Monday March 23, 2015
The School Teams Tournament has extended their registration deadline to this Wednesday, to catch any last minute teams that didn’t have time to sign up. The tourney starts this Saturday. All matches will be played online, and schools from Canada, the US, and Mexico are all invited. Scholarship and cash prizes will both be distributed. To register, fill out the form here, by March 25. More information may be found on the AGHS website.
Friday March 6, 2015
There is still time to sign up for two of the major youth events of the year: the Redmond Cup and the School Teams Tournament. Registration for the Redmond is due by March 15th, School Teams by March 20th.In the Redmond, preliminary games will be played online and the four finalists will be invited to the 2015 US Go Congress to play the final games. There are two divisions in the Cup; the Junior league for kids 12 and under, and the Senior league for 17 and under. Competitors in both leagues must have an AGA or CGA rank of 1 dan or higher. Players who complete the tournament will be eligible for $400 scholarships to the AGA Go Camp, or $200 scholarships to the US Go Congress, on a first come first served basis, courtesy of the AGF. For more information on the event, read the rules document here. To register click here.
The 2015 School Team Tournament (STT) will be held March 28 and April 4. All matches will be played online, and schools from Canada, the US, and Mexico are all invited. As a new top prize this year, the American Go Foundation is offering full scholarships (tuition + room/board) to the AGA Summer Go Camp. All three members of the top dan and top kyu team will win the scholarships. Prizes will also be awarded in the other divisions, including $75 cash for first place, $50 for 2nd, and $25 for 3rd, as well as medals, and the stylish new AGHS T-Shirt. To register, fill out the form here, by March 20. More information may be found on the AGHS website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Siddhartha Avila: Mexican youth compete in a team tourney.
Monday March 2, 2015
The Ing Foundation will be hosting the second annual International Collegiate Go Tournament this summer in Taiwan, according to the 
American Collegiate Go Association. The event will begin on July 7th and will conclude on the 13th. “I was lucky enough to attend last year’s event in Hong Kong as a guest and saw that the kids who were there playing had an amazing time,” said AGA president Andy Okun. The event is open to any current, future, or recently graduated college student, either undergraduate or graduate, who will attend or has attended school in the year 2015. All costs related to room, board, tours, and travel during the event will be covered by the Ing Foundation. “Players of all skills levels are welcome to participate and there will be separate divisions this year for high dan, low dan, single digit kyu and double digit kyu,” said ACGA’s Mike Fodera. You can find out more information on the ACGA’s website. If you have any questions about the event, or would like to find out more about previous events hosted by the Ing Foundation, email Mike Fodera.
photos: (left) courtesy ACGA; (right): courtesy Mike Fodera
Saturday February 28, 2015
Monthly tournaments are being held in the Tiger’s Mouth room on KGS, with prizes awarded in three categories. The next tourney will be Saturday, March 14th, at 10 am Pacific (1pm East Coast). Sections will vary depending on registration, but they are roughly 9 kyu + (SDK+Dan), 10-19 kyu (DDK), 20-30k (beginner). The latest tournament thread is here You must be a registered Tiger’s Mouth member to play. Post in the current thread to register. All ages may play, but prizes will only be awarded to those who are under 18 (or 18, but still in high school). Prizes include a complete 23 volume set of the Hikaru no Go manga, Your choice of any book in the Heart of Go series, or the Anime Prize pack. Players must complete all rounds to be eligible for prizes. – Paul Barchilon E-J Youth Editor
Wednesday February 25, 2015
Kids in Portland, OR, competed for candy in a Chess and Go Tourney, held at Taborspace, on Feb. 22nd, reports Peter Freedman. Four elementary schools, Roseland Heights, Richmond, Irvington, and Beverly Cleary, sent a total of 24 kids. Tommy Boyd Flynn, of Beverly Cleary took the first place trophy in the Go tournament, winning all four games. In a play-off for second place, Olin Waxler, also from Beverly Cleary, defeated Kieran Cronin, of Irvington. Both had 3-1 records. Fourth place was taken by Emmett Mayer with a 3-1 record, one of his wins being a bye. Games were played on 13×13 boards. “All the children were either unranked or double digit kyu players,’ adds Freedman, “kudos to Elsa Warner, the only female go player, and to Ai Rose Solomon, the only female chess player.” The top three places in the chess tournament were all taken by Irvington players: Ansel Wallace, 1st, Mason Buchanan, 2nd, and Leo Frankunas, 3rd. Each Go player received a packet of black and white M&M’s, and each chess player received a chocolate king or queen. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
Monday February 23, 2015
The 2014 American Go Foundation College Scholarship winners are Amy Su of Bridgewater, New Jersey and Leon Lei of Bardonia, New York, AGF President Terry Benson announced. “We had nine applicants this year, more than ever, and all of them worthy candidates,” Benson said. “For the first time, students included school-related assignments as part of their applications; one winner’s paper was favorably received at a regional competition. Another applicant tried to measure the impact of go instruction on school performance. It’s great to see students exploring the mathematical, psychological and other intricacies of go in their schoolwork.”
The AGF awards two scholarships of $1000 each year to ” high school students who have served as important youth organizers and promoters for the Go community,” according to the AGF website. College-bound US citizens are encouraged to apply in the fall by submitting an application form and an essay; the scholarships are awarded in November.
