American Go E-Journal » AGA Chapters

“Face-to-face Go is returning to the Washington DC area,” reports NGC Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa. “Our NOVA Go satellite met Monday night in Arlington, VA and Wednesday night play resumed at the NGC in DC.” Play at both sites will continue weekly with details available at the NGC website. 

“It was great to see smiling faces and friends old and new playing their favorite game,” says Khalsa. “We were very happy to welcome back Eli Ferster (below on the left, Larry Kaufman on the right) who recently returned to DC after 2 ½ years in Japan teaching English.”

Gary Smith reported from NOVA Go that despite a first night glitch getting the church unlocked where they play, an intrepid crew stayed and played outside (below). “We expect to be smoothly running inside the next week” says Smith. With continued good progress against Covid in the area an expanded schedule of activities will be announced in the coming weeks. Watch for the return of Pair Go/Paella night with Chris Garlock’s famous paella. Both sites are requiring vaccinations for adults for the time being and will be following local guidance on relaxing restrictions. Masks are required at NOVA Go inside the church there.

“We had another piece of great news recently,” reports Khalsa. “Our grant from the Iwamoto North America Foundation (INAF) was renewed for another 5 years. We are very grateful to INAF for their continued confidence in us and are excited about getting back out in the community and teaching Go as things open back up.”

-report and photos by Gurjeet Khalsa

The AGA is regularly asked for new chapters around the country. These are the newly registered chapters from May 2021:

Ghost City Go – Fridays @ 6pm : Black Mountain Cafe – ghostcitygo@gmail.com || 212.461.0343

Members should check their information from time to time. If you are not receiving the EJ make sure your email is up to date. Chapters can always update their current chapter through the AGA Membership Manager if they have changed.

After being closed for almost 15 months because of COVID-19 precautions, the Seattle Go Center has reopened on Tuesdays and Saturdays for in-person play. Only vaccinated players are invited, and masks are required at all times when people are indoors, except when sipping drinks. Food may only be eaten on the front roof deck, where masks are not required. All players are required to update their membership forms, and to acknowledge the new COVID precautions.

All the windows are kept open, which gives the large playing room good cross ventilation. “This works well in June, when we have mild weather, but we hope that the vaccination campaigns are successful, and the COVID risk is greatly reduced, so that we can close the windows by November”, Operations Manager Brian Allen notes.

The reopening was quietly publicized through the Seattle Go Center email list. Tuesdays have 16-20 players, and Saturdays 10-12. The current schedule can be found on the Go Center home page. Families are not coming yet, because young players cannot get vaccinated. For some adult players who do not play online, this was their first opportunity to play a game in more than a year. Another group recently learned the game online, and needed instruction on how to hold a stone, and to score a game when finished. “It was surprisingly hard to match faces known from Zoom sessions with the people with masks who showed up at the Go Center,” says Allen. “In general, there was less chatter than in the old days, because the masks make it harder to be understood, and the open windows let in street noise. Still, it was great to see old friends, and to make new ones.”

–Report and photo by Brian Allen.

Seventy six players from across the country participated in the National Go Center’s first online tournament on Saturday, November 14, competing via Zoom and KGS. Tony Yang 5D was the overall tournament champion with a perfect 4-0 score. All three- and four-game winners are being sent an NGC t-shirt in the style and color of their choice as a prize. Co-TD’s Gurujeet Khalsa and Garrett Smith kept the rounds running on time. “It helped a lot,” reports Smith, “to have an optional training session on Zoom the night before the tournament so everyone knew how to use the technology. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t and will use that in future online tournaments.”

The tournament was also the pilot of the online ratings system that Josh Lee and the NGC have developed. Says Khalsa, “After reviewing the numbers with Josh, we will publish the results online for community comment.”

Winner Report
4 Game winners: Tony Yang (5D), Jared Nishikawa (2D), Mario Espinoza (6K), David Rohlfing (9K)
3 Game winners: Soren Jaffe (5D), Rujun Ding (5D), Sophie Lin (2D), Alan Yang (1D), Jerry Jaffe (1D), Jeroen Meijer (1K), Peter Schumer (2K), Austin Robinson (2K), Michael Sherman (2K), Gordon Fraser (3K), Eric Yang (3K), John Gipson (5K), Ragnarr Markssen (5K), Theodore Terpstra (5K), Caleb Lesher (6K), Bradley Johnston (10K), Howard Cornett (10K), Juliet Zhang (11K), Adam King (13K), Lewis Reining (13K), Vaughn Hannon (14K), Nicholas Liddington (17K), Patrick Blackstone (18K)