American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

Second Edition of SportAccord World Mind Games Begins

Tuesday December 11, 2012

The second edition of the World Mind Games is about to start on December 12, with final preparations now in progress. This year’s event, hosted in Beijing, China, will include 8 days of competitions in five mind sports; go, bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), and xiangqi (Chinese chess). Players representing the different mind sports are some of the world’s best, including: GO: Jiang Weijie, Chen Yaone, Park Jeonghwan, Choi Chulhan; BRIDGE: Fu Zhong, Bauke Muller, Peter Bertheau and Fredryk Nystrom, Joe Grue, Ming Sun, Catherine d’Ovidio, Nicola Smith, Lynn Deas; CHESS: Humpy Koneru, Aronyan Levon, Rajabov Teymur, Karyakin Sergey, Hou Yifan, Muzychuk Anna; DRAUGHTS: Alexei Chizov, Alexander Georgiev, Zoja Golubeva; XIANGQI: Wang Tian Yi, Nguyen Hoang Lam, Lei Kam Fun, Ng Jun Ming, Chan, Chun Kit, Chen Li Chun, Jia Dan, Cao Phuong Thanh.

The 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games also have an extensive social, cultural and educational program which will run in parallel with the competitions and involve the local public, especially students. The following five ambassadors will represent the different participating sports and promote them among the public. Go: Joanne “Jia Jia” Missingham; Bridge: Sjoert Brink; Chess: Hou Yifan; Draughts: Alexey Chizhov; Xiangqi: Chan Chun Kit. In addition, the winners of the online tournament will join the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing to meet and play against the Grand Masters.

Twenty-four media platforms will air the event and the television broadcast will be available in 64 territories around the world. The live web-streaming will be available on the YouTube Mind Games Channel. American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock is part of the team — which includes Michael Redmond 9P and Janice Kim 3P — covering the SAWMG go event; watch for daily reports on the AGA website and in the E-Journal.

The SportAccord World Mind Games are a multi-sports event promoting the value of mind sports, with the world’s best players delivering top-level performances and creating valuable new experiences based on their intelligence, strategy and mental exercise.
photo: in the go playing room at the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games; photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

Historians and Anthropologists at the 2012 International Go Symposium

Tuesday December 11, 2012

The 2012 International Go Symposium in Black Mountain, North Carolina attracted leading scholars and researchers from around the world for two days of presentations and discussions on the many aspects of the game of go. Hours of footage have now been edited down and posted online to accompany the conference papers. This 3-part series covers highlights of Symposium presentations by teachers, scientists, historians and anthropologists.

Students of the long and fascinating history of go who attended the 2012 International Go Symposium were richly rewarded with presentations on anime, poetry, and history, while also learning about the development of the game itself, such as why and when the 19×19 board came into use, and the challenges involved in developing a universal set of rules.

The most well-attended event of the Symposium took place on Sunday afternoon, when Hikaru No Go fans packed the lecture hall to see Hotta Yumi, the author of the wildly popular series. Ms. Hotta, interviewed by go teacher and E-Journal Youth Editor Paul Barchilon with translation by longtime AGA volunteer Akane Negishi, answered questions ranging from how she came up with the idea for Hikaru to who’s her favorite character.

Reflecting a growing general Western interest in China, several presentations centered on Chinese themes. Stephanie Mingming Yin, now one of America’s resident pros, described Growing up Pro in China, while Joshua Guarino reminisced about his recent visit there, offering tips to go players who might be planning a trip, and Symposium organizer Peter Shotwell recalled his visit in 1985, making the first official contact between the AGA and the newly formed Chinese Weiqi Association. Documentary filmmaker Marc Moskowitz shared highlights of his new film on Chinese go, Weiqi Wonders.

Intertwining history and art, Dr. Chen Zu-yan , a professor of Asian and Asian-American Studies at Binghamton University, spoke on The Art of Black and White: Weiqi in Chinese Poetry. In a fascinating example of the global nature of the game, Konstantin Bayraktarov of Bulgaria’s research into Vietnamese go was presented by American go writer – and Symposium organizer — Peter Shotwell. Shotwell also updated his longtime inquiry into the origins of go with “The Origins of Go Strategies in Classical Chinese Grammar: Why the Chinese Play Go and the West Plays Chess” Noting that fundamental differences in the structure and purpose of language can impact a society’s development, Shotwell showed how in the case of the West they pose a barrier to grasping go. In a second talk, Shotwell muses about so-called “custodial capture” games in ancient Greece and Rome, and in a Tibetan game known as Mig-Mang.

