September « 2020 « American Go E-Journal

Ilya Shikshin 3P wins 5th European Pro Championship

Wednesday September 30, 2020

After seven rounds, Ilya Shikshin 3P finished with a 6:1 score to win the 5th European Pro Championship played September 24th to 27th and sponsored by Pandanet. Eight players participated and games were streamed with commentary on the EuropeanGoFederation Twitch channel; Antti Törmänen, a European Pro living in Japan, provided some of the commentary.

The 7th round of the tournament featured a true final between Andrii Kravets and Ilya Shikshin. Ilya’s score after round 6 was 5:1 while Andrii had a 4:2 score. “Because of the face-to-face tie-break rule, Andrii would have been champion if he won this match against Ilya, but he lost with 1.5 points,” says European Go Federation President Martin Stiassny. “This was the deciding game of the championship!”

R7-ilya-andrii Download

The players were pleased with their first serious online tournament for single players. The second one, the 2020 European Championship, is currently ongoing on OGS and will run until late October.

Results:
Champion: Ilya Shikshin 3p with a 6:1 score
Runner-Ups: Mateusz Surma 2p, Ali Jabarin 2p, and Andrii Kravets 1p all with a 4:3 score.
5th place: Alexandr Dinershteyn 3p with a score of 3:4
6th place: Pavol Lisy 2p with a score of 3:4
7th place: Tanguy Le Calve 1p with a score of 2:5
8th place: Artem Kachanovskyi 2p with a score of 2:5

-report by Martin Stiassny

Categories: Europe,Main Page,Other

GOVID 19×19 Tournament draws players across the country

Monday September 28, 2020

The Austin Go Club sponsored the GOVID 19×19 Tournament over the weekend, drawing 42 players from across the country, Vermont to San Diego. Players ranged from 7 dan to double-digit kyu. Overall, there were five rounds, with 10 players in the Open section and 32 in the handicap section.

In the Open section, the best records went to Zhao Zhixun 7d (3-0) and Zhou Yixian 6d (4-1). In the handicap section, Mario Espinoza 7k was undefeated with a 5-0 record. Other players with 4 wins were Evan Tan 2k, tshelix 4k, Patrick Sun 4k, Ray Heitmann 5k, Alexander Lo 7k, Jason Li (jsonli) 12k, and Benjamin Lo 13k.

The Austin Go Club thanks everyone who participated, and hopes to hold similar events in the future, especially while face-to-face tournaments are still not possible at this time.

-report by Bart Jacob

Categories: Main Page,Other,U.S./North America

Ratings return!

Saturday September 26, 2020

As of September 23, the AGA has rated 12 tournaments that have been in the queue for some time. Our team is restarting operations and planning upgrades in the process. Check the AGAGD and see the list of recent tournaments added. We have contacted all of the TDs for any missing tournaments and hope to have those rated soon. We are adding new Ratings Operators soon and have scheduled training for them in the coming weeks. Our Dev Team will be looking at Ratings Operations to enhance your workflow in the future.

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

Fourth New York Go League registration deadline 11/3, format changes from one month to two

Sunday September 20, 2020

The deadline for the registration for the NY Go League is coming up at the beginning of October, and the New York Go Honor Society (NYGHS) encourages anyone that wants to continue playing organized games to enter. As in previous leagues, the only eligibility requirement is that players have a stable rank from any national association, or on any Go server. Click here to view our rules and regulations, and click here to register.

This League will be a two-month long round robin tournament, with each division having 8-10 players, after previously being held over only one month. “With many places starting to reopen, it is becoming hard for participants to sustain multiple games per week,” says Toranosuke Ozawa, co-president of the NYGHS. “Now it will be one per week, if not slightly less over the two months.” Players are grouped based on rank, or their performance in previous iterations of the league, with the prize for the winner being a 50% discount for a New York IG Adult trial class (kids are eligible as well). “We hope that the community will be able to use this league as an opportunity to play lots of matches and further their experience with the game!”

Categories: Main Page,Other,U.S./North America

North American Youth Open results

Sunday September 20, 2020

The first North American Youth Open took place on September 5th, 2020 in the AGA Tournament Room on KGS. Hosted by the New York Go Association and sponsored by the American Go Foundation, the North American Youth Open is one of the highest-class youth Go tournament in North America. Over 100 youth players registered and competed for the highest honor and over $1,000 in prizes.

