The following statement has been released by the American Go Association’s Board of Directors.
“Generally, the AGA considers promoting face-to-face go to be one of it’s biggest priorities. As COVID-19 has progressed, however, it has become clear that practicing social distancing is something that everyone needs to do for their health and the health of those around them.
With that in mind, the AGA is encouraging folks to cancel or postpone all planned club and tournament events in March and April. This is a developing situation that is changing weekly (and lately daily), and we hope that we will be able to resume in-person play soon – once the pandemic has subsided.
The Seattle Go Center in Seattle and the National Go Center in Washington, DC have both suspended tournaments and face-to-face play and are closely monitoring the situation. Updates are at seattlego.org and nationalgocenter.org.
At this time, the AGA is making no recommendations about events in May or any time after that. Preparations for the US Go Congress in Estes Park at the beginning of August are continuing, even as we develop contingency plans in case the effects of the pandemic continue into the summer. Congress staff are working closely with the YMCA and monitoring recommendations from public officials. Colorado has declared a state of emergency and recommended postponing gatherings of 250 or more for the time being.
Stay safe – and maybe take this opportunity to rediscover online go playing, read some go books, and watch some of the many videos available on Twitch and YouTube!”
Self-Isolation? Recovering from St Patty’s Day? Miss other sporting events? Logon to Pandanet this Sunday March 15th at 3pm EST/12pm PST and watch some go! Many of the country’s top players are playing throughout the day. Check out our schedule pages for your favorite players and local teams for the times they’re playing.
The New York Institute of Go (NYIG) and the New York Go Association (NYGA) are happy to bring you our annual summary of achievements. We concluded the year 2019 with lots of prides and great memories, through which all Go players in our community were bounded closely.
Tournament Achievements (Adult) Our two prominent professional players, Ryan Li 1P and Stephanie Yin 1P, continued to be among the top Go players on the North American Continent. Ryan Li competed in the 3rd International Elite Mind Games, and Stephanie Yin 1P participated in the 10th Qionglong Bingsheng Cup and 3rd Go Seigen Cup World Women’s Championship. The AGA City League New York team, consisting of Ryan Li, Hancheng Zhang and Stephanie Yin, won the 2019 Pandanet-AGA City League again.
Tournament Achievements (Youth) The youth training section has always been our focus. Through various Go classes and after-school programs offered by New York Institute of Go (NYIG), our students improved significantly and won numerous achievements nationwide.
The 6th North America Kyu Championship (NYKC), February 2019 Division B: 1st Place Toranosuke Ozawa 3k Division E: 1st Place Alan Yang 17k Division F: 1st Place Jeremy Wong 21k; 2nd Place Jason Yang 21k
2019 North American School Team Tournament, April 2019 Top Division: – 2nd Place New York Institute of Go Team 2: Chase Lin 1k, Cathy Liao 3k, Alex Huang 4k – 3rd Place New York Institute of Go Team 1: Patrick Zhao 3d, Sophie Lin 2d, Marcos Yang 1d Division 2: – 1st Place New York Institute of Go Team 6: Jack Zhang 9k, Brandon Zhu 12k, Alan Yang 13k – 2nd Place New York Institute of Go Team 4: Jason Long 10k, Jonathan Chen 11k, Lillian Wu 12k
The 1st U20 Eastern Youth Open, August 2019 Division B: 1st Place Sophie Lin 2d Division C: 1st Place Chase Lin 1k, 2nd Place Samantha Soo 4k, 3rd Place Jerry Ju 3k Division D: 1st Place Xinyu Chen 6k; 2nd Place Jonathan Chen 9k; 3rd Place Crystal Pang 8k
2019 North American Young Lions Tournament, December 2019 Division A: 1st Place Toranosuke Ozawa 2d; 2nd Place Sophie Lin 2d; 3rd Place Chase Lin 1d Division B: 3rd Place Samantha Soo 1k Division D: 2nd Place Joshua Wong 10k Division F: 1st Place Noah Carrafa 21k, 2nd Place Enzo Aozono-Araldi 23k, 3rd Place Roger Eckner 25k
Go Promotion By holding various go tournaments and events in 2019, the NYGA promote the interests, activity and outreach of go players within the New York City and Tri-state community.
New York Go Honor Society The New York Go Honor Society is a non-profit chapter supported by the New York Go Association (NYGA). The NYGHS executive team includes multiple honorary members from Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Princeton. The board members, such as the chairman and board of directors, will be selected in a self-recommended fashion, by NYGA officers and honorary presidents.
The mission of the NYGHS is to learn the philosophical ideas that have been embedded in Go for thousands of years. It is a platform that provides young Go players an environment to enrich their Go experience, improve their organizational skills, and broaden their horizons. Specifically, through the NYGHS, our Go players will work together to hone their leadership, logical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities. They will also communicate and cooperate with students from top American colleges to expand social skills and enrich personal accomplishment.
Tournament Organization – 4th, 5th and 6th US Go Ranking Competition, New York Division – The 1st U20 Eastern Youth Open, August 2019 – NYGA Monthly Tournaments
Classes We offered a series of go classes to both youth and adult players from beginner to dan-level.
After-school Programs – St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School – PS 77 Lower Lab School
Social Media Our official Youtube Channel “nyig_go” reached 7000 subscribers in November.
