American Go E-Journal » Go News

Get Caffeinated at the Santa Monica Coffee Cup

Saturday June 2, 2012

With space limited at the upcoming Santa Monica Coffee Cup, organizer Andy Okun urges interested players to pre-register to ensure a place in the tournament, which can hold up to 50 players. The 3-round Coffee Cup is set for Saturday, June 16, at the UnUrban Coffeehouse (3300 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA), where players will compete for hand-painted coffee cups and quality coffee beans. “In addition, for the heavy ordnance players among you, WMSG and NAIM points will be awarded,” Okun notes. AGA membership is required: click here to join or renew. The tournament fee is $10 “Unless you are Eric Cotsen, in which case, you play free,” adds Okun. Pre-register by e-mailing abc@okun.name.

Categories: U.S./North America

2012 Maryland Open Winners

Saturday June 2, 2012

Maryland Open/AGA-Tygem Prelim, May 26-27
Catonsville, Maryland
68 players; Sam Zimmerman, TD
2012 Maryland Open at a Glance: Report/Game Index

Open Section: 1st: Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu 7D; 2nd: Zhaonian (Michael) Chen 7D; 3rd: Yixian Zhou 6D; 4th: Jie Li 7D; 5th: Kevin Huang 7D; 6th: Xie Rui 7D; 7th: Philip Waldron 6D; 8th: Eric Lui 7D; 9th: Yuan Zhou 7D; 10th: Lu Lin 7D

A Section: 1st: Jimmy Yang 5D; 2nd: Craig Nelson 3D; 3rd: Andrew Jackson 4D; 4th: Mathew Hershberger 3D
B Section: 1st: Justin Ching 2D; 2nd: Keiju Takehara 2D; 3rd: Willis Huang 1D
C Section: 1st: Adam Jacoby 1k (Kyu Champion); 2nd: Lisa Scott 1k
D Section: 1st: Arnold Eudell 4k; 2nd: Steve Colburn 5k
E Section: 1st: Gurujeet Khalsa 7k; 2nd: William Xu 6k
F Section: 1st: Philip Dreher 11k (undefeated); 2nd: Zongli Huang 11k
G Section: 1st: Frederick “The Vicious” Bao, aka The Smiling Assassin, aka The Toothless One; age 5 and a half (undefeated); 2nd: Claudia Hendrick 18k
Greg Lefler Award: NOVA Go Club
– reported by Keith Arnold; photos by Chris Garlock (top) and Phil Straus (bottom)

Categories: U.S. Pro Tournament,U.S./North America

Andy Liu to Play Calvin Sun Saturday in Tygem Demo Match; Myung-wan Kim to Comment

Thursday May 31, 2012

Maryland Open Champion Andy Liu 7D (hjekshdf 9D) will play Cotsen Open Champion Calvin Sun 7D (4ebz728 9D) in an East-West Coast Championship Exhibition Match on the Tygem server this Saturday, June 2 at 4P (EST), with live commentary by Myung-wan Kim 9P. This event is part of the 1st AGA-TygemGo Online Pro Prelim event series and will take place in the Tygem Competition Room.
photo: Liu (right) & Sun (left); photos/photo collage by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Pro Tournament,U.S./North America

4th Trans-Atlantic Youth Match This Sunday

Wednesday May 30, 2012

The strongest north American kids will face off against their counterparts in Europe, this Sunday, June 3, on KGS. Canada and the US will play as a team, top players Calvin Sun, 7d, from the US and Bill Lin, 7d, from Canada will lead the fight taking on Pavel Lisy 5d and Lukas Podpera 5d. Each side will field ten players. Europe won last year, but North America won the two years prior. Spectators are welcome and can watch the action in the TransAtlantic Youth Go Tournament room. Due to the wide time ranges, the matches will take place at two different times. Group 1 will be at 11 am EDT, and group 2 at 2 pm EDT. The schedule and the players are all listed on the webpage for the event. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor

