Go News « American Go E-Journal

Evanston Hits Anime Convention

Friday May 27, 2016

Members of the Evanston Go Club took the game of go to Anime Central last weekend, teaching hundreds of attendees how to play, reports club president Mark Rubenstein. “This event is so much fun!” said Rubenstein. “We were there for 14 hours on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday, and we were teaching non-stop. I’m sure many of the kids we taught will continue to learn and play.” Evanston Go Club has been teaching go for many years at ACEN, the largest anime convention in the midwest, with over 31,000 attendees last year. “I think I’m finally catching up on my sleep now!” mused Rubenstein four days after the convention.

Categories: U.S./North America

San Diego Go Club hosts Spring Soiree

Monday May 23, 2016

Nineteen go players showed up the San Diego Go Club’s Spring 2016 Go Soiree, an informal quarterly gathering of players from all the go clubs in San Diego County, with other visitors from southern California. The match of the day featured AGA president Andy Okun matched up with UCSD freshman Weihan Huai, a 2-dan professional from China. Okun fought gamely but was no match for the student in a handicapped game.

The go party was at the club president’s house which gave the players the opportunity to peruse a 200+ go book library and borrow tomes that would improve their game. After playing for five hours, players socialized over pizza provided under the AGA rewards program.
– report/photos by Ted Terpstra. photos: (right) action shot of a game and problem analysis; (left) Weihan Huai (left) and Andy Okun

Categories: U.S./North America

John Tromp and the Big Numbers of Go

Monday May 23, 2016

Some years ago, Dutch computer scientist John Tromp (right) and his colleagues reported that the longest possible game of go would last longer than the universe is likely to. Now, the culmination of their work on Go Combinatorics—the science of counting—is reported on in Peter Shotwell’s latest essay, “John Tromp and the Big Numbers of Go: The Possible Positions, Games and the Longest.” One finds that the number of possible games “is more than a googolplex, which is a number that cannot physically be written down in the available space of the universe.” Also, with highly advanced computer power since that last report, Tromp and his team finally found the exact 171-digit number for 19 x 19 boards. “A 13×13 board has as many possible positions as the approximately 10⁸⁰ atoms in the universe and the ‘L19’ number is more than 10⁹⁰ times greater than this.” In other words, as one science writer quipped, “Saying that there are more go positions or games than atoms in the universe is like saying the national debt is more than a penny.”

Categories: Computer Go/AI

AGA Election Update: Khalsa & Zhang re-nominated; no nominees yet for Central or Western Regions

Monday May 23, 2016

Eastern and At-Large board members Gurujeet Khalsa and Ed Zhang have been nominated to retain their seats while Bob Gilman has said he will not run to retain his central region seat. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be made by full members for the region in which the member resides or nationwide for the At-Large seat and must be received by June 15. Nominations and questions must be emailed to elections@usgo.org. Click here for complete election information and qualifications.

Categories: U.S./North America

Wall Wins Bracknell

Monday May 23, 2016

Alistair Wall (2d Wanstead) won all his games to win the 38th Bracknell, the first time he has won the event. He beat Christian Scarff, Jim Clare and last year’s winner Des Cann. Also winning all three were Eric Hall (5k Swindon) and John Cassidy (8k Belgium). Among the 26 players taking part were Be Gei’s two very young daughters, playing their first game not among the family. Bournemouth won the team prize. As usual there was the fun selection of side events set by organiser Ian Marsh. The 13×13 was easy to judge as nobody entered and the Go puzzle competition was won by Peter Collins, the only player brave enough to enter. The caption competition was won by Neil Cleverly, Paul Barnard was best at paper folding and Tony Atkins made the best jumping frog.
– British Go Association website

Categories: Europe

The Power Report: Globis Cup report & commentary

Sunday May 22, 2016

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

A report on this year’s Globis Cup appeared earlier this month in the E-Journal (China’s Li wins 3rd Globis Cup 5/9). Here is a commentary on the final, based on Go Weekly and the live commentary by O Meien 9P (click on link below). This year the finalists were Li Qincheng 1P of China (aged 17) and Kyo Kagen (also known as Hsu Chiayuan or Xu Jiayuan) 3P of Japan (aged 18). In the nigiri, Li drew black. Playing conditions are the NHK format (30 seconds per move plus ten minutes). As last time, O was assisted by Mannami Nao 2P.

This tournament was founded to give young Japanese players more experience against top-level competition. In China and Korea, it’s not unusual for a teenager to be winning top titles. The best example of that is Ke Jie 9P of China. He is still only 18 (he turns 19 on August 2), but he has already won three international titles. So far, no teenager in Japan has won a top domestic title; the biggest prodigy, of course, has been Iyama Yuta, who started winning titles when he was 16, but he did not win a top-seven title, the Meijin, until he had turned 20. Why the difference? In my view, the explanation is simple: the Korean and Chinese players come out of a much bigger pool, because of the much greater popularity of go among young people in these countries.

2016.05.22_Globis3_final-commentary

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

Maryland and Virginia Square Off in Team Relay Game May 26

Sunday May 22, 2016

Teams from Virginia and Maryland will face off on Thursday, May 26 as Edward Zhang 6d and the Capital Go Club host a Team Relay go event and a simul with Qiao Shiyao 1P in McLean, VA. “Team Relay Go features excitement, suspense, substitutions, timeouts and coaching,” Zhang says. “Let’s learn together!” The evening begins at 6:30p with a simul with Qiao Shiyao 1P, who took second place in the 2004 National Women Go Individual Competition, first in the 2008 Ing Cup University Championship and was a special envoy and teacher for thef Chinese Go Association at the 2010 US Go Congress. Each Team needs 6-8 players and 1-2 coaches. Sign up FREE today at agatd1@gmail.com with name and strength. The simul teaching game is free, first come first serve, AGA membership required. Event location: 2010 Corporate Ridge, Ste 700, McLean VA.
photo: Team Relay Go, Team Europe, 2013. Photo: Sohu Sports

Categories: U.S./North America

Want to Host a Go Congress?

Sunday May 22, 2016

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

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

US Go Congress Announces More Professionals & Topics

Sunday May 22, 2016

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.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

UCLA wins CGL Season Five Championship

Saturday May 21, 2016

UCLA triumphed earlier this month in the Collegiate Go League (CGL) Season Five Championships, defeating U Toronto to claim first place. The winners took home $250 to spend on their club. Although UCLA was unable to overcome Ryan Li 1P on Toronto’s first board, their second and third boards won the day. Cornell University took third place.

YouTube commentary on the final was provided by Gansheng Shi 1P and Michael Gallucci.

Categories: Game Commentaries,U.S./North America,Youth

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