As promised, here is the next batch of newsletters to fill a few hours of July. Included, is a game from the 1992/1993 championship final.  Read the rest of this entry »

The World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) took place in Korea this year, normally it is in Japan. Ireland’s representative this year was John Gibson. Every year the field seems to get stronger, and gone are the days when you could expect mark down an easy victory when you saw that you had been drawn against a certain country. John finished in 49th place from 54, picking up good wins against the South American giants Brazil and Argentina. Francis Roads from the UK finished in 44th place, and John Leuner (ex Dublin) from South Africa, took 45th. Japan, Korea, and Chinese Taipei were all tied at the top on 7 wins, but the latter had collected the most SOS to win the event. You can find full coverage of the event at the USGO and Ranka websites.

Click to see one of John’s games from the world championships Read the rest of this entry »

The winner of the Intermediate section of the 2014 Irish Correspondence Championship has been decided tonight. James Aitken, who plays at Belfast Go Club, came out on top. He scored 8 wins out of 9, losing only to Julia Bohle, who seemed to grow in strength as the championship progressed. In second place was Kevin Doherty, from Galway. Not all games have been finished in the competition yet, but the top places are no longer in doubt.

In other news, the Belfast Go Club are sitting on top of the BGA’s online league. Their team, comprising Karl Irwin, James Hutchinson, and Tiberiu Gociu has shown keen spirit to get as many games played as possible. (Not always an easy task!) Their current scoreline of 12-2 seems to place them in an commanding position.

So as I mentioned earlier in the week, John Gibson was kind enough to send me some scans of some old IGA newsletters (2-11). The first batch from 1990 are now uploaded onto the website. Each month, I will be uploading the batch from the next year. In order to complete the set, can anyone lay their hands on the very first IGA Newsletter, and any issues after number 11.

As a bit of fun, can anyone guess which name within these volumes was on the run from the law?

Read the rest of this entry »

Never let it be said that the IGA doesn’t keep its membership up to date with all the latest happenings in the Go world, as well as the gossip. Firstly on the local front, as a reminder to all, the Belfast Open will be taking place mid-August – see tournament page for details. Speaking of tournaments, Claas Roever showed good form in the Amsterdam Open, scoring an impressive 5 out of 6 playing at 1 kyu. Internationally, John Gibson and Thomas Shanahan have been selected to represent Ireland at the World Amateur Go Championship, and the Korean Prime Minister’s Cup respectively. I think we can all be quietly confident that a podium finish seems in order there. John has also scanned a collection of old IGA newsletters for me, so these will be filling up the website shortly; along with some games taken from their pages.

Tonight is a historic moment in the history of the game in Ireland. Ours is a long game, in which sacrifices must be made in order to reach the final glorious target of victory. This evening we continued to execute the plan we set in motion from day 1. The road saw defeats against Turkey and Switzerland which were hard to bear, and brought sorrow to our isle. Yet these were necessary to reach our ultimate goal.

This evening as we sat down to play Portugal, every member of the team was determined to bring happiness to our people. The scoreline quickly reached 2-0 in our favour, a dangerous moment, which was skillfully brought under control by Eoghan ceding his own game on board 4. This brought too much pressure to bear on Portugal’s board 3. As James laid the final stone, cementing the perfect 3-1 result, tears began to form in my eyes with the sudden realisation of the great work we had accomplished. The irish team had finished in 4th place in the league, 1 place above the UK.

Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by!

It might look like a rugby result but in fact was the final score in a Go match last Wednesday played at Collegians new home in The Baggot Inn, Baggot St, Dublin. A group of players from Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne region in France were on holiday in Ireland and wanted to play a local selection. They varied from 2D to 12 k in strength so we matched a group of roughly equal players from our regulars. We played IOM handicap at 40 minutes plus 25/5 overtime.

Clermont won the first match comfortably 4-1 with Carol the only local winner against Eudeline. However Leinster stormed back in round 2 winning 5-2 with Aurelien, Marie, Chris, Peter Kron and Sheena winning to equalize the match overall at the last moment.

Thanks to Rory, Julia, Arthur and the others who helped run the match and Eddie,Alan etc. from The Baggot Inn who have welcomed us royally since our move from Larry Murphy’s Read the rest of this entry »

The Galway tournament took place on the weekend of the 17th and 18th of May, and was again a handicap swiss. This year there was a new winner, Marie Julien. She hails from the Compiègne club in France, and took first place with a perfect 5 wins out of 5. In second place was Aurelien Journet-Brochet from the same club. In third was Julia Bohle, who edged out the local favourite, Rich Brennan, on SOS points.

Full results can be viewed here

There will again be a Go tournament in Belfast this August.
The venue is the same as last year, Belfast Boat Club, and we are having a weekend event, August 30th and 31st. You can find full details on the tournament page.

Please pre-register for the event as numbers will be limited.
Entries not in before August 25th will incur a late entry fee.

See all of you there!
Tournament organisers.

Tonight Ireland danced with delight, as they rendered Bulgaria’s finest players into feta cheese. Despite not losing on any boards, such was the strength of the team’s performance, that Ireland managed to win 4-0. Their team captain spoke strongly of their performance, saying “The team’s play was akin to the swift flowing water of a mighty river”.
You can review the games here.