Saturday May 20, 2017
Michael Redmond 9p & Chris Garlock of the AGA E-Journal provide commentary and analysis of the forty-seventh game of Master (AlphaGo). In 
this game, Master plays black against Tan Xiao 7p.
“Tan Xiao was rated the top Chinese player in 2011, and has been a point getter for China in the Nongshim Cup,” says Redmond. “I am choosing this game to display Master’s peep to the 5-5 point, another move that was considered to be a bad exchange before Master played it.”
Friday May 19, 2017
Andrew Jackson and Michael Wanek are back with another video update on this year’s US Go Congress, th
is time with Congress directors Les Lanphear and Ted Terpstra. Lanphear and Terpstra talk about some of the highlights of this year’s Congress and remind those thinking about attending that Early Registration ends June 1st, when registration price and meal plan prices increase. Also, they note, after June 1st, the rooms at the hotel — “And it is an amazing venue!” says Wanek, who just did a site visit last week — will not be guaranteed.
Thursday May 18, 2017
Over 30 players have already registered for the 44th annual Maryland Open, coming up May 27-28. Registered players so far include two pros, reports organizer Keith Arnold. There are prizes in all sections in the two-day event and players can participate in one or both days. Register here.
Wednesday May 17, 2017
A Grand Slam tournament is the top level tournament in the European Go Federation’s Grand Prix, and the only level for which special pre-qualification conditions exist. The first such of 2017 took place in Berlin, starting on the 28th of April, and running for 4 days, the event saw 12 of the strongest European players battle it out for a 10,000 euro prize. The winner of the event was Artem Kachanovskyi (1p) who comes from Ukraine, he beat the Russian player Alexander Dinerchtein (3p) in the final by a margin of 5.5 points. Amusingly, before the event Alexander stated that Artem was the only opponent he felt he would be unable to defeat. Slovakia’s Pavol Lisy (1p) won the play-off for third place, defeating Ilya Shikshin (1p). You can see the full results here.
At the same time, a team tournament was running – the China Cup Berlin. This event was won by deceptively titled “Losers without Borders” (Dominik Boviz (6d), Thomas Debarre (6d), Nikola Mitic (6d)), a team made up of players who were knocked out of the Grand Slam on day 1. They finished ahead of second place “Team Berlin” (Johannes Obenaus(6d), Kim Seongjin(8d), Xu Yin(6d), Zhang Yi(5d)), and third place “The Dudes” (Cristian Pop(7d), Catalin Taranu(5p), Cornel Burzo(6d)). Full reports of both events are available here and here. There will be a second Grand Slam event in Warsaw this year.
Wednesday May 17, 2017
“Gu Zihao was born in 1998, and won the Limin Cup (youth) International tournament in 2015,” says Michael Redmond 9p in this video commentary, hosted by Chris Garlock of the AGA E-Journal, of the thirty-sixth game of Master (AlphaGo). “He is moving up in the rankings, 
and now is in the top 30 players in the world. Master plays its’ distinctive style in all parts of the board, with the most shocking move being an early invasion to the 3-3 point.”
Wednesday May 17, 2017
Next week’s face off between Ke Jie 9p and DeepMind’s updated AlphaGo software promises to be more than a long-awaited grudge match (“One small bleep for a computer, one giant push for mankind,” commented AGA President Andy Okun). It will also be be a chance to think about the future of go. Moves suggested by AlphaGo have already become common in online and professional tournament play as players build, break and rebuild their opening and middle game theories. “More than anything else, then, this is a chance to learn new things about the game by analyzing, commenting on, arguing about and playing over the moves thrown off in the brawling between China’s fearsome slugger and Google’s triumph of modern engineering,” Okun said. “We should do this together.” To this end, any chapter that holds an AlphaGo viewing party during next week’s event is eligible for $100 of (non-alcohol) expenses supported by the AGA president’s discretionary chapter rewards points pool, in addition to using their own points. Since the games are in Asia and may be late at night, watching online later is fine. Conditions are that the chapter is current, that more than a couple of people attend, that it be before May 30, and that you send the EJ a notice of the event beforehand so we can put word out about it, and an account of the event and a couple of pictures. Send questions to president@usgo.org.
Sunday May 14, 2017
“In this game from 1670 Honinbo Dosaku plays White against Yasui Chitetsu, his major rival in the Yasui house,” says Michael Redmond 9p in this video commentary, hosted by Chris Garlock of the AGA E-Journal. “In this game I will comment on Dosaku’s brilliant sabaki in the early middlegame, in a position that I find to resemble the way Master invaded the Chinese opening in games 22 and 48.”
Sunday May 14, 2017
The annual Nihon Ki-in Summer Go Camp is an intensive training program for non-Japanese go players who want to raise their level of play.
This year’s Camp will be held in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo August 25-September 6. “Besides many famous professionals’ providing you with simul games, reviews and lectures, there are also lots of go events that you will participate in and enjoy during the Camp!” says the Nihon Ki-in’s Tom Urasoe. Michael Redmond 9P will be one of the camp’s main instructors, and camp participants will also enjoy Japan’s most popular amateur go tournament with over 1,500 players in Tokyo. Register before May 31 and get 15% off; click here for details. Read Peter Schumer’s report on last year’s camp here.
NOTE: links have been updated
Saturday May 13, 2017
“Chen became the youngest player to promote to 9P at 17 when he was awarded with the rank for being a finalist in two world tournaments in 2006,” says Michael Redmond 9p in this video commentary, hosted by Chris Garlock of the AGA E-Journal, of the twenty-second game of Master (AlphaGo). “He is still in the top handful of players, and is known for his energetic and innovative play.”
AlphaGo-Ke Jie match schedule released
Saturday May 20, 2017
DeepMind has released the schedule for the upcoming Future of Go Summit, featuring an updated AlphaGo in several formats, including pair go,
team go, and a 1:1 match with the world’s number one player Ke Jie.
The action begins Tuesday in China (Monday night in the US), with an opening ceremony at 9p EST and the AlphaGo-Ke Jie match starting at 10:30p EST. The Future of A.I. Forum will take place on Wednesday, the second AlphaGo-Ke Jie on Thursday, pair and team go on Friday, and the third AlphaGo-Ke Jie match on Saturday. (use this Time Zone Converter to determine local dates/times)
DeepMind will be streaming the matches live, posting match updates and expert commentaries every day on this page and on their Twitter account, @DeepMindAI. For more details, you can visit the official event page here.