Excerpts from the British Go Journal

Before diagrams there were chess like notations, like:

Nr. Move Black White
1 e3
2 c16
3 r5
4 q3
etc.

This one dates from early seventies.
Diagrams were at that time already in use, but a novelty.
A few years later nobody used coordinates anymore.

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From #61 (September 1983), pg. 15

With thanks to @teapoweredrobot for his work as a British tournament director (and with apologies for that time I turned up and forgot to register at the desk until the rounds were announced).

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Notes on the first computer Go tournament, same edition

#138 (Spring 2006)

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The Finns at it again!

Also:

In an exciting new example of Go’s increasing popularity in the West, Russia has recently held the first Russian Professional Go Championship. This also, of course, has the honour of being Europe’s first Professional Go Championship – a good omen for all.

Widespread confusion over bent four in the BGJ in late 2006 / early 2007 prompted a suggestion to shift from Japanese to AGA rules or another form of area scoring.

That call was, clearly, eventually successful.

#141 (Summer 2007)

In the very next issue, #142 (Autumn 2007) the option was discussed in detail over six pages, with the BGA Council having been deliberating on it at the time.

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In the 2000s, Natasha Regan becomes very prominent in the BGA, often writing articles and appearing on covers.

I think that the reason for this it that she seems to have been the first homegrown female dan player of the UK, although my logic for this conclusion is one of absence of evidence. She won the British Pair Go Championship seven times.

She’s also a chess WIM (Woman International Master).

Also, she tutored her son to become the youngest person ever to achieve a GCSE A* grade. All around, a very gifted woman…

Oh, and her collaboration chess book Game Changer won FIDE’s best book of the year award and was called “inspirational” by Magnus Carlsen.

I wonder whether she even still attends humble Go tournaments :D

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#126, Spring 2002

From the same edition, there’s a report (with the following photos) of a game in the 26th Kisei match – in which O Rissei faced challenger Ryu Shikun – which was held in London, in “the Montcalm Hotel, a very smart hotel owned by Japan Airlines”.

It was the first professional game held in the UK this century. I’m not sure whether any other has taken place in the nineteen years since…

From the same edition:

“Why can’t we just ask new players their rank?”

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Tony Atkins on “Japan Points”:

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Svetlana, then only 21, beat Matthew. Shortly after this game, in the same year, she became a professional of the KBA.

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18 years later:

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From 1985 Ranka Yearbook, journal of the International Go Federation:

a showdown between Nieh and Shuko would be something to look forward to.

It did occur, of course, and is now the most famous game between Fujisawa’s final confrontation with Go Seigen in 1953 and Lee Sedol’s ladder game sixty years later.

Yuan Zhou reviews the game in detail at the beginning of his book Extremely Thorough Pro Game Commentaries (Vol. 1).

In the preface, by the way, IGF President Shizuo Asada takes stock of world Go thus:

Go has now spread to over 40 countries around the globe with 30,000,000 players

Ranka 1986

The players are Wang Jianhong, left, playing for China; and Chan Kayui, representing Hong Kong.

The flag seen here is the third of the territory’s dedicated British flags, and was in use from 1959 to the handover in 1997. Chan won this event, the WAGC, and shortly afterwards moved to Japan where he became a professional with the Kansai Ki-in, reaching 9p in 1996.

Also:

Warly last year (I think), a Korean stone board was referenced in the BGA and given (imo) a rather dubious age.

I think this was the board discussed:

It was posted in this Russian-language article, presumably by Dinerchtein – given all the casino SEO – in 2016. The root is, I guess, the blog credited on the image, which is still active and written in Chinese.

I’ve forgotten whether or not the BGA article carried an image of the board.

At Burpham cheerful devotees enjoy friendly Go handicaps. Inevitably, Jil kills (literally) my necessary (or possibly quite random) stones. TERRIBLY UPSETTING! Vanquished with x-ray youthful zeitgeist.”

– Sue Paterson, 2010, #138

During the life of the London Go Centre (1975-78) an attempt was made to rectify the problem with a telephone information service,based there. A script giving news and forthcoming events was recorded by the alternate voices of Alison Cross and Stuart Dowsey, the LGC’s manager, and updated weekly. This worked reasonably well, but was unpopular with members outside London, for whom in those days telephone charges were high by today’s standards. The service died with the LGC itself.

– Francis Roads reminiscing on the occasion of the discontinuing of the BGA Newsletter, 2011, #139

The London Go Centre was revived, after forty years, in 2018 with money bequeathed by Mark T. Hall and in partnership with a local bridge club.

The BGA estimated that the discontinuation of the paper newsletter would save about £1,100, which was probably the equivalent of around fifty annual membership fees.

… when Cho [Hunhyun] visited London in 1998 for the first Mind Sports Olympics at the Festival Hall, he played 12 games simultaneously. All games were on handicap plus two stones and he won 11, his only loss was by one point, to a shodan where he gave nine stones!

– David Ward introducing a series, Considering the Position, of commentaries on Cho’s games of the early '90s.

I’ve said before, by the way, that Yoonyoung has said that Cho Hunhyun is probably the strongest over-50 player in the world (note that Changho won’t turn 50 until 2025).

Queen Elizabeth II was presented with a [yunzi] set by the Chinese government.

– Ian Sharpe, #159

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There are, occasionally, games of Go in which both sides keep their positions safe and stable throughout, and compete for territory, waiting until the endgame to discover whose is larger. The life and death of stones never becomes a major issue except indirectly.

I may have been involved in such a game somewhere in the last 45 years, but I don’t remember when

– many-time British Champion Matthew Macfadyen on his Go style, BGJ #155, 2011

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Found this old photo of Antti tying for first in the 2011 Irish Open. This was less than a year before he became an insei, and four years before he qualified as a professional.

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Remember GoSensations?

It ran from 2011 to 2015. It’s still up, with all the content still there. Check out the old OGS logo on the front page:

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Something I have noticed is reviews with Matthew tend to end up being reading lots of capturing races, rather than debating the finer points of positional judgement or timing.

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