Sunday January 7, 2018
The E-Journal team has immediate openings for news editors. Anyone interested should email journal@usgo.org; no experience necessary but enthusiasm and a good sense of humor helpful. These are volunteer positions and the time commitment depends on availability. The American Go E-Journal is the most widely-read English-language go publication in the world.
Sunday January 7, 2018
Registration is now open for the South Central Go Tournament, coming up February 17-18, in Plano, TX (Dallas area). “The 
preceding two tournaments have been well attended and provided 6 rounds of exciting play for competitors,” reports Bob Gilman. “The prior tournaments have attracted players from around Texas and from other states as well. There will be both an Open Section (no handicaps), and a Handicap Section. It will be a good chance to meet and play with people from outside your local community.”
The tournament will be an American Go Association (AGA) rated tournament, so players must be current AGA members at the time of the tournament. AGA membership must be taken care of in advance of the tournament.
On-line registration is available here. You can find AGA membership information and join or renew on-line here. Full information (and a link to registration) is available on the event Facebook page.
Saturday January 6, 2018
A dozen teams faced off just before Christmas in the New York Youth Team Go Championship, hosted by the New York 
Institute of Go. The five-round event, held December 22-23, was organized by the New York Go Association and held at The New York Institute of Go in Queens, NY.
The Institute’s focus is on popularizing the game, especially among a younger generation of players. This year’s Championship was the second annual competition, providing an opportunity for youth players in the New York City area to meet current students from universities including prominent Ivy League schools.
The teams, with three players each, had players from different regions. The MustWin team (1st table: Cathy Liao, 2nd table: Chenghan Du, 3rd 
table: Jason Long) swept the 2017 Championship, with The Go Ninga Masters taking second and the Dark Go team in third. The World Champions team won the Best Fighter award. Almost of the players have been learning go for just one to two years, and some had met and played in the first team championship in 2016.
“How did you improve so fast since the last Rating Competition” an 18-kyu player asked another player, who’s now 15-kyu. “I must practice go more often now.” The MustWin team’s eight-year-old Chenghan Du said “I have to get up early tomorrow morning to study a pro game before tournament, I promised Mrs. Yin to study at least one game per day.”
Institute founder and lead teacher Stephanie Yin called the Championship “a great opportunity for young players to learn from each other, share experience, and improve in and outside go. The success of consecutive youth tournaments led us to encourage the passion of go to prosper.” Starting this year, New York Go Association will offer scholarships to youth players; stay tuned for details. The New York Go Expo and 2017 Dreamworks School Invitational is free event and will be hold on Feb 17-18, 2018 in New York. The event includes pro activities, free rated games, and etc. Details to follow.
– includes reporting by Stephanie Yin, with help from Aaron Julian; photos by Stephanie Yin
Thursday January 4, 2018
“With the ringing in of 2018 a new year of youth go tournaments begins,” says AGA Youth Coordinator Justin Teng. “Starting with the fifth edition of the North American Kyu Championships (NAKC) on February 3rd, kyu players under the age of 18 from the United States, Canada, and Mexico can test their mettle in a one-day, four round tournament hosted on KGS. Stupendous crystal trophies will be awarded to the top Junior (under 13) and Senior (under 18) players in each of 5 divisions, and entry into the esteemed 25th Redmond Cup will be granted to the champions of the top division.” The American Go Foundation will again offer players their choice of a $400 scholarship to the AGA Summer Go Camp or a $200 scholarship to the 2018 US Go Congress in Williamsburg, Virginia. Find out more about this year’s NAKC and register here by January 28th. “Dan players will not have to wait long to enter the fray themselves, as registration for the 25th Redmond Cup will open in early February with the preliminaries beginning in March,” adds Teng. -Story and photo by Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor Photo: Young go players competing at congress.
Tuesday January 2, 2018
The 5th Annual Gala Pair Go Tournament, held Saturday Dec. 16 in Seattle, had lots of laughter, and stronger players than 2016. 
Although the 2017 group was a little bit smaller than the previous year, with 11 teams, they managed to eat almost all the cake, and to polish off the raspberries and cream. The first table was won by Lusha Zhou and Tzu-Jen Chan. The second table was won by Cat Mai and Nick Wilmes, while the third table was won by Anne Thompson and Bill Thompson. 
The games inspired much discussion, and pairs were still replaying their games an hour after the awards ceremony. photos: (right) Cullen Mott and Lucy Wang in rabbit ears; (left): first table winners on left, second table winners on right, third table winners in center front. Photos and report by Brian Allen.
AlphaGo doc live now on Netflix; both go docs coming to Portland
Thursday January 4, 2018
“AlphaGo” — the 2017 documentary about the 2016 showdown between the AlphaGo AI and Lee Sedol, is now streaming on
Netflix. Directed by Greg Kohs with an original score by Academy Award nominee, Hauschka, AlphaGo chronicles a journey from the halls of Oxford, through the backstreets of Bordeaux, past the coding terminals of Google DeepMind in London, and ultimately, to the seven-day tournament in Seoul. As the drama unfolds, more questions emerge: What can artificial intelligence reveal about a 3000-year-old game? What can it teach us about humanity?
Both “AlphaGo” and “The Surrounding Game” — which follows the lives of three young Americans vying to become the first-ever Western professional players — will screen later this month in Portland, OR. The Surrounding Game screens on Jan. 13th at 7:30 and AlphaGo on Jan. 14th at 7:30, both at the Documentary Film Center (corner of NE Williams and Tillamook). “We’re also going to hold a small teaching session at 6PM on the 14th for new players to learn how to play the game. Players can sign up on the 13th for the free teaching session,” reports Peter Freedman.
“We’ll be selling tickets for $8 per night or $14 for both nights,” Freedman adds; email him at pleefreedman1@comcast.net. Raffle tickets will be a dollar and will be sold at the Surrounding Game screening. The raffle drawing will occur at the end of the screening. “We’ll have some popcorn and non-alcoholic beverages for free and beer for sale on both nights.”