Saturday May 2, 2015
The University of Maryland has won the Collegiate Go League championship, with UCLA coming in second. The University of Minnesota came
in third. Click here for complete results. Gansheng Shi 1p commentated the top board from several of the matches, and the reviews are available on the ACGA blog.
– Brian Lee
Wednesday April 29, 2015
Join the AGA for the first time, or renew your membership, and get free issues of Go World magazine, courtesy of the American Go Foundation (click here to take advantage of this offer). The more years you choose, the more issues you get. One year gets you two issues, two years gets five, three gets ten, four gets fifteen, and five years or more gives you twenty issues, and access to the rare issues that we have only limited supplies of.
With analysis of important games by top pros, instructional material for all levels, news and other features Go World Magazine is the ultimate resource for the serious player. The AGF has acquired the entire remaining inventory of this wonderful magazine. Some are quite plentiful — we have more than 600 copies of some issues — other rarer issues we have only a few of. When they’re gone, they’re gone! Click here to view the contents of each issue. Click here to make your choices and submit them online. Note: please renew your AGA membership first, and then fill out the form. We are offering this special through June.
Sunday April 26, 2015
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Ida wins Judan title: The final game of the 53rd Judan title match was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on April 22. The challenger, Ida Atsushi 8P, had taken the lead in the match by winning the second and third games, but Takao Shinji 9P, the title-holder, evened the score in the fourth game. The nigiri to decide the colors was held again, and Ida drew black. The lead in the game switched back and forth, with both players having winning chances. Late in the game, a large group of Black’s came under attack, but instead of just making two eyes Ida countered by setting up a capturing race that he won. Takao resigned after 217 moves. This gave Ida the match by a 3-2 margin.This is Ida’s first title. At 21 years one month, he is the youngest player to win the Judan title and the third-youngest player to win a top-seven title. Ida became a professional in April of 2009, so it has taken him exactly six years to win his first title. This is a new record (it used to be held by Iyama Yuta, but he took seven a half years to win his first top-seven title). photo courtesy Go Game Guru; click here for the Game Guru report, which includes game records.
Meijin League: One game from the Meijin League was played last week. Takao Shinji 9P (B) beat Hane Naoki 9P by resignation. Takao improved his score to 3-1, drawing even with Kono Rin 9P and Yamashita Keigo 9P. The provisional leader in the league is Ko Iso 8P on 4-1.
Kisei leagues: The Kisei A and B Leagues have started this month. As I reported in early November last year, there has been a large-scale reorganization of this tournament. The Kisei tournament has always been the most complicated tournament since its founding, but apparently the sponsor, the Yomiuri Newspaper, was not satisfied. The biggest change was instituting five separate leagues instead of just
one. The top players from a large-scale knock-out tournament (with about 400 participants, including four amateurs) move up into the C League (32 players), above which are two B Leagues, the A League, and the S League (so the leagues are in four stages). The winners of the leagues meet in an irregular knock-out tournament, the winner of which meets the winner of the S League in a play-off. The latter is given a one-win advantage in this play-off, so he has to win only one game, whereas his opponent has to win two games to become the challenger. The six-player S League is at the peak of the tournament pyramid, so I plan to report just on its results. The members, in order, are Yamashita Keigo 9P, Murakawa Daisuke Oza, Takao Shinji Tengen, Yoda Norimoto 9P, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P, and Kobayashi Satoru 9P.
Correction: The phrase “same whole-board decision” in the Nihon Ki-in rule quoted in my previous report is a typo for “same whole-board position.”
Sunday April 26, 2015
Cary Chinese School won the team competition and Eric Zhang 5d (right) topped the individual competition in the 2015 Carolina Spring Go 
Tournament. The 12th annual tournament Carolina Spring Go Tournament, held in Raleigh on April 19th, co-organized by the Chinese American Friendship Association of North Carolina (CAFA), Confucius Institute at NC State, and the Cary Go Club, attracted 28 go players with a wide range of ages and go experience but with an equal amount of love for go.
Nine young players from Cary Chinese School’s go classes formed three teams to compete in the team competition. As expected, the team competition generated a lot of excitement, with young players eagerly reporting and checking the scoreboard during the breaks between rounds. CCS Team 1 of Alvin Chen, Alex Kuang and Ellen Zeng, and CCS Team 2 of Andy Chen, Jasmine Ye and Ethan Wan scored the same 9 wins (out of 12 games), thus tied as the winners of the team competition (photo at left).
In the individual competition, Eric Zhang 5d, of Chapel Hill, won the open section championship with a score of 3-1. Andrew Zalesak, 1d, of Cary High School, won Section A with a perfect score of 4-0, including an impressive win over a 3-dan player on a non-handicapped game with no komi. One of the youngest players, Ethan Wan of Cary Chinese School won Section D with a perfect score of 4-0. Alvin Chen won Section B with a score of 3-1 while Ellen Zeng and Alex Kuang tied for the first place finish in Section C with the same score of 3-1. Below is the complete list of winners.
Individual Competition Winners:
Section: open (3d-5d) winner: Eric Zhang, 5d. Final score: 3-1
Section: A (3k-2d) winner: Andrew Zalesak, 1d. Final score: 4-0
Section: B (10k-4k) winner: Alvin Chen, 10k. Final score: 3-1
Section: C (11k-20k) winners(tied): Ellen Zeng, 14k, and Alex Kuang 16k and both with a final score of 3-1.
