American Go E-Journal » 2015 » February

This weekend’s 2015 Southern California Go Championship will boast support from the largest Chinese language newspaper in the US as well as a cultural non-profit, it was announced at a press conference Tuesday.  “The promotion of go is in line with goals of the World Journal,” said World Journal President James J. L. Guo.  “We want to support Chinese culture, and also promote a game that stimulates the potential of children and sustains the character of adults.  As Chinese media in North America, we are happy to see the growth of the go community here.” The tournament is being held in a spacious room in the World Journal’s Monterey Park offices, according to tournament organizer Kevin Chao of the host chapter, Orange County Go Club.  The tri-lingual press conference held by Guo, Chao, AGA President Andy Okun and Los Angeles resident pro Kim Myungwan 9p was reported in, among other media outlets, the World Journal itself and a local Korean TV news show.  “Shirley Lin 1p and strong player/teacher Evan Cho were also in attendance,” Okun told the EJ. “The history of newspaper support for go tournaments is a long and wonderful one, so we are delighted and heartened by the World Journal’s participation.”   The two-day, five-round tournament is also receiving significant support from the American Asia Culture Exchange Association and its president, Jay Zheng, a long-time go player and businessman and recently an AGA volunteer.  The prize pool is $3,000 with a prize of $700 for first place in the open section, and NAMT qualifying points for top finishers.  Click here for more information. photos courtesy the World Journal.

One of the biggest go tournaments on the East Coast is taking place this weekend. The New Jersey Open will be held in Princeton, NJ Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1st. Registration run from 9-10a at the Frist Campus Center, Princeton University, located at the corner of Washington Road and Ivy Lane. You must be there by 10a to be paired in the first round. $38 for full tournament; $28 youth rate under age 23; $25 Sat. only / $20 Sun. only ($20/$15 under-23). Free to Princeton University students with ID. Cell phones don’t work at the site, but if you’re lost or late, call 609-851-6351 during the last half hour of registration. Info: rickmott@princetongoclub.org.
photo: TD Paul Matthews at the 2014 NJO; photo by John Pinkerton

Yilun Yang came to the Seattle Go Center for his yearly workshop last weekend, Feb. 21 and 22.  There were 13 participants, ranging from 12 kyu to 2 dan; a mixture of new students and old friends.  Mr. Yang has been teaching these workshops in Seattle since 2001, and he has fine-tuned his mixture of lectures on theory, reviews of games played by students, and go problems.  He recommends that kyu players do go problems to improve, rather than studying professional games.  This year, students worked on his go problems throughout the workshop, but still  there were very few perfect scores at the end of Sunday.

We had beautiful sunny spring weather during the workshop, with early flowers in full bloom, and we were glad to show Mr. Yang that Seattle is not always cloudy in February.  Photo caption: Now that the young man is playing white, it is harder to make territory. – – photo/report by Brian Allen

“Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Lab are trying to turn chess into a spectator sport like American football or poker,” reports the BBC. “The group wants to make the game more accessible to the uninitiated, by presenting complex information on matches in a simple, visually appealing way and give an expert insight into the state of a game.” “Can’t we do this as well?” wonders EJ reader David Matson, who sent this along.