Monday August 5, 2019
The New York Institute of Go is launching a new series based on the 2019 US Go Congress on its YouTube channel. The series, featuring Stephanie Yin 1P, is as follows:
-Monday, August 5: 5 Best Moves
-Monday, August 12: Top 5 Mistakes
-Monday, August 19: Pro Game Review. Zhongfan Jian vs Mark Lee
-Monday, August 26: Top 5 Go Fighting Tactics
Tuesday July 30, 2019
By Zirui Song 1P
The 6th Mexican Go Congress was a lifetime experience. I was both instructor and referee. I played simuls every afternoon, gave a lecture on life and death problems, and tried to review as many Congress games as possible. While only there three days, I hope my teaching could indeed offer them some insights into the thinking of a pro-level player when playing the game. They were polite and respectful when asking me to review the games, and whenever I saw them understand and gain from my teachings, I would genuinely feel really happy and fulfilled. They would laugh back at me, too.
Though my perspective is different from a player, I was not alienated from the exciting event at all. The passion for the game of go connected everyone at the Congress. On the last day, many people brought their own boards and started playing at the front door of the building. To be honest, I envy their passion towards the game sometimes. Whenever they finished, they would never directly put the stones back into the boxes before going back to the game to discuss the important fights or game-deciding moments.
Emil, the president of the Mexican Go Association, and his girlfriend, Dafne, welcomed me to stay at their place during the Congress. They cared for my needs and gave me the most comfortable stay possible. All the other people at the event were really hospitable as well, and I feel bad for not remembering all their names. What I do remember is that every night after the congress games, we went to dinner, drank and talked for hours. On the last day, they insisted on walking with me to the Art Museum and Chinatown in Mexico City to show me the different facets that Mexico City has to offer.
I sincerely hope that I can go back again.
With funding from the American Go Foundation, Zirui Song, 1P from Chicago, was the AGA representative at the Mexican Go Congress.
-photos provided by Zirui Song. Report edited by Terry Benson.
Tuesday July 30, 2019
Tina Li 3d defeated Ronnie Fan 4d 2-1 in the AGA Girls Cup Finals at the US Go Congress in Madison, Wisconsin to defend her title and claim her second consecutive championship. Both girls are 13 years old. Taking black in game 1, Li launched an all-out-attack on one of Fan’s dragons, but Fan was able to live and cruise to victory by resignation as Li had little potential remaining after the attack. However, Li did not back down in game 2 the next day, turning the game into a large-scale battle where the status of multiple large dragons came into question. In the end, everything lived on both sides, but Li had the territorial advantage and won by 14.5 points. The final decisive game was much more peaceful with Li (who drew black) staking out a large framework and Fan slowly chipping away at it throughout the game. While Fan managed to make large incisions, it was not enough and Li secured the victory by 13.5 points as well as this year’s title. See below for the records of all three games.
Special thanks to Seowoo Wang for broadcasting the games live on KGS as well as for assisting during the preliminaries, and to the American Go Foundation for sponsoring this tournament. This year’s tournament was the second edition of the annual AGA Girls Cup, which holds online preliminaries for two finalist spots and invitations to play in the Finals live at the US Go Congress. Registration for next year’s tournament will open in early 2020; competitors must be residents of North America, a female aged 15 or under, and a member of her national Go organization with an official rank of 10 kyu or stronger.
– story/photo by AGA Youth Coordinator and AGA Girls Cup TD Justin Teng
Sunday July 28, 2019
With this year’s U.S. Go Congress successfully concluded and rapidly fading into happy memories for the more than 400 go players who spent July 13-20 immersed in the game of go in Madison, WI, we wanted to take a moment to gratefully acknowledge to team of volunteers who made it all possible. Many of the folks below gave up the game for the week to make the Congress possible, and their dedication and commitment helped make this annual event the highlight of the American go calendar. Next year’s Congress is set for August 1-8 in Estes Park, CO; if you’d like to consider being a part of the Congress team, email lisa.scott@gocongress.org or journal@usgo.org if you’re interested in the E-Journal team.