After 4 rounds of competition, award winners for the eight divisions were as follows:
Division A (4D and above) – 1st place: Michael Sato; 2nd place tie: Ben Gong & Frederick Bao
Division B (1D to 3D) – 1st place: Zixuan Gao; 2nd place: Ethan Whitman; 3rd Place: Katherine Xie
Division C (3K to 1K): – 1st place: Derek Zhou; 2nd place: Alan Yang; 3rd Place: Steve Ling
Division D (6K to 4K): – 1st place: Frank Wang; 2nd place: Chenhui Zhang; 3rd Place: Jason Yang
Division E (10K to 7K): – 1st place: Manny Jauregui; 2nd place: Jamie Tan; 3rd Place: Daniel Luo
Division F (14K to 12K): – 1st place:Matthew Wang; 2nd place: Lucas Yang; 3rd Place: Lucia Moscola
Division G (19K to 15K): – 1st place: Enzo Aozono-Araldi; 2nd place: Caleb Tan; 3rd Place: Avik Hardy
Division H (25K to 20K) – 1st place: Yiting Liu; 2nd place: Eric Wang; 3rd Place: Enzo Moscola

Categories: Main Page,Other,U.S./North America

Latin American Online Go Congress registration opens

Sunday September 20, 2020

Registration is now open for the 2020 Latin American Online Go Congress, which will run October 3-11. Players from all countries are invited to participate in the Congress, which will include six different tournaments, all free. In addition, Mateusz Surma 2P will be offering workshops, game analysis and live commentary. As with the U.S. e-Go Congress there will also be live transmissions of many of the activities, including a master class by Fernando Aguilar (7 Dan) on Go & Decision-making.

All relevant information can be found at the Congress website – although it’s in Spanish, organizers say that “we reckon that the Google Translate that is provided is, if not ideal, good enough! – and you can also email (in English) virtual2020@fedibergo.org.

Categories: Main Page

Redmond on Ke Jie vs. Xie Ke Sunday night

Friday September 18, 2020

This week’s live Sunday night game commentary by Michael Redmond 9P will feature a hot-off-the-board game between Ke Jie and Xie Ke at the 9^th ING Cup. “The game was well fought,” says Redmond. Tune in at 8p EDT this Sunday, September 20 on the AGA’s Twitch channel.
Meanwhile, check out all the videos available on the AGA’s YouTube channel, including the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo selfplay series, Redmond’s Reviews and AlphaGo vs. The World.

Categories: Main Page,Redmond Reviews,World

Support the AGF by doing (almost) nothing

Friday September 18, 2020

Do you like supporting go? Do you use Amazon for ordering those necessary items for back to school and quarantining yourself? You’re half way to becoming a donating hero. Head on over to Amazon Smile and set your charity to “US GO FOUNDATION, dba American Go Foundation”. There are browser extensions (Chrome – Firefox) that will help redirect you to always support the Smile Program. Most purchases give back to this program and support Go in the US. Sign up today!

Categories: AGA Chapters,U.S./North America

50 years aGo – September 1970

Thursday September 17, 2020

by Keith L. Arnold, hka with Patrick Bannister

On September 9 a young man traveled to Japan from Seattle, intending to stay for one year. That man was James Davies, and I think he has been there ever since, producing many of the true classics of Western Go literature including “Life and Death” and “Tesuji”.

A changing of the guard was noted when Sakata lost to Otake in the final game of the Meijin league. This loss dropped Sakata from the league. This same year saw Takagawa dropped from the Honinbo League after more than 20 years as the title holder or member of the league.

The European Go Congress ended on September 13 in Vienna, with Jurgen Mattern of Germany winning the European Championship.

A certain S. Horowitz of the USA was staying in Tokyo and working as an assistant editor of Go Review, according to Go Review.

But the dominant topic of the month was the the struggle for the Meijin title between Rin Meijin and challenger Shuko. Rin looks quite pleased to even the score with a win in the second game played September 7 and 8. That’s the back of the late Go Seigen’s head in the foreground. Rin won again in the third game, played on the 15th and 16th, but Shuko evened the score at 2-2 with a win in game 4 on September 24-25. We will see who wins next month.

Categories: 50 years aGO,Main Page

Osaka Go School opens with wide range of skill levels

Wednesday September 16, 2020

Ryo Maeda 6P reports that his new online Osaka Go School has opened with 25 students, 10 of whom are Americans, with levels ranging from 15k to 6d. “I hope to have more students in the future!” says Maeda. “Our setup allows even busy people to participate.” The once-per-week league games are flexible, and allow the opponents to collectively decide date and time. Teachers at the school are Maeda himself, Ting Li 1P, and Francis Meyer 1P. Visit the Osaka Go School website for more information and to register.

Categories: Japan,Main Page,U.S./North America

American Go E-Journal » 2020 » September