[Newsletter] BGA Newsletter 255 June 2019

[Jil Segerman]

BGA Newsletter 255 June 2019


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 currently Gotalk <http://www.britgo.org/gopcres/info#gotalk>;
however, an introduction to a new topic is fine in the Newsletter.
*Instructions:* Please use plain text not file-attachments. Keep it brief,
and give web-links and contact details. It's good to include pictures. If
they are on the internet, send me the URL. If not, attach the picture files
to your email. Send your contribution to newsletter at britgo.org to arrive by
the first day of the month.
Jil Segerman
NEWS

The full set of recent news items, including further details of some of the
items shown here, are on our News Pages <http://www.britgo.org/news>, and
on News Headlines <http://www.britgo.org/views/news>.
British Championship


Fifteen players gathered in the small Hertfordshire town of Letchworth, to
play in this year's Candidates' Tournament, the first round of the British
Championship. The event had six rounds over three days of the first May
Bank Holiday. Andrew Kay was the winner.

Last year's champion, Sam Aitken, decided not to defend his title, which
meant that there were places in the Challengers' League for seven
qualifiers from Candidates' Tournament, plus the runner-up from last year,
Andrew Simons. Unfortunately some of the top players from that event
couldn't take part, so several reserves got to play. Andrew Kay (shown on
the right in the picture, against Alex Rix) topped the standings by winning
all of his games and Andrew Simons won all his games except his one with
Andrew Kay thus finishing second.

The two Andrews will now play in the best-of-three games Title Match to
decide this year's British Champion.
Kyu Players' Weekend


The Kyu Players Weekend, held at the London Go Centre over the first May
Bank Holiday, started with a teaching day on the Saturday. Teachers were
former professional Chao Zhang (6d), former British Champion Daniel Hu
(4d), Charles Hibbert (3d), Joanne Leung (2d) and Jonathan Turner (2k). The
lectures were videoed and may be found on the LGC YouTube channel. This was
followed with the Bar-Low Tournament on the Sunday and a self-paired event
on the Monday. It was good to see some very young players taking part in
the lessons and the tournaments.
Pandanet Go European Team Championship

Our team drew the final match of the season on Tuesday 5th May, against
Turkey. However the match point scored kept the team above the relegation
zone and their final position in the B-League was 7th.
World Amateur Go Championship

Wang Chen of China won the 40th World Amateur Championship in Matsue City,
Shimane Prefecture, Japan. Second, with just a loss to the winner, was Lee
Jaesung of Korea.

The UK Rep, Andrew Kay, was 27th out of 59 with four wins. With three wins
on the first two days, day three didn't go so well with losses to Pal
Balogh of Hungary and Timotej Suc of Slovenia. On the final day he lost to
Jan Simara of Czechia, but beat Ioan Grigoriu of Romania. Noel Mitchell for
Ireland also won four in 36th place.
Marcus du Sautoy on AI and Go

Harry Fearnley via Gotalk: "On Wednesday (29th May) Marcus du Sautoy gave a
talk at the Mathematics Department in Oxford, entitled "The Creativity
Code: How AI is learning to write, paint and think". His presentation
starts here.
<https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/videos/650722258686290/?t=347> The
next 15 mins of the recording discuss Go, particularly Deepmind's AlphaGo.
It contains a few (unimportant) misconceptions both about Go, and about
Deepmind's AlphaGo, but is still worth a watch. The subsequent 45 mins, or
so, discuss other aspects of AI and creativity."
New Go Books

Robert Jasiek <http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/shop.html> has published two new
books: "Endgame Vol. 3 Accurate Local Evaluation" and "Endgame Problems
Vol. 1". Also new is "Rational Endgame" by Antti Tormanen, published by
Hebsacker <http://www.hebsacker-verlag.de/>.
ADMINYouth Newsletter

The latest edition of Youth Go News has been published, No. 5, May 2019.
<http://www.britgo.org/youthnews/may19> If you missed any, then old editions
<http://www.britgo.org/junior/youthgonews> are available. Please tell any
young players you know about it.

There are still places available at the BGA Youth Camp
<http://www.britgo.org/files/2019/youthcamp2019.pdf> at Caythorpe in August.
LGC Teaching Videos

The London Go Centre hosts a YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGI3tQZE3aXgH8IAsr6Ucw/videos> showing
lectures at the LGC, including those from the above-mentioned Kyu Players'
Weekend.
EVENTS COMING SOON

Full information via the Events Calendar.
<http://www.britgo.org/tournaments>

*THIS MONTH:*
Durham
Welsh Open, Barmouth
*JULY:*
*AUGUST:*
Leo Phillips Isle of Man Go Festival
Mind Sports Olympiad, London
Youth Training Residential, Caythorpe Hall near Grantham
*SEPTEMBER:*
Cornwall (Falmouth)
T Mark Hall Rapid Play, London
International Teams Autumn Match, London
Belfast
Arundel
Swindon
Sheffield
*OCTOBER*
Cambridge Junior's 25th Anniversary
Northern, near Manchester
Wessex, near Bristol
*NOVEMBER*
Three Peaks, Ingleton
Guy Fawkes Weekend, London
Doki Doki Festival, Manchester
Coventry

*OVERSEAS*
European Go Congress 2019, 20th July - 4th August, Brussels
The European Go Federation's Tournament Calendar
<https://www.eurogofed.org/calendar/calendar.htm> includes the Major
European Tournaments and a World Tournament Calendar.
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