American Go E-Journal » U.S. Go Congress

This year’s US Go Congress organizers have lined up “an exciting ‘Computer Go Afternoon'” reports Chun Sun. “We are honored to have Yuandong Tian from Facebook Research, who will present ‘DarkForest: A DCNN-based open source Go engine,’ on the afternoon of August 4.” Also lined up is John Tromp, who has calculated the exact number of legal go positions, and who will present a lecture on the subject on August 4. As previously reported, Google Deepmind is coming to the Congress this year as well. In addition to giving the opening keynote on Saturday, July 30, Google Deepmind’s Aja Huang and Hui Fan 2P will also present an “AlphaGo Insider” lecture on August 4th’s “Computer Go afternoon,” focusing on the developer community. “After these exciting presentations, DarkForest will play Andy Liu 1p at 3 handicaps,” Chun Sun adds. As the new “JustGo” live recording/broadcasting app will be demoing around the lounge and playing room.

Register for the 2016 US Go Congress by midnight Monday and save $50! The $25 registration will increase to $75 Monday, 6 June at 11:59 pm EST. The US Go Congress is the largest go activity in the United States. It happens once a year and runs July 30 – August 7 in Boston, MA this year. Events include the US Open, the largest annual go tournament in the US, professional lectures and game analysis, continuous self-paired games, and all kinds of go-related activities from morning to midnight. “Come for the go. Come for the camaraderie of old friends,” says Congress Director Walther Chen. “Whatever your reason, we are looking forward to seeing you there.”

If you are planning to attend the US Go Congress in Boston this year but haven’t signed up or paid, you’d best get cracking!  The early bird price expires at the end of May, i.e. Tuesday, with the registration fee going from $375 to $425.   And if you haven’t decided yet to come to Congress this year, why not?  Aside from a location steeped in history, culture and seafood, this Congress boasts an illustrious complement of pro teachers, a powerful lineup of strong players and a tremendous roster of attendees, swelled by the work of the Congress team as well as all the exciting new developments in the world of go.  Sign-ups are well into record territory with more than 330 paid attendees already and nearly 430 altogether in the process.   See the Congress website for more details and to sign up.

Popular teacher Mingjiu Jiang 7P will talk about “Tricky Moves in Josekis” at the upcoming US Go Congress July 30-August 7 in Boston. Also joining the professional line-up at the Congress are Ryan Li 1P, Eric Lui 1P and Calvin Sun 1P; together with previously announced Andy Liu 1P and William Shi 1P, all the young North American pros will be in attendance at the Congress. Longtime Congress favorite Cathy Li 1P has also confirmed she’ll be there. A special guest, An Yan 7P from China, will also attend; he’s taught many strong players in the US, including 2016 Congress director Walther Chen 5d. Over 300 have already registered for the Congress; see who’s coming here.

With this year’s US Go Congress in Boston on track to be the largest-ever, American Go Association president Andy Okun wants to hear from communities that would like to put on a Congress in the coming years. “We are trying to fix a venue for a California Congress in 2017, but we need to look further ahead, or possibly consider returning to one or two of our successful Congress sites from the past.” Interested chapters should contact Okun at president@usgo.org; a future Congress organizers meeting will be held in Boston as well.

photo: at the 2015 US Go Congress in Minneapolis/St Paul; photo by Chris Garlock 

More pros and their lecture topics have just been announced for this year’s US Go Congress, set for July 30- August 7 in Boston, MA.

Feng Yun 9P will talk about: “Invading,” Jennie Shen 2P will co-host with Myungwan Kim 9P, and they will have a joint session on “AlphaGo 5 games summarized commentary” and William Shi 1P will talk about “Star point josekies and recent developments (strong kyu to weak dan)” and “Avalanche Opening Joseki (lower dan and up)”

Click here for details and to register.

Tournament details for this year’s US Go Congress — July 30-August 7 in Boston — are still in development, but in addition to the US Open and US Open Masters, players can already look forward to favorites like the Diehard, Lightning, Crazy Go, and Pair Go tournaments. Some new excitement has been added for all levels in the form of Relay Go tournaments, where teams of players will switch off playing games of pair go, with an added element being that the teams that are currently not playing are able to discuss and strategize. One tournament will be open to all, and one will be an exciting US-China team showdown featuring professional and very strong players that promises to be an exciting addition to Go Congress events. A new Evening League will be a week-long ladder tournament, combining elements of the Self-Paired tournament and Midnight Madness and giving players the opportunity to self-pair and play rated games throughout the day. Stay tuned for further updates as we get closer to game-time.
– Karoline Li, EJ Congress Team (if you’re interested in being on this year’s team, email us at journal@usgo.org)
photo: at the 2015 US Open; photo by Chris Garlock

Organizer’s of this year’s US Go Congress — July 30- August 7 in Boston, MA — have just announced the following line-up of professionals and their lecture topics.  Myungwan Kim 9p: “Mathematical Endgame” (all levels), “Liberty racing” (kyu level), “Puppydog and Bulldozer” (all level) and many more. Yilun Yang 7p on “How to play a reasonable opening” and “Against a strange move.” Andy Liu 1p on “The secret to get stronger.” Stephanie Yin 1p will present a series: “How to improve from one level to another” (15 kyu to 5 kyu) and “How to improve from one level to another” (5 kyu to 1 dan). More pro news and lecture topics are coming in the future, Congress organizers promise. Meanwhile, nearly 300 have already registered for this year’s Congress; click here for complete details.

The early bird discount for this year’s US Go Congress has been extended to midnight Monday night. Click here now to save $25 on registering for the Congress, which runs July 30-August 7 in Boston, MA.

In other Go Congress news, “Super Brain” Bao Yun 7d, the blindfold go master has just confirmed he’ll be attending this year’s Go Congress, where he will challenge an American professional in an even game blindfolded at 1p on Monday August 1.

Also, there will ba a Q&A session right after the AlphaGo team’s keynote address, please submit your questions here.