Categories: U.S./North America,World,Youth

Portland Prevails in 4-City School Tourney

Wednesday May 30, 2012

Youngsters in Portland, OR, defeated their rivals in Mexico City in a four-city school tourney held on KGS May 20th. Ann Arbor and Detroit MI also competed, with Academy of the Americas, in Detroit, notching up a win in the first round, but losing in the second. Students from Portland were eager for paybacks, as Mexico’s Pipiolo Academy had defeated all comers in their first inter-city match this past February (see Mexico Schools Portland). All four schools have been competing with each other on KGS, and meeting each other on Skype as part of an international collaboration co-sponsored by the AGF. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Mexico Team, top, by Siddhartha Avila, Portland Teams, bottom, by Peter Freedman.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Contested Election in AGA Board At-Large Race while Western Seat Empty

Tuesday May 29, 2012

While a contested election is shaping up for the American Go Association’s At-Large seat, with Jie Li and Chuck Robbins both nominated, there’s thus far no candidate for the open seat in the Western region. Lisa Scott and Gurujeet Khalsa have been nominated in the Central and Eastern regions respectively. Nominations, including self-nominations, are being accepted now through June 15 and should be sent to elections@usgo.org, reports Arnold Eudell. Details on qualifications and procedures are available here.

Categories: U.S./North America

Myung-wan Kim 9P to Commentate on Tygem Online Pro Prelim

Monday May 28, 2012

Myungwan Kim 9P (right) will be doing live game commentary on top games at the TygemGo Online Pro Prelim, which begins June 2 on the Tygem go server. Games will be played at 12:30p (EST) throughout the month of June. “Remember, everyone can play in this online prelim,” said President Allan Abramson. “Plus, you’ll get a button commemorating your participation!” Click here to register. Live commentary on Tygem includes audio and video feed and is one of the features of the Korea-based go server. “They started the company with live commentaries and it still is a very popular feature with Korean go players,” Kim tells the E-Journal. The schedule: Lower round: 2 rounds of single elimination on June 2nd and 3^rd; Middle round: 3 rounds of double elimination on June 9th,10th and 16^th; Upper round: 3 round of double elimination on June 17th, 23th and 24th. Final head to head: June 30th. photo: Myung-wan Kim commenting a game at the recent Cotsen Open; photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Pro Tournament,U.S./North America

2012 Maryland Open at a Glance: Report/Game Index

Monday May 28, 2012

The 39th Maryland Open and AGA-Tygem Go Pro Prelim was played May 26-27 in Catonsville, Maryland, just outside Baltimore, organized by the Baltimore Go Club, and sponsored by the American Go Association, Tygem, Yellow Mountain Imports and the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks.

Organized by Keith Arnold, Sam Zimmerman was TD. Top-board games broadcast on KGS by the American Go E-Journal; Chris Garlock, Todd Heidenreich and John Pinkerton, game recorders. Photos: Maryland Open winner Andy Liu (left); 2nd-place winner ZhaoNian Chen (right); organizer Keith Arnold (in cap, middle right); young player (bottom right); photos by John Pinkerton

Reports:
Andy Liu Sweeps Maryland Open, Qualifies for Tygem Pro Tourney
Maryland Open Kicks Off Saturday
Maryland Open Field “Shaping Up Nicely”
Maryland Open Next Stop in TYGEMGO Pro Prelim Series

Game Records (winner in bold; left-click to download and view in an sgf viewer; no crosstab currently available)
Round 1 (5/26)
Board 1: Lin Lu-Jie Li
Board 2: Andy Liu-I-Han Lui
Board 3: Yuan Zhou-Eric Lui

Round 2 (5/26)
Board 1: ZhaoNian Chen-Jie Li
Board 2: Kevin Huang-Andy Liu
Board 3: Lin Lu-Eric Lui

Round 3 (5/26)
Board 1: Andy Liu-ZhaoNian Chen
Board 2: Eric Lui-Jie Li

Round 4 (5/27)
Board 1: Rui Xie-Andy Liu
Board 2: Jie Li-Kevin Huang
Board 3: Eric Lui-ZhaoNian Chen

