Thursday November 21, 2019
Twenty-two players turned out to play in the Syracuse Go Club’s annual Fall Self-Pair Tournament on November 2nd, including ten past and present students of tournament organizer Richard Moseson. Every player went home a winner after selecting a new go book to take home at the end of the day.
-report and photo by Richard Moseson
Thursday November 21, 2019
Soren Jaffe directed a field of 19 players in the 6th Lake Erie Go Tournament, held at Lake Erie College in Ohio, on November 2nd. The participates competed for handmade mini goban prizes. Michael Stevenson 2d won the Dan division with the only undefeated record, beating the two favorites of the event, Feifan Jia 6d and Soren Jaffe 5d.
Results:
Dan Division: 1st Michael Stevenson 2d, 2nd Feifan Jia 6d, 3rd Richard Keay 2k.
Kyu Division: 1st David Rohlfing 10k, 2nd Manny Jauregui 12k, 3rd Steve Zilber 13k
Thursday November 21, 2019
The best amateur go player in the state of California in 2019 will be crowned over Thanksgiving weekend. The San Diego Go Club will host the 2nd Annual California State Go Championship at the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park on Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1. Although only California amateur go players, including students, are eligible to win the top prize and title of Champion in the Open Division, everyone is welcome to play in the tournament. The top boy and girl under 16 years of age will also be crowned California U16 Champions.
The organizers will run a separate 13×13 youth tournament for youngsters without an AGA rating. For non-players, Balboa Park contains nine museums, the world famous San Diego Zoo, and a free organ concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday all within walking distance from the San Diego Chess Club. Registration, information, and directions are available at https://www.goclubs.org.
-report and photo by Ted Terpstra
Wednesday November 20, 2019
The 2019 MA State Championship on Saturday, November 16, was a huge success with a healthy turnout of 30 players, the biggest tournament in Western Massachusetts in years. It was hosted by the Western Mass Go Association (WMGC) at Springfield College. Full results and more pictures available here.
A successful tournament requires help from so many people, without whom participants could not have had such a great day:
– The team in Boston for giving the WMGC the opportunity to host the state championship.
– Professor Andrew Perry who suggested and helped arrange for the use of the beautiful space at Springfield College.
– The AGA for its encouragement and sponsorship of the state championship.
– David Kohn, president of MGA, and Eva Casey, for support in publicity, logistics, and coordination with the other MA tournaments.
– Past Go Congress organizers Micah Feldman, who arranged for snacks and took a voluntary bye in round 1, and Bill Saltman, who photographed the tournament.
– Chris Morse and Micah Feldman both helped teach a beginner’s class at Springfield College the evening before the tournament, with about a dozen students in attendance.
– Martha Marteney, who was on hand all day to manage the technical details of running the tournament.
– An anonymous donor for a very generous $500 donation to help draw in some very strong players, and increase the prize pool all the way down the line.
– Neil Ritter, MA State Championship Coordinate, for all his help in preparing for the tournament. He also drove in early from Boston with boards, stones and clocks, and orchestrated an efficient setup and teardown. The tournament would not have been such a success without Neil’s help and encouragement.
– All the players, many of whom pitched in throughout the day to help, especially during setup and teardown.
The picture at right is from the third round, and includes the open section top finishers. Xu Yilin (6d) on board one in black with glasses, on his way to being undefeated. Luo Yin (5d) in the white hoody manages to win this hotly contested third round game against Ruihan Cao (3d), standing with the blue jacket. Luo Yin’s only loss was in the previous round to Xu Yilin, the tournament winner. Ruihan Cao had battled his way up from below the bar, to lose only to the top two finishers in the tournament, in rounds 3 and 4, after having polished off one 6-dan in round 2, earning himself a special mention prize, with the strongest 2-2 result possible from his starting position.
Other excellent results were put in by three 4-0 winners:
– Aojie Kong (1k), the AGA’s newest member.
– Andrew McGowan (2k), who, despite having the pressure of a large crowd of players gathered around his 4th round game – the last one of the tournament to finish, managed to hold on to a 1/2 point win against a strong 1d.
– Teng Chi-hse (5k). In this top-heavy tournament, he didn’t play a single even game. In two games he gave a handicap, and in two he received stones. A great result, showing off his ability to both give and take handicap stones effectively.
And, in a tough field, there were only two 3-1 winners outside of the open section: Ni Niel (1k) and Choung Jino (2k).
– Trevor Morris, Tournament Director; photos by Bill Saltman
Tuesday November 19, 2019
Ogawa Tomoko 6 dan passed away on November 15 at age 68. A pupil of Kitani, she is perhaps best known in the West as the author of “The Endgame” part of the Ishi Press Elementary Go Series. I will always remember her as the ofttimes host of the NHK matches I watched on my VCR. She was the winner of the Women’s Honinbo in 1986 and the Women’s Kakusie in 1987.
– Keith Arnold, HKA
Correction: Updated to reflect Ogawa’s date of death on 11/15, not 11/18.
Sunday November 17, 2019
The Evanston Go Club hosted its semi-annual tournament on November 9th, drawing 33 players from Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. In addition to the normal handicap section, the tournament included an Open section for dan players. “We’ve never had more than one section before,” says club president and TD Mark Rubenstein, “so I was a little nervous about it. I have my hands full running the self-paired section, so I knew I’d need someone to run the Open section. Thanks to the outstanding help of Lee Huynh, it went smooth as silk!”
Rubenstein uses his own custom software for running the club’s tournaments, which are always self-paired. Huynh used OpenGotha to manage the Open section. The response of the dan players was unanimous; they greatly prefer to play even games, regardless of the difference in rank… even knowing they’d be up against Albert Yen 8d!
“Special thanks to our Central board members Lisa Scott and Devin Fraze (all the way from Columbus Ohio) for joining us!” says Rubenstein.
Results:
Open Section: 1st place Albert Yen 8d (4-0), 2nd place Meng Wang 6d (3-1)
Handicap A Section: Nathan Beecher 2d (4-0)
Handicap B Section: Daniel Lambert 4k (4-0)
Handicap C Section: 1st Place Alicia Seifrid 14k (5-0), 2nd Place David Bireta 15k (4-1) playing in his first tournament.
Sunday November 17, 2019
Andy Liu 1P took the top prize by tie-breaks after a three way tie in the top division of the Gotham Go Tournament on November 2nd. “Thanks to everyone who participated,” says organizer Peter Armenia, “and thanks so much to our fabulous tournament director David Glekel, his assistant Jino Choung, and my beautiful wife Gretchen Hanser for keeping the coffee warm, feeding us, and making beautiful ceramic go mugs for the top prizes!”
Division winners were Yong Chen 7d, Niel Ni 1d, Alexander Yu 2k, and Micah Murphy 10k, with Amari Gonzales 20k and Zhihan Huang 29k also undefeated in Murphy’s division. Peter Armenia’s eight year old daughter, Veronica, played in her first official tournament and he reports that she took her losses in stride with grace and composure.
Complete winner’s list
Open Division (all 3 wins)
1st Andy Liu; 2nd Alan Huang; 3rd Michael Chen
A: 1st Yong Chen; 2nd Lei Sun; 3rd Jianjin Lin
B: 1st: Niel Ni (undefeated); 2nd Sophie Lin; 3rd Afa Zhou
C: 1st Alexander Yu; 2nd Alex Fan-Cui; 3rd Luke Luo
D: 1st Micah Murphy (undefeated); 2nd Amari Gonzales (undefeated); 3rd Zhihan Huang (undefeated)
Friday November 15, 2019
U.S. Go Congress organizers would love to thank everyone who has filled out the Congress Survey – nearly 200 responses already. The feedback they’ve received has been extremely valuable, especially since over half of the responses came from people who couldn’t attend the 2019 Congress, and nearly a quarter of respondents have never been able to attend a Congress.
Among the responses so far were two from people who haven’t attended since the late 1990s, as well as four from people who have attended 26 or more Congresses. Over half of respondents rate playing in tournaments as their favorite thing about Congress, while 28% of attendees say their favorite part is learning from pros, and 27% say their favorite part is spending time with friends (people seem to have multiple favorites).
Interestingly, 36% of respondents would like to attend the European Go Congress and 34.5 say they’d maybe like to, but only 8.5% actually have attended.
Feedback from everyone – longtime attendees, new players, and everyone in between – will help the AGA make the next U.S. Go Congress in Estes Park (August 1-9, 2020) a better event for everyone! Click here now to complete the survey if you haven’t already.
Thursday November 14, 2019
This Sunday November 17th starts the 8th year of the Pandanet City League in the US and Canada. This year brings four sets of leagues with 30 different teams. Check the teams listing to find your closest city to root for. Watch at least nine different pros in the top three leagues. Games can be found in the AGA City League rooms using the GoPanda2 client. Watch on any platform whether it be at your computer or on a mobile device. Games start LIVE at 3PM unless otherwise noted.
Sunday November 10, 2019
“The American Go Honor Society is hosting its annual Young Lions Tournament, ” says Promotion Head Sophia Wang, “All go players under age 18 of any rank are welcome. It is a great tournament where youth players can compete against others from the United States, Canada, and Mexico for prizes. There is a total prize pool of $600 in cash, trophies, and other awards.”
For registration, click here.
For detailed rules, click here.