2019 U.S. GO CONGRESS STAFF
Congress Staff
Director – Dave Weimer
Deputy Director – Edward Ream
Registrar – Susan DeVos
Congress IT – Greg Steltenpohl
Pro Coordinator – I-Han Lui
Pro Coordinator Assistant – Satoru Inoue
Pro Coordinator Assistant – Daniel Zhao
Tournament Coordinator – Neil Ritter
AGA Congress Coordinator – Lisa Scott
Logo Design – Eric Piotrowski
Staff – Dan Kastenholtz
Staff – Yi Tong
UW Memorial Union Staff – Laura Richards
UW Memorial Union Staff – Lydia Dalton
UW Memorial Union Staff – Hannah Scott
E-Journal Staff
Managing Editor/Twitch stream host – Chris Garlock
Twitch stream producer – Michael Wanek
Assistant Twitch stream producer/host – Stephen Hu
Twitch stream music – Dash8
Support manager and head barista – Todd Heidenreich
IT department – Steve Colburn
Twitch stream hosts – Julie Burrall, Samantha Fede, Tyler Oyakawa, Nick Sibicky
Twitch stream Pro commentators – Yoonyoung Kim 8P, Yilun Yang 7P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P, Jennie Shen 2P, Ryan Li 1P, Stephanie Yin 1P
Twitch interviews – Keith Arnold
Head Game Recorder – Dennis Wheeler
Game recorders – Austin Harvey, Bart Jacobs, Anthony Long, Jeffrey Losapio, Edward Stackman
E-Journal Assistant Managing Editor – Karoline Li
E-Journal reporters – Julie Burrall, Samantha Fede
Future Staff – Quentin, Quentin
Special Thanks
Josh Lee, Andrew Hall, Dan Ritter, Solomon Smilack, Andy Okun
Congress Coverage
Twitch videos
AGA EJournal stories
Friday July 26, 2019
This year’s Redmond Cup Finals at the 2019 US Go Congress in Madison, Wisconsin marked both the conclusion of a dynasty and beginning of a new era. 17-year old Aaron Ye 7d defeated 17-year old Jeremy Chiu 6d 2-0 to win his 7th Redmond Cup title, a record which will likely not be broken for many years. Taking black in Game 1, Chiu managed to pull ahead with a small lead through the early middle-game, but Ye’s successful reduction of Chiu’s potential and subsequent defense against Chiu’s attacks gave Ye a solid territorial advantage ending in Chiu’s resignation. In the second game, Ye took an early territorial lead while Chiu attempted to build potential in the center. However, Ye’s sharp endgame cemented his lead, and after 272 moves, Ye had won by 15.5 points and clinched this year’s Senior Division title. Ever since 2011, Ye and Chiu have been mainstays at the top of the North American youth scene, taking 11 of the 18 finalist spots (7 for Ye and 4 for Chiu) in the Redmond Cup over 9 years. It will be exciting to see who will rise to the top in the coming years.
In the Junior division (12 and under), 12-year old 2018 Junior runner-up Frederick Bao 4d faced new competition in 11-year old newcomer Kevin Huang 6d who had placed first in the online preliminaries earlier this year. Ever since 4-time Junior champion Ary Cheng 6d graduated to the Senior Division (13-17) after last year’s tournament, the Junior field has been left wide open for young lions to take the vacant throne. Game 1 opened with fierce fighting from the beginning, with Bao taking a territorial lead in exchange for giving Huang the upper edge in the center battle. Bao made consecutive invasions into the potential Huang had created, but Huang was relentless in his attacks. In the end, the influence Huang had gained from attacking Bao’s invasions was enough to kill one of Bao’s large dragons and secure the first victory of the series by resignation. In game 2 the next day, Huang started with the now-archaic mini-chinese opening and took a large lead in the opening. A brilliant tesuji sequence to kill one of Bao’s groups seemed like it would seal the victory, but Bao fought back ferociously to close the gap. While he was able to chip away at Huang’s lead bit by bit, the territorial difference was just too much to overcome, and Huang secured his first Redmond Cup title after a grueling 340 moves with a win by 17.5 points. While Bao will be graduating to the Senior division next year, Huang will be the player for up-and-coming young players to beat in next year’s Junior tournament.
SGF files of this year’s Finals games as well as more information about the Redmond Cup can be found on the Redmond Cup page. Special thanks to Ashish Varma and Jake Fink for broadcasting the games live on KGS, as well as to the American Go Foundation for sponsoring this tournament. Registration for the 27th Redmond Cup will open in January 2020 with the online preliminaries starting in March. – Story and Photos by AGA Youth Coordinator and Redmond Cup TD Justin Teng
Thursday July 25, 2019
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Anibal Gomez de la Fuente, 1D
June 2, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary is from his 1st round win against Argentina’s Anibal Gomez de la Fuente. Although the game is effectively over by move 60, Albert covers instructive mistakes by both sides. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Wednesday July 24, 2019
The dates for this year’s Cotsen Open have been set for October 26-27 in Los Angeles. The annual tournament is one of the major events on the AGA’s calendar of events and features cash prizes, free food truck lunches, a club competition and of course the ever-popular massage therapists (below). Registration details will be released soon.
Wednesday July 24, 2019
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Jaesung Lee, 7D
June 5, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary here is from his 8th round loss against South Korea’s Jaesung Lee. Albert’s analysis covers the complicated middle game fighting, when one misread turns an even game into an almost immediate loss. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Monday July 22, 2019
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Pal Balogh, 6D
June 5, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary here is from his 7th round win against Hungary’s Pal Balogh. Albert explains a ton of practical material – from strategic midgame ramifications of the Large Avalanche to tactical tesujis. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
Albert Yen 7d on World Amateur Go Championship
Thursday July 25, 2019
[link]
White: Albert Yen, 7D
Black: Helcio Alexandre Pacheco, 3D
June 2, 2019, in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan
Comments by Albert Yen, 7D
Game editors: Kiren Polara, Myron Souris
Albert Yen’s commentary is from his 2nd round win against Brazil’s Helcio Alexandre Pacheco. Albert gives even more variations for his favorite pincer opening. Although, the game is almost over by move 24, Albert continues the commentary with useful explanations of common shapes and tesujis. For the game moves, Albert also includes LeelaZero’s (AI) winrates.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.