Other speakers looked at the special nature of the game itself, which is ephemeral yet universal. The rules were never even written down until the 20^th century, and to this day there are several seemingly irreconcilable rule sets — yet everyone knows how to play. Chen Zu-Yuan, a leading rules expert, reviews the history and merits of Japanese (territory) and Chinese (area) counting. Potentially infinite, go is occasionally played on boards of various sizes, especially 9×9 and 13×13, but could be played on a grid of any size, and has even been played on a special board with no edges at all. At the 2012 US Go Congress it was played on a US-shaped board. So why 19×19? Ichiro Tanioka has studied this question concluding that the change probably happened during the 4^th century AD along with other fundamental changes, for instance in the Chinese calendar. Mr. Tanioka goes on to speculate on other questions, such as why Chinese boards are perfectly square while Japanese boards are slightly rectangular. Continuing the inquiry into why the board is the way it is, Dalsoo Kim gave a history of the board’s “star points”, which at various times has ranged as high as 17.

The AGA and the 2012 US Go Congress are extremely grateful to the for financial support that made this event possible, and to the American Go Foundation for supporting the video recording. Links to all the videos and to associated papers, links and contact information be found at the Symposium website. NEXT: Scientists at the Symposium.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress

Redmond to Provide Live Commentaries on World Mind Sports Games

Friday December 7, 2012

Michael Redmond 9P will provide live commentaries on the SportsAccord World Mind Sports Games, scheduled for December 12-19. The live broadcasts will take place on the following YouTube channel. The go section of the daily coverage will be anchored by Chris Garlock of the American Go E-Journal, with Redmond providing live commentaries on the matches.

Here’s the schedule of the go section of the live broadcasts:

• 12 December: 15:30 – 17:00 local time; 7:30 – 09:00 GMT
• 13 December: 17:00 – 18:00 local time; 9:00 – 10:00 GMT
• 14 December: 16:30 – 17:15 local time; 8:30 – 09:15 GMT
• 15 December: 16:15 – 17:00 local time; 8:15 – 09:00 GMT
• 16 December: 17:00 – 18:00 and 20:00~ local time; 9:00 – 10:00 and 12:00~ GMT
• 18 December: 17:00 – 18:00 local time; 9:00 – 10:00 GMT

The full schedule of broadcasts is available here.

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

Pandanet-AGA City League Registration Deadline 12/20

Thursday December 6, 2012

There are just two weeks left to join the new Pandanet-AGA City League. This new event features year-round regional competitions between teams of players from different North American cities or regions, with a prize pot of $15,000 for the A-League. Deadline to register is December 20, with the first season set to begin January 1, 2013 and concludes with a final round in Seattle during the 2013 US Go Congress. There are already teams registered from Brentwood TN, Memphis TN, Syracuse NY, Research Triangle NC, Boston, and Southern California. Additional teams are being formed in DC-NOVA, the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Monica and Vancouver. “Those from other cities and regions in US, Canada, and Mexico and interested in joining should get organized soon,” say League organizers. “We look forward to a full slate of exciting competitions from many teams!” Click here for more information, rules and registration. Email questions to cityleague@usgo.org.

Categories: Pandanet-AGA City League,U.S./North America

New SportAccord World Mind Games Website Launched

Thursday November 29, 2012

The SportAccord World Mind Games website has a new and updated design, with a number of useful options to improve user’s experience. Visitors can access the latest news about the upcoming event, results, schedule, players’ biographies, and photos, and the website will also have an option to be read in two languages; English or Chinese. During the event – which runs December 12-19 in Beijing — live broadcast coverage will be available through the website as well. The SportAccord World Mind Games are a multi-sports event which highlights the value of mind sports, including go, bridge, draughts, and Chinese chess, featuring the world’s best players delivering top-level performances and creating “new valuable experiences based on intelligence, strategy and exercise of mind,” says SportAccord, the umbrella organisation for 107 international sports federations and organisations.

