December « 2020 « American Go E-Journal

Tianyi Li and Zixuan Gao win 2020 Young Lions Tournament

Saturday December 19, 2020

“On November 22nd and 29th, over 140 youth players from across North America participated in the largest ever Young Lions Tournament, AGHS’ longest-running tournament,” says Promotion Head Jenny Li, “After four competitive rounds, two 4 dan players Tianyi Li and Zixuan Gao tied for first place and emerged as the champions for this year’s Young Lions Tournament.”

Winners report: Open Division 1st place: Tianyi Li, Zixuan Gao; Division A 1st place: Sophie Lin, 2nd place: Chase Lin, Juanshu Lan; Division B 1st place: Albert Tang, 2nd place: David Wu, 3rd place: Steve Zhang; Division C 1st place: Andy Zhou, 2nd place: Stephanie Tan, 3rd place: Jason Liu; Division D 1st place: Mathew Wang, 2nd place: Anna Zhou, 3rd place: Alexander Lo; Divison E 1st place: Joshua Wong, 2nd place: Lucia Moscola, 3rd place: Isaac Zhang; Divison F 1st place: Tianning Li, 2nd place: Tony Li, 3rd place: Amari González; Divison G 1st place: Irene Zhang, 2nd place: Yiting Liu, 3rd place: Ava Gao; Divison H 1st place: Eric Wang, 2nd place: Noah Carrafa, 3rd place: William Xiang; Division I 1st place: Woody Yin, 2nd place: Enzo Moscola, 3rd place: Austin Reyes; Division J 1st place: Kyle Tang, 2nd place: Michelle Wong, 3rd place: Andy Li

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

Registration Open for AGHS Weekly Go Problems Season

Friday December 18, 2020

“Registration for the American Go Honor Society (AGHS) Weekly Go Problems Season 1 is now open, and all players are welcomed,” says Promotion Head Jenny Li, “Each Sunday, we will provide Go problems with five different levels from the most beginner to the most advanced level. Practicing problems is a great opportunity to enhance your skills and will benefit you tremendously in your games. This year, we will be dividing the program into two seasons, one in the winter and the other in the spring. Each season lasts ten weeks, with prizes being awarded at the end of each one.”

Register here if you would like to participate

The deadline to sign up is January 9, 2021, 11:59 pm PST. Season 1 will begin on January 10th. If you have any questions, please contact aghsregister@gmail.com.

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

Bo Luan 6d sweeps the 2020 California State Go Championship

Tuesday December 15, 2020

Bo Luan 6d of Carpinteria, California won all five of his games this weekend in the Third Annual California State Go Championship, which was hosted online by the San Diego Go Club. The top seven players in the Open Division were all over 6 dan. Finishing second in the Open was Zhengbokang Tang, 8d, (4-1) from Boulder Colorado and third was Yixian Zhou, 6d (3-2) – a familiar figure in the Southern California go scene.

The 50 competing players weren’t only Californians; players also hailed from New York, Vermont, Florida, and Oregon, and were from 7 to 75 years old. Handicap players who went undefeated at 5-0 were Patrick Ferl 1d, from Valley Village, California and David Rohlfing 8k from Dublin, Ohio.

Also selected from the Handicap ranks were the best Under-16 girl and boy:
Tianyi Tina Li 2020 U-16 California State Go Champion.
Alexander Lo 2020 U-16 California State Go Champion.

Registration, pairings for 5-rounds, tabulation of results and calculating tie-breakers for fifty players was made easy using the GoClubs.org program. This is the third online tournament the San Diego Go Club has run for free since the pandemic has eliminated face-to-face competition. The other two were the San Diego Go Championship and the California Pair-Go Championship. The individual tournament results have been submitted to the new National Go Center online rating system. Although not rated by the AGA, the tournaments required AGA membership.

report by Ted Terpstra

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

South Central Go Tournament and Texas State Championship set for February on KGS

Monday December 14, 2020

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From 2016 to 2020 the South Central Go Tournament has been held in Dallas on the Saturday and Sunday before Presidents’ Day. Because of the uncertain safety of in-person play during the COVID 19 pandemic, the 2021 tournament will go online. It will be held the Saturday and Sunday preceding Presidents’ Day – February 13 and 14, 2021. The Texas resident finishing best in the Open Section will become the 2021 Texas State Champion. Registration for the tournament is now open on GoClubsOnline (www.goclubs.org).

Basic Tournament Information

Open and Handicap Sections. The Handicap Section will be divided into bands which group players near in strength for pairing purposes.
Schedule: Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14, 2021. Three rounds each day. Rounds start at 10 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM Central Standard Time.
Where: KGS go server (www.gokgs.com)
American Go Association (AGA) membership required.

