Lee Sedol plays the first move in the first game of the AlphaGo series
Korean Go champion Lee Sedol has officially retired. “The 36-year-old, who scored 18 victories in international competitions and 32 victories in domestic events, submitted his letter of retirement to the Korea Baduk Association (KBA), which oversees Go professionals in South Korea, on Nov. 19, terminating his legendary 24-year career,” reports the Yonhap News Agency. In an interview with the Korean news agency earlier this week, Lee attributed his desire to retire to the rise of AI and the invincibility of programs such as AlphaGo, stating that “with the debut of AI in Go… even if I become the number one, there is an entity that cannot be defeated.” Lee’s retirement and his AI-based reasons were reported internationally by the media with American media such as Vice, the Guardian, Business Insider, and others reporting the story.
Yutopian Enterprises is planning to close their doors and are offering all customers an extra 30% discount with the purchase of three or more books until January 2020. Owners and operators Sidney and Katherine Yuan have been fixtures in the vendor room at the US Go Congress for many years, and have consistently supported the American Go community. “Yutopian has donated to the AGF since 2000, and even more importantly they have donated go boards, stones, and bowls which have been auctioned off for many thousands of dollars to support the AGF and US Go,” says AGF President Terry Benson. “We wish them well and thank them for helping grow the game. We will miss them.”
The Yuans are looking for someone willing to continue the business and take over their inventory. Ability to create a new website and about 100-200 square feet of storage space would be required. If you are interested, please call 1-800-988-6463 or send an email to info@yutopian.com.
Stephanie Yin 1P has been appointed to the new position of Vice President for Development at the American Go Association. Yin, a professional go player and teacher, will focus on fundraising, seeking sponsorships and potential collaborations with other national and local Go organizations, and more broadly on promoting and popularizing Go in the US. She’ll also be seeking to develop exchange programs for Go students and Go studies abroad. “We’re thrilled to have Stephanie aboard and look forward to some exciting developments in the months ahead,” said AGA president Andy Okun. For details on any of these efforts, contact Yin at stephanie.yin@usgo.org.
The Mountainview Go Club held its 4th tournament in the South Bay at the Palo Alto downtown library on Saturday November 9th. “Congratulations go to Hajin Lee 4P who won the overall tournament,” says Michael Kokosenski. “We would also like to recognize three other players who won all of their matches, Tyler Moore 4k, Dave Whipp 6k, and David Elliston 9k.”
Players from all over the Bay Area attended and played 3 rounds of AGA rated games in the calm setting of the library, and afterwards enjoyed game reviews out underneath the brilliant fall foliage.
-report and photos by Michael Kokosenski This post has been updated; Hajin Lee is 4P
This month 26 go players enjoyed another great weekend of competition in the second NYGA Monthly Tournament held by on November 9 in Little Neck, NY. After 4 rounds of close fighting, Kenny Joel 4d clinched first place by direct win over Dazhi Xu 5 dan after three wins each. Alexander Qi 4d took third place. Tommy Xie 1k and Alastair McLaughlin 17k won divisions 2 and 3 respectively with perfect 4-0 records.
The next NYGA monthly tournament will be held December 14. For more information and the schedule of monthly tournaments visit the NYGA Monthly Tournaments page.
Colorado held its first pro workshop in long time when Yoonyoung Kim, 8p of Korea visited Denver November 2nd and 3rd. Players from both Colorado and Utah, 26 in total, participated. The highlight of the two-day event was when Ms. Kim played everyone in a team simul on the second day. Players gathered into six teams of three to four members each who could combine their Go knowledge on each move. Still, each team fell one-by-one against Ms. Kim, who is ranked in the top ten female players in Korea. “I could see everyone was really enjoying the simul by the wide smiles on their faces,” says organizer Eric Wainwright, “even as they went down in defeat. I hope we can repeat this event in the near future.”
Yoonyoung Kim now resides in Montreal and teaches Go online and at local clubs. You can find out more on her website at yybaduk.mozello.com. Find more pictures of the event at Google photos.
Twenty-two players turned out to play in the Syracuse Go Club’s annual Fall Self-Pair Tournament on November 2nd, including ten past and present students of tournament organizer Richard Moseson. Every player went home a winner after selecting a new go book to take home at the end of the day.
