The 9th North American Kyu Championships (NAKC) is now open for registration to start off the annual suite of AGA-run youth tournaments. The tournament will be held online on the KGS Go Server and consist of four rounds over the course of one day. Players must be under the age of 18, reside in North America, and be members of their country’s national Go organization to compete. The top junior (under 13 years old) and senior (13-17 years old) players in each division will win personalized crystal trophies, and the junior and senior champions of the top division will receive an invitation to play in the Redmond Cup, which is traditionally only eligible to dan-level players. Players who complete all rounds of the tournament will also be eligible for a $200 scholarship to the next in-person US Go Congress, courtesy of the American Go Foundation. Last year’s tournament featured nearly 150 players, and the AGA hopes that this year’s tournament will be just as exciting!
Stay tuned for information about this year’s Redmond Cup and AGA Girls Cup; both will feature a new tournament format and registration will be opening soon.
–Story by Justin Teng, AGA Youth Coordinator, Photo by Paul Barchilon.
“Registration for the 2022 AGHS School Team Tournament is now open through February 4th,” says AGHS Co-President Sophia Wang, “Inspired by the popular series Hikaru No Go, students from the same school or educational institution should form teams of 3 to compete for their school and for prizes. A total of four rounds will be held over two Sundays, February 6th and 13th, at 10am and 1pm PST. In order to be eligible, players must attend school in North America and be under 19/currently enrolled in grades K-12. Maximum of 5 teams per institution.”
As previously reported, the AGA is asking chapters to delay tournaments and to consider not having club meetings at least for the month of January, until the latest wave of Covid-19, the Omicron variant, has passed. Here are some local updates:
San Diego: The San Diego Go Club is postponing, due to Covid19, the 11th Annual San Diego Go Championship, which had been scheduled for the spring of 2022. “The SDGC now hopes to hold the tournament at the San Diego Chess Club in May 2022.” Vaccinated members of the SDGC have voted to continue to meet in person at “At Ease Games” on Miramar Road on Thursday from 7-11 p.m. Masks will be required for all players and spectators. A booster vaccination is recommended.
Portland (OR): Due to the recent surge in Covid cases, and per the recommendations of the American Go Association, PGC is suspending Tuesday night “Learn and Play Go” meet-ups at Alder Commons. “We hope to restart them again soon. In the meantime we encourage players to seek games via our Portland Go Discord.” For an invite to the discord email goclubportland@gmail.com.
Washington, DC: The National Go Center in Washington, DC has decided to postpone opening on Friday nights until sometime in February. “There is just too much uncertainty around the Omicron surge right now. We’ll keep you posted on when Fridays will be starting up again.” Wednesday nights will continue for now for masked and fully vaccinated participants. “Stay safe, and we look forward to things getting back to normal.”
The AGA is asking chapters to delay tournaments and to consider not having club meetings at least for the month of January, until the latest wave of Covid-19, the Omicron variant, has passed. “While the danger to any individual is hard to know, the effect on the overall medical system is significant,” says AGA president Andy Okun. Delaying tournaments and club meeting will “keep members safer and do our part to not risk burdening hospitals with extra cases,” says Okun. “Our Covid advice page will be frequently updated and we will keep our eye on rapidly changing information.”
In a related story, the January 22nd Gotham Go Tournament is being rescheduled “due to the very high rates of Covid-19 in New York City and the surrounding area,” reports organizer Peter Armenia. The new date is March 26th.
The restart of Friday Night Go at the National Go Center in Washington, DC has been postponed until at least January 14, reports Gurujeet Khalsa, although that’s due to the NGC having its heating serviced, with snowy and chilly weather predicted.
Any other chapter/club and/or tournament updates should be reported to journal@usgo.org and we’ll post updates here.
“Are you looking for an opportunity to sharpen your Go skills? Why not give the AGHS weekly go problems a try!” says AGHS Secretary Henry Chen, “We will be posting a short Google form every week with life and death problems of varying difficulty starting January 3rd, 2022. You may earn points by submitting your answers to each week’s questions through our Google form. We will keep track of everyone’s points on a leaderboard and prizes will be distributed based on final standings.”
If you have any questions, feel free to email aghsregister@gmail.com.
