Wednesday July 24, 2019
The dates for this year’s Cotsen Open have been set for October 26-27 in Los Angeles. The annual tournament is one of the major events on the AGA’s calendar of events and features cash prizes, free food truck lunches, a club competition and of course the ever-popular massage therapists (below). Registration details will be released soon.
Wednesday July 24, 2019
If you’re a fan of the American Go E-Journal and have some copy-editing skills, we’re looking to add a few editors to our team! Help get the word out about the best game in the world to a global audience; email journal@usgo.org today if interested.
Wednesday July 24, 2019
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Jaesung Lee, 7D
June 5, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary here is from his 8th round loss against South Korea’s Jaesung Lee. Albert’s analysis covers the complicated middle game fighting, when one misread turns an even game into an almost immediate loss. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Tuesday July 23, 2019
Go will be featured at this weekend’s Otakon, including a panel with Diana Garnet, who co-hosted the NHK ETV show Igo Focus with several professional players including Michael Redmond 9P. Otakon is an annual convention celebrating Asian pop culture — anime, manga, music, movies, video games, etc — and its fandom. Garnet will appear on a special Go panel with the National Go Center on Saturday from 12:35-1:45 pm and then NGC volunteers will host “The Divine Move – an Introduction to Go” workshop Saturday night from 9:30-11:30 pm.
Diana Garnet is a Tokyo-based anime-song singer, bilingual voice actress, and TV personality best known for her performance of Naruto Shippuden ending Spinning World, as well as Meow Meow Japanese History’s Thank You for the Music and Hello Again. She provides the main theme for game Dragon Marked for Death and voices characters for Bomberman, as well as Aura in the Shimajiro and the Island of Magic movie, Joule/Lumen in anime OVA Azure Striker Gunvolt, and various characters in Japanese for Meow Meow Japanese History. She’s currently voicing a variety of characters in both English and Japanese for anime and games, as well as producing new music to be announced soon.
From March 2017 to 2019, she co-hosted NHK ETV show Igo Focus along with several professional players including Redmond 9th dan, bringing the game to a new generation of fans with lessons focused on beginner strategies. This past April, she graduated the program at 3-kyu and has continued to involve herself in go related events as a guest and bilingual MC. She hopes to become a Go ambassador and use her platform to introduce many new people to the game.
The event runs from Friday to Sunday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center; click here for the complete schedule.
Monday July 22, 2019
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Pal Balogh, 6D
June 5, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary here is from his 7th round win against Hungary’s Pal Balogh. Albert explains a ton of practical material – from strategic midgame ramifications of the Large Avalanche to tactical tesujis. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Monday July 22, 2019
Coming back from vacation to find a letter from the IRS can be a little stressful, but “it was just the opposite” reports National Go Center Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa. “It was an approval letter for our application for 501(c)3 non-profit status.” This means that donors to the National Go Center can now claim deductions under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code, and the NGC is exempt from Federal taxes. “As an all-volunteer organization dependent on grants and donations, this is huge,” says Khalsa. “It also allows us to take advantage of other benefits such as software grants that companies like Microsoft and Google make to non-profits.” The NGC was assisted in making the successful application by a pro bono legal team from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. “They guided us every step of the way and we could not have done it without them.”
Sunday July 21, 2019
The 35th US Go Congress closed with a celebration of the week’s tournament winners at the awards banquet Saturday evening. Tournament champions received prizes, and all players and Go Congress staff shared in good food, good cheer, and rousing recognition of the hard work put in by all.
US Open
Frederick Bao 6d won top prize in the top division of the US Open, edging out Canadian Go Association President James Sedgwick 6d in second place, and Chanseok Oh 6d in third by tie-breaks. See the full list of US Open division winners here.
Senior Tournament AKA “Geezer Go”
Bart Jacob 3k and Moon Oh 1d were both undefeated with five wins.
Women’s Tournament
Yacen Xie 5d, Sarah Crites 6k, and Hung-yao Chang 15k took the top prizes in each of the three divisions.
9×9 Tournament
James Sedgwick 6d took first place in the dan division while Neal Wright 5k won the kyu division.
13×13 Tournament
Kunxuan Li 4d and Sarah Crites 6k won the dan and kyu divisions respectively.
Lightning Tournament
Shixing Li 5d and Ben Gunby 2k won the dan and kyu divisions respectively.
Die Hard Tournament
Stephen (Xiaocheng) Hu 6d ran away with the dan division of the tournament with an undefeated four wins, and Billy Maier 3k won the kyu division, also with four wins.
Self-Paired Tournament
Jeff Horn 1d claimed three titles, “Dedicated” for most total games, “Philanthropist” for most wins given to others, and “Kyu Killer.” Other titles recognized were “Hurricane” for most total wins claimed by Marion Edey 9k, and “Dan Slayer” claimed by James Acres 1k.
-photo by Eva Casey
-report by Karoline Li Tournaments Bureau Chief
Saturday July 20, 2019
Congress Tournament Schedule: Saturday 7/20
9:00a: US Open, round 6
Stay tuned for US Open and other tournament results coming soon!
–photo by Chris Garlock
Saturday July 20, 2019
The 2019 U.S. Masters tournament concluded dramatically Friday night as both Nyu Eiko 2p and Zhongfan Jian 7d killed huge groups in their final-round top-board games against Mark Lee 7d and Eric Lui 1p. Those wins gave Eiko the Masters championship and Jian second place. Click here for the Masters crosstab. Both top boards were broadcast live on the AGA’s Twitch stream, attracting 110,000 unique viewers around the world. For U.S. Open results through Round 5 (Round 6 is being played Saturday morning), click here.
Albert Yen 7d on World Amateur Go Championship
Thursday July 25, 2019
[link]
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Anibal Gomez de la Fuente, 1D
June 2, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary is from his 1st round win against Argentina’s Anibal Gomez de la Fuente. Although the game is effectively over by move 60, Albert covers instructive mistakes by both sides. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.