American Go E-Journal » 2012 » January

’12 Youth Go Camps Unlikely Unless Organizers Step Up

Monday January 9, 2012

As previously reported, the future of American youth go camps is very much in question (U.S. Youth Go Camp Future in Doubt 12/17/2011 EJ). With no volunteers as yet stepping up to organize this year’s camps, “It may be time to recognize that the Congress itself has become the go camp, and that the AGA should not guarantee funding for a separate camp anymore,” says American Go Association President Allan Abramson. Anyone interested in finding out more about running a camp in 2012 should contact Abramson at president@usgo.org by January 31.
Photo: Kids take a break from studying to bury one of their counselors in pillows, photo by Amanda Miller (who is at the bottom of the pillow pile) from the 2010 camp.

 

Share

Go Photo: First 2012 Meeting of the Santa Barbara Go Club

Monday January 9, 2012

The Santa Barbara (CA) Go Club welcomed the New Year with players on five boards at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (3052 De La Vina Street) on Wednesday, January 4.
– photo by Ed Lee
Got local go news? Email it to us at journal@usgo.org

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

10 Minutes With: Jujo Jiang & Naiwei Rui

Monday January 9, 2012

The E-Journal caught up with Jujo Jiang 9P and his wife Rui Naiwei 9P when the two top players made a special appearance at the Jujo Cup in San Francisco this past weekend (look for a tournament report soon). Jujo is the younger brother of Mingjiu Jiang 7P; he and Rui Naiwei — who holds most of the major women’s titles in Korea — taught in the Bay Area during the 90s and early 2000s before going to Korea for a number of years. Both Jiang and his wife recently returned to Shanghai, China to open a go school for children. They plan to spread the game of go there at all levels, from introducing go to the local elementary schools, to teaching the go instructors at those schools to improve their playing strengths, and also opening go classes for students who are more interested.  Their school, which opened in late 2011, already has 100 students, and is sure to be filled with the sound of stones hitting boards in the near future. Jiang fondly reminisced about his time in the US, saying that “It was nice to find so many go players who played because they truly loved the game.” However, for those young players who want to become strong players, he says “It’s important to study with a professional teacher,” noting that  there are more professionals in the US than when he was here, and it is also now easy to do so online as well. For the more daring youth who dream to become professional, he encourages them to stay a few years in Asia and become an insei, which he calls “an unforgettable experience.”
– report/photo by Lawrence Ku

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

Minicomic Teaches First Capture

Monday January 9, 2012

Yi Weng, of the Rockville Go Club in Maryland, has made a minicomic that helps teach people about Go.  Weng made the comic as an assignment in one of his classes, but decided to make it educational as well.  The nine-page story makes a great introduction for kids, or anyone, and directions on how to play first capture are on the last page.  The comic can be downloaded here: firstcapture. –Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.  

Share

Your Move/Readers Write: More on NYC Go Revival

Monday January 9, 2012

While commending Boris Bernadsky “for his past and his current contribution to the go community in New York City (Go Renaissance in the Big Apple 12/26/2011 EJ),” Peter Armenia – Co-Director of both the 2006 and 2012 U.S. Go Congresses in Black Mountain, North Carolina — writes to mention another thriving new AGA chapter in New York City,  the Gotham Go Group, which meets Tuesdays from 7 -11p at the Hungarian Pastry Shop (1030 Amsterdam Ave between 110th and 111th). Armenia founded the Gotham club in October “and we have been getting 10-15 players a week. That is where I had the pleasure to meet Boris and we talked about doing tournaments. He was the one who put on the tourney at the Fat Cat, a great venue which deserves a write up all it’s own. Scott, another guy who came to our club, has started getting people to meet in Midtown Manhattan on Thursdays with my encouragement as well. As I am sure Boris would agree, you missed a mention of the real spark that has helped to revive go in NYC.”

 

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

USYGC Deadline Jan. 15

Sunday January 8, 2012

Just one week left to register for the US Youth Go Championships.  Registrations have been coming in steadily, and several brackets are looking interesting.  23 Dan level kids are in the top two brackets so far, competition will also be tough in the 1-5  kyu bracket, with 11 kids at the moment.  6-10 kyu players will have their own bracket too, and more double digit kyu players are encouraged to register.  To see who is signed up so far, go here.  To register, e-mail youth@usgo.org with your name, AGA #, date of birth, AGA rating, KGS ID, and citizenship.  You may enter at a rank higher than your official AGA rank, but may not enter at a lower one.  The registration deadline is Sunday, January 15th.  For more info, see the USYGC page. -Paul Barchilon E-J Youth Editor.

Share

Janice Kim Launches New Go Blog

Monday January 2, 2012

Janice is back! American professional Janice Kim 3P (at right), the popular go author, lecturer at many U.S. Go Congresses and former American Go Journal columnist (“Life in B-League”), has just launched a go blog. The idea of the Learn To Play Go blog, hosted by Kim’s  Samarkand.Net website, “is that if AGA members want to have one of their games analyzed and would email it to me in sgf format — along with any questions they have — I will identify it in the grand scheme, incorporate it in a weekly go tutorial blog post, and cast both players as ‘spy vs. spy’ for complete anonymity,” Janice tells the E-Journal. Send your sgf game records – and questions – to jkim@samarkand.net and be sure to put “sgf file” in the subject line and include your AGA membership number.

“Perhaps you are familiar with logic puzzles involving hats,” Janice suggests in the first post, What Hat Are You Wearing?  “No? For example, imagine there are 10 prisoners and 10 hats. Each prisoner is assigned a random hat, either red or blue, but the number of each color hat is not known to the prisoners. The prisoners will be lined up single file where each can see the hats in front of him but not behind. Starting with the prisoner in the back of the line and moving forward, they must each, in turn, say only one word which must be ‘red’ or ‘blue’. If the word matches their hat color they are released, if not, they are killed on the spot. A friendly guard warns them of this test one hour beforehand and tells them that they can formulate a plan together to help them survive within the given parameters. How many prisoners could you guarantee to save? While I was thinking about hats, I thought about how it might relate to go, and outlined in broad strokes my new Hat Theory in the comments of the go game below.”

Share

EuroGoTV-News: December 17-31

Monday January 2, 2012

UK: The 2011 London Open – held 12/28-31 in London — was won by YoungSam Kim 7d who won all his games. Lingjun Miao 4d was second came and in third was Yunlong Liu 3d. Click here for a more detailed report and results. Austria: Schayan Hamrah (at left) won the Austrian championship finals in mid-December. Click here for an interview with him. Spain: Alejandro Lopez 5k won the December 28 La Carboneria tournament, played in Sevilla, Spain. Romania: The Cluj-Napoca- City Championship, played December 16-18 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, was won by George Ghetu 3d.  Turkey: Ozgur Degirmenci 2d won the 19th Alpar Kilinc Memorial Tournament, played Dec 17-18 in ODTU/Ankara, Turkey. Switzerland: The 2011 Swiss Go Camp League, played Dec 16-19 in Montbonvon, Switzerland, was won by Semi Lee 4d.
– Excerpted from reports – including full results — on EuroGoTV

Share
Categories: Europe
Share

Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s 2012 New Year Life & Death Puzzle

Monday January 2, 2012

Black to play…

[link]

This is a sample of the content included in the weekly Member’s Edition of the American Go E-Journal; please consider joining to support American go. Happy 2012!

Published in the January 3, 2012 edition of the American Go E-Journal

Share
Categories: Game Commentaries
Share