If a battlefield seems like an appropriate place to play go, the students from the Atlanta Contemporary Chinese Academy and Ruby Bridge Chinese Academy were certainly in the right place on December 19, when teacher Feijun (Frank) Luo 7d gathered them at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park to celebrate Christmas and New Year.
Despite what Luo described as “a ruthless cold wind,” the intrepid students played go in the park’s Visitor Center’s pavilion and seemed energized rather than intimidated by the chilly weather, as they focused on midgame battles fueled by “a great variety of foods.”
After their games, the students went on to hike Kennesaw Mountain. According to the National Park Service, “the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was some of the heaviest fighting throughout the entire Atlanta Campaign…The strategy and tactics used there…led to the final outcome of the Civil War.” The go students supported each other during their hike to the summit, where Luo congratulated them as “fearless” students for turning out to play go and to hike the mountain in the chilly weather and encouraged them to stay physically and mentally active during the pandemic.
The students are Leo Huang, Ryan Huang, Melody Lian, Tegan Lian, Patrick Lv, Gavin Situ, Austin Situ, Amy Tierolf, Andrea Wang, Israel Wang, Lucas Wang, Orianna Wang, Jiayue Wu, Aaron Xie, Jiaming Zou, and Jiayi Zou.
The Gotham Go Group is sponsoring a 4-round AGA-rated tournament in Flushing, New York on Saturday January 22nd, 2022. “Due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, this will be a VACCINATED ONLY event with masks optional,” says organizer Peter Armenia. “You MUST show proof of vaccination to enter and play. Space is limited to 90 players so register early.”
There will be cash prizes in all sections and an open section for strong dan-level players. AGA membership is required to register and play; to join or renew your membership click here. To register for the tournament and pay the $35 application fee, click here. Full refunds are available should you need to cancel. To see who’s already registered, click here.
Joel Kenny (4D) is the Tournament Director; Assistant TD is Jino (Steven) Choung (1k).
Kevin Yang (7d, SDGC) went 5-0 to sweep the top boards at the 2021 King Cup California State Go Championship, held at the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park over Thanksgiving weekend. Shuaiheng Tao (7d, Dublin CA) and Kevin Meiqing Huang (5d, Yorba Linda) took second and third place with 3-2 records. AGA members are invited to challenge the new California State Champion: throughout the pandemic, Yang has been accepting challenges to play on Tuesday nights on KGS in the San Diego Go Club room at 7 pm PST. Games are 30-minute/player (even or handicap), and are reviewed immediately afterwards by the participants.
2021 King Cup – U16 13×13 California State Go Champions
Competition in the King Cup Handicap section
2021 King Cup – California State Go Champion: (l-r): Ted Terpstra, former SDGC president; Kevin Yang, CA Champion; Henry You, VP-SDGC; King Bi, tournament sponsor
2021 – King Cup – California State Go tournament winners
photos by Hai Li and Jaiying Wei
In the King Cup Open, six of the ten players tied for second place with 3-2 records. Trophy winners were determined by Go Clubs Online tiebreakers. Besides Tao and Huang, the others tying for second place in the King Cup Open were Shang Zhou (7d, SDGC), Yixian Zhou (6d, Corona), 2020 California State Go Champion Bo Luan (6d, Santa Barbara), and King Bi (4d, SDGC).
Over the course of the weekend, more than 70 go players from all over California participated in one of the four King Cup – California Go Championship tournaments, which included the State Championship (with both Open and Handicap sections), the U16 Girls Championship, the U16 Boys Championship, and the U16 13×13 Championship. This was the fourth State Go Championship weekend hosted by the San Diego Go Club.
Complete round-by-round results for all tournaments are available on Go Clubs Online on the ‘Results’ page found under the ‘Tournaments’ menu.
In the King Cup Handicap Sections, first place winners were: Division I: Jaewoo Go Park (1k, San Jose) Division 2: Arunas Rudvalis (6k, SDGC) Division 3: Jiaying Wei (9k, SDGC)
King Cup – 2021 California State U16 Girls Go Championship winner: Angelina Zhao (4k, Irvine) King Cup – 2021 California State U16 Boys Go Championship winner: Zhenxuan Liu (1d, SDGC) King Cup – 2021 California State U16 13×13 Go Championship winner: Anna Zhou (9k, SDGC)
Special recognition trophies were given to Hai Li 5P, for being the tournament director in the three U16 tournaments, and Donovan Chen for being the youngest player in the U16 tournaments (6-years-old). He beat out another 6-year-old, Zoe Tan, by a few days.
