American Go E-Journal » Go News

At the 2018 US Go Congress coming up later this month in Williamsburg, Virginia there are new social features to help attendees get to know one another and to share their Congress experiences. These are built into the free Congress mobile app for iOS and Android devices. One feature is an ‘Attendees’ page where everyone coming can have a short biography and a picture published.

To get listed just send an email to Gurujeet Khalsa — gurujeet.khalsa@nationalgocenter.org — with a few paragraphs about what you’d like to share about yourself with fellow Congress-goers. Attach a recent picture to the email as well. Take a look at other listings for inspiration by seeing what they have shared. If writing (especially in English) isn’t your strong suit, Congress staff will be happy to edit your posting for grammar and spelling. Your listing can be in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean as well if you send it that way. You can optionally add other Social information including: City, State, Country, Facebook page, personal website, Twitter handle, LinkedIn page, or email.

Congress starts on July 21, so if you have still not registered you should do so now here.

If you’re thinking about attending this year’s U.S. Go Congress, register before this Sunday and save $50. The registration late fee increases $50 on Sunday, July 1st. The biggest U.S. go event of the year includes the U.S. Open, a six-day tournament of epic proportions, the U.S. Masters, where top players compete for $12,000 in prizes, lectures, game reviews, and simuls from American and Asian professionals, youth activities and tournaments including the Redmond Cup, a host of tournaments including the U.S. Women’s tournament, Seniors (55+), 9×9, 13×13, Die Hard, and more!

Plus: great evening activities including Crazy Go and Pair Go, teachers workshops, the first-ever Congress workshop to train Tournament Directors, all in a gorgeous location on the campus of America’s second-oldest institute of higher learning, next to Colonial Williamsburg, one of the most-visited tourist destinations on the East Coast.  “Make memories that will last the rest of your life!” say Congress organizers Nate Eagle and Diego Pierrottet.

Eric Lui 1P swept the annual Congress Tune-up tournament 4-0 Saturday at the National Go Center. Eric’s undefeated streak in NGC tournaments now extends for over a year, and the local crowd is rooting for him in the prestigious Open Masters next month at the US Go Congress in Williamsburg VA. Justin Teng (6D) and Qingbo Zhang (5d) tied for second in the high Dan division.

Darren Bias (1K) went undefeated at 4-0 to win the 1K-3D division. Haskell (Hal) Small (2D) finished second but was only awarded his NGC t-shirt prize if the self-described “non t-shirt person” agreed to pose in it for a picture (right); Congress organizers wanted to be sure it got worn at least once. “If you see Hal at Congress this year, encourage him to wear his shirt proudly,” said TD Gurujeet Khalsa.

There was a three way tie for first in the 4K-9K division with Mike Lash (4K), Eli Ferster (6K), and Tevis Tsai (6K) taking home the honors. In the 10K-20K division, John Christensen (13K) made a strong undefeated showing, while second place was tied between Jack de la Beaujardiere (10K), Noah Mullinax (11K), and Joshua Johnson (14K).

“There was a lot of excitement among the crowd for the upcoming Congress” reports Khalsa. “We learned our lesson last year not to tamper with tradition when we renamed this tournament the Summer Sizzler only to have our air-conditioning fail in the middle of a huge heat wave. This year we got refocused on getting ready for Congress with the old name and all went well.”

Congress is less than a month away, so if you haven’t registered yet, you can still do so here. Also download the free Congress mobile app where you can see the bios of Eric Lui and other pros coming this year, and lots more.

photo by Betsy Small