American Go E-Journal » 2023 » February

by Terry Benson, AGF President

Thousands of books from the Yutopian donation of 32,000 go books are now on their way to AGA chapters and programs around the country. A team of volunteers led by myself and ex-AGA president Andy Okun sent out 62 shipments last week. With luck the heavy boxes will survive and arrive, a belated Valentine’s Day gift for go lovers. 

Orders were fulfilled as best as possible; the actual inventory turned out to be wildly different from the printed request form chapters used. A half dozen titles simply weren’t there and others were available in tiny quantities. Some titles with few copies were not on the inventory at all and were included for those who asked for one of each. It was a painstaking process which took almost five days to finish, wrapping up at 5pm last Wednesday.

The team that literally put their backs into the effort included Ted Terpstra and Arunas Rudvalis (up from San Diego) plus Los Angeles go community locals Aaron Murg, Christopher Hsing, Brent Russell, Diego Villafuerte, Joe Cecile, Russell Bernhardt, and Andy’s wife, Julia Blanchard, along with Andy and me. Moving boxes, opening boxes, picking books, filling boxes, sealing boxes and cleaning up was a real labor of love. Paul Barchilon (AGF VP) and Kathryn Taylor (AGF fulfillment) pitched in with advice and long-distance labeling. The detailed chapter orders were well-managed by Bob Gilman over the last couple of months. 

This undertaking enabled the AGA and AGF to distribute or save for future distribution about a third of the cache of nearly 450 boxes of books, and the AGF has 50 “Library Sets” as seed collections. While not quite free (chapters use their points), hopefully everyone will enjoy the books and appreciate the work involved in getting them. If recipients have any problems, please contact terrybenson@nyc.rr.com and we will see what is possible.

This year’s San Diego Winter Tournament, held on February 5, began with clear skies and brisk 60 degree weather. Roughly 40 tournament attendees arrived from as far away as England to test their strength. Local club president Enrique Garcia tried to keep the atmosphere light with a plethora of breakfast snacks, but the announcement of the first round was followed by tense silence as dark clouds began to brew over the many gobans.

Competition in the open section was small but fierce: of the eight players, one was a 7-dan, and three were 6-dans. In the end, however, 7-dan Shang Zhou, who recently moved to San Diego from China to study at UCSD, took the number 1 spot, with three wins.

Meanwhile, in the handicap section, Elias Klingbeil 3D, Aaron Jones 4k and Nicholas Liddington all walked away with a perfect 3-0 record.

Other notable attendees were Eric Green Yang 2D and Jake Kim 3D. Green, who’s been playing go for about four years, won the raffle for a copy of “Invincible: the Games of Shusaku.” His favorite go server is Fox “because you can find a match so quickly.” He plays at least one game a day and would like to thank his mentor Han Han for helping him on his journey.

Jake Kim is on a mission to make a difference in the world and says he wants to use go to do it. He started the “Go for a Better World” project to help seniors fight dementia and Alzheimer’s by sharpening their minds. He’s has been playing go for five years and went 1-2 in the tournament’s open section. Contact Jake Kim at jake.kim.26@bishops.com with any questions or if you’d like to help him meet his goal.

• Report/photos by Jackson Hranek