Saturday February 20, 2016
Go Journals available: Old American Go Journals from 1974 through 1997 and American Go Yearbooks from 2003 through 2009 are offered free, preferably to a go club, school or non-profit organization. Click here for details and contact information if interested.
Wednesday February 17, 2016
The 23rd annual Redmond Cup will begin in April, and registration is due by March 13th. Preliminary games will be played online and the four finalists will be invited to the 2016 US Go Congress to play the final games. There are two divisions in the Cup; the Junior league for kids 12 and under, and the Senior league for 17 and under. Competitors in both leagues must have an AGA or CGA rank of 1 dan or higher. The Junior league has been expanded to include 12 year olds, and both leagues now require a dan rating (kyu players can compete in the North American Kyu Championships instead). Skype will be required this year. Players who complete the tournament will be eligible for $400 scholarships to the AGA Go Camp, or $200 scholarships to the US Go Congress, on a first come first served basis, courtesy of the AGF. Competitors from Mexico are also invited to the event. The participants must be members of the American Go Association or the Canadian Go Association and either residents of the U.S., Canada or Mexico, or citizens of the United States living anywhere in the world, provided that they are also members of the AGA. For more information on the event, read the rules document here. To register click here. –Story and photo by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Raymond Feng 3d (l) competes against Ary Cheng 3d (r) in the Junior Division finals for the Redmond, at the 2015 US Go Congress in St. Paul.
Saturday February 13, 2016
Saturday February 13, 2016
The Iwamoto North American Foundation on February 8 announced jointly with the Nihon Kiin the establishment of a Go Teachers’ Workshop, to be held in Tokyo in October this year. The workshop is intended for people with interest in facilitating the implementation of go teaching into school or university curriculum. The sponsors will cover most of the expenses for the attendees. Content of the weeklong workshop includes training sessions on go instruction and organization; visits to Japanese educational institutions that have go established in the curriculum; lectures on Japanese go history and culture; group discussions on implementing go education; and pro teaching games. Click here for more details and application procedure.
Saturday February 13, 2016
In addition to winning the Jin Chen Memorial Tournament, Mark Lee taught several sessions at the Seattle Go Center during his visit in January of 2016. He did game analysis for the Monday evening Double Digit Kyu Class, including reviewing a top level game. On January 5, he played simultaneous games during the regular Tuesday weekly gathering. Go Center members found his post-game analysis of their simultaneous games particularly useful.
This was the sixth teaching visit by a professional or a national tournament winner to the Seattle Go Center in the last six months. The next workshop is with Yilun Yang 7P on April 9 and 10, 2016. photo/report by Brian Allen
Saturday February 13, 2016
The Ing Foundation is hosting the 2016 International Collegiate Go Tournament at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, in Canada this
summer. The event starts on July 7th and will finish on the 13th. This event is open to any current, future, or recently graduated college(both undergraduate and graduate) student, who will or has attended school in the year 2016. All costs related to room, board, tours, and travel during the event will be covered by the Ing foundation. The student is responsible for getting to and from the tournament site(both international and domestic travel costs), and for any personal expenses such as souvenirs, and entertainment during the course of the trip. Click here for complete details.
– Michael Fodera
Friday February 12, 2016
The Ing Foundation will be hosting the 2016 International Collegiate Go Tournament, at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, in Canada this summer, reports Michael Fodera of the American Collegiate Go Association. The event starts on July 7th and will finish on the 13th, and is open to any current, future, or recently graduated college student (both undergraduate and graduate) who will or has attended school in 2016. All costs related to room, board, tours, and travel during the event will be covered by the Ing foundation. The student is responsible for getting to and from the tournament site (both international and domestic travel costs), and for any personal expenses such as souvenirs, and entertainment during the course of the trip.
