American Go E-Journal » 2010 » June

Contested seats in the Eastern and Central regions highlight this year’s AGA Board of Directors election. Andrew Jackson is challenging incumbent Chuck Robbins in the Eastern region while current Central Region board member Roy Schmidt is being challenged by Daniel Smith and Lisa Scott. Andrew Okun is unopposed in the Western Regon, as is At-Large member Jie Li. Current AGA chapters are eligible to vote in the election, weighted by membership; ballots will be sent to each current chapter on June 21 and must be returned by July 30. The votes will be counted at the U.S. Go Congress and the results announced. CLICK HERE for candidate statements (if any; there are none as of press-time), voting procedures and rules. “Chapter representatives should have received their current voting rights,” reports Arnold Eudell. Report any discrepancy or your current contact information to him at elections@usgo.org

Zipei Feng 7d took first place in the June 12 Rocky Mountain Spring Go Tournament in Boulder, Colorado. “We had 43 players attend,” reports David Weiss, “including five people who drove all the way from Salt Lake City, and drove back immediately after the tournament was over.” Victor Traibush 3k won 2^nd place, Yun Bo Yi 6d was 3^rd and Lenny Den 15k won 5 of 6 games in his second tournament to take first place in the handicap section.

Tang Wenhua 6d (r) claimed top place in the 2010 Santa Monica Coffee Cup’s Espresso Division last Saturday after a tense final-game win over the Santa Monica Go Club’s own Yixian Zhou 7d, the 2009 US Open 6d Division winner.  In addition to a pound of dark roast and the eponymous hand-painted coffee cup — in this year’s theme color of avocado green — Tang was awarded certification as a 6-dan amateur by the Hankuk Kiwon, courtesy of the Kiwon’s go ambassador, Myung-wan Kim 9P (center). Other winners topping the 50-player field were Tyler Oyakawa 2d in the Java (2k-2d) Division, Alex Lee 3k in the Mocha Division (3k-4k), Ezana Berhane 7k in the Arabica Division (5k-9k), David Whiteside 10k in the Cappuccino Division (10k-14k) and Jerry Lu 15k in the Decaf (15k and under) Division. The Espresso Division also served as an NAMT qualifier and eligible players will receive points toward an NAMT invitation for Congress.  Joe Cepiel was tournament director. “Fifty players is a lot for the UnUrban Coffeehouse but the cool June weather made it nice and some folks took their equipment outside to play in the open air,” said organizer Andrew Okun (at left in photo at left). Next year’s theme color will be purple, Okun adds.
– photos courtesy Andy Okun

Deadline for nominations to the American Go Association’s Board of Directors is Tuesday, June 15. “This is a great opportunity to contribute to the current running and future direction of the AGA,” says President Allan Abramson. Deadline for nominations is June 15. Email nominations to elections@usgo.org Nominees must be full AGA members, as must be those who make nominations; CLICK HERE for details on nomination procedures and candidate qualifications.