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

“At the Twin Cities Go Club (TCGO) club winter tournament in February we started an initiative to have members get AGA memberships so we could begin holding regular ratings tournaments,” reports local organizer Aaron Broege in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “That initiative was highly successful, as we went from around four players with AGA memberships to over 25 now with active memberships.” Nineteen players ranging from 2 dan to 20 kyu participated in the spring AGA ratings tournament on April 20. “The format was modeled off of the Bay Area Go Club format for ratings days, where there were no strict rounds and new pairings were created as opponents became available,” Broege tells the E-Journal. “Though no tournament winner was declared, John Armstrong 7k won all three of his games.”
– photo: Mark Gerads 12k (left) and Michael Alberts 14k assess a capturing race in the corner; photo courtesy Aaron Broege

American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock 3D and his wife Lisa are walking nearly 200 miles across England this May to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and raise funds for the American Go Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting go in the U.S. “This is a really wonderful idea,” said AGF President Terry Benson. “It’s generous players like Chris that make the AGF work possible. The more support we get, the more we can do for go.” With the AGF’s support, thousands of American children have learned go in hundreds of schools, libraries and community centers across the country. The AGF also provide scholarships and resources for youth who play go, and supports go in institutional settings such as prisons, and senior centers. “Donate what you can,” says Garlock, “whatever you give will go to help promote go across the United States.” Click here to donate. Considered the second best walk in the world, the Coast to Coast Walk is a 182-mile unofficial and mostly unsignposted long distance footpath in Northern England. Devised by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, and North York Moors National Parks.
– photo: Garlock on a training walk on the Seneca Creek Trail Greenway earlier this month; photo by Lisa Garlock 

Featuring a prize purse on nearly $3,000, the third annual Young Kwon National Online Tournament (YKNOT) will take place in June. Registration is free, and all levels are welcome to participate. Prizes will be awarded in all divisions. Dedicated to promoting go in the US, Young Kwon 7D of Pearl River, NY (see “The Man Behind the YKNOT Tournament” 12/20/2010 EJ) first sponsored this tournament in 2011. The 2013 YKNOT will take place over two weekends in June, following the same format as last year: rounds 1 and 2 on Saturday June 1, round 3 on Sunday June 2, and rounds 4 and 5 on Saturday June 8. All AGA members who have lived in the US six of the past 12 month –and AGA life members living anywhere — are eligible to participate. Registration closes Friday, May 24 at midnight. Click here for tournament details and rules.

The first annual Don Wiener Memorial Tournament was held in Somerville Massachusetts on April 14, attracting 40 players. Gus Heck 1k (middle) won all four of his games to take first place and said he will enter his next tournament as 1 dan. Tied for second were Michael Sun (left) and Kan Yao (right), both 3-1. Runners-up, all also 3-1: Jie Liang, Jonah White, Jed Strohm, Graham Higgins, Tiantian Yuan, Karen Ogg, John Aspinall, James Peters, Wensdy Whitehead, Dmitriy Yamkovoy and Anna Wiggins.

Old technologies met new at the tournament. “The Boylston Chess Club, in whose space we hold the tournament, has an unlocked cabinet with old wind-up chess clocks,” report TD Eva Casey. The dozen or so clocks the Massachusetts Go Association owns are also wind-up. Young Manu Herskovit 17k asked Casey if the clock would tell him when his time was up. “You have to notice when the flag falls,” she told him. “What flag?” Herskovit asked. Casey demonstrated by manually moving the clock’s big hand forward until it started lifting the red flag. “It’s entirely mechanical!” Herskovit said in surprise. With the large number of pre-registrants, Casey was not sure she was going to have enough of the wind-up chess clocks, but Adam Luter got out his smart phone and found a chess clock app. “I would have had to ask Manu how to work that app,” Caseys admits.
– photo (l-r): Michael Sun, Gus Heck, Kan Yao; photo by Eva Casey