Amy Su 5D of Bridgewater NJ was already an experienced tournament competitor when at age 12 she “decided to change my relationship with go. Instead of playing for my own satisfaction, I chose to devote my time to teaching others about the game, to give them a chance to discover the art, and for me to pass on my enthusiasm for the game. I learned to teach by watching my mother [Feng Yun 9P] teach at her go school.” After starting go classes in two different Chinese schools, Amy became active in The American Go Honor Society, where she is now serving as Promotion Head. “Teaching Go [has] given me leadership, mentoring, and speaking skills,” Amy wrote in her essay. “It taught me patience, and how to encourage others to learn. As a student, it taught me how to think and use logic. It changed me as a thinker, a dreamer, an artist.”
Leon Lei 10K learned go at the The Huaxia Chinese School in White Plains, NY from Ms. Tang Jie 4D. After bitterly grieving his early losses, Leon “realized that much more can be gained from a lost game than an excess pile of teardrops,” going on to win his school’s tournament two years in a row. ” When he graduated from Chinese school, which had grown to more than 40 students, he stayed on as an assistant teacher, while also starting a club at his high school. He also submitted a paper, “Go and Mathematics”, to The Greater New York Math Fair, where it gained entry into the second round of competition. Leon explored the question of how to calculate the number of possible go games, noting that it is far larger than commonly thought. Many calculations only consider the number of possible arrangements of stones on the board, but he noted that the stones can also appear in any order; any single ending position accounts for thousands of possible games. Leon’s paper and other school-friendly resources are available on the AGF’s Lesson Plan Cooperative.
The AGF College Scholarship recognizes high school students who have served as important youth organizers and promoters for the Go community. Juniors and seniors who plan to attend college and believe they meet the criteria are encouraged to apply by November 1 of each year. Scholarships may be awarded to one male and one female applicant based on merit. “If we continue receiving so many applications of such high quality, we may need to increase the budget for scholarships,” Benson said. — reprinted from SENSEI: The American Go Foundation Newsletter. Click here to read other issues of Sensei. Subscribe for free at the bottom of this page.
Thursday February 19, 2015
The American Go Honor Society has announced the 2015 School Team Tournament (STT) will be held March 28 and April 4. “The STT is our annual flagship tournament, played in the classic Hikaru no Go team style where each school sends three representatives to compete against other schools,” said AGHS Co-President Hugh Zhang. All matches will be played online, and schools from Canada, the US, and Mexico are all invited. As a new top prize this year, the American Go Foundation is offering full scholarships (tuition + room/board) to the AGA Summer Go Camp. All three members of the top dan and top kyu team will win the scholarships. Prizes will also be awarded in the other divisions, including $75 cash for first place, $50 for 2nd, and $25 for 3rd, as well as medals, and the stylish new AGHS T-Shirt pictured at right. This year’s tournament will be held on March 28 and April 4. To register, fill out the form here, by March 20. More information may be found on the AGHS website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.
Friday February 13, 2015
The 22nd annual Redmond Cup will begin in April, and registration is due by March 15th. Preliminary games will be played online and the four finalists will be invited to the 2015 US Go Congress to play the final games. There are two divisions in the Cup; the Junior league for kids 12 and under, and the Senior league for 17 and under. Competitors in both leagues must have an AGA or CGA rank of 1 dan or higher. The Junior league has been expanded to include 12 year olds, and both leagues now require a dan rating (kyu players can compete in the North American Kyu Championships instead). Players who complete the tournament will be eligible for $400 scholarships to the AGA Go Camp, or $200 scholarships to the US Go Congress, on a first come first served basis, courtesy of the AGF. Competitors from Mexico are also invited to the event. The participants must be members of the American Go Association or the Canadian Go Association and either residents of the U.S., Canada or Mexico, or citizens of the United States living anywhere in the world, provided that they are also members of the AGA. For more information on the event, read the rules document here. To register click here. –Story and photo by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Bill Lin 7d (l) vs. Jianing Gan 7d (r), in the foreground, while the Jr. League players compete in the background, at the 2014 US Go Congress in New York..
Tuesday February 10, 2015
Brandon Ho 2k, age 13, and Matthew Cheng 2k, age 8, won the top division of the North American Kyu Championships, held Feb. 7th, on KGS. 41 kids and teens, including 8 from Mexico, and one from Canada, joined in the event. First place winners, in all brackets down to 25 kyu, will be receiving engraved crystal trophies, in both Junior (under 13) and Senior (under 18) brackets, and everyone who entered becomes eligible for AGF scholarships to either the AGA Go Camp, or the US Go Congress. Dan players will get their chance to shine in the upcoming Redmond Cup, which will open registration later this week. For full tournament results click here. – Paul Barchilon, AGA Youth Editor
Thursday January 29, 2015
Peter Freedman (at far right), Hikaru Saito, Glenn Peters, Jessie Jenkins and Jessie’s friend, Austin, taught at least 50 people to play go at Portland’s Mochitsuki Festival on Sunday January 25th. Held at Portland State University from 10 to 4 , thousands came to celebrate the new year, eat traditional food and experience traditional Japanese culture. -Photo and story courtesy Peter Freedman