Soren Jaffe directed a field of 19 players in the 6th Lake Erie Go Tournament, held at Lake Erie College in Ohio, on November 2nd. The participates competed for handmade mini goban prizes. Michael Stevenson 2d won the Dan division with the only undefeated record, beating the two favorites of the event, Feifan Jia 6d and Soren Jaffe 5d.
Results: Dan Division: 1st Michael Stevenson 2d, 2nd Feifan Jia 6d, 3rd Richard Keay 2k. Kyu Division: 1st David Rohlfing 10k, 2nd Manny Jauregui 12k, 3rd Steve Zilber 13k
Tournament Director Soren Jaffe (left) with Dan Division winner Michael Stevenson
2018 San Diego Champ, Michael Wang vs. 2018 California Champ, Calvin Sun
The best amateur go player in the state of California in 2019 will be crowned over Thanksgiving weekend. The San Diego Go Club will host the 2nd Annual California State Go Championship at the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1. Although only California amateur go players, including students, are eligible to win the top prize and title of Champion in the Open Division, everyone is welcome to play in the tournament. The top boy and girl under 16 years of age will also be crowned California U16 Champions.
The organizers will run a separate 13×13 youth tournament for youngsters without an AGA rating. For non-players, Balboa Park contains nine museums, the world famous San Diego Zoo, and a free organ concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday all within walking distance from the San Diego Chess Club. Registration, information, and directions are available at https://www.goclubs.org.
The 2019 MA State Championship on Saturday, November 16, was a huge success with a healthy turnout of 30 players, the biggest tournament in Western Massachusetts in years. It was hosted by the Western Mass Go Association (WMGC) at Springfield College. Full results and more pictures available here.
Xu Yilin (6d) on Board 1 in black with glasses, on his way to being undefeated. Luo Yin (5d, in the white hoody) vs Ruihan Cao (3d). photo by Bill Saltman
A successful
tournament requires help from so many people, without whom participants could
not have had such a great day:
– The team in Boston for giving the WMGC the opportunity to host the state championship. – Professor Andrew Perry who suggested and helped arrange for the use of the beautiful space at Springfield College.
Shot of the whole room. In the foreground, Trevor Morris (6d) losing to Cao Ruihan (3d). photo by Bill Saltman
– The AGA for its encouragement and sponsorship of the state championship. – David Kohn, president of MGA, and Eva Casey, for support in publicity, logistics, and coordination with the other MA tournaments. – Past Go Congress organizers Micah Feldman, who arranged for snacks and took a voluntary bye in round 1, and Bill Saltman, who photographed the tournament. – Chris Morse and Micah Feldman both helped teach a beginner’s class at Springfield College the evening before the tournament, with about a dozen students in attendance. – Martha Marteney, who was on hand all day to manage the technical details of running the tournament. – An anonymous donor for a very generous $500 donation to help draw in some very strong players, and increase the prize pool all the way down the line. – Neil Ritter, MA State Championship Coordinate, for all his help in preparing for the tournament. He also drove in early from Boston with boards, stones and clocks, and orchestrated an efficient setup and teardown. The tournament would not have been such a success without Neil’s help and encouragement. – All the players, many of whom pitched in throughout the day to help, especially during setup and teardown.
The picture at right is from the third round, and includes the open section top finishers. Xu Yilin (6d) on board one in black with glasses, on his way to being undefeated. Luo Yin (5d) in the white hoody manages to win this hotly contested third round game against Ruihan Cao (3d), standing with the blue jacket. Luo Yin’s only loss was in the previous round to Xu Yilin, the tournament winner. Ruihan Cao had battled his way up from below the bar, to lose only to the top two finishers in the tournament, in rounds 3 and 4, after having polished off one 6-dan in round 2, earning himself a special mention prize, with the strongest 2-2 result possible from his starting position.
Other excellent results were put in by three 4-0 winners: – Aojie Kong (1k), the AGA’s newest member. – Andrew McGowan (2k), who, despite having the pressure of a large crowd of players gathered around his 4th round game – the last one of the tournament to finish, managed to hold on to a 1/2 point win against a strong 1d. – Teng Chi-hse (5k). In this top-heavy tournament, he didn’t play a single even game. In two games he gave a handicap, and in two he received stones. A great result, showing off his ability to both give and take handicap stones effectively.
And, in a tough field,
there were only two 3-1 winners outside of the open section: Ni Niel (1k) and
Choung Jino (2k).
– Trevor Morris, Tournament Director; photos by Bill Saltman
