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

by Xinming (Simon) Guo

Just one month after we discovered Weiqi (Chinese for Go) in the new exhibition at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago (Go featured in Chicago museum exhibit), we welcomed the first school field trip visitors: 30 students and chaperones from Cherokee Elementary School, who visited the museum and participated in our on-site go game workshop.

These elementary students first learned how to play Go for 45 minutes in the workshop area, and then moved to the the gallery areas to see the exhibitions. The students were very surprised and excited to discover that Go was played by Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad in the mid-19th century. Depending on the schedule, a Go workshop can also be provided after the museum tour. For workshops like this, the same teaching method is used as the one we use to introduce go as a math manipulative in schools. Usually we play on size 6 or 7 mini go board in the math classrooms.

“This is a brand new combo tour service, which combines the regular tour and hands-on Chinese culture/art workshop,” said Ben Lau, the executive director of Chinese American Museum of Chicago. School group visitors, especially students from Chinese language classrooms from Chicago Metropolitan Area, now have the opportunity to reserve their field trip to the museum, and choose one Chinese culture and art related workshop. Besides Go, calligraphy, Chinese painting, paper cutting, origami and more are on the list. See more photos here.

Guo organized the Go workshop and is the founder of the Go and Math Academy.

“Tonight at Coffee Bean, our regular Wednesday evening. 8:37 pm.,” reports Ed Lee. “I was playing a teaching game with Lorin. Five other members were at the far tables. A few minutes later, two puppies walked in…”

Twenty-seven players took part on Saturday, June 22 in the annual National Go Center (NGC) tune-up tournament for the upcoming US Go Congress. Jake Game 3D, the overall winner, was one of a contingent of four players from Tennessee who drove all night to participate.

Other winners with 3-1 records were James Funk (1D), Ray Perlner (1K), William Dowers (6K), Anderson Barreal (7K), Brendan Kennedy (9K), Solomon Kritz (18K), and Tonya Lopez (19K)

TN Contingent – Joe Kimball, Jake Game, Jasper Emerton, Anthony Long

After the tournament there was a dinner at the nearby Yosaku Restaurant to give a send-off to Chizuko Sento who is returning to Japan. “She has been a good friend of the NGC, participating in classes and tournaments and volunteering,” said the NGC’s Gurujeet Khalsa. “We wish her a safe journey and hope to see her here again.”

Chris Kirschner is running unopposed in the Western region while new comers Devin Fraze and Ashish Varma  will be challenging incumbent Martin Lebl in the Central region and Dan Ritter is challenging incumbent Steve Colburn in the east. Chapters should check their membership status and member list to receive their correct number of ballots. Preliminary counts will be arriving soon. Election procedures, schedule, and candidate statements(if submitted) are available  here. Questions must be directed to elections@usgo.org.

The Orlando Go Tournament was held June 1st and 2nd. Fifteen players and five matches over the two days included lots of re-connecting with old friends, laughter and serious playing. The first day went by too fast, and left everyone wanting more. Second day started off with dad jokes and puns, helping the players relax before their last two matches. In the end, the results were separated into two groups; the first was 6 kyu to 7 dan and the second group was 20kyu to 7kyu.

The results were as follows:

First group winner was Efrain Davila, followed by Brian Olive, Rab Beverly, Alex Blair, Chris Sagner, Xinpeng Du and Yoshio Tanaka.

Second group winner was Heather Crawford, followed by Phillip Brix, Benjamin Potter, Bart Lipofsky, Paul Wiegand, Eric Crawford, Berto Roe, and Emily Scherer.

Overall, everyone had a good time, and we are looking forward to more events later this year!

• report/photos by Chris Sagner

Two dozen go players enjoyed stimulating competition in the North Carolina Annual Spring tournament on Sunday, May 19th. After four rounds of well-matched games the following winners were noted: in the top band, Jeff Kuang won all of his games and claimed the top prize; second place was a tie between Ji Wen and Haixin Yang, each with a 3-1 record and identical SOS scores. Band 2 was won by Tao Ma with a 3-1 record; Charles Alden placed second with a 2-2 performance and the highest SOS score, edging out the other 2-2 winners in that section, Jim Conyngham and Justin Blank. Russell Herman was the clear winner in Band 3 with the only other perfect 4-0 record of the day, and Will Daland claimed 2nd place as his SOS score placed him slightly higher than the other 2-2 performers, Ganning Xu, Dale Blann and Bhaskar Bharath. John Schollenberger won 3 of 4 games to lead the pack in Band 4, with Sky Wang placing second. The tournament was attended by many supportive parents, and we greatly appreciate their support. Jeff Kuang was the Tournament Director. Lunch was provided onsite by the Triangle Go Group. The beautiful playing area was provided courtesy of Triangle Go Group member Dale Blann. Thank you, Jeff and Dale!
-reported by Jeff Kuang, Tournament Director