Section: D (30k-21k) winner:Ethan Wan, 28k, final score: 4-0
Team Competition Winners (tied):
Cary Chinese School Team 1: Alvin Chen, Alex Kuang and Ellen Zeng
Cary Chinese School Team 2: Andy Chen, Jasmine Ye and Ethan Wan
– report by Tournament Director Owen Chen; photos by Jeff Kuang
Sunday April 26, 2015
For the fourth year in a row, the San Diego Go Championship went to a UC San Diego student. This year, it was Leran Zou 7d who won the Open
section with the only undefeated record of 3-0. Tying for second place were Paul Chen, Seth Cardew and Jerry Cheng, president of the UCSD Go Club. Twenty-nine players showed up on Sunday, April 19 at UCSD to compete for the 2015 San Diego Go Championship. The event was organized by the combined efforts of the UCSD Go Club, the SDSU Go Club and the San Diego Go Club. The tournament Director was Evan Cho, 9-dan who runs the go school in Arcadia and also the new Atari Go club.
In the Kyu section, Paul Margetts, 3-kyu visiting from England, won with a 3-0 record. The only other undefeated player in the kyu section was Stephen Zhu, 22-kyu, at 2-0. There were four members of the Margetts family in the kyu section, all playing under a family membership in the British Go Association.
– report/photo by Ted Terpstra, President, San Diego Go Club; photo: Competition in the Open Section with winner Leran Zou, in the right foreground playing John Whang.
Sunday April 26, 2015
Joshua Lee 6d (at right, front) swept the ninth annual Orlando Go Tournament, held April 18-19 in Orlando, FL. The event was well attended, with 37 players, 
ranks 20k-6d, arranged into four divisions.
Winner’s Report:
Division 1 (4d and up):
1st: Joshua Lee (6d), 2nd: Jonathan Fisher (3d), 3rd: Karsten Henckell (4d)
Division 2 (4k-2d): 1st: Steve Barberi (1k), 2nd: Harold Lloyd (2d), 3rd: Raphael Schreiber (4k)
Division 3 (8k-5k): 1st: Cabe Unger (7k), 2nd: Tony Yon (6k), 3rd: Jonathan Heckathorne (6k)
Division 4 (9k-30k): 1st: Heather Crawford (13k), 2nd: George Lebovitz (10k), 3rd: Aaron Otero (8k)
Report/photo by Paul Wiegand
Thursday April 23, 2015
Garden at this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival, or Sakura Matsuri. They’ll be joined by the Gotham Go Group and anyone interested is welcome to join; check out the event posting on Facebook. And check out the 2014 festival video here.Thursday April 23, 2015
The San Diego Go Club was the first to redeem Chapter Rewards points, getting reimbursed $34.50 for pizza at their Winter Soiree. “The new 
AGA club rewards program helped pay for pizzas for the 30 plus players who came to our go party,” Ted Terpstra reports from San Diego. “The San Diego Go Club earned points through club members playing rated games and signing up for or renewing AGA memberships. The pizzas provided a pleasant social hour after the games were completed.”
Click here to see the totals for rewards points earned through February. Click here for details on how the new program works. Address any questions to rewards@usgo.org.
photo: Mr. Na, 7P, playing a simultaneous exhibition against club players at the San Diego Winter Soiree; photo courtesy Ted Terpstra
Wednesday April 22, 2015
A record 38 players, including 16 students high school age or younger, participated in this year’s Salt City Tournament in Syracuse, New York 
held on Saturday, April 11. In the A division, Yeunggeul Lee 2d (at right in photo) and Scott Jankowski 1k both 
finished with 3-1 records and split the top prize money, and Jared Beck 3d (at left) took the cash prize for 3rd place. High school student Jake Game 5k swept all four of his games in the B division, with RIT student Kyle Cutler 9k and third grader Liya Luk 11k taking the next two places, both with 3-1 records. Eric Li 22k won the C division with a 4-0 record, and Casey Beach 19k and Rachel Liu 20k both went 3-1 to finish in 2nd and 3rd place.
Every player was able to select a nice prize at the tournament this year thanks to the greatly discounted books provided by Slate and Shell. And the wife of tournament organizer Richard Moseson again baked and decorated the problem cake, shown here just before the problem portion was consumed (black to play). See lots more photos on the club’s Facebook page.
Correction: Scott Jankowski’s name was misspelled in our original post; we apologize for the error.
Monday April 20, 2015
The AGA East Coast Go Camp has announced Myungwan Kim as the teacher for this year’s camp. Kim is a 9-dan professional, and the only player dispatched to the United States by the Korean Baduk Association since 2008. Kim has more than 10 years of teaching experience, and his students include several US Youth representatives, such as Aaron Ye, Andrew Lu, and Brandon Zhou. He is also three-time US Go Congress Open division winner and currently holds the highest player ranking in the AGA.
Camp directors Amanda Miller and Nano Rivera welcome all campers to join them for a week of go-playing and fun. “If you’re a go player between the ages of 8 and 18 and would like an opportunity to study go for a week with a professional teacher, then the AGA Go Camp is for you,” says Miller.
Anyone who participated in the North American Kyu Championships or the Redmond Cup is eligible to receive $400 off the price of the Go Camp, courtesy of the American Go Foundation. Youth who did not participate in either tournament, but still need financial assistance, are eligible for need-based scholarships here. Visit the camp website for general information, pictures from past camps, and news regarding this year’s upcoming Go Camp. Any questions about camp should be addressed to agagocampeast@gmail.com. -story by Fernando Rivera. Pictures: top: Myungwan Kim live commenting a tourney match, bottom: campers practice their archery skills at last years camp. Picture by Amanda Miller