More Information
The South Central Go Tournament is on Facebook. There is a “Book Now” button on the Facebook page which will take you to GoClubs.org to register. The Facebook page is also a good place to find updated basic information on the tournament and to see comments made by interested players. You can post questions there. You can also write to bobgilman.aga@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

report by Bob Gilman

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

Ninghan Duan 6d wins the 9th Virginia Open in tight race, Alexander Qi and Stephanie Tan claim Youth and Women’s titles, Ruoshi Sun leads going into VA State Championship Finals

Monday December 14, 2020

Last weekend the Capital Go Chapter held the 9th Virginia Open on OGS with over 80 participants ranging from 30k to 8d. Players enjoyed the four-round event and many won prizes and certificates. “Nearly half players were youths, U.S. Go’s future couldn’t be brighter,” says tournament director Devin Fraze. With so many players, the pool was broken into six divisions with over $500 cash in prizes, sponsored by Honest401k, going to the winners along with additional prizes for high-performing female and youth players. The tournament also served as the qualifier for the VA State Championship, which is set for 12/26/2020, and will be directed by NOVA club president Gary Smith.

“To lend the tournament a personal and special touch, co-director Qingbo Zhang also tirelessly prepared both award and participation certificates, and emailed them to each player individually,” says organizer Edward Zhang. He also noted the rapid improvement of many players in the tournament. “Some stretching self-promotions were allowed by TD, and many of these players played very well.” Zhang’s team plans to host more tournaments in 2021 using Baduk.Club, which made this OGS tournament simple for players and feasible for the TDs.

The tournament wasn’t all serious business; after one youth player turned him down for a friendly match, next year’s Go Congress Director Steve got his change to go up against her in the next round. Declaring her his arch rival he sadly didn’t stand a chance and resigned with only his honor left. TD Devin Fraze also had fun chatting with players between rounds; he ended up teaching some youngsters how to use ‘bbcode’ – a relic of the programming language PHP – so they could use colors and different sizes in the chat. The event chat on Baduk.Club was active all day. Some of our excited younger players posted to celebrate their 120+ point wins while others were fending off power-outages as ice and snow threatened to disconnect their games.

Winners
Click here to see the full winners report.

Open (Elite) 6-8D: 1st, Ninghan Duan; Tied 2nd, Shuaiheng Tao and Zhengbokang Tang.
Open: 1st, Ruoshi Sun; 2nd, Alexander Qi.
Women’s: 1st, Stephanie Tan; 2nd, Angel Zhou.
Expert: 1st, Patrick Zhao; 2nd Juanshu Lan.
Proficient: 1st, Hyunjun Roh; 2nd, Jason Yang.
Intermediate: 1st, Ragnarr Markssen; 2nd, Anderson Barreal.
Novice: 1st, Cody Tang; 2nd, Justin Collier.
Youth: 1st, Alexander Qi, 2nd; James Chih-Rong Sun.

Final standings
Top Divisions (4D+): beta.baduk.club/mac/9thvaopen
Main Section (>3D): beta.baduk.club/mac/9thvaopen-main
(Note: select ‘Games’ at upper-right to view game records of all ‘Boards’.)

report by Capital Go Club

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

Lost and found

Monday December 14, 2020

by Mark Rubenstein

I started playing Go in the 1970’s. I only knew one other person who played, a friend whom I had taught. I didn’t know much back then, but I was enthralled by the beauty of the game. My friend had a set of stones; I don’t know where he got them, but I thought they were spectacularly cool. I had a waterbed that he thought was cool. So we swapped.
Years went by, my friend moved away, and I put away my prized stones and stopped playing. I picked it up again in the mid 90’s. At some point I lost track of those stones.

Lately I had begun thinking about them, and started looking around the house for them. But I couldn’t find them. I started wondering if I had mis-remembered the swap all those years ago; did I trade the waterbed for the stones, or the other way around?

Then, while rummaging around in the basement looking for something else, I came across two small cardboard boxes. And there they were!
I washed them carefully and have been playing with them these last few weeks. I’ve never seen any stones quite like them. Each one is unique. I love the way they look and feel.

I remember reading once that Go stones are intentionally made slightly larger than the space allotted them on the board, so that the arrangement of stones will always be slightly irregular, never rigid. These are the only stones I’ve ever used that are like that. They fit perfectly on the long axis of the board, but are slightly too big to fit perfectly on the short axis. The result is a pleasing, if somewhat maddening, organic feeling of being jostled about.

