American Go E-Journal

Plans are underway for a brand-new major go event in the U.S. early next year. Organizers for the North American Go Convention (NAGC) plan to run the event from February 8-17, book-ended with weekend tournaments in New York City (February 9-10) and Washington, DC (February 16-17), with the overall winner declared NAGC Open Champion. Both weekend open tournaments offer 8 rounds of rated games for kyu players, and 6 rounds for dan. Like the annual U.S. Go Congress, the NAGC organizers also plan to include simuls, lectures and game reviews with professional players, who thus far include Joanne Missingham 6P, Stephanie Yin 1P and Myung-wan Kim 9P. Also on tap are Blitz go, Pair Go, awards for top youth, female and senior players and more. The North American Go Convention is sponsored by the AGA Capital Go Club, NOVA Go Club and Days Inn Hotel, and organized by Yue Zhang, Sam Zimmerman, Garrett Smith, Tengxiao Yang, Edward Zhang, Liang Yu, Xiliang Liu, Joshua Guarino, et al. Click here for online registration; groups of 10 or more qualify for a 5% discount. For facility reservation reasons, registration fees will rise 10% after 12/25/2012.