American Go E-Journal » Youth

China Wins World Youth; US Places 6th, and 8th

Monday September 8, 2014

Xu Jiayang 2P and Huang Mingyu 5d, both of China, won the 31st World Youth Goe Championship, held in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia from August 13th to 19th. The US players were chosen by the Ing Foundation, and included Albert Yen 6d in the senior division (under 16 years old) and Brandon Zhou 4d in the junior division (under 12 years old). Eric Liu 1d was also invited to compete as a special representative. “I have learned a lot from this tournament,” Yen told the E-Journal, “especially from the games in which I was defeated. I lost to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Fortunately, our team leader, Mingjiu Jiang 7p reviewed several of my games so I could learn from my mistakes. Although I wanted to do better than 8th