We appreciate everyone who has participated in our Go activities in 2019. We shall continue to bring you more exciting events in the upcoming year 2020. More information can be found here: www.ny-go.org
The Canadian Go Association summer camp is ready to welcome you! Running August 23-28 at Jouvence resort inside Mount Orford National park (near Montreal Quebec), it will combine a sojourn in nature with top-notch Go instruction, luxury meals, and great company. Since the resort is a non-profit, all of this is at a great price! See our web site for full details, and please reach out if you have any questions.
report by Canadian Go Association President James Sedgwick
Weiqiu (Rachel) You 2k, 3-1; Neil Ni 2d, 3-1; Minghan Jiang 1d, 4-0; Joel Kenny 4d, 3-1; Stephen J. Choung 2k, 3-1
The Western Massachusetts Go Club had a respectable turnout of 18 players for the winter tournament, held on February 22 and hosted by Springfield College. There were 3 double-digit kyu players, with the remaining players from 3k to 5d. Players traveled from throughout New England – 200+ mi from Vermont, by Uber and bus from Boston, and from New York City.
Minghan Jiang 1d was the only undefeated player with a 4-0 record. Four other players had 3-1 results (right), and David Richardson 14k won the DDK division. Click here for full results, and here for more photos of the event.
by Steve Colburn During last year’s U.S. Go Congress I heard the same question more than a few times. “Why does it take so long to get the tournament I last played in rated?” We’re always trying to get ratings updated more quickly but here’s why that’s often a challenge.
At the end of the tournament the Tournament Director (TD) sends a results file to the AGA, which processes the data. Two of the key things are active membership and game result probability. An active AGA membership gives you many benefits, among the largest of which is being rated in our system. So the first major check is to see if all player’s AGA memberships are up to date, and expired memberships are the largest reason ratings are delayed. The AGA Membership Manager has been working very well since it was fixed in May 2019, and TDs are no longer able to submit tournament results without all players being AGA members. The second check, which occurs less frequently but can also slow down updated ratings, is when game result probabilities are suspect, like when it’s reported that a significantly lower-ranked player defeated a stronger player. In such a case, we’ll check in with the TD to see if it’s an error, if someone just had a good — or a bad — day.
Once these two hurdles are cleared, the rest of the process moves fairly quickly and the updated ratings can be posted. Our ultimate goal is for every TD to be able to run tournaments with no issues so that we can process and post updated that same weekend.
Winners in the various sections: Aaron Jones, Evan Tan, Yixian Zhou, Ted Terpstra (President, SDGC), Angel Zhou (Yixian’s daughter)
On Sunday, January 19, 2020, twenty-six players braved the Southern California sunshine and warmth on a “winter’s day” to compete in the San Diego Go Club / Yellow Mountain Imports Go Rating Tournament. Competitors aged from 4 to 74. Yixian Zhou 6d, who bested the handicapped field with a 3-0 record, won a YMI board, stones and bowls. Aaron Jones 9k, Evan Tan 14k, and Angel Zhou 20, all won magnetic go boards furnished by Yellow Mountain Imports for winning their sections.
After a break for free pizza, most of the players remained at the San Diego Chess Club to hear well-known go lecturer Yilun Yang 7P give the last of his fall/winter classes for the San Diego Go Club.
The 28th Jiang ZhuJiu Ing Cup was held in San Francisco at the Hotel Kabuki on Sunday February 2, the second year the tournament has been held on Super Bowl Sunday – players were able to watch the game between rounds on a large screen display set up in the hotel lounge. Jiang ZhuJiu 9P and Rui Naiwei 9P made the trip from China to host the event, where 63 players competed in 5 divisions for a total of $3,000 in prizes. The tournament was sponsored by the Ing Foundation of California, and Hajin Lee 4P, who won all four rounds in the Open section, won the grand prize. The tournament was directed by Karoline Li and Julie Burrall. Click Complete results can be found online for both the open and handicap sections. Click here for more tournament photos.
The qualifier for the 2020 Globis Cup will take place as a double-elimination tournament over the next two weekends. Spectators can tune in on KGS for the following scheduled rounds:
Round 1: Saturday 2/8, 12 Noon EST Round 2: Saturday 2/8, 5 PM EST Round 3: Sunday 2/9, 5 PM EST Round 4, FINAL #1: Saturday 2/15, 12 Noon EST If after Round 4 both players have only one loss there is an additional game Round 5: FINAL #2: Sunday 2/16, 12 Noon EST
The player with no more than one loss after Game #6 or #7 will be selected as the representative to the 7th annual GLOBIS Cup, a U-20 world championship for professional and amateur players under 20 years of age.
The quadrennial Ing Pro Cup, originally planned to start in Shanghai this April and involving players from all over the world, has been temporarily suspended by the Ing Chang Ki Goe Educational Foundation because of the epidemic being caused by what health officials are calling a novel coronavirus. “The first phase of the event will be postponed, and the exact time will be announced after the epidemic is under control,” the foundation said in a communication to players and other attendees. The disease, which the foundation called “Wuhan pneumonia” after the Chinese metropolis where the epidemic originated, has infected more than 6,000 people and killed at least 132, according to media reports late Tuesday. While most of the victims are in China, 83 cases have been identified in other countries. Several countries have put travel limits in place and the US Centers for Disease Control has recommended avoiding non-essential travel to China. Canadian Ryan Li 1p is scheduled to represent North America in the tournament.
Self-Isolation? Recovering from St Patty’s Day? Miss other sporting events? Logon to 
