American Go E-Journal » 2014 » April

The go booth at the 54th Sakura Mat­suri Street Fes­ti­val on April 12 in Wash­ing­ton D.C. was so popular that organizers quickly went through the more than 200 brochures they brought. The event runs in conjunction with the annual Cherry Blos­som Fes­ti­val in Washington. Teachers — including booth coordinator John Goon, Todd Heidenreich and Benjamin Hong — found themselves teaching multiple students while spectators watched and eagerly awaited their turn at the boards. “For all those who have any Japan­ese cul­tural events in your local area, I def­i­nitely encour­age you all to try and set up a booth like we did,” says Hong. “Because at the end of the day, if there was only one thing I learned from this event, it is that go has a real poten­tial to appeal to all types of peo­ple and can even­tu­ally become a house­hold sta­ple like chess or check­ers if we keep spread­ing the word with out­reach ini­tia­tives like this one.”
– photo courtesy Benjamin Hong; read his complete Sakura Matsuri blog post here

Wang Ma 6d topped a field of 36 players ranging from 20 kyu to 6 dan at the Massachusetts Go Association’s annual Don Wiener Memorial Tournament on April 13 in Somerville MA. “Among the players were a visitor from Scotland, a visiting scholar from China, and contingents from Vermont, Maine, and Western Massachusetts,” reports TD Eva Casey. “An eight year old girl played as did a player in her eight decade.” Casey also extended “thanks to our friends at the Boylston Chess Club for sharing their space.”

Winners Report:
1st Place: Wang Ma 6d (4-0)
2nd Place: Shawn Ligocki 8k (4-0)
3rd Place: Steven Wu 4d (3-1)
photo (l-r): Steven Wu (back to camera), Wang Ma, John Aspinall and David Spitz; photo by Eva Casey. Click here for more photos. 

The second American Collegiate Go Association (ACGA) Spring Go Expo drew over a hundred participants to MIT’s main campus on March 29. After a two-hour round of simuls with Chinese professionals in the morning, the event opened with speeches from Ing Minghao, president of the Ing Chang-Ki Weiqi Education Foundation, Chang Hao 9P, Hua Xueming 7P, and ACGA organizers Michael Fodera and Cole Pruitt. Current undergraduates Tommy Liu (MIT) and Cherry Shen (Wellesley) emceed the event and provided translation for the Chinese delegation throughout.

Highlights of the afternoon included an exposition match between Chang Hao 9P and strong western amateurs Trevor Morris 7d and Will Lockhart 5d, broadcast on KGS with live commentary from Andy Liu 1P and Hua Xueming 7P. The Expo also featured the premiere of ‘Ring Go’, a new go variant where players form a ring organized by rank and play two games each: one with white and one with black, against a weaker and stronger player respectively.

On the heels of the Expo, the ACGA is formalizing its structure as an organization and looking to include all university community members in its growth over the next year. For more information about how to get involved in college Go, how to participate in the Collegiate Go League, or receive go equipment for your university-based club, visit www.college-go.org for more information, or contact acga.organizers@gmail.com
– Cole Pruitt