“Get ready for the summer with some quick and casual go!” says AGHS Co-President Sophia Wang. “New this year, the AGHS Blitz Charity Tournament will consist of 5 ultra-blitz rounds of fun and frenzy. All players are welcome. Join us on June 5th at the KGS’s AGHS Tournament Room. This year, the AGHS Team has chosen to donate to those in Ukraine affected by the serious ongoing crisis. We are hosting this tournament to encourage donations to this cause (details in the registration form).”
“Every year, I meet some high school students who know how to play go,” says Xinming Simon Guo. When he asks them how they learned the game, the answers is often “You visited my elementary school several years ago”. In fact, Guo, the founder of Go and Math Academy in Chicago, has taught go to more than 40,000 students in the Chicago area, visiting more than 80 schools.
“How to play and teach go” workshop at the Chinese Cultural Center of San Diego State University. (l-r): Jackson Hranek, Ted Terpstra from San Diego and Xinming Guo from Chicago
During the school year of 2021-2022 alone, Guo visited more than 20 schools and taught about 4,000 students. Since the pandemic, Guo, with the support of the local go community, has begun to provide online teaching for students both within and outside of Illinois, in places like Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
Last month, Guo visited San Diego to share the results of the Academy’s second pilot program of the Go and Math project, teaching about 120 3rd graders at Barrington School District 220, IL. The project was conducted in partnership with Professor Xiuwen WU from National Louis University during the 2019-2020 school year. A research paper titled “The Game of Go in Elementary Classrooms: Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of Go’s Benefits for Mathematics” was accepted by the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA) held in San Diego this year.
During his short stay in San Diego, Mr. Guo also arranged a workshop for local go players to share their experience teaching go in school classrooms. In this particular workshop, he shared major aspects of his experience promoting go in schools. Demonstrating how to teach go in a classroom, Guo shared the classroom box for 32 students, small boards (6×6 and 7×7) and a special rule reinvented for beginners, which is compatible with other go game rules. He also discussed how to work with Chinese language teachers and teach go in Chinese language classrooms, and how to work with math teachers and teach go in early elementary classrooms.
“We plan to offer similar workshops online this year, to help more go players to promote go in their local schools,” said Guo.
Nominations for the American Go Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award are due by May 5th. The winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to the US Go Congress in Estes Park this summer. To be eligible a teacher must be a member of the AGA and have been teaching go to children for at least one hour a week for two years. The award is now open to other kinds of teachers as well, including online efforts. Teachers of the Year for 2020 and 2021 are also invited, and all three will be honored at the awards banquet. Click here for more information. If you would like to nominate someone for this award, including yourself, email mail@agfgo.org. Nominations should include a description of the teacher’s activities, how long they have been teaching, and how many students attended their program. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.
“Registration is approaching 300 people for the US Go Congress in Estes Park this summer,” reports Co-Director Eric Wainwright. “Just 12 rooms are left at the YMCA. It’s a clear sign that people are ready to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror and get back to playing Go in-person. If anyone was on the fence about participating, now is the time to register.”
Congress organizers have asked for more rooms from the YMCA, but don’t know yet whether they’ll get any. Off-site lodging is also available, but Estes Park books up early in the prime summer season. Anyone who wants to stay offsite should make a reservation as soon as possible. “This will be a slightly smaller congress than usual,” added Co-Director Howard Landman, “but with 287 people registered so far, we’re definitely not cancelling for lack of attendance!” The Early Bird rates for the congress end on April 30th. After that, a $100 fee will be charged as it becomes more difficult for the congress to hold rooms (offsite lodging is exempt from this fee).
For more information on the congress, and to register, visit gocongress.org
The AGF is proud to announce the new PrideGo scholarship for students aged 13-22 who openly identify as LGBT+. Three recipients will receive $500 towards the 2022 Go Congress. Applications are open at https://www.pridego.org/#apply and will close on May 8th.