“This is a truly unique experience as the Shanghai Ing Foundation does not spare any expense during the planning of this event,” reports Fodera. More information, including rules and registration, can be found on the ACGA website here. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
Monday February 8, 2016
What do you do when you have the flu and can’t make it to the go club? That’s what Skype was invented for, says Evanston Go Club president Mark Rubenstein. “This was Kiren Polara’s idea,” says Rubenstein. “He was at home with the flu, but didn’t want to miss the club meeting. So he suggested we use Skype and KGS to let him attend virtually. It worked out really well; he got to play and watch all night long. It got me thinking about more ways we can use technology to engage more players.” The Evanston Go club has been meeting every week for nearly 20 years. Their next tournament will be March 5. “Sorry, no virtual games at the tournament, you have to attend in person!” said Rubenstein.
photo by Mark Rubenstein
Monday February 8, 2016
Blind Go Online? “A friend of mine recently lost his sight, and I helped him get some go equipment,” writes Michael Redmond 9P. “Do you 
know of any method for the blind to play go on the internet? Since we can expect a blind person to take some extra time, I think a correspondence system for time such as the one OGS has would be good,” Redmond says. “The problem is how to input the moves and check the position, I guess. I know that there are voice- controlled browsers, so I think it should be possible to have the moves voiced as coordinates, but I could be missing something. Surely someone has had this problem before?” Email your suggestions to us at journal@usgo.org
Go in Oscar-Nominated Short: “In the film “Stutterer” (UK/Ireland), one of five films nominated in the Short Films category for the Academy Awards this year, there is an extended scene with the protagonist and his father playing go,” reports Peter Schumer. “BTW the movie is excellent on its own terms as are the other four nominated films.” still from “Stutterer”
Sunday February 7, 2016
As the go world — and indeed much mainstream media — has continued to buzz in the wake of the recent announcement of AlphaGo’s defeat
of a professional go player, details of the matchup between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol have been released. The five-game match will take place in Seoul, March 9-15, with a $1 million prize — and the question of whether man or machine will prevail — at stake. We’ll keep you posted on broadcast coverage plans. Meanwhile, here’s a few of the reactions that have come in; we welcome your thoughts at our Facebook page, Twitter or at journal@usgo.org.
SmartGo’s Kierulf on AlphaGo: “Exciting times with the AlphaGo announcement!” writes SmartGo’s Anders Kierulf “If you’re in need of some more analysis and speculation on the Lee Sedol match, I’ve got you covered: Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo.” Kierulf has also written a bit about how AlphaGo works, and encouraging people to learn go now. He also reports that SmartGo has “definitely seen a spike in sales last week, subsiding again now.”
Cobb: A Flawed Test: “These sorts of tests of computer programs against pros (chess or go) all have the same flaw,” writes Slate & Shell’s Bill Cobb. “While the computer of course plays at the speed it needs to in order to use all of its resources, the pro is forced to play much faster than he/she can make use of their resources to a similar degree. For a go pro, one hour basic time is ‘lightning’ go, not a true test of the player’s ability—especially when it is followed by 30 second instead of one minute byoyomi periods. I don’t understand why people are so impressed about the computer program winning under such unfair conditions. Many strong amateurs could beat many pros under a similarly unbalanced time arrangement.” Cobb is the author of “Reflections on the Game of Go” a collection of his E-Journal columns, many of which focus on ways in which go can be related to Buddhist views of the search for enlightenment.
“Alphaville” Warned Us: The night before the announcement that a computer had won a 5-game match with no handicap against a 
professional, I watched ‘Alphaville,’ a 1965 French film,” writes David Doshay. “In it an evil computer saps vocabulary, emotion and eventually life from the people of Alphaville. That computer’s name is Alpha-60. This program is called AlphaGo. Coincidence or conspiracy? Go and 60 look a lot alike to me …Should we warn the world?”
Learning from Chess: “Regarding Google’s AlphaGo achievement, I’d be interested in reading an E-Journal article discussing how chess software has affected online chess tournaments,” writes Syracuse go organizer Richard Moseson. “There have already been a few scandals at top chess tournaments in which players were found to be using chess playing software. How long will it be before players can use iGlasses to receive recommendations for each move?”
Moving the Goalposts: “Perhaps it is time to consider moving to the next prime number with a go board that is 23 by 23,” suggests Ronald Davis.
Update (7:08p): The source of the “Moving the Goalposts” quote has been updated.