Round 5 (5/27)
Board 1: Jie Li-Andy Liu
Board 2: ZhaoNian Chen-Rui Xie

Categories: U.S. Pro Tournament,U.S./North America

Atlanta School Using Go to Develop Critical Thinking

Monday May 28, 2012

An Atlanta school is hoping that go will help its low-income students develop their critical thinking skills. At the Dekalb PATH Academy, in Atlanta GA, “our students are 76% Hispanic, 20% African-American and 87% are classified as low-income by federal government standards,” reports Assistant Principal Graham Balch, who launched the project. Balch says that at Dekalb “we have helped our children overcome the disadvantage of poverty,” noting that the school outperforms every other non-selective middle school in the local school system. “However, while we have done a good job of teaching them content, in my opinion, they still are behind on developing their analytical critical thinking.” Balch is hoping to change that by working with a group of teachers to teach the game of go. “Our students learned and played go for 70 minutes a day in class for three weeks,” he reports. “Our kids have loved playing go. They come in the morning and get out boards right away, we teach them how to play and technique in class, and they play, and play, in tutorial after school. It has been incredible hearing them tell us at first that ‘It’s easy’ and then a couple days later that ‘Man, this game is really getting hard.’” Balch, who says that “We look forward to seeing the impact go has on students’ critical thinking and global perspective,” adds that “I am so grateful for the American Go Foundation and None Redmond for making this possible,” and is hopeful that go may spread in Georgia schools next year. The project wrapped up the school year with a single-elimination tournament that drew 80 students. “Malcolm Ramey 30k, the boy in the middle of the picture, with a light blue shirt on, won the tournament,” said a proud Balch.
– Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Graham Balch.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Andy Liu Sweeps Maryland Open, Qualifies for Tygem Pro Tourney

Sunday May 27, 2012

Andy Liu 7D convincingly defeated Jie Li 7D in the last round to complete his sweep of the 39th Maryland Open and AGA Tygem Pro Prelim, winning all five games at the May 26-27 event in Baltimore, MD. ZhaoNian Chen 7D was second and Yixian Zhou 6D was third. Liu’s win qualifies him to compete in the AGA Tygem Pro tournament this August in Black Mountain, NC. Other qualifiers thus far include Edward Kim (Seattle) and Calvin Sun and Curtis Tang (Cotsen). Two more will qualify in the AGA TygemGo Online Pro Qualifier, which starts in early June.

Round 5 top results: Andy Liu d. Jie Li; ZhaoNian Chen d. Rui Xie; Kevin Huang d. Eric Lui; Yixian Zhou d. Yuan Zhou; Lin Lu d. Daniel Chou; Phil Waldron d. Jimmy Yang; I-Han Lui d. Rongrong Zhang; Kevin Wang d. Justin Teng; Andrew Jackson d. Zhenying Gu.

Round 4 top results: Andy Liu d. Rui Xie; Jie Li d. Kevin Huang; ZhaoNian Chen d. Eric Lui; Yuan Zhou d. Lin Lu; Yixian Zhou d. Phil Waldron; Daniel Chou d. I-Han Lui; Jimmy Yang d. Andrew Jackson; Rongrong Zhang d. Justin Teng; Zhenying Gu d. Kevin Wang.

Round 3 top results: Andy Liu d. ZhaoNian Chen; Jie Li d. Eric Lui; Kevin Huang d. Yuan Zhou; Rui Xie d. Yixian Zhou d. Daniel Chou; Phil Waldron d. Edward Zhang; Jimmy Yang d. Kevin Wang.

Round 2 top results: ZhaoNian Chen d. Jie Li; Andy Liu d. Kevin Huang; Eric Lui d. Lin Lu; Rui Xie d. I-Han Lui; Yuan Zhou d. Daniel Chou; Dae Yol Kim d. Edward Zhang; Yixian Zhou d. Kevin Wang; Phil Wadron d. Zhenying Gu.

Round 1 top results: Jie Li d. Lin Lu; Andy Liu d. I-Han Lui; Eric Lui d. Yuan Zhou; ZhaoNian Chen d. Dae Yol Kim; Rui Xie d. Jie Liang; Kevin Huang d. Yixian Zhou; Daniel Chao d. Philip Waldron.

The tournament was played in Catonsville, Maryland, just outside Baltimore, and was organized by the Baltimore Go Club, and sponsored by the American Go Association, Tygem, Yellow Mountain Imports and the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks.
photos: top left: Andy Liu (r) plays Rui Xie in Round 4; middle right: Andy Liu (r) plays ZhaoNian Chen on Board 1 in Round 3; bottom left: Zhaonian Chen (r) plays Jie Li on Board 1; photos by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Pro Tournament,U.S./North America

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »