American Go E-Journal » Go News

Janice Kim was scheduled to undergo surgery Friday to remove “a tennis-ball sized brain tumor in my frontal lobe,” she reported recently on Facebook. “Will probably be off Facebook for a long time, but I should be okay,” she said. The popular go professional and teacher is a co-author, with Jeong Soo-hyun 9 dan, of the Learn To Play Go Series and she’s been a columnist for the U.S. Shonen Jump and the American Go E-Journal. She also ventured into the poker world, placing 4th in the World Poker Tour Ladies Championship in 2008.

In the third round of the 2nd Wu Qingyuan Cup Qualifier, Gabby Su (playing black) beat Yinli Wang by 9.5 points to join Feng Yun, Stephanie Yin and Cathy Li at the 2nd Wu Qingyuan Cup, which will be played April 26-30 in Fuzhou, China.
– Jeff Shaevel, Tournament Director

Gabby Su won on time in Round 2 of the Wu Qingyuan Cup Qualifier, tying things up 1-1 in the best-of-three match against Yinli Wang. The deciding game will be Thursday, 3/14, at 6 PM EDT in the AGA Tournament Room on KGS.
– Jeff Shaevel, Tournament Coordinator

“I was invited to the opening ceremony of a new exhibition at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago,” writes Xinming (Simon) Guo. The exhibition, “The Chinese Helped Build the Railroad – The Railroad Helped Build America,” features the history of the 12,000 plus Chinese workers who contributed in the building of the world’s first Transcontinental Railway in United States in mid-19th century.

“I was so astonished when I found a Weiqi game in the exhibition,” says Guo. The introduction says that these Chinese railroad builders worked in inhospitable environment of the American West and gathered to play fan-tan (a gambling game) or Weiqi after more than 10 hours of back-breaking work each day.

This exhibition will last for one year “and it is a perfect opportunity to promote Weiqi (Chinese for Go). I have been working with the museum for many years. We have organized Weiqi workshops, Weiqi courses, and Weiqi culture stations in the museum several times. With the help from local go community, we will work together to start a new add-on service — providing on-site hands-on Weiqi workshop for students visiting the museum on school field trips.”

Mark Lee 7D, once again showcasing his flawless opening technique and middle game fighting strength, defeated all six opponents to win the 2019 Zheng Cup (formally known as Southern California Go Championship) held on Feb. 16-17. Lee defeated all his opponents by resignation and now holds an impressive record of 21 consecutive wins without any losses in this tournament. Tyler Oyakawa was second and Yixian Zhou third.

Other section winners included Kosuke Sato [2 dan to 4 dan Section]; Zhengwen Bi [1 dan to 3K Section]; Kevin Yang [4K to 12K Section]; Ethan Wong [13K to 30K Section].

photo: Mark Lee with sponsor Mr. J Zheng

As anyone who’s either a renewing or new AGA member knows, our online enrollment system has had a technical problem in recent months. Folks renewing their memberships or joining the AGA have encountered off-putting messages during the online process. Rest assured that everyone’s memberships are being carefully taken care of, albeit by a time-consuming manual input by our redoubtable membership team, which adds “you may disregard any error messages you receive in the process.” Our technical staff is developing a new, automated system via PayPal that they hope will be operational in the near future. “We have a new system, working software, and a plan,” our teams say. Our apologies for the glitches, our thanks for your patience, and stay tuned for updates!

In Game 1 of the best-of-three Wu Qingyuan Cup Qualifier between Gabby Su (w) and Yinli Wang (b) on Tuesday night, Yinli won by resignation. The second game will be Wednesday, March 13, at 6 PM EDT in the AGA Tournament Room on KGS, with the third game, if necessary to be played Thursday. The two are competing for the final slot on the North American delegation that includes Feng Yun, Stephanie Yin, and Cathy Li. The second Wu Qingyuan Cup will be played April 26-30 in Fuzhou, China.
– Jeff Shaevel, Tournament Director

This post has been updated with the correct spelling of the Wu Qingyuan Cup.