The Triangle Go Group has announced one of their “most ambitious and unique events to date”, the Burning Board Go Festival. The four-day event will consist of tournament games and workshops and will take place June 16-19 in Umstead State Park near Raleigh, North Carolina. The event features the option of low-cost, on-site accommodations in primitive cabins. Tent camping and nearby hotels also available.
“This is a great spot for those who love hiking, mountain biking, lake swimming, or just being out in the beauty of Nature,” says Co-Director Paul Celmer. The site is 10 minutes from RDU international airport, and twenty minutes from the Cary Amtrack station. “We already have a significant number of registrants from out of state,” reports Co-Director Bob Bacon. The site is limited to 120 participants, click here for registration details.
“Every year, I meet some high school students who know how to play go,” says Xinming Simon Guo. When he asks them how they learned the game, the answers is often “You visited my elementary school several years ago”. In fact, Guo, the founder of Go and Math Academy in Chicago, has taught go to more than 40,000 students in the Chicago area, visiting more than 80 schools.
“How to play and teach go” workshop at the Chinese Cultural Center of San Diego State University. (l-r): Jackson Hranek, Ted Terpstra from San Diego and Xinming Guo from Chicago
During the school year of 2021-2022 alone, Guo visited more than 20 schools and taught about 4,000 students. Since the pandemic, Guo, with the support of the local go community, has begun to provide online teaching for students both within and outside of Illinois, in places like Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
Last month, Guo visited San Diego to share the results of the Academy’s second pilot program of the Go and Math project, teaching about 120 3rd graders at Barrington School District 220, IL. The project was conducted in partnership with Professor Xiuwen WU from National Louis University during the 2019-2020 school year. A research paper titled “The Game of Go in Elementary Classrooms: Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Go’s Benefits for Mathematics” was accepted by the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA) held in San Diego this year.
During his short stay in San Diego, Mr. Guo also arranged a workshop for local go players to share their experience teaching go in school classrooms. In this particular workshop, he shared major aspects of his experience promoting go in schools. Demonstrating how to teach go in a classroom, Guo shared the classroom box for 32 students, small boards (6×6 and 7×7) and a special rule reinvented for beginners, which is compatible with other go game rules. He also discussed how to work with Chinese language teachers and teach go in Chinese language classrooms, and how to work with math teachers and teach go in early elementary classrooms.
“We plan to offer similar workshops online this year, to help more go players to promote go in their local schools,” said Guo.
This event features an AGA Handicap Go tournament open to all players and a single-elimination MI State Championship open to Dan level players. All games follow the AGA ruleset. MI State Championship games are 45 minutes main time and 5x30s byo-yomi. Handicap Tournament games are 30 minutes main time with 3x30s byo-yomi.
For the Handicap Tournament, prizes will be awarded for each of 3 segments: Double-digit Kyu, Single-digit Kyu and Dan level players. For each segment, 1st place is awarded $60, 2nd place is awarded $40 and 3rd place is awarded $20.
For the MI State Championship a cash prize and trophy will be awarded to the winner. Prizes will also be awarded to 2nd & 3rd place. A 3rd place tie-breaking round will be held after the semi-final. 1st place is awarded $120 and a trophy, 2nd place is awarded $80 and 3rd place is awarded $60.
Early Registration: $18 ends May 7th; Standard Registration: $22 ends May 18th; Late/Same-Day Registration: $28 (HC Tournament Only).
Registration for the Evanston Go Club’s 2022 Chicago Open – coming up May 14 — has skyrocketed in the past week, with over 60 players signed up already. “This makes it the largest tournament we’ve ever held… and it hasn’t even started yet!” says club president Mark Rubenstein.
The tournament, which will be held Saturday May 14 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston, will feature the standard self-paired Main section, a new Open section for players 5 dan and up, and a free beginner’s section with lessons offered by 2015’s Teacher of the Year, Simon Guo.
“We’ve been working hard to make this the best tournament we’ve ever had.” says organizer Albert Yen. “We already have 14 players who are 5 dan or stronger, which makes the Open section very competitive! And the top boards will be broadcast on the AGA Twitch channel.”
And for the first time ever, the club will be selling its Ing boards at the tournament. “These are the nice, thick boards that we’ve used for many years, and we’re making them available to attendees.” says Rubenstein.
Due to the extraordinary turnout, Rubenstein and Yen are encouraging everyone to sign up early to ensure that they have enough seats in the venue. “The Early-Bird pricing and custom name tag deadline has passed, but there is still room… for now!” says Rubenstein.
For more information and registration details, visit chicagobaduk.com.
