American Go E-Journal » 2016 » January

The E-Journal’s coverage of the 4th AGA Pro Qualification Tournament — this week in Los Angeles — has been expanded to include brief video game highlights focusing on key points in selected games. In our first batch, Tyler Oyakawa 5d provides a 2-minute review of the main ways to approach the 3-5 point in the Round 1 game between Sarah Yu and Daniel Gourdeau (right). “Nice comparison,” says Dontbtme. In his review of the Round 1 Andrew Lu-Aaron Ye game (4:10), Oyakawa explains how to manage an attack on weak groups, and in the Manuel Velasco-Jeremy Chiu first-round game (5:10), he looks at options for handling your opponent’s moyo, including when to reduce and when (and how) to invade. Finally, Oyakawa provides a brief explanation of Ben Lockhart’s fast opening moves against Andrew Lu in their Round 2 game  (2:00). “Check them out and let us know what you think!” urges EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock.

The year is barely a few days old and it’s already been an exciting one for the American Go Association. Hundreds tuned in on January 1 to Myungwan Kim 9Ps commentary on our YouTube channel for the third round of the MLily Cup battle between go titans Lee Sedol and Ke Jie. Then an attack on the datacenter that hosts our site took the AGA’s website down until midday Sunday (though we were able to get some preliminary content out via our Facebook and Twitter feeds on Saturday and early Sunday), just in time for our coverage of the 4th AGA Professional Qualifier at the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles. And as the AGA pro event began to wind down for the day early Sunday evening, our coverage of the fourth round of the MLily began. “After the pro qualifications, I thought I’d have a go overdose, but no way,” said one YouTube viewer, “let’s watch this game.”

AGA Pro Qualifier coverage continues all week, with game broadcasts beginning at 9:30a PST and 3P PST daily, along with continuous posts on Facebook and Twitter, plus game highlights on YouTube. And if a fifth game is needed in the MLily Cup, we’ll broadcast that as well; stay tuned for complete details.

report/photos by Chris Garlock

“With regard to the ‘Top US Players to Compete in 4th AGA Pro Tourney January 3-9 in LA’ report (12/29),” writes Ted Terpstra, “shouldn’t this be ‘North American’ go players instead of US go players as some of the 8 are from Canada?”
Quite right, thanks for the correction. Canada will be represented by Daniel Gourdeau, Manuel Velasco, and Jin (Sarah) Yu. Gourdeau is a returning contender, but for Velasco and Yu it will be their first attempt.