The Isle of Man Go Festival has ended for the last time. This edition was the 12th since the event started in 1991, but with the recent sad death of founder Leo Phillips it has been decided this will be the last.

Again the players assembled at the Cherry Orchard in Port Erin, including several families and players from as far away as Sweden and Japan. There were events daytime and evening on most days, including a music evening, and also the chance to explore the island in between. Players competed in the events for unique wooden trophies (illustrated right).

37 players took part in the Main Tournament played over five mornings. Piers Shepperson (4d Epsom) won all his games to take the title for the fourth time. Sandy Taylor (2d Bristol) won four to come second.

The 19th MSO at the JW3 on Finchley Road in London was dominated in the Go events by Aja Huang and Joanne Leung (shown right playing Lucretiu Calota).

In the first Go event, the 9x9 on the Sunday morning, Joanne Leung won all four games to take the gold medal. Silver went to the event arbiter Tony Atkins and bronze and junior gold went to Edmund Smith. Results

In the second event, the 13x13 on the Sunday afternoon, Aja Huang won the gold, pushing Joanne back to silver. London teenager Kapriel Chiarini took the bronze medal. Results

On the Bank Holiday Monday, 14 players gathered for the main 19x19 Go event. After three rounds the only players unbeaten were Aja Huang and Lucretiu Calota.

After a year's gap because of the British Go Congress and European Youth at nearby Bognor, the Arundel Tournament was back. This time 24 players met up to play, again at the football club.

The winner was Lucretiu Calota (4d Romania) who beat Jon Diamond (3d) in the final round. Also winning all three games were Peter Collins (4k Bristol) and Charlotte Bexfield (10k Letchworth).

The 9x9 side event was won by Edmund Smith (on 4/4) and second was Charlotte Bexfield (on 2/5).

Results

Karl Irwin was victorious in the recent twelve-player Belfast tournament with a perfect 5/5. He has been teaching Maths in China, and presumably also studying Go as he entered at 4d.

James Hutchinson (1d) was second, his seventh year in a row to make the top three without winning. In third place was visiting Louise Roullier (5k) from France. Jose Morales, 24k Belfast, won 4/5 handicap games.

Results

The European Go Congress in Liberec, Czechia, ended on Saturday 8th August. It was one of the biggest ever with 762 players in the European Open. Wang Zheming, 8d China, was unbeaten after 10 rounds to be European Open Champion.

The best 24 European players competed for the European Championship. In the semi-finals Ali Jabarin beat Ilja Shikshin and Fan Hui beat Thomas Debarre. Fan Hui beat Ali Jabarin by resignation in the final to retain the title.

Kim Young-Sam, 7d Korea, won the Weekend Tournament and Chan Yi-Tien, 7d Taiwan, won the Rapid by tie-break from Wang Zheming, 8d China.

There were the usual selection of side events, including Pair Go and a veterans tournament.

The top game-winner of the large contingent of British players was Matt Marsh, 7k, who won 7/10 in the Open and 7/9 in the Rapid.

Results

Leo sadly passed away peacefully yesterday, 28th July, with her husband David by her side.

As she would have wanted, the Isle of Man Go Festival will go ahead as planned as a commemoration of all the work that she did to make it such a success over the last 24 years.

Celia Marshall

The European Go Congress is under way in Liberec in the Czech Republic.

The event got underway with the finals of the Pandanet Go European Teams. This was won by France on league-position tie-break from Ukraine. The home team and Romania took the other two places.

The European Championship and Open Championship are under way - news reports can be seen via the Congress Website.

On the evening of the 28th July, the EGF AGM was held. Toby Manning was the UK representative. It was possible to watch the meeting, whilst the various issues were discussed, via streaming from the Congress website.

We are very sorry to report the death of Brian Timmins. The day after attending the Barmouth tournament he went into hospital for a scheduled operation, which although successful led to other problems and he died on 2nd July.

Not only was Brian a regular tournament attendee with his wife Kathleen, both here and in the European Congress, but he put in a very large amount of effort supporting British Go for which he was awarded Life Membership. Brian was already the membership secretary in 1988 when he stepped up to take on the editorship of the BGJ and as the website states "for a while fulfilled both responsibilities with unparalleled conscientiousness".

35 players gathered in the sunny Open University Sports Pavilion for the 27th Milton Keynes Go Tournament. The main tournament was another win for Alistair Wall (2d Wanstead). Second place went to Nyoshi (Ngoc-Trang Cao 2d), who beat the tournament organiser (Tim Hunt 2d) by half a point in a hard-fought game in round 2, but, as previously announced, she had to leave a round early. The excuse was quite good. She and her friend Jitka Bartova wanted to get back to Leamington to hear Matthew Macfadyen and Kirsty Healey singing in a concert.

Also on 3 wins were another organiser Ben Ellis (3k), Andrew Russell (4k Birmingham), Edwina Lee (6k Maidenhead) and Joey Capper (10k)

Results

Perhaps more importantly the Milton Keynes Go side event was won with a perfect and persistent eight out of eight by Edmund Smith. Special mention should also go to Steve Bailey with seven out of nine.

The 23rd Welsh Open was held at the Min-Y-Mor Hotel in Barmouth again, but organised by Martin and Helen Harvey this year, having been staged for many preceding years by stalwarts Tony and Sue Pitchford and helpers. Over the two days, 26 players took part, with the bar at 1 kyu. Encouragingly, all but two players chose to play in the extra (6th) round. This year the playing areas were in two very nice rooms within the hotel (Bistro Room & Family Room) - a change which, whilst forced, was well received.

The weather was overcast most of Saturday, but brightened up on Sunday afternoon. The traditional evening meal on the Saturday was again arranged, and attracted 20 people. The organisers were grateful for this support, which helps keep the hotel management sweet!