American Go E-Journal » Go News

GOVID 19×19 Tournament draws players across the country

Monday September 28, 2020

The Austin Go Club sponsored the GOVID 19×19 Tournament over the weekend, drawing 42 players from across the country, Vermont to San Diego. Players ranged from 7 dan to double-digit kyu. Overall, there were five rounds, with 10 players in the Open section and 32 in the handicap section.

In the Open section, the best records went to Zhao Zhixun 7d (3-0) and   Zhou Yixian 6d (4-1). In the handicap section, Mario Espinoza 7k was undefeated with a 5-0 record. Other players with 4 wins were Evan Tan 2k, tshelix 4k, Patrick Sun 4k, Ray Heitmann 5k, Alexander Lo 7k, Jason Li (jsonli) 12k, and Benjamin Lo 13k.

The Austin Go Club thanks everyone who participated, and hopes to hold similar events in the future, especially while face-to-face tournaments are still not possible at this time.

-report by Bart Jacob

Share

Ratings return!

Saturday September 26, 2020

As of September 23, the AGA has rated 12 tournaments that have been in the queue for some time. Our team is restarting operations and planning upgrades in the process. Check the AGAGD and see the list of recent tournaments added. We have contacted all of the TDs for any missing tournaments and hope to have those rated soon. We are adding new Ratings Operators soon and have scheduled training for them in the coming weeks. Our Dev Team will be looking at Ratings Operations to enhance your workflow in the future. 

Share

Fourth New York Go League registration deadline 11/3, format changes from one month to two

Sunday September 20, 2020

The deadline for the registration for the NY Go League is coming up at the beginning of October, and the New York Go Honor Society (NYGHS) encourages anyone that wants to continue playing organized games to enter. As in previous leagues, the only eligibility requirement is that players have a stable rank from any national association, or on any Go server. Click here to view our rules and regulations, and click here to register. 

This League will be a two-month long round robin tournament, with each division having 8-10 players, after previously being held over only one month. “With many places starting to reopen, it is becoming hard for participants to sustain multiple games per week,” says Toranosuke Ozawa, co-president of the NYGHS. “Now it will be one per week, if not slightly less over the two months.” Players are grouped based on rank, or their performance in previous iterations of the league, with the prize for the winner being a 50% discount for a New York IG Adult trial class (kids are eligible as well). “We hope that the community will be able to use this league as an opportunity to play lots of matches and further their experience with the game!”

Share

North American Youth Open results

Sunday September 20, 2020

The first North American Youth Open took place on September 5th, 2020 in the AGA Tournament Room on KGS. Hosted by the New York Go Association and sponsored by the American Go Foundation, the North American Youth Open is one of the highest-class youth Go tournament in North America. Over 100 youth players registered and competed for the highest honor and over $1,000 in prizes.

After 4 rounds of competition, award winners for the eight divisions were as follows:
Division A (4D and above) – 1st place: Michael Sato; 2nd place tie: Ben Gong & Frederick Bao
Division B (1D to 3D) – 1st place: Zixuan Gao; 2nd place: Ethan Whitman; 3rd Place: Katherine Xie 
Division C (3K to 1K): – 1st place: Derek Zhou; 2nd place: Alan Yang; 3rd Place: Steve Ling 
Division D (6K to 4K): – 1st place: Frank Wang; 2nd place: Chenhui Zhang; 3rd Place: Jason Yang 
Division E (10K to 7K): – 1st place: Manny Jauregui; 2nd place: Jamie Tan; 3rd Place: Daniel Luo
Division F (14K to 12K): – 1st place:Matthew Wang; 2nd place: Lucas Yang; 3rd Place: Lucia Moscola
Division G (19K to 15K): – 1st place: Enzo Aozono-Araldi; 2nd place: Caleb Tan; 3rd Place: Avik Hardy
Division H (25K to 20K) – 1st place: Yiting Liu; 2nd place: Eric Wang; 3rd Place: Enzo Moscola

Share

Redmond on Ke Jie vs. Xie Ke Sunday night

Friday September 18, 2020

This week’s live Sunday night game commentary by Michael Redmond 9P will feature a hot-off-the-board game between Ke Jie and Xie Ke at the 9th ING Cup. “The game was well fought,” says Redmond. Tune in at 8p EDT this Sunday, September 20 on the AGA’s Twitch channel.
Meanwhile, check out all the videos available on the AGA’s YouTube channel, including the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo selfplay series, Redmond’s Reviews and AlphaGo vs. The World.

