May « 2021 « American Go E-Journal

AGF Teacher of the Year nominations open

Monday May 31, 2021

*2020 AGF Teacher of the Year Frank Luo and his daughter Alice promoting go at a local school.*

Nominations for the American Go Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award are due by June 30th. The award is usually presented each year at the U.S. Go Congress. Although congress will again be online due to Covid-19, the AGF will still honor a teacher this year and they will win a trip to next year’s congress in Estes Park as well. To be eligible a teacher must be a member of the AGA and have been teaching go to children for at least one hour a week for two years, either online or in person. Click here for more information. If you would like to nominate someone for this award, including yourself, email mail@agfgo.org. Nominations are due by June 30th and should include a description of the teacher’s activities, how long they have been teaching, and how many students attend their program. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo:

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

Go Magic teaching platform launches

Saturday May 29, 2021

A new go teaching platform, Go Magic, is now in beta. “Our project is aiming to help everyone discover Go and improve their skills in a way that is both efficient and entertaining,” says Vadim Efimenko, a 4d amateur from Russia, who’s working with professional Alexander Dinerstein 3p and Anton Proskurin, the chief author, developer and cofounder of the project. Go Magic is billed as “One platform that combines everything you might possibly need on your way to Go mastery,” and features video courses, a Skill Tree for beginners and even some gamification to appeal to modern gamers. They’ve also got a YouTube channel, streaming on Twitch, and are on Discord as well. A 4-minute video outlines the project.

Categories: Main Page,World

2021 Board of Directors Election Update

Monday May 24, 2021

by Arnold Eudell

Bad news: No candidates have come forward. Better news: You don’t have to wear a mask to be a board member. Best News: You don’t have to wear pants to be a board member. Three American Go Association (AGA) Board of Director seats are in play for the Eastern, Western, and Central regions. The current terms of office expire this September. If you know of someone who you believe would offer guidance and service to the AGA, consider making a nomination. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be made by full members for the regional seat in which the member resides and must be received by June 15, 2021. Nominations and questions must be emailed to elections@usgo.org. Click here for complete election information and qualifications.

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

Registration opens for the NYGHS Summer Open

Monday May 24, 2021

A year after the launch of the NY Go league, the New York Go Honor Society has announced their first official tournament. The NYGHS Summer Open will take place over two days – June 27th and July 3rd – and feature a traditional bracket style tournament on the second day. On the first day players will be split into divisions of 16 people and will play four Swiss-style rounds to qualify for a finals bracket in their division. Registration for the tournament is $15. Click here for more information about the tournament, and reach out to co-president.nyghs@ny-go.org with any questions.

-report by Tora Ozawa

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

50 Years aGo – May 1971

Saturday May 22, 2021

by Keith L. Arnold, hka, with Patrick Bannister

The 11th Messe Go Tournament was held in Hannover, Germany, on May 1 and 2. Fifty players competed. In the final game, Korean visitor Lee Min-sup won, defeating European Champion Jürgen Mattern.

31 May Hon'inbo game between Ishida and Rin — 31 May Hon’inbo game between Ishida and Rin

In those pre-Kisei days, the Hon’inbo tournament had greater prominence, with three games played in the title match in May. Title holder Rin Kaihō took a one game lead into the month. On May 6-7, Ishida Yoshio lived up to his “Computer” nickname with a brilliant win in yose by 1.5 points. However, he did not get that far in game three on May 18-19, as Rin forced a resignation with a dominance the Japanese go world had come to expect. As the month ended, on May 31, Rin stumbled with a blunder on move 92, leaving the match all square at 2-2. In this match photo, Ishida confidently plays a move, watched by the champion, and Maeda Nobuaki, the “god of Tsume-go”, in the center of the picture. (Game records: Hon’inbo Title Match Game One, Hon’inbo Title Match Game Two, Hon’inbo Title Match Game Three.)

The busy Ishida was simultaneously defending his Pro Best Ten title against Kajiwara Takeo 9d. The young champion prevailed in the first two games on May 14 and 24. (Game records: Pro Best Ten Final Game One; Pro Best Ten Final Game Two.)

Described as a new event, the Amsterdam Go Tournament was held on May 15-16. Attended by 80 players, including 10 from Germany (including our friend Horst Sudhoff), 8 from France, 5 from England, 2 from Yugoslavia, and 1 player from Japan, it was a truly international affair. This time, Jürgen Mattern won the final against Mr. Katō of Japan.

On May 28, legend-in-the-making Cho Hun-hyeon secured promotion to 5 dan at the Nihon Ki’in at the age of 18.

Photos courtesy of Go Review.

Categories: 50 years aGO,Europe,Go Photos,Japan,Main Page

Buddhist Philosophy and the Game of Go published by Slate and Shell

Friday May 21, 2021

Buddhist Philosophy and the Game of Go is the second, enlarged edition of the book titled Reflections on the Game of Go, written by William Cobb in 2005. This book contains a clear explanation of the basic principles of Buddhist philosophy using Go as examples. A large number of the entries have been published in the American Go Association’s journals as “The Empty Board”.

-report an image provided by Laurie Crammond

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware,U.S./North America

Go Spotting: In the Age of AI

Friday May 21, 2021

Xinming Guo reports that “Go and the story of Alphago are the introduction of PBS documentary In the Age of AI.” Guo plans to share the documentary with schools who participated in the Go and Math Academy’s “Go and Math Project,” and hopes to ignite more students’ interest in STEM. You can watch the full 2-hour documentary on Youtube.

Categories: Go Spotting,Main Page

Xinming Guo announces free virtual workshop

Friday May 21, 2021

Xinming Guo, founder of Go and Math Academy in Illinois, will speak at a workshop to teach Go to new players on Wednesday, May 26th at 6 pm CDT. The workshop is hosted by the Association of Chinese Americans, Inc. for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

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

California Pair-Go Championship – Online registration open until June 3rd

Friday May 21, 2021

Registration for the 2nd Annual California Pair-Go Championship – Online is now open at https://www.goclubs.org. All AGA members can enter this free five-round competition which will take place over five weeks – one game per week – beginning June 5, 2021. Registration will close on June 3 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. There will be Open and Handicapped sections. Although any pair of players can make up a team, the best male/female pair in the Open section will be crowned California Rengo Champions for 2021. Team-Wang made up of Yixian Zhou 6d and Seowoo Wang 5d were the 2020 Champions.

Japan invented Pair-Go to encourage more women to play the game – rules can be found at http://www.pairgo.or.jp/setumei/rule.htm. At its base, Rengo is Go played by a team of two, where the teammates cannot communicate with one another. For handicap games, a team’s rating is the average of the individual players’ ratings. All games will be played on KGS in the San Diego Go Club room. KGS prevents players from playing out of turn and handles the clock which is shared by a team. GoClubsOnline will handle registration, formation of teams by the players, and the pairings. Prizes for section winners will be San Diego Go Club T-shirts. Full details can be found at GoClubsOnline. Send questions to Ted Terpstra, President of the San Diego Go Club, at Ted.Terpstra@gmail.com.

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

The Power Report: Ichiriki Meijin League; 46th Kisei S League; Promotions & Obituaries

Saturday May 15, 2021

by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal

Ichiriki Meijin League
Having won his fifth successive game, Ichiriki Ryo has the sole lead in the 46th Meijin League. His closest rivals are Kyo Kagen and Hane Naoki, who are both on 3-1. Ichiriki won’t be counting his chickens yet: he had a similar lead in the Honinbo but failed to become the challenger. Results since my last report are given below.

*Click here for our May 12 Honinbo League report.*

(April 1) Kono Rin 9P (W) beat Yo Seiki 8P by half a point.
(April 5) Yamashita Keigo 9P (B) beat Anzai Nobuaki 7P by 2.5.
(April 12) Ichiriki Ryo Tengen (W) beat Motoki Katsuya 8P by resig.
(April 15) Shibano Toramaru (W) beat Hane Naoki by resig.
(May 6) Ichiriki (W) beat Shibano by resig.; Motoki (B) beat Anzai by 0.5.

46th Kisei S League
The new S League got off to a start on April 22. With two wins, Murakawa Daisuke 9P has the provisional lead. Kono Rin 9P, the previous challenger, has made a bad start with two losses. Results so far:

(April 22) Ichiriki Ryo Tengen (W) beat Kono Rin 9P by 1.5; Yo Seiki 8P (W) beat Yamashita Keigo 9P by resig.; Murakawa Daisuke 9P (W) Takao Shinji 9P by resig.
(May 6) Murakawa (B) beat Kono Rin by resig.

Promotions:
To 9-dan: Kyo Kagen (for winning his second top-seven title; as of April 29)
To 8-dan: Oki Keiji (150 wins, as of May 7)

Obituaries
Kim In
Kim In 9P, one of the major figures in modern Korean go, died on April 4 at the age of 77. Kim was born on Nov. 23, 1943. He became a professional in 1958. In 1962, he became a disciple of Kitani Minoru 9P and was promoted to 3-dan, jumping a rank. He returned to Korea the following year. He reached 9-dan in 1983. He dominated the tournament scene after his return home, winning 30 titles, and remained the number one player until the return of Cho Hun-hyun from Japan in 1972. His career record is 860 wins, 703 losses, and five draws. In 1968, he won 40 games in a row, the second-longest winning streak in Korea (Lee Chang-ho topped it by one win in 1991).

Okahashi Hirotada
Died of prostate cancer on April 14. Born in Hyogo Prefecture on Feb. 26, 1934. Became a disciple of Hashimoto Shoji 9P. Qualified at 1-dan at the Kansai Ki-in in 1954 and reached 6-dan in 1974. Retired in 2016 and promoted to 7-dan.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report,Main Page

American Go E-Journal » 2021 » May