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

The Gotham Go Group had a go teaching event at Harlem with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) and Marcus Meets Malcom earlier this month. Our group, invited by AAFE, taught half a dozen students, and Peter Armenia got some mini go boards to give away to interested students. We had different go players who came to support us, including Collin Baker, Peter Armenia (organizer of the Gotham Go Club), Joy Messer, Andrew McGowan, Dorothy, and Paul for coming to help out with the event.
-Howard Wong, who served as the main organizer for the event.

The New York Go Honor Society is having their annual Summer Open on July 2 and July 9. Players of any rank can join this 4 round Swiss style tournament. There will be a registration fee of $12 which will go towards tournament prizes. Registration will stay open until June 30th. To register, please use this link. Any other information on the rules and regulations can be found here.

The 2022 Pro Qualification Tournament, organized by the North American Go Federation (NAGF) will be held next week, from June 26 to July 1 at the National Go Center in Washington, DC.

The top two players from this tournament will be certified by the NAGF as professional 1 dan. Also, the NAGF offers prize money of $2,000 USD for the winner and $1,000 USD for second-place player.

The preliminary round is a round-robin competition in two divisions, where the top two players from each division advance to the semi-final round. The first semi-final round is a single match. The first final round, the losers bracket, and the second final round are best-of-three matches.

Selected games of the pro qualification tournament will be live-broadcast on KGS without commentary. Area go players interested in being on the EJ’s recording team can sign up here.

The list of players and the tournament rules are posted here.

Howard Wong is starting a NY Go League, open to all players with stable go ranks in the AGA, CGA, EGF, or an online rank at a credible server. The league will be a round robin tournament, spanning two months, and is set to begin on June 25th with a registration deadline of June 22^nd; register here.

All online games can be played in either OGS or KGS, on 19×19 boards with AGA rules (7.5 komi) with color being chosen randomly by the server. All games must also be played with time control settings of 20 minutes main time and 5 periods of 30 second byo-yomi. All matches will have zero handicaps. Player color will be decided by the computer. 

Games may also be played in person if both players agree, a timer  must be used and the game must be recorded.

The San Francisco Go Club hosted a three-round go tournament on Saturday June 18, in remembrance of the late Shinji Dote, who played an integral role in the longtime success of go in the San Francisco Bay area. Thirty players competed for honors with division winners taking home cash prizes.

In Division 1, first place went to Yuelun Yang 4D, with Christopher Kim 5D and James Lou 4D coming in second and third, respectively. Division 2 was won by Isaiah Bird 2D and in second place was Qilu Chen 2D and third place went to Jonathan Ketner 1D. Then, for Division 3 Benjamin Lo 8K came in first place with Andrew Shi 11K in second and Brianna Forster 16K in third. 

The San Francisco Go Club will be hosting its next tournament on Saturday July 23rd (register here). 

– Matthew Barcus, SFGC Vice President

report by Bob Bacon*

The Burning Board Go Festival was held June 13-19 at Umstead State Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The event featured a 6-round tournament from June 16-18, as well as numerous instructive workshops, simultaneous games and lectures by Ying Shen 2P and Yuan Zhou. The 50 attendees had the option to stay onsite in primitive cabins or commute, and about half braved the elements. While participants faced two days with unusually high temperatures for June, the sweltering heat was mitigated by the majestic canopy of sheltering trees and the cooling waters of an adjacent lake open for swimming. Attendees came not only from the surrounding cities but also from as far away as the Canary Islands, Texas, Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and several from the Baduk House teaching residency program in Ohio. The festival finished with a splendid outdoor picnic and the burning of a ceremonial go board created for the occasion by Tom Bitonti. The Triangle Go Group hopes to make the festival an annual event.

The tournament was smoothly and professionally directed by Devin Fraze, and all rounds began very close to the designated times. We had 39 players, almost all of them playing all 6 rounds. The winner of the Open Section was Chen Yuan, who was on fire, winning all six of his games for the only perfect record of the tournament. Second place went to Derek Zhou, burning brightly as well. Third place in this highly competitive section was awarded to Micah Feldman.

Section A was captured by fiery Daniel Lambert, followed by Boris Bernadsky in second and Xiaoping Wu in third.

Section B witnessed another blazing performance by Javier Gonzalex winning 5 of his games and rising like smoke to the top of this pack. Peter Armenia secured second place, with Bart Jacob winning third.

Section C was somehow won by Bob Bacon although an investigation into this outcome will likely begin soon. Second place was seized by red-hot Ursa Woodring, and Matthew Gregoire battled his way to third.

Russell Herman’s games were smoking hot in Section D and he won first place, followed closely by smoldering Mei Cai in second and Paul Mendola in third.

We also recognized David Shao, the youngest player attending, with a trophy, as well as the participant winning the most self-paired rated games, Micah Feldman.

Lunch was provided by the hosts Triangle Go Group during the tournament, as well as trophies and $800 in prize money.

Thank you to all the wonderful enthusiastic go players and non-players who made this event a success! Photos will be published on the Triangle Go Club Facebook page and website in the near future.

*who is solely responsible for any flame-related puns contained herein, except for the headline, which was inspired by Bob’s heated prose.

In a May 29 vote, the AGA’s Board of Directors selected Gurujeet Khalsa to be president of the American Go Association, succeeding Andy Okun. Board members Lisa Scott (Chair) and Devin Fraze were also considered for the position. “It is humbling to follow in the footsteps of Andy Okun and his leadership over the past 10 years,” said Khalsa. “I’m grateful for the trust the Board has put in me and will strive to provide even better service to our chapters and members as we promote the game in the US and internationally.” Khalsa served on the Board from 2012 to 2018, including five years as Chair. One of his key achievements on the Board was his initiative for Chapter Rewards, a system for chapters to receive cash awards to be used in go promotion when members join/renew in their chapter or play in AGA rated games. He led the team that established the National Go Center (NGC) in Washington, DC in 2016 with a grant from the Iwamoto North America Foundation and has served since then as NGC Executive Director. The NGC team hosted the 2018 U.S. Go Congress in Williamsburg, VA. At the NGC he’s directed seven annual AGA-rated tournaments, which recently resumed after Covid interruption with a 58-player Cherry Blossom event. He’s also served as TD for the Maryland Open since 2013. Khalsa will assume his new duties as AGA president for a two-year term beginning on September 1.