The AGA is looking for one male player and one female player to play as a pair in the 6th World Students Pair Go Championship in Tokyo, Japan from December 6 to 11. Players must be either American or Canadian citizens, under the age of 30, and currently enrolled in any higher education institution as students. Room and board are provided by the tournament as well as 50% of airfare, with players expected to bear 50% of airfare and other travel costs.
Eligible interested players should contact the AGA Pair Go Coordinator, Hajin Lee, at hajin.lee@usgo.org no later than September 24.
Pandanet AGA City League registration begins again for a new year. Registration will be open until Saturday November 2nd.The first round will start on November 17th. Please see the updated rules for the year for any questions. Registration and questions can be sent to steve.colburn@usgo.org. We hope to see your city compete this year!
On August 31st, the Davis/Sacramento Go Club held its Fall Quarterly. There were 14 players, “Which was the largest field in some time,” reports Willard Haynes. Four of the players were playing in their first AGA event. The winner of Division 1 was Jeff Newmiller 2k with a 3-1 record. David Baran 7k won Division 2 with a perfect 4-0 result. – Nate Eagle
Registration for Season 9 (2019-2020) of the Collegiate Go League is now open. Colleges and universities across North America with at least three interested student players can form a team to compete online against other schools. Matches are 3 vs 3 and will take place every two weeks in the Collegiate Go League room on the KGS Go Server. There will be 5 rounds in the Fall and 5 rounds in the Spring, which culminate in a championship playoffs for the top schools in April to crown the CGL champion. See if your school has what it takes to defeat perennial powerhouse UCLA, last season’s defending champion.
Registration will close on October 6th for schools who wish to be paired in the first round, which will be on October 12th. However, if you miss the registration deadline and still wish to participate, you can still register at any time and be paired starting in the following round. For more details about the CGL, please read the Rules.
Pandanet is holding the 18th World Students Go Oza Championship from February 17-21, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, where sixteen students from around the world will gather to determine the world’s top student player.
To select the finalists, there will be an online preliminary round on Pandanet; check out the tournament page for details. University/college students under the age of 30 are eligible to participate in the preliminary round (note that students living in China, Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei cannot participate in the prelim). Application deadline is October 20.
31 young players came out to the New York Institute of Go in Little Neck, NY to compete in the 1st U20 Eastern Youth Go Open on August 31st. The tournament was sponsored by the NYIG and organized by NYIG President Stephanie Yin 1p as part of an initiative to create more opportunities for youth to have face-to-face tournament play. In order to be eligible to play in this tournament, players had to be at least 10 kyu or stronger, which Yin hopes will encourage newer players to improve their playing level. Players came from as far as Chicago and Maryland to play in the tournament, which featured over $1,500 of prizes. In the open section, Willis Huang 6d from New Jersey went undefeated to be crowned the undisputed champion. In a rare turn of events, the other four players in that section defeated each other in a circle, creating an unbreakable tie for second. In the other divisions, Shuhui Lin 2d, Chase Lin 1k, and Xinyu Chen 6k demonstrated their prowess with undefeated 4-0 records.
The NYIG plans for this tournament to be an annual event, and looks forward to more young players competing in the future. Additional tournaments and events for both youth and adult players are also in the works, so stay tuned for future announcements.
Top tables at the 1st U20 Eastern Youth Open
Winner’s list:
Division A (Open) 1st: Willis Huang 6d 2nd (4-way tie): Alex Qi 4d, Sophia Wang 4d, Frederick Bao 5d, Minzhi Wang 5d
Division B 1st: Shuhui Lin 2d 2nd: Jiayang Su 1d 3rd: Niel Ni 1d
Division C 1st: Chase Lin 1k 2nd: Samantha Soo 4k 3rd (tie): Marcos Yang 1k and Jerry Ju 3k
Division D 1st: Xinyu Chen 6k 2nd: Jonathan Chen 9k 3rd: Crystal Yihan Pang 8k
A couple of AGA members have recently told us about references to games with stones in science fiction novels. Could these folks be playing Go?
Peter Freedman points out that in the science fiction trilogy Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne by Brian Staveley, the warriors play “a game of stones” with black and white stones. Unfortunately, we have no more information about this.
Meanwhile, Mike Goerss points out that in Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee, another science fiction trilogy, the characters play a game called “pattern stones” that seems like it could possibly be Go. Few details about this game are provided, but there is a reference to a three-stone handicap, and also the line, “Brezan placed a black stone – naturally he was the weaker player.” (These references appear on pages 152-154 of Raven Stratagem, the second book in the series.)
If you find more clues about what game these characters are playing, or if you spot references to Go in other popular literature, please let us know by dropping us a line at journal@usgo.org.
This month’s Washington Go Festival promises to give players a full day of competition, featuring four tournaments including the three-round Virginia Open, which this year will serve as a qualifying tournament for the first Virginia State Championship tournament. “The top four Virginia resident players will qualify to compete for a final-four state championship,” reports organizer Edward Zhang. “We also want to encourage more youth and women to join us, as there will be prizes for the youth and women’s champion as well!” Three AGA chapters – NOVA Go, Capital Go, and the Korean American Baduk Association – have joined together to host the state championship as part of the AGA’s new State Championship System. The festival will be held Saturday September 28th and also include team tournaments and a free computer-aided tournament during the lunch break. Players can register here.
