American Go E-Journal » U.S./North America

The Seattle Go Center is looking to hire a part time Operations Manager who can work 50-75 hours a month.  The Operations Manager position includes paying bills, doing payroll, filling out tax forms, doing light maintenance, supervising maintenance contracts, and meeting and coordinating with the Board.  The Operations Manager should be familiar with the game of go, and passionate about sharing it, but they do not have to be a strong player.

If you would like to help our unique institution in this important role, please contact Bill Chiles, Board President, at billchiles-gocenter@hotmail.com for more information.

Report/photos by Ashley Qi

Quebec City. A beautiful and scenic vacation destination with countless locations to explore. But instead of solely vacationing, many have chosen to dedicate time to exploring their minds at the Canadian Open, held August 26-29. Among these players were skilled American contenders: Alexander [Alex] Qi (1P), Alan Huang (7D), Jeremy Chiu (7D), Justin Teng (6D), and Joel Kenny (4D). With so many strong competitors, there were bound to be riveting games and results. And so it began.

The first round concluded with Alexander Qi winning by a narrow half point against Hongyi Li 6D and victories for Alan, Huang, Jeremy Chiu, and Joel Kenny as well. 

In the second round, tensions rose when Alan Huang played Yongfei Ge 7D. Due to a clock malfunction, Ge was not able to properly stop his time counting down. However, since he had hit the clock and played his turn, Huang spent some time calculating his next move. When the clock started counting down the final seconds of the byo-yomi period, Huang played his move and hit the clock… only for it not to register because the clock was still on Ge’s time. In a panic, Huang continued hitting the clock with enough vigor to send it flying onto the board (I mean, with a game as intense as his, who would want to lose by time?). The clock issue was eventually sorted out, and thankfully someone had a picture of the board just moments before the disaster – so all was right in the world. And one has to admit: it does elicit a chuckle, looking back on it. Huang ended up being 2.5 points short of winning after such a harrowing game. Meanwhile, Alex Qi and Justin Teng both won their second round games.

As the sun set and the first day drew to a close, the standings were as such: Alex Qi undefeated at 2-0, with Alan Huang, Jeremy Chiu, Justin Teng and Joel Kenny all at 1-1. 

Refreshed and ready to go on day two, the American players were prepared for a busy day. Two games, a simul, and a banquet were on the to-do list, and the morning started off with quite the kicker. Chiu and Teng were playing against each other, setting the tone for the friendly competition with a 2-2 opening and even some mirror go. This ultimately concluded with a win for Chiu. Qi, Huang, and Kenny also emerged victorious in their third round games. 

The fourth round games brought all-around positivity for the American players with each of them winning their respective games. This left the records at 4-0 for Qi, 3-1 for Huang, Chiu, and Kenny, and 2-2 for Teng. On this positive note, the players prepared for the banquet. Qi had considerably less time to do so, as he was invited to play a simul as a newly minted NAGF professional. The banquet later that night was quite enjoyable, as well as a good time – props to the organizers!

The final day was the one to decide it all – two more rounds and the awards ceremony loomed ahead. Qi was defeated by Guanyu Song 6D, leaving Qi’s standing at 4-1 alongside both Huang and Chiu. That meant a tie going into the final round, where Qi was paired with Chiu. Qi emerged victorious while Huang and Teng notched up wins as well. After the dust settled, the standings were as such: 5-1 for Qi and Huang, 4-2 for Chiu and Kenny, and 3-3 for Teng. At the awards ceremony, Qi came in second place to champion Guanyu Song with a tiebreaker difference of just one SOS point. Huang, despite defeating Song in the fourth round, officially came in third place with the lowest SOS of the three 5-1 finishers. While the cash prize was originally only for the top two finishers, the tournament director decided to award Huang the same cash prize that Qi received. An incredible ending to an incredible tournament – all the American players made their country proud, indeed.
CLICK HERE for lots more photos and final standings, on the Canadian Open Facebook event page.

Chao Xie 6D topped the San Francisco Go Club Mountain Day Tournament, held on Saturday, August 20 at the San Francisco Go Club. The three-round tournament attracted more than 30 players, who competed for cash prizes and gift cards to BadukPop. Lunch was provided for tournament participants.

Results for the tournament were as follows:

Division 1: 1. Chao Xie 6D; 2. Jeremy Chiu 7D; 3. Will Lockhart 5D
Division 2: 1. Jaewoo Park; 2. Casey Dahlin; 3. Jason He
Division 3: 1. Ramiro Lobo; 2. Nash Shankman; 3. Youchen Zhao

The SF Go Club thanks all those who attended and contributed to the success of the tournament. The Club plans to host its next tournament on Saturday 17 September 2022 with details and sign up information to be provided soon.
–Matthew Barcus, President, San Francisco Go Club

Here’s a great way to get stronger and help bring go to a wider audience: the E-Journal team has openings for volunteer game recorders for upcoming tournaments, including the Canadian Open and the New England Open. Best of all, you can do it from home! The EJ successfully tested remote game recording at this year’s U.S. Go Congress and is now planning to expand this service to provide streaming of top boards at local events. The Canadian Open is August 26-29, the Western Mass Open is September 3-4 (Labor Day weekend); volunteers need to be available for at least one 2-hour window. If interested – or for more information – email journal@usgo.org   

Tournament players may have noticed in recent weeks that the Ratings listings from the AGAGD database have sometimes been very slow or generating error messages. With support from incoming AGA President Gurujeet Khalsa and incoming AGA Board Member Brad Rose, a beta version of a new interface has just been added to the website. Additional features are still being added, but given the urgency of the problems, the new version is being rolled out now. The existing ratings interface is still live for the time being.

“Developing and maintaining software applications is a classic problem for small non-profits such as the AGA,” Khalsa told the E-Journal. “Hiring even one qualified software developer would cost more than the AGA’s entire annual budget.” The AGA has relied on volunteer support for IT projects “and have received a lot of support over the years from talented and selfless individuals, for which we are hugely appreciative.”

As Khalsa takes over the leadership reins at the AGA in the months ahead, he says that a top priority is “how we can maintain critical services and offer new services to our individual members and chapters.” To that end, he said, “We will still need volunteers of all stripes – developers, project managers, designers, AI experts, business people and more, but we have to use them smartly and assure that our critical services are supported.” One approach, he says, is to use more low code no/code tools such as was done with the beta. “Another is to procure commercially supported software for services that are readily available in the IT marketplace. This will be a priority and one that will be taken up with the new Board at our first meeting in September.”

“This is an exciting time for the AGA and I’m happily seeing some fresh faces stepping forward and volunteering,” said Khalsa. “We need more of you.” For example, “there are important projects on using AI as a learning tool, and for detecting AI cheating that are very challenging and for which there are limited commercial options. I welcome feedback from our members on our direction here.” You can find Khalsa on the AGA Discord channel (user name: gurujeet) or email gurujeet.khalsa@usgo.org.