FROM THE EDITOR

Contributions are always welcome, both from our members and others. We ask that they be Go-related and “newsy”. The place for debate and general discussion is the BGA open mailing list Gotalk. However, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter. A brief introduction to Gotalk, with a link for joining, is on the BGA page Go on the Internet. See also the BGA temporary Coronavirus page.

Instructions for Contributors: Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it fairly brief, and give web-links and contact details. It’s good to include pictures. If they are on the internet, send me the URL, otherwise attach the picture files to your email. Send your contribution to newsletter@britgo.org to arrive by the first day of the month.

Jil Segerman

AGM

As previously announced, the 2020 AGM took place online on Zoom on 7th July at 20:00. Council member Colin Williams sends this report.

A successful online AGM was held online with 32 members attending. Full minutes will be available on the website shortly, this is a brief summary.

As all the positions open for election had just one candidate, they were elected without a vote. The only change was Colin Williams taking over as Secretary from Jonathan Chin, who is standing down after a very creditable ten years in the role.

Encouragingly analysis showed that over the previous 5 years there has been a 114% increase in DDK (double digit kyu) players taking part in tournaments, and that the number of youth players had increased by 135%.

There was some discussion about the lack of progress on upgrading the website. That responsibility now falls to Colin Williams who has taken over the chairmanship of the online committee.

The proposed amendments to the constitution were passed, after some debate. These will introduce proxy voting for general meetings, ensure that family memberships will have two votes, and tidied up the winding-up arrangements to reflect the demise of the European Go Cultural Centre.

There was considerable discussion over the relationship between the BGA and the T Mark Hall Foundation, and how the views of the BGA Council were taken into account by the TMHF directors appointed by the BGA. Toby said that he expected the relationship between the two organisations would continue to evolve, and given proposed changes at the TMHF the BGA would need to look into how it appointed the Directors.

NEWS

The full set of recent news items, including further details of some of the items shown here, are on our News Pages, and on News Headlines.

UK Youth Go Players Online

The meetings on OGS for youth players and parents are continuing every Sunday from 4pm to 6pm. There are junior players from 25-kyu up to 2-kyu and about half a dozen parents joining in as well. New members are very welcome, please contact Paul Smith (paul361smith at gmail.com) for details of how to join.

On 1 June some of our youth players from this group joined in the Dutch youth group on OGS organised by Dave de Vos. We won 6 out of 8 games played against the Dutch junior players (and Alexander Hsieh won a handicap game against Dave), but this wasn’t a competition. The point was just mostly to play with some different players and have fun. If there are any other groups on OGS (for example any UK club groups) who we could have a joint meeting with please let Paul know.

On 7 June we started a “Supergo” match on KGS between twelve British youth players and a team of twelve youth players organised by Go teacher Li Ang in China. This will carry on for several weeks with one or two games each weekend. The British team is Lea Wong, Caleb Monk, Yanyi Xiong, Alexander Timperi, Alexander Hsieh, Jonah Burnstone-Cresswell, Scott Cobbold, Edmund Smith, Gene Wong, Tom Bradbury, Daniel Chun Yang and Jayden Ng. Congatulations to Lea who won all of her first three games! Seven games have now been played and the score is 7-2 to the UK team. Yanyi is doing very well, he has won four games so far and is still undefeated. You can keep up to date with the match on this page and you can watch the games in the British Room on KGS.

On 15 June eight English players and eight Scottish players met up in the Scotland Youth Team Room (organised by Greg Kudla) on OGS. They played two rounds and we think the score was 9-7 but we are not sure who won! It was great for both sides to meet some different players. The Scottish youth players have improved quickly and some are very strong for their age.

Successful July Youth Squad Tournament

On Sunday 5 July, 30 young Go players gathered online for our first online training tournament for the UK Youth Go Squad, reports Alison Bexfield. Any player who had reached 20 kyu or better was invited (that we were aware of) and it was pleasing to see how many of the players had improved over recent months since we last saw them play. The tournament was played over three rounds during the afternoon on OGS, where we were able to have a private invitation-only group.

The fact that the strength of our youth players has increased over recent years was evidenced by the fact that 8 of our 30 players were graded 3kyu or stronger (with three of this group in the U12 age group). Jacob Zhang is our strongest player and won all three games to lead the top group, although a very rapidly improved Ryan Zhang, now playing at 2 kyu, gave him a good game. Other notable results were the three wins from Edmund Smith (3 kyu), Caleb Monk (11k), David Baldwin (14k) and one of the Scottish youth team (Lukasz Kudla 14k).

BGA Online League

Matt Marsh sends apologies for the delays in getting the online league started. We are in the process of re-starting this within the next month or so. Could anyone who would like to enter a team please contact Matt (matt@crazedbytes.net) – even if you had previously been in contact, to make sure that we don’t miss anyone.

BGA Online Tournament

Also from Matt Marsh: Following our successful online tournament in May, we will hold another in July. This will have a slightly different format to the first one, with 3 rounds in a single day on Saturday 25th July. Further details here.

ADMIN.

BGJ paper or electronic?

Chris Kirkham writes: With the British Go Journal (BGJ) accessible to members on the BGA website as soon as it is published, the BGA has now implemented the policy of not sending paper copies of the BGJ to members who have expressed the wish not to receive it. If you would like to discontinue receiving the paper copy, and have not already had an email about this, please email the Membership Secretary (mem@britgo.org) to that effect.

Data Protection

The BGA has updated its Data Protection Policy to correct an omission: we hold your email address (but no other information) in an online database which is part of the britgo domain. This database is password protected, is not linked to the main site (hence not accessible by search engines) and only available to BGA Officials on a “need-to-know” basis. This database is used to dispatch this Newsletter (and also occasionally other messages, such as the recent AGM announcement). A similar database is used for communications about Youth issues, including the Youth Newsletter.

EVENTS COMING SOON

NOTE Coronavirus

Current Government advice (4 July 2020) totally precludes over-the-board events. The over-the-board events listed here have not yet been cancelled, because they may be able to go ahead if the advice changes. Various Online events are being planned.

Here is the BGA’s general advice on playing Go during the disease outbreak, including links to the Government advice (dated 28 June 2020).

Events not cancelled at time of going to press include:
JULY
Played on OGS. 3 round McMahon Online
Not the London Open
AUGUST
Mind Sports Olympiad, Online
SEPTEMBER
Cornwall
T Mark Hall Rapid Play, London
European Women’s Championship, London
Swindon
Sheffield
OCTOBER
Northern, Cheadle Hulme, Manchester
Wessex, Bath
Three Peaks, Ingleton
NOVEMBER
British Youth Go Championship
DECEMBER
Edinburgh Xmas
London Open

LATER
April, British Go Congress
June, Welsh Open
August, Youth Training Residential
November, Doki Doki Festival, Manchester

OVERSEAS
The European Go Federation’s Tournament Calendar includes the Major European Tournaments and a World Tournament Calendar.