The PrideGo program is spearheaded by popular Twitch go streamer Eva-Dee M. Beech (better known online as “Gooplet”) who has run two successful fundraising events with the help of several volunteers. She looks forward to meeting the scholarship recipients at this year’s Go Congress. More information about the program can be found at https://PrideGo.org.
The next PrideGo fundraising event will be the second annual Pride Month Rengo tournament, during the last weekend of June. Further details will be released in May. Live commentary of the event will be hosted by Gooplet on the official AGA Twitch channel, guest commentators TBA. Previous PrideGo guest commentators included LionGuySai, Dwyrin, Vadim from GoMagic, and In Sente. If you are interested in contributing to the PrideGo program with your time or your money, or if you have questions about the program, check the website or contact Eva-Dee at evadee.beech@usgo.org!
Nominations for the American Go Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award are due by May 5th. The winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to the US Go Congress in Estes Park this summer. To be eligible a teacher must be a member of the AGA and have been teaching go to children for at least one hour a week for two years. The award is now open to other kinds of teachers as well, including online efforts. Teachers of the Year for 2020 and 2021 are also invited, and all three will be honored at the awards banquet. Click here for more information. If you would like to nominate someone for this award, including yourself, email mail@agfgo.org. Nominations are due by May 5th and should include a description of the teacher’s activities, how long they have been teaching, and how many students attended their program. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: 2021 Teacher of the Year Pete Schumer
Registration for the 2022 Go Congress is proceeding briskly with over 170 attendees so far,” reports Co-Director Eric Wainwright. “Rooms in the Main Lodge are almost filled up, but there’s still plenty of rooms left in the East Lodges. If you’re thinking about staying at one of the many offsite locations around Estes Park, now’s the time to make your arrangements.
The main playing site is Assembly Hall situated in the center of the YMCA campus. Built in 2009, it’s a modern facility with over eleven thousand square feet of space for tables to be spread out. Lectures, game reviews, and other events will take place in other buildings and cabins scattered nearby. ”It looks like we’ll have sizable group of young players this year, as many pros and teachers are bringing their students,” reports Wainwright, “It’s a good thing that our Youth Room will be the size of a basketball court. Actually, it is a basketball court!”‘
More information and registration are at GoCongress.org.
“Registration for the American Go Honor Society (AGHS) Weekly Go Problems is now open, and all players are welcomed!” says AGHS Secretary Henry Chen. “Each Sunday, we will provide Go problems with five different levels (Level 1, Level 2, etc) from the most beginner to the most advanced level. Practicing problems is a great opportunity to enhance your skills and will benefit you tremendously in your games. The Spring Season will last ten weeks, and at the end of the season, prizes will be awarded.”
The deadline to sign up for the spring season is March 20, 11:59 pm PT. You can register here. If you have any questions, feel free to contact aghsregister@gmail.com.
“The AGHS is holding its second Girls Who Play Go tournament! Inspired by Girls Who Code, this tournament aims to promote go among young female players in the go community,” says AGHS Co-President Sophia Wang. “All under-18 female participants from across the globe are invited to participate. Rounds will be held on March 20th and March 27th on KGS (a change from last year’s BadukClub).”
If you would like to participate, please read the rules/regulations and sign up here by 11:59 pm PT on March 13th, 2022. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the tournament. Feel free to email aghsregister@gmail.com for any questions or concerns.
“Want to represent the AGHS internationally? The AGHS is excited to launch a new tournament called the Challenger Series,” says AGHS Co-President Sophia Wang, “In this tournament that will begin in June, a team selected by the AGHS will face off against a team selected by the Jena International Go School in Germany (JIGS). To be eligible for our team, you must participate in the March-April Youth League and win your division. We have a limited number of spots, so division winners will either be players or alternates for our team.”
More information regarding this event will be shared soon. You can stay up to date by checking the AGHS website at http://www.aghs.us and the AGHS discord channel in the AGA discord server.
