“Registration for the 2020 AGHS School Team Tournament is now open through March 31st, ” says Promotion Head Sophia Wang, “All participants must be North American residents in grades K-12 and attend the same school as their teammates. Each team has 3 players, with no more than 5 teams per institution. A total of four rounds will be held on two Sundays—April 5th and 12th—at 10am and 1pm PST each day. Players of all four rounds will receive a participation prize, and the top teams in each division will receive cash and trophies.”
Plans for the Canadian Open to be held late June in Vancouver have been cancelled. “The host organization has had to withdraw, due to the issues with COVID-19 virus,” reports Canadian Go Association president James Seddwick. The CGA is looking into alternate arrangements, with an initial target of holding something on Labour Day weekend September 4-7; stay tuned for a future announcement. “I also wish to offer our sympathies to CGA members with families & friends in China,” Sedgwick added. “I know it has been a tough time with ill family members who cannot be visited, and business and personal impacts. Hopefully lives will return to normal soon.”
Plans for the U.S. Go Congress — scheduled for Estes Park, CO, August 1 – 9 — are moving forward; organizers are monitoring the situation closely with the safety of the attendees and community paramount; stay tuned for updates.
Registration for the 27th Redmond Cup and 3rd AGA Girls Cup will be closing soon on March 11th and March 18th respectively. Competitors must be residing in the US, Canada, or Mexico and be members of their respective national Go association. The Redmond Cup is restricted to players under 18 with an accredited rank of 1 dan or stronger, while the AGA Girls Cup is restricted to females under 16 with an accredited rank of 10 kyu or stronger. The two finalists in the AGA Girls Cup and the Junior (12 and under) and Senior (13-17) divisions of the Redmond Cup will be invited to the 2020 US Go Congress with all reasonable expenses paid for by the American Go Foundation to play in a best-of-three match. All other participants who complete either preliminary tournament will be eligible for a $200 scholarship to the 2020 US Go Congress.
The Redmond Cup will begin on March 15th with preliminary matches played online through early-mid June. The AGA Girls Cup will follow a similar schedule starting on March 22nd. Players eligible for both tournaments may participate in them simultaneously. Interested players can read more about the Redmond Cup rules here and register here. Likewise, players can read more about the AGA Girls Cup rules here and register here.
Jiayang Su 1k and Andrew Kim 2k topped the 85-player field at the 7th North American Kyu Championships on February 1st held on the KGS Go Server. Su (Junior champion) and Kim (Senior champion) will both have the opportunity to test their strength against stronger opposition in the Redmond Cup starting later this month. Nearly 80% of the field was made up of Junior Division players (12 and under) and international representation was strong with 18 players from Mexico and 5 players from Canada. Final tournament results including all division winners and the crosstab can be found here. Each winner received a crystal trophy engraved with his or her name, and all participants who participated in each round are eligible for a $200 scholarship to the 2020 US Go Congress in Estes Park, Colorado.
Special thanks to Jeremy Chiu and Andrew Zhang for helping to direct the tournament, as well as Zhongfan Jian and Stephanie Yin from the New York Institute of Go and Sid Avila from the Mexican Go Association for helping the tournament run in a timely fashion. – Justin Teng, AGA Youth Coordinator
The AGA board minutes from their November meeting were approved at the meeting on February 23rd, and are now available online here. A summary of the meeting was first published here on January 19th. Do you have questions or comments about what you see in the minutes? Feel free to submit them here.
The New York Institute of Go (NYIG) and the New York Go Association (NYGA) are happy to bring you our annual summary of achievements. We concluded the year 2019 with lots of prides and great memories, through which all Go players in our community were bounded closely.
Tournament Achievements (Adult) Our two prominent professional players, Ryan Li 1P and Stephanie Yin 1P, continued to be among the top Go players on the North American Continent. Ryan Li competed in the 3rd International Elite Mind Games, and Stephanie Yin 1P participated in the 10th Qionglong Bingsheng Cup and 3rd Go Seigen Cup World Women’s Championship. The AGA City League New York team, consisting of Ryan Li, Hancheng Zhang and Stephanie Yin, won the 2019 Pandanet-AGA City League again.
Tournament Achievements (Youth) The youth training section has always been our focus. Through various Go classes and after-school programs offered by New York Institute of Go (NYIG), our students improved significantly and won numerous achievements nationwide.
