American Go E-Journal » Other

The annual New York Youth Open (NYYO) will take place on Saturday, August 7, 2021 in the KGS AGA Tournament Room. The NYYO is a one-day, 4-round open Go tournament for all players under the age of 18. The tournament will begin with a short opening ceremony online at 11:30 – 11:45 AM EDT on Saturday, August 7, 2021. There is no rank requirement to enter. 

The top three players in each division (based on rank) will receive certificates and trophies. For registration, schedule, and rules, tournament video requirements, please visit the website. Registration will close on August 4, 2021. Interested players can also join other young fighters preparing for the tournament at the NYIG summer Go camp.

-report by Stephanie Yin

Registration is open for the second season of The South Central On-Line Leagues, a system of six-player leagues in a round robin competition played on KGS and OGS. There will be one game every two weeks, with six players in each league. In the first season, 90 players enrolled in 15 leagues. Recruitment is underway for Season 2, scheduled to begin early August. Organizers are looking to fill 42 open slots, with 43 players returning from Season 1. The basic rules can be found here, and the application form to participate is can be found here.

-report by Bob Gilman

The New York Go Honor Society has recently launched the NYGHS Summer Open are pleased to invite all to participate. The Open is an online tournament which will take place on June 27th and July 3rd, with cash prizes of up to $100.

The format of the tournament is unique as it is a Swiss and bracket style tournament hybrid. On June 27th, participants will be split into divisions of around 16 people and will play 4 rounds of a Swiss style tournament. On the second day, July 3rd, the top eight players in each division will be put into their own single elimination bracket tournament and compete to be the winner of their division. Players who get eliminated from the main bracket, as well as those who did not qualify, will have the chance to participate in a consolation bracket which will play for third place. 

The NYGHS team is excited to organize this bracket style hybrid tournament and bring this rare experience to participants at all levels of play. If you have any questions about the tournament or how it will be run, please feel welcome to reach out to us at co-president.nyghs@ny-go.org. The registration deadline is midnight on June 22nd; entry is $15. If you would like to register or read more about the event you can find the tournament details here.

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

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.

Rujun (Larry) Ding 6d of Palo Alto, California beat Qipeng Luo 7d of Champaign, Illinois in the final round of the Open section to win the Tenth Annual San Diego Go Championship with a record of 5-0. Ding won a ko fight at the end of the game to pull ahead for a 7-stone victory. Kyle Fenimore (NY) and Mani K Sanford (MI) placed second and third with 4-1 records in the 18-player Open section.

The 2021 SD Go Championship had its largest turnout ever with 73 players, representing 17 states, competing. Among the 32 players from California, 21 were from the San Diego Go Club. This was the second year that the tournament was held online due to the pandemic, with one game per week over five weeks. AGA membership was required of all players and there is hope that since the AGA Board has approved online ratings, that the tournament will be rated by the new AGA online rating system.

In the Handicap division there were eight sections. The winners were:

1) 3d-1.5d    Patrick a Ferl (CA)
2) 1k-1.5k     Wanqi Zhu (IL)
3) 1.6k-2.3k  Michael Mei (CA)
4) 2.8k-3.7k  Jerry Young (TX)
5) 4.2k-5.5k  Duncan Harris (MI)
6) 5.7k-6.5k  Juliet Zhang (NJ)
7) 7.3k-10k   Terri Schurter (NJ)
8) 11.5k-25k Lewis Lin  (NY)

All winners were awarded a redesigned 2017 Go Congress San Diego Go Club T-Shirt. This was the fourth online tournament organized by the San Diego Go Club during the pandemic. The club will continue to provide opportunities for online go competition as long as it is unsafe to play face-to-face. Hopefully, by Thanksgiving weekend SDGC will be able to hold the 4th Annual California State Go Championship in person.

-report and photo provided by Ted Terpstra      

by Ted Terpstra

For the tenth year in a row, the San Diego Go Club has taught Go to interested people attending the annual Japanese Friendship Garden’s Cherry Blossom Festival in Balboa Park in San Diego. Thousands streamed through the blossoming Japanese cherry trees, blooming azaleas, and wisteria from Friday morning until Sunday at dusk. Everyone was required to be masked and socially distanced.

All who sat down for a go lesson were given a free copy of “The Way To Go” by Karl Baker. This 50-page booklet, which is provided for free to AGA chapters by the AGF, has everything a person new to Go needs to enjoy the game: Go history, rules of the game, examples, references to online Go sites, a glossary of Go terms, and the path to finding Go clubs in the USA.

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival is one of several community outreach programs the San Diego Go Club participates in. The effort results in new club members and new AGA memberships. Hopefully, by Thanksgiving, the Fourth Annual California Go Championship, sponsored by SDGC, will be held face-to-face.

-photos provided by Ted Terpstra

On February 21, the Eastern Youth Open (EYO) tournament, hosted by New York Go Association, took place online on KGS due to the pandemic. Eighty youth players of all different levels from across North America participated. After 4 rounds of competition, Zixuan Gao 5d took first place, her second recent championship following her performance in the Young Lions Tournament in November of 2020. Below are the results of all seven divisions.

Division A
1st Place: Zixuan Gao
2nd Place: Brady Zhang
3rd Place: Alexander Qi

Division B
1st Place: Jenny Li
2nd Place: Ethan Whitman, Juanshu Lan (tie)

Division C
1st Place: Albert Tang
2nd Place: Evan Tan
3rd Place: Stephanie Tan

Division D
1st Place: Sebastian Liang
2nd Place: Jason Liu
3rd Place: Alex Fan-Cui

Division E
1st Place: Ernest Lam
2nd Place: Juliet Zhang
3rd Place: Hector Lampert-Bates

Division F
1st Place: Naomi Hsieh
2nd Place: Yiting Liu
3rd Place: Duan Gao

Division G
1st Place: Woody Yin
2nd Place: Noah Carrafa
3rd Place: Kye Tang 

-photo provided by Zixuan Gao
-report by Stephanie Yin and Rachel Li