Share

Support the AGF by doing (almost) nothing

Friday September 18, 2020

Do you like supporting go? Do you use Amazon for ordering those necessary items for back to school and quarantining yourself? You’re half way to becoming a donating hero. Head on over to Amazon Smile and set your charity to “US GO FOUNDATION, dba American Go Foundation”. There are browser extensions (ChromeFirefox) that will help redirect you to always support the Smile Program. Most purchases give back to this program and support Go in the US. Sign up today!

Share

Osaka Go School opens with wide range of skill levels

Wednesday September 16, 2020

Ryo Maeda 6P reports that his new online Osaka Go School has opened with 25 students, 10 of whom are Americans, with levels ranging from 15k to 6d. “I hope to have more students in the future!” says Maeda. “Our setup allows even busy people to participate.” The once-per-week league games are flexible, and allow the opponents to collectively decide date and time. Teachers at the school are Maeda himself, Ting Li 1P, and Francis Meyer 1P. Visit the Osaka Go School website for more information and to register.

Share

Womxn’s Online Go Club holds first meeting, looking for new members

Wednesday September 2, 2020

“We’re very excited to announce the formation of the Womxn’s Online Go Club, a women-led chapter of the AGA,” says founder Samantha Fede. “Our goal is to provide a supportive and friendly place for women to play go online without hostility or harassment.” Inspired by the success of the e-Go Congress in bringing together Go players from around the country as well as various clubs’ successes in continuing their social club feel through video chat meetings after suspension of in-person play, Fede reached out to Lisa Scott and together they contacted women from around the country with the proposal of forming a club.

The club held its first meeting on Thursday, 8/27. A total of 11 Go players ranging from 1d to 10k, including the club leadership and players who joined through word of mouth, got together on a video call and played games on KGS. Players were from all around the country, including Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey. “We are actively recruiting members to join the club!” says Fede. “Players who do not identify as a woman or a girl, particularly those who do not feel welcome in cis-men dominated spaces, are also welcome, as long as they are committed to the goals of the club.” The club meets weekly, alternating between Thursday and Saturday nights at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT. Players of all levels including beginners are welcome. To join or learn more, click here to go to our website or email us at womxnsonlinegoclub@gmail.com.

Share

New AGA Chapters for August 2020

Tuesday September 1, 2020

The AGA is regularly asked for new chapters around the country. These are the newly registered chapters from August 2020:

Luther College Go Club – Contact me if you are interested in joining the Luther College Go Club. We’ll start having meetings once I find a location within Luther College and have a few members interested in joining. We will be meeting in person with a social distancing protocol if possible. – Contact Amey Shedinger

Womxn’s Online Go Club – Online. Email us for more information! All are welcome. – Contact Samantha Fede

Members should check their information from time to time. If you are not receiving the EJ make sure your email is up to date. Chapters can always update their current chapter through the AGA Membership Manager if they have changed.

Share

AGAGD to become official ratings lookup for the AGA

Tuesday September 1, 2020

As reported before the e-Go Congress the Web Team has been working to upgrade the AGAGD to take over for the old Ratings pages. They have been working hard to make sure all of the information has been copied over and enhanced. In the last month we have heard from various Chapter heads and many others with ideas for updates. In addition to the existing features we have added the following recently: Paginated listing for tournaments and all player ratings, header icons to better help sort tables, rating and renewal due for quick searches, tournaments now show date rated. There are still some in-progress upgrades on the system. We are always looking for help, this is an open source project and any interest programmers can contact the volunteer coordinator or webmaster.

The Ratings pages will redirect to the AGAGD starting September 13th.

Share