn was the UK Squad Selection Tournament on Sunday 18th September. Twenty players took part, hoping to attract the attention of the squad manager, most being from Cambridge, London and Edinburgh. The event winner was Scott Cobbold with three wins, with Gene Wong as the runner up. The only player below the bar winning three was Yiliang Liu (16k Cambridge).

The UK youth team is again playing in the European Youth Go Team Championship. This time each match is five games played on OGS (not KGS) with one player U20, two U16 and two U12. Team manager Alison Bexfield made up the team as listed on our EYGTC page. Alison aims to rotate the players on the team, to give all a chance to play, whilst trying to match strengths of opponents and yet giving the team a chance of winning.

The UK Youth Go Team won against Russia B team to finish third overall in the European Youth Go Team Championship. This is an excellent result especially since our team this year had so many new faces. Russia was again champion, with France (who had beaten UK in round one) in second.

The UK Youth Go Team won against Romania in round 3 of the European Youth Go Team Championship this weekend. Player of the Match goes to Edmund for stepping up at very short notice to ensure we did not default a game.

In round 2 of the European Youth Go Team Championship the UK team was drawn against Hungary. Our team had three of the five players making their debut appearance: Claire, Spike and Lukasz. Daniel, one of longer standing players, played a day ahead of the other games and took an easy win setting us up well for the remaining boards. Lukasz's game was a bit of a rollercoaster to watch on board 5, with a large group lacking the required number of eyes for some time. Lukasz held his nerve and capitalised on his opponent's error to save his group.

This year the British Youth Go Championship returned to be played over the board and was held in Leicester. The venue was the County Bridge Club in the New Parks district of the city, a very pleasant building that was until recently a children's nursery. The midlands location attracted players from all corners: Edinburgh, Cambridge and London, Cornwall and Manchester.

The UK youth team is again playing in the European Youth Go Team Championship. As usual each match is five games played on KGS with one player U20, two U16 and two U12. Team manager Alison Bexfield made up the team following the selection tournament, including seven new team members, as announced in the November Youth Go News and listed on our EYGTC page.