All four tournaments were sponsored by a generous gift to the San Diego Go Club by King Bi. Rubio’s Coastal Grill provided gift certificates to its restaurants for all the youth players and their parents
Here are all the trophy winners from the four King Cup – California Go Championship go tournaments, November 27 & 28, 2021:
King Cup – 2021 California State Open Go Championship 1st Place – Kevin Yang (7.3d, San Diego) 2nd Place – Shuaiheng Tao (7.1d, Dublin CA) 3rd Place – Kevin Meiqing Huang (5.9d, Yorba Linda)
King Cup – 2021 California State Handicap Go Championship Handicap: Division I: 1st Place – Jaewoo Go Park (1.0k, San Jose) Handicap: Division I: 2nd Place – Patrick Lu (1.1d, Cerritos) Handicap: Division I: 3rd Place – Andy Shunwei Zhou (1.3d, Corona) Handicap: Division II: 1st Place – Arunas Rudvalis (6.2k, Oceanside) Handicap: Division II: 2nd Place – Enrique Garcia (3.1k, San Diego) Handicap: Division II: 3rd Place – David Baran (6.4k, Beverly Hills) Handicap: Division III : 1st Place – Jiaying Wei (9.3k, San Diego) Handicap: Division III: 2nd Place – Nick Liddington (10.3k, Escondido) Handicap: Division III: 3rd Place – Lucia Moscola (10.1k, San Diego)
King Cup – 2021 California State U16 13×13 Go Championship Handicap: 1st Place – Anna Zhou (9.5k, Corona) Handicap: 2nd Place – Angel Shunying Zhou (4.9k, Corona) Handicap: 3rd Place – Xiaomei Sunny Sun (6.7k, 欧文)
King Cup – 2021 California State U16 Girls Go Championship Handicap: 1st Place – Angelina Zhao (4.4k, Irvine) Handicap: 2nd Place – Xiaomei Sunny Sun (6.7k, 欧文) Handicap: 3rd Place – Abigail Wanyu Chen (5.8 k, Yorba Linda)
King Cup – 2021 California State U16 Boys Go Championship Handicap: 1st Place – Zhenxuan Liu (1.7d, Irvine ) Handicap: 2nd Place – Jason He (3.5d, Cupertino) Handicap: 3rd Place – Tom Liu (5.5k, Irvine)
photos by Hai Li and Jaiying Wei; report by Ted Terpstra, former SDGC president; editing by Kyle Fenimore.
The North American Go Federation (NAGF) is hosting exhibition games for North American players. The matches will be between promising young players and professionals. The event details are also available on the NAGF website.
When: Saturday December 11th, at 7PM EST (4pm PST)
Where: The games will be played online on OGS, and broadcast on the AGA twitch channel.
Players: Alexander Qi vs Mingjiu Jiang (7p) Kevin Yang vs Ryan Li (3p) Val Lewis vs Cathy Li (1p) Chih Rong (James) Sun vs Calvin Sun (1p)
Rules: 30 minutes main time with 3 periods of 40 seconds byo-yomi Reverse Komi
The 2022 South Central Go Tournament Online will be held on the KGS go server the Saturday and Sunday before Presidents’ Day (February 19-20, 2022). From 2016 to 2020, the tournament was played live in Dallas. In 2021—and now again in 2022—the pandemic has made it necessary to hold the tournament online. There are no geographic restrictions for who may play, but all participants must be current AGA members (including any players from outside the United States). The best-placed Texas resident in the Open Section will become the 2022 Texas State Champion. The 2021 tournament had 16 Open Section players and 60 Handicap Section players. Players can find more details and register for the 2022 tournament at www.goclubs.org. You can also find the South Central Go Tournament on Facebook. Email Bob Gilman at bobgilman.aga@gmail.com with questions about the tournament.
