American Go E-Journal » 2013 » March

A special election is being held to fill the Central Region board seat vacated recently by Bob Barber (Barber & Smith Moving On, Central Region Seeks New Board Members 2/8/2013 EJ). The election is being conducted on a compressed time frame, with nominations closing April 15 and ballots due back by May 1. The winner, who will serve out the remaining year of Barber’s term, will be announced on May 2. Lisa Scott has volunteered to serve the last few months of departing board member Daniel Smith, who was also from the Central Region. The regular elections and call for nominations for the 2013-2015 board seats will be announced on May 4. Details on qualifications and nominations are available on the AGA Election page; questions can be sent to elections@usgo.org.

Japanese 4-dan professional Narumi Osawa (right) will give a free talk and simul in Washington, DC on April 2. The event, which will run from 7-9:30p, is co-hosted by the Japanese Embassy the Greater Washington Go Club and will be held at the Japan Information and Cultural Center in downtown Washington, at 1150 18th St. NW. Born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan on May 22nd, 1976. Ms. Osawa became professional 1-dan in 1998, was promoted to 2-dan in 1999, 3-dan in 2003, and 4-dan in 2009. She won the Women’s Kakusei title in 1999 and 2003, and the Women’s JAL titlein 2005. She participated in the 16th Asian Tournament as a member of the Japanese National Team. The free event will have two parts: a short talk designed for beginners, then a simultaneous exhibition followed by a short analysis of highlights from these games.

On March 17th a group of Bay Area Go Players Association volunteers gathered and gave free go lessons to beginners in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood (across the bay from San Francisco). More than 35 people of various ages and diverse backgrounds learned to play go at this fourth annual event. Each took home the informative Way to Go booklet and a 9×9 starter go set. Herb Doughty, a veteran go teacher in the local community, recalled his high point of the day: “I spent some time this afternoon teaching four members of one family, spanning three generations.” Event organizer and Bay Area Go board member Jay Chan reports, “It was a lot of fun. We’re planning to do it again later this year – next time in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood.” An AGA ratings tournament was held concurrently with the free lessons, and Argentinian Gabriel Benmergui 6d dominated the dan section with four wins and no losses.
– Roger Schrag 

Paul Anderson, former President of the American Go Association and the New York Go Center, has died. Anderson worked at IBM in New York and Japan for many years, and arranged the IBM-sponsored matches in the late 1980s. He was President of the American Go Association for two years in the late 1960s, leading an AGA delegation to Japan, and President of the New York Go Center from 2005 to 2009. “Paul was a department head in IBM Japan (my memory is that he was head of the printer division for Asia),” writes go journalist John Power, “and he persuaded IBM to sponsor a fast-play tournament — one hour per player plus 30 seconds per move — with limited international participation (two Chinese and two Koreans in a first round of 64). It lasted for three terms from 1988 to 1990.” Power also notes that “Yi Ch’ang-ho made his international debut in the first tournament, but won only one game. An American and a European also played in the qualifying tournament.”

The American Go Association recently launched its official Facebook page. “Like” this page and follow it for information about go and the AGA. There’s also now a Google+ community for the AGA; join the community and follow the latest news there as well. “We will investigate additional uses of both of these social networks and associated tools,” says Bart Jacob, who’s helping coordinate social media for the AGA. Options include using Hang Outs in the Google+ community for live discussions around topics of interest to AGA members and the go community in general. “Post your ideas, suggestions and feedback on both of these sites,” Jacob urges.