South African Go Clubs
Winter League 2023 took place from May until October with 10 players taking part. Andrew Davies won the tournament with a two point lead over second place. Andrew has previously won the tournament, most recently in 2019.
| Player | Rank | |
| 1 | Andrew Davies | 3d |
| 2 | Ben Bredenkamp | 1k |
| 3 | Michael Rapson | 4k |
| 4 | Paul Edwards | 1d |
| 5 | Christiaan Maasdorp | 2k |
| 6 | Rocco Vivier | 1d |
| 7 | Christina Auret | 6k |
| 8 | Gordon Wells | 7k |
| 9 | Pieter-Francois Theron | 9k |
| 10 | Pico Geyer | 10k |
Winter League 2022 took place from June until October with 11 players completing games. Congratulations Rocco, who won the tournament with straight wins. This earned him his promotion to 1d.
| Player | Rank | |
| 1 | Rocco Vivier | 1d |
| 2 | James Nicolson | 1k |
| 3 | Christiaan Maasdorp | 2k |
| 3 | Michael Rapson | 4k |
| 5 | Andrew Davies | 3d |
| 5 | Paul Edwards | 1d |
| 5 | Andre Connell | 2d |
| 8 | Marc Loon | 5k |
| 9 | Gordon Wells | 7k |
| 10 | Pieter-Francois Theron | 10k |
| 11 | Pico Geyer | 10k |
Winter league 2021 took place from June to November, with 12 players taking part. Players ranged from 3d to 7k in strength. Once again, the tournament used a McMahon style with pairing pre-drawn based on player ranks at the start of the tournament. The bar was set at 3k for this season.
Congratulations to Chris, who won the league for the second year in a row, with straight wins. Andrew and Andre placed second and third respectively. Michael was promoted back to 4k during the tournament.
| Player | Rank | |
| 1 | Chris Welsh | 3d |
| 2 | Andrew Davies | 3d |
| 3 | Andre Connell | 2d |
| 4 | Rocco Vivier | 2k |
| 5 | Lloyd Rubidge | 1d |
| 6 | Ben Bredenkamp | 1k |
| 7 | James Nicolson | 1k |
| 8 | Christiaan Maasdrop | 3k |
| 9 | Michael Rapson | 4k |
| 10 | Paul Edwards | 1d |
| 11 | Gordon Wells | 7k |
| 12 | Fred Strauss | 7k |
Winter league 2020 took place from May through September, with 18 players taking part. Player ranks ranged from 4d to 18k.
A McMahon style tournament, with pairings pre-drawn based on player ranks at the start of the tournament, was trialed in 2019. As the format seemed to be successful, it was used again. The “McMahon bar” was set at 3k to encourage games between players above and below the bar after the initial rounds.
Competition for the top spot was fierce, but ultimately an on form Chris Welsh secured wins against Andrew and Ben to secure first place with a MMS (McMahon score) of 22. Four players tied on an MMS of 21. These were Ben, Andrew, Andre, and Rocco. Ben and Andrew were only separated by their head to head game, won by Ben. Andrew managed to finally break Andre’s winning streak in their head to head tournament matches during 2020. The remaining ties were broken by SOSM or SOSOSM (“sum of opponent score McMahon” and “sum of sum of opponent score McMahon” respectively).
Congratulations to Rocco, Fred, Neville, Anton, and Pico who all received promotions during the course of the tournament.
Final standings:
1: Chris Welsh, 3d
2: Ben Gale, 4d
3: Andrew Davies, 3d
4: Andre Connell, 2d
5: Rocco Vivier, 3k
6: James Nicolson, 1k
7: James Gelant, 4k
8: David Gale, 1k
9: Michael Rapson, 5k
10: Paul Edwards, 1d
11: Lloyd Rubidge, 1d
12: Christiaan Maasdorp, 4k
13: Marc Loon, 5k
14: Fred Strauss, 7k
15: Gordon Wells, 7k
16: Neville Eisenberg, 11k (playing as 10k in the tournament)
17: Anton Stott, 13k
18: Pico Geyer, 16k
Winter league 2019 took place from May through September, with 19 players taking part.
Typically the winter league is a round robin tournament with players divided into groups according to their strength. This year, a five round McMahon style tournament was tested. Pairings were pre-drawn based on player rankings at the start of the tournament. This allowed games to be played in any order (as typical for the winter league), while allowing players to all compete in a single group.
The trial format seems to have worked well. In particular, it allowed for players who had previously been seeded at the top of bottom of their groups to play both stronger and weaker players.
Congratulations to Andrew Davies for winning the tournament. Lloyd Rubidge placed second, with Chris Welsh and Andre Connell sharing third place. Vincent Varkvisser, Stephen Martindale, and Calvin Brizzi all earned promotions during the tournament.
Final standings:
1: Andrew Davies, 4d
2: Lloyd Rubidge, 1d
3: Chris Welsh, 3d, and
Andre Connell, 2d
5: Paul Edwards, 1d
6: Vincent Varkvisser, 4k
7: David Gale, 2k
8: Christiaan Maasdorp, 5k
9: Michael Rapson, 4k
10: Stephen Martindale, 4k
11: James Gelant, 5k
12: Marc Loon, 5k
13: Pablo Casado, 5k
14: Gordon Wells, 7k
15: Alastair Sloan, 8k
16: Tinus Cloete, 9k
17: Neville Eisenberg, 9k
18: Calvin Brizzi, 13k
19: Cameron Davies, 15k