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

SportAccord World Mind Games Set for Dec. 12-19 in Beijing

Sunday November 18, 2012

The second SportAccord World Mind Games (SWMG) will be held December 12-19 in Beijing, China. The multi-sport event is intended to highlight the value of mind sports and features five games: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go and xiangqi (Chinese Chess). Coverage will be provided on the SWMG website, Ranka Online and in the E-Journal.

The SWMG go tournament is held under the auspices of the International Go Federation (IGF), and 28 players — 16 men and 12 women — will participate. The competition format includes Men’s Individual and Women’s Individual events and a Pair Go event. The Individual events feature a double elimination in seven rounds, a time limit for each side of 1 hour, with three 30-second byo-yomi periods. Eight pairs will compete in the Pair Go event, a single elimination with two rounds each day and three rounds in total. The time limit is 1 hour each side, with three 30 second byo-yomi periods.

The surprise this year is that nearly 80% of the field is new: the only returnees from last year are Li He (China), Choi Chulhan and Park Jeonghwan (Korea), Mukai Chiaki (Japan), Joanne Missingham (Taipei), and Vanessa Wong (Great Britain). This reflects the astounding rate at which young players have been rising to the top all over the world during the past year or so. Nearly one-third of the contestants are under 20, and all but five of the rest are under 30.

In the Asian zone, China used its internal rating system to select its two best women and two best men, and added LG Cup-winner and world meijin Jiang Weijie as its third man. Korea and Chinese Taipei held qualifying tournaments in which young players did conspicuously well. Japan followed their lead by entering five of its best young players. In the European zone, three men selected in a special qualifier held in Lille in August are joined by the top three finishers in the recent European Women’s Championship. In the North American zone, two young Canadians — Tianyu Lin and Irene Sha — won the men’s and women’s qualifiers, shutting out the United States. Only in South America was youth denied: Argentina’s famed veteran Fernando Aguilar rebuffed five rivals from Argentina, Mexico, and Chile to become the first South American go player to compete in the SportAccord World Mind Games.

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

28 Great Go Talks Now Online

Wednesday November 14, 2012

What does it take to become a Chinese pro? How did Hotta Yumi get the idea to write Hikaru No Go? What is new in the history of go and its rules? Who was Atari founder Nolan Bushnell’s most famous minimum-wage employee? For answers to these and many other intriguing questions about the game of go, visit the 2012 International Go Symposium’s new website, where all the presentations are archived, along with links to associated papers and web pages, as well as a YouTube channel of video recordings of the event.

Sponsored by The International Go Federation with additional support from The American Go Foundation, the conference was presented by organizers from the The American Go Association and the 2012 US Go Congress. This was the first such gathering since 2008, and 25 speakers eagerly seized the chance to present their latest findings to more than 100 registered participants. The Symposium offered something for just about everyone – programming enthusiasts, history buffs, anthropologists, teachers, organizers, and of course players. Papers and links associated with these presentations are available here. In the coming weeks we will profile some of the more remarkable videos, but don’t let that stop you from checking it out in the meantime.

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

Sun Naijing Wins Trip to SportAccord World Mind Games

Saturday November 10, 2012

Sun Naijing of China will join other winners of online tournaments in bridge, chess, draughts, and xiangqi (Chinese Chess) in observing the world’s best players in action at the SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) in Beijing next month. Sun won the trip in the online adjunct to the upcoming World Mind Games, out of a field of 688 go players from 48 countries, ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, with more than half from Japan, which produced last year’s online winner. Sun, who hails from Hefei in Anhui Province, started playing go at age nine and kept it up through university studies and subsequent employment. ‘Go never leaves me,’ he says. In a go career spanning nearly four decades he has won numerous provincial amateur tournaments in Anhui and has thrice finished among the top ten in the massive Evening News Cup, China’s premier amateur event. In 1996 he defeated Chen Linxin 9P in the pro-amateur part of that event. ‘I learn a lot by playing go,’ Mr Sun adds. ‘I like it.’

