Construction on the new National Go Center in Washington DC is almost done and plans for the Center’s grand opening April
28-30 are underway, reports Center Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa.
“Local volunteers and generous contributors have already stepped up to help make the Center a warm and welcoming place,” says Khalsa. “But there are a lot of items 
the NGC could use from supportive donors.” These include office desk(s) and chairs, a sofa and loveseat(s), side tables, kitchen utensils and equipment, coffee maker, framed go-themed pictures and artwork, computers, cameras for broadcasting, monitors, 2- inch table boards, and stones in wooden bowls. Email gurujeet.khalsa@nationalgocenter.org
Fred Baldwin and Keith Arnold have donated go books and magazines for the Center’s library, which will be housed in teak bookcases donated by former AGA President Allan Abramson. Ron Snyder has donated a beautifully crafted Ing table. And Thomas Hsiang is contributing a special piece of calligraphy (left) by legendary go player Fujisawa Shuko that the Nihon Kiin originally donated to the New York Go Center. photo: measuring space for tables at the NGC; photo by Chris Garlock
Update: This post has been updated to reflect that the Ing table is being donated by Ron Snyder.
The VMware Go Club and Santa Clara Youth Go Club presented a “Learn to Play Go” session for 120+ third-graders at Sedgwick Elementary School in Cupertino, CA, on March 28th, reports organizer Wenguang Wang. “As in previous years, the school invited many presenters to teach kids various kinds of fun activities, such as fencing, YoYo, robots, and yoga. Volunteers Hongya Qu, Yi Luo, and myself presented the go lesson. Students learned the rules and played a few games on 9×9 boards. They enjoyed the session, especially those who won,” reports Wang. -Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor. Photo by Wenguang Wang.
New AlphaGo doc premieres at NYC Tribeca filmfest
Saturday April 1, 2017
Man is pitted against machine as the DeepMind AI takes on go grandmaster Lee Sedol in ALPHAGO, a brand-new
documentary that will have its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca film festival in New York City later this month. Director Greg Kohs’ absorbing documentary chronicles Google’s DeepMind team as it prepares to test the limits of its rapidly-evolving AI technology. Kohs and his team were on hand last year in Seoul to document the historic battle with more at stake than the million dollar prize, and the film “reveals as much about the workings of the human mind as it does the future of AI.” ALPHAGO screens April 21, 23, 24 and 26; click here for details and tickets.