The 6th North America Kyu Championship (NYKC), February 2019 Division B: 1st Place Toranosuke Ozawa 3k Division E: 1st Place Alan Yang 17k Division F: 1st Place Jeremy Wong 21k; 2nd Place Jason Yang 21k
2019 North American School Team Tournament, April 2019 Top Division: – 2nd Place New York Institute of Go Team 2: Chase Lin 1k, Cathy Liao 3k, Alex Huang 4k – 3rd Place New York Institute of Go Team 1: Patrick Zhao 3d, Sophie Lin 2d, Marcos Yang 1d Division 2: – 1st Place New York Institute of Go Team 6: Jack Zhang 9k, Brandon Zhu 12k, Alan Yang 13k – 2nd Place New York Institute of Go Team 4: Jason Long 10k, Jonathan Chen 11k, Lillian Wu 12k
The 1st U20 Eastern Youth Open, August 2019 Division B: 1st Place Sophie Lin 2d Division C: 1st Place Chase Lin 1k, 2nd Place Samantha Soo 4k, 3rd Place Jerry Ju 3k Division D: 1st Place Xinyu Chen 6k; 2nd Place Jonathan Chen 9k; 3rd Place Crystal Pang 8k
2019 North American Young Lions Tournament, December 2019 Division A: 1st Place Toranosuke Ozawa 2d; 2nd Place Sophie Lin 2d; 3rd Place Chase Lin 1d Division B: 3rd Place Samantha Soo 1k Division D: 2nd Place Joshua Wong 10k Division F: 1st Place Noah Carrafa 21k, 2nd Place Enzo Aozono-Araldi 23k, 3rd Place Roger Eckner 25k
Go Promotion By holding various go tournaments and events in 2019, the NYGA promote the interests, activity and outreach of go players within the New York City and Tri-state community.
New York Go Honor Society The New York Go Honor Society is a non-profit chapter supported by the New York Go Association (NYGA). The NYGHS executive team includes multiple honorary members from Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Princeton. The board members, such as the chairman and board of directors, will be selected in a self-recommended fashion, by NYGA officers and honorary presidents.
The mission of the NYGHS is to learn the philosophical ideas that have been embedded in Go for thousands of years. It is a platform that provides young Go players an environment to enrich their Go experience, improve their organizational skills, and broaden their horizons. Specifically, through the NYGHS, our Go players will work together to hone their leadership, logical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities. They will also communicate and cooperate with students from top American colleges to expand social skills and enrich personal accomplishment.
Tournament Organization – 4th, 5th and 6th US Go Ranking Competition, New York Division – The 1st U20 Eastern Youth Open, August 2019 – NYGA Monthly Tournaments
Classes We offered a series of go classes to both youth and adult players from beginner to dan-level.
After-school Programs – St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School – PS 77 Lower Lab School
Social Media Our official Youtube Channel “nyig_go” reached 7000 subscribers in November.
We appreciate everyone who has participated in our Go activities in 2019. We shall continue to bring you more exciting events in the upcoming year 2020. More information can be found here: www.ny-go.org
The Canadian Go Association summer camp is ready to welcome you! Running August 23-28 at Jouvence resort inside Mount Orford National park (near Montreal Quebec), it will combine a sojourn in nature with top-notch Go instruction, luxury meals, and great company. Since the resort is a non-profit, all of this is at a great price! See our web site for full details, and please reach out if you have any questions.
report by Canadian Go Association President James Sedgwick
Weiqiu (Rachel) You 2k, 3-1; Neil Ni 2d, 3-1; Minghan Jiang 1d, 4-0; Joel Kenny 4d, 3-1; Stephen J. Choung 2k, 3-1
The Western Massachusetts Go Club had a respectable turnout of 18 players for the winter tournament, held on February 22 and hosted by Springfield College. There were 3 double-digit kyu players, with the remaining players from 3k to 5d. Players traveled from throughout New England – 200+ mi from Vermont, by Uber and bus from Boston, and from New York City.
Minghan Jiang 1d was the only undefeated player with a 4-0 record. Four other players had 3-1 results (right), and David Richardson 14k won the DDK division. Click here for full results, and here for more photos of the event.
The AGA is looking for one male player and one female player to play as a pair in the new Pair Go Handicap Tournament at the Pair Go World Cup 2020 in Tokyo, Japan from July 1 to July 6, 2020. Both players must be American citizens and have been continuous members of the AGA for one year. Room and board are provided by the tournament, and 50% of the cost of airfare will also be covered, with players expected to bear 50% of airfare and other travel costs.
Eligible interested players (male, female, or pairs) should contact AGA Pair Go Coordinator Hajin Lee at hajin.lee@usgo.org no later than February 26.
Evan Lin (B) beat Jeremy Chiu (W) by 11.5 points on Sunday, Feb. 16 in the final game of the 2020 Globis Cup Qualifier, to become the North American representative to the 2020 Globis Cup.
In Game #1, Jeremy Chiu (W) beat Willis Huang (B) by resignation. In Game #2, Evan Lin (B) beat Jeremy Chiu (W) by resignation. In Game #3 Jeremy Chiu (B) beat Willis Huang (W) by resignation. In Game #4 Jeremy Chiu (B) beat Evan Lin (W) by 7.5 points.
“Thanks to everyone who participated and to Justin and Paul for their assistance organizing and monitoring,” said TD Jeff Shaevel.