Sponsored by Pandanet and played on Pandanet-IGS, some 5,400 games were played in this event; other winners include:
Regional winners: Mariya Zakhachenko (Ukraine), Fernando Aguilar
(Argentine), Tamai Kazuki (Japan); each winning a digital camera.
Lottery winners (prize from Pandanet): Dragan Dubakovic (Serbia), Irwin Vinicio Sanchez Chinchuña (Ecuador), Ueda Tatsuya (Japan); each winning an iPad.
Lottery winners (prize from SportAccord): Jeremy Chiu (USA), Igor Burnaevskiy (Russia); each winning a Samsung tablet computer. Tzvetomir Tzvetanov (France), Nakatomi Nobuo (Japan); each winning a Swatch watch.

This tournament is expected to be held again in 2013 and 2014, possibly with an earlier start time to allow more people to play. Watch for announcements in the E-Journal, on the IGF website, and on Pandanet website.

– adapted from a report in Ranka Online, the bulletin of the International Go Federation; includes reporting by Thomas Hsiang

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

2012 U.S.Go Congress Overview: Reports, Photos, Games & Commentaries

Monday October 8, 2012

Dozens of 2012 U.S. Go Congress games, reports and photos – including galleries of players in top tournaments – are available online; our comprehensive coverage includes crosstabs of the U.S. Open, North American Ing Masters and Strong Players Open. See below for a selection of highlights of our coverage or click here for all our 2012 Go Congress reports.

REPORTS
Congress Updates: Congress Tournament Winners; Congress Credits
Matthew Hu 1P Wins 2012 Ing Masters
Dyer-Zhou Win 2012 U.S.Pair Go Championships
Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell on Go, Pong, Life and Changing the World
Hikaru no Go Creator Hotta Yumi Goes Behind the Manga
Kyu-Killer Keith Arnold Falls to Kyu Players, 19-1
U.S. Go Congress EJ Team Recognition

TOURNAMENTS
• Congress Tournament Winners (PDF)
• US Open
Crosstab (includes game files)
Game commentaries
• North American Masters Tournament
Crosstab (includes game files)
Player photos & game commentaries
• Strong Players Open
Crosstab (includes game files)
Player photos & game commentaries

PHOTOS
Congress Photo Album: Sunday, August 5
Phil’s Portraits: Monday’s Gallery
Go Congress Photo Album: Day Off Activities
Go Congress Photo Album: Crazy Go
Go Congress Photo Album: Pair Go (NEW! Just posted)
Congress Co-Director Peter Armenia’s Photo Album

YOUTH
Gan and Ye Shut Out Rivals in Redmond
Soo, Ganeva, and Ye Top Children’s Art Contest
Liu and Su Top Youth Adult Pair Go
Hikaru Author Hotta Yumi Interviewed

2013 U.S. Go Congress Set for Tacoma, WA
photos, top to bottom: Matthew Hu (by Phil Straus); Nolan Bushnell (by Chris Garlock); Hotta Yumi (by Steve Colburn); Youth-Adult Pair Go (by Paul Barchilon).

Categories: U.S. Go Congress

Pandanet-AGA City League Registration Opens

Sunday September 23, 2012

Registration is now open for the inaugural season the Pandanet-AGA City League. Fully sponsored and funded by Pandanet, this new online tournament will provide players an opportunity for regional competition. “This is an exciting new opportunity to develop our go community here in the US,” says AGA President Andy Okun. “Thanks to Pandanet for a great competition that will build up the US go community in new ways.” Teams will consist of four players, three of which will play in each round on a rotating basis, and a non-playing team captain. Each team will represent a city or a region. The tournament format will be double round robin, with 10 rounds each season. The top six teams will make up an “A” League and will play a double round-robin with each other throughout the year on the International Go Server (IGS). A final round between the top two teams in the A League will be played at the US Go Congress. Other teams will be placed into a “B” League and possibly a third, “C” League. The top finisher in the B League moves up to the A League after each season, replacing the bottom A League team. Registration for Season 1 closes December 20, 2012 and the first season will begin January 1st on an accelerated schedule, with all following seasons beginning September 1st of each year. In addition to generous cash prizes provided by Pandanet, teams are encouraged to seek their own local sponsors to provide the team with travel, training, game-fees, celebration and community events. “Teams of all strengths are welcomed and encouraged to register!” says tournament director Jon Boley. Click here for tournament information, procedures, and rules. Click here to register online.

Categories: Pandanet-AGA City League,U.S./North America

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