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

The Seattle Go Center provided 15 volunteers to teach go at Sakura-Con, Seattle’s big festival of Japanese anime, manga and games.  Working in shifts, the volunteers kept the Go Center room open for 15 hours a day on Friday and Saturday, April 18-19.  On Sunday, they ran a 13×13 tournament.  The Go Center does not have an official teaching style, but most teachers follow Bill Camp’s advice from the 2013 Go Congress Teacher’s Workshop to “never answer a question that hasn’t been asked”, trying not to swamp new players with too much information.  In the late afternoon and early evening of Saturday, the room was completely full, and the enthused teachers were explaining the game in their own words.  As I was waiting for my students to play, I heard Dan Top declare, “In a situation like this, I just try to keep my stones together.  I don’t want any of my stones going down into the basement alone.” – photo of Dan Top and report by Brian Allen.

Twenty-six players participated in Syracuse’s 7th Annual Salt City Go Tournament this past Saturday, with Jason Bates 2d (front left) winning the A division by tie-break ahead of Tim Aylsworth and Wayne Nelson; all three had identical 3-1 records and received cash prizes. Yan-Yeung Luk won all four of his games to clinch the B division, beating out Meg Houston and Ava Zurita, while Cross Bianchi swept his games in the C division, finishing one win ahead of Ryan Iffert and Kelvin Cheng. Theo Eckert-Budis 14k was the winner of the annual cake problem prize. Five C division players are first-year students in the weiqi class taught at the CNY Chinese School — the youngest of these was 8-year-old Liya Luk 16k, who finished with a 2-2 record. The oldest tournament participant was again 96-year-old Milton Sack 15k, who won both of the games he played. “Special thanks to Slate and Shell for greatly discounting its new books for use as prizes at the tournament,” says Syracuse Go Club organizer Richard Moseson. At right: this year’s problem cake: black to move. 

The eighth annual Orlando Go Tournament was held April 12-13 in Orlando, FL. Brian Olive 1d topped the dan division, while Bart Lipofsky 6k topped the upper kyu division, Ellis Knickerbocker 8k the middle kyu and Tia Duncan 12k the lower kyu. Thirty-four players participated in a five-round event, with strengths ranging from 21 kyu to 5 dan.

Winner’s Report:
Dan (1D and up): 1st: Brian Olive (1D); 2nd: Josh Lee (5D); 3rd: Jonathan Fisher (3D).
Upper Kyu (7K through 1K): 1st: Bart Lipofsky (6K); 2nd: Steve Barberi (1K); 3rd: Tony Vick (6K).
Middle Kyu (10K through 8K): 1st: Ellis Knickerbocker (8K); 2nd: Asahel Salgado (9K); 3rd:Aaron Otero (10K).
Lower Kyu (11K and down): 1st: Tia Duncan (12K); 2nd: Heather Crawford (15K); 3rd: Joel Mora (12K).

– photo: Christopher Sagner, Josh Lee, Fuqian Shi (left, front-to-back) and Jonathan Fisher, Yoshio Tanaka, Brian Olive (right, front-to-back); report/photo by Paul Wiegand

The upcoming Washington Open Baduk Championship (1st Washington Open Baduk Championship Set for April 26-27 4/2 EJ) has added pro lectures and an unrated rapid tournament, reports organizer Allan Abramson. The first Washington Open Baduk Championship will be held in Northern Virginia on April 26-27, with a top prize of at least $1,200 and cash prizes for every section. Myungwan Kim 9P and Sohyun Park 3P will give lectures for both dan and kyu players on Saturday night, followed by a rapid tournament, and the professionals will do game reviews and simuls on Sunday afternoon. The tournament will be held at the Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Center (1952 Gallows Road, Suite 330) in Vienna, VA and is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Cultural Center – DC, and Scorpion Sport Inc. in L.A. It is co-hosted by the Korean Amateur Baduk Association (KABA) and the American Go Association (AGA), and organized by the NOVA Go Club, the Baltimore Go Club, and the Korean-American Go Association. There’s no entry fee but AGA membership is required and lunch is free. Click here to register. NOTE TO VISITORS: Organizers have negotiated a discounted rate with Extended Stay America (8281 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax VA 22031), 4.5 miles from the playing site; call 703-204-0088 and ask for the NOVA Go Club rate, or email MRD@extendedstay.com. 

March Madness is over, “but the American Collegiate Go Association (ACGA) will keep it alive through April,” promises Cole Pruitt. This Saturday, April 12 and the following week, April 19, the ACGA will host the 3rd annual Collegiate Go League championship on KGS.

At 1 pm EST each Saturday in the KGS “Collegiate Go League” room, matches will be held between the ACGA’s top four finishers from the season. The semifinals will be this Saturday, April 12, with Yale taking on top-seeded U. Mich and U. Toronto against U Maryland. The winners from these 5v5 school-based matches will face off in the finals on the next Saturday, for the coveted ACGA Cup (photo), with cash prizes for the top three winners.

ACGA resident professional Stephanie Yin will be on hand each weekend to provide live commentary of the top boards on KGS, starting at 1:30 PM EST once the matches are underway. “We invite anyone to join the matches and kibitz away,” says Pruitt, “especially students interested in promoting go in primary, secondary, and post-secondary school.”

Members of the Twin Cities Go Club last weekend participated in Passage to China, an annual event celebrating Chinese culture. Held at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN, and sponsored by the Chinese Heritage Foundation, this event welcomes visitors to experience Chinese dance, music, arts, and crafts.

This is the fourth year the Twin Cities Go Club has participated in the event, hosting a table at which attendees can learn the basics of go, or weiqi, as it is known in China, where the game originated. “Typically, we teach how to surround and capture stones, and then encourage visitors to play a game of capture go,” reports local organizer Aaron Broege. “We also are pleased to play more experienced players in a game of go on the 19×19 board. We have the pleasure of teaching individuals from small children to adults, and most people seem to catch on to the basics quickly. We find that this is great exposure for the game and for the club. Many people seem genuinely interested in finding out more about where to purchase a board and stones, and we have also had people attend our club meetings as a result of seeing us at Passage to China.”

The annual event “has been a great experience for us,” Broege adds, “and opened up some additional outreach opportunities. Last year at this event we connected with the group ‘Families with Children from Asia’ and this past fall we had the opportunity to work with that group at one of their own events near the Twin Cities. This year we met other individuals who would like us to teach go at this year’s Dragon Festival to be held in St. Paul. From exposure through this event, we have found inroads into other outreach opportunities and we are very enthusiastic of the positive effect this will have on the Twin Cities go community.”
photos: (top right): Agnes Rzepecki teaches basic life and death to a particularly curious new student of go. This young individual learned capture go and then insisted on learning the “real game,” and stayed around to play multiple handicap games with us on the 9×9; (bottom left): Yanqing Sun plays a game with a young boy. photos by Aaron Broege