This feeling, this organic, exuberant, messy tapestry is completely absent online. I’ve always thought my game suffers online; maybe it’s because it’s too rigid, too impersonal, too clean.

I’m playing well these days. I’ve rekindled my passion for the beauty of Go. And I’m looking forward to the day when we can all meet again over real boards with real stones… and I’ll bring mine.

Categories: Main Page

Go stones found buried at the feet of 5th century princess in Korea

Wednesday December 9, 2020

Natural Go stones excavated from an ancient tomb in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province,
South Korea [Credit: Gyeongju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage]

During the excavation of Silla ancient tomb No. 44 at Jjoksaem in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, ongoing since 2014, archeologists unearthed a variety of treasures including about 200 Go stones buried beneath the feet of the tomb’s occupant. The size and location of the tomb, along with the jewelry and other ornaments found inside, indicate that the tomb belongs to a young woman of very high class, likely a member of a royal family. The find sheds new light on the nature and players of the game around that time.

Under the feet of the buried person, about 200 pieces of small black, white and gray stones, presumed to be used for playing baduk, were excavated. In the past, baduk stones of the Silla era were unearthed in tombs of people belonging to the highest classes.

In “Samguksagi” (History of the Three Kingdoms) and “Samgukyusa” (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), there are records of King Hyonseong, who reigned from 737 to 742, playing baduk.

“It has been deduced that baduk was the exclusive property of men. As the tomb occupant at this time is presumed to be female, it is expected to raise new interpretations of and meaning in baduk culture,” the GNRICH official said.
-Kwon, Mee-yoo. “Unearthed ornaments link tomb to 5th century Silla princess.” The Korea Times [Seoul], 07 Dec 2020.

The story was reported in the Korea Times on December 7th, and a following article in the Archeology News Network was reported to the EJournal as a Go Spotting by Richard Neer at the University of Chicago.

Categories: Korea,Main Page

Hong Kong Go club seeks friendly matches with US clubs

Wednesday December 9, 2020

After successful friendship matches between Go clubs in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Hong Kong-based Go club Go Legend has contacted the AGA to seek out friendly matches with US-based Go clubs. “We are Go Legend, a Go club in Hong Kong,” says Sam Ng, “and would like to invite some Go clubs in the US to have friendly matches in order to promote Go and improve players skills!” Interested clubs can contact them via their Facebook page.

Categories: Main Page

Cao and Zhou named AGHS Presidents for 2020-2021

Tuesday December 1, 2020

Melissa Cao and Brandon Zhou have been voted as the American Go Honor Society (AGHS) presidents for the 2020-2021 year. The AGHS, a youth organization run by primarily high-school students, strives to promote Go and develop the strength of the youth across the nation. The annual Young Lions and School Team Tournament are some of AGHS’ most popular events. Cao and Zhou “are excited to lead AGHS this year, and hope to make Go more accessible throughout the US amid the global pandemic.” Cao and Zhou are proud to announce this year’s AGHS Board Members:

Melissa Cao – Co-President
Brandon Zhou – Co-President
Sophia Wang – Vice President
Jenny Li – Promotion Head
Seowoo Wang – Tournament Director
Andrew Zhang – Tournament Director, Website Manager
Katherine Xie – Treasurer
Frederick Bao – Treasurer, Secretary
Alice Cai – Content Creator

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

AGA IVP Thomas Hsiang awarded Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation

Tuesday December 1, 2020

Hsiang with former IGF Secretary General Yuki Shigeno.

Thomas Hsiang has been selected to receive a 2020 Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation, after being recommended by the Nihon Ki-in for his dedication to the promotion of Go worldwide. The Commendations are awarded to “individuals and groups with outstanding achievements in international fields, in order to acknowledge their contributions to the promotion of friendship between Japan and other countries and areas.” Hsiang is the American Go Association’s longtime International Vice President, as well as the IGF Vice President since 2008. Among his most notable achievements are the organization of a number of international mind-sport events, including the World Mind Sport Games, and the establishment of the Iwamoto North American Foundation.

“I am honored” by the award, Hsiang said, adding that “The culture of Go has enriched the world civilization as a whole since its introduction from Japan to the West over a century ago. In recent years, Go and other mind sports are further shown to benefit the cognitive development of the youth and the cognitive maintenance of the senior citizenry. Promoting Go has thus taken on new significances beyond just being a great pastime.”

Hsiang noted that “My own contribution to this development has focused on promoting collaborations between the international Go organizations and on advancing Go as a member of the mind-sport family. The success that I have enjoyed was made possible with the great help from my friends and colleagues at the Nihon Kiin, to whom I owe a deep gratitude.”

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

American Go E-Journal » 2020 » December