American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

On Sunday November 21, the San Diego Go Club celebrated the joining of many new members by holding a Go Soiree at club president Ted Terpstra’s home. Over 25-players showed up including two professionals (Hai Li 5P and Han Han 5P) and three 7d amateurs. One player arrived on the new trolley line that opened earlier that day and now stops at the bottom of the hill.

Players were asked to be masked except while eating and drinking and for the occasional photograph. Plenty of hand sanitizer was available for participants.

Go boards were scattered over three floors of the house and also in the Japanese garden backyard as players sought competition or a teaching game. Kibitzing was the order of the day.

After 7 hours of playing Go and socializing with pizza and drinks, the last players were shooed out at 8:00 p.m. Things will not be as convivial Thanksgiving Saturday and Sunday, as many of these players will meet in the King Cup – California State Go Championships hosted by the SDGC.

-report and photo by Ted Terpstra

Photo: SDGC members Tony 7d (Left) and Kevin 7d Yang enjoying a brotherly game on a 7.5-inch kaya board.
Also in photo, their sensei, Han Han 5p, and a future Harvard student. Special note: Between the bowls of stones can be seen a 1986 American Go Journal with a young Michael Redmond on the cover. The Journal referred to him as “the strongest Westerner in the entire history of Go.” Inside that issue was an interview of Redmond by Les Lanphear: Soiree attendee, long-time SDGC member, and a current member of the AGA Board of Directors.

On November 7, 2021, Feijun (Frank) Luo 7d taught his first in-person Go class in nearly two years for Atlanta Contemporary Chinese Academy at Stone Mountain Park. “We met with great excitement and joy,” says Luo. Frank played go with students and watched them play for two hours, and then he led them on a hike on Stone Mountain. Despite the strenuous hiking, all students climbed to the summit of Stone Mountain by supporting each other. At the summit of Stone Mountain, not only did they enjoy the spectacular view of Atlanta and the beautiful sunset, but also played a game of group speed Go to the amusement of all. Joining Frank in this class were the students Collin Guo, Leo Huang, Ryan Huang, Gavin Situ, Eric Wang, Lucas Wang, Andrea Wang, Jiayue Wu, Kevin Yang, Jiaming Zou, and Jiayi Zou. “It’s vital to stay physically and mentally active during this pandemic,” continued Luo. “We will have more classes like this to help achieve the goal!” 

-report by Feijun (Frank) Lui

The San Diego Go Club – in an effort to increase its diversity – is participating in the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden’s eight week Pop-up exhibit in National City, California. Hosted in the National City Chamber of Commerce building, JFG is exhibiting art and providing free cultural and educational programming including demonstration games and teaching of Go by SDGC volunteers.

National City is a city of 61,000, ten minutes south of downtown San Diego, with sizable Mexican, Filipino, and Chinese descendant populations. The SDGC is hoping to increase its membership of under-represented populations in the AGA.

-report and photos by Ted Terpstra

The Canadian Go Association’s annual Canadian Open tournament will be held online from October 23-31st. Interested players of all levels worldwide are welcome to participate. “I hope to see many of our AGA friends join the tournament!” says TD Ron Mackenzie. All of the tournament information is available on the CGA website.

The tournament will feature an open division for 5d+ players with cash prizes. Other divisions will feature other prizes including those donated by sponsors. There will be six rounds run over 4 days, with rounds at 1PM and 5PM EST each day:
Saturday, Oct 23: Rounds 1 and 2
Sunday, Oct 24: Rounds 3 and 4
Saturday, Oct 30: Rounds 5 and 6
Sunday, Oct 31: Open division playoffs, Pair Go, and Blitz tournaments

Yoonyoung Kim 8p will provide two review periods for players to share their games with her for analysis, which will be broadcast on her twitch stream. Interested players may join the review sessions regardless of whether or not they are playing in the tournament. Ryan Li 3p will also be offering a lecture on the New York Institute of Go Youtube channel on October 23rd at 7:30PM EST, the topic of which will be a review of one of the games from the open division. 

The tournament will be run on OGS and use Baduk Club for coordinating matches. Specific details will updated on the tournament site and sent out to players a week in advance of the event. There have been a number of prizes donated by generous sponsors: the European Go Journal, Awesome Baduk, BenKyo Tutoring, Stoned on the Goban, Go Magic, the New York Institute of Go, and We-Go.

Regular registration is $20 and will close on October 17th. Registration between October 17th and October 22nd will be $25. Any questions after not answered on the tournament page may be sent to TD Ron Mackenzie at ronm.cga@fastmail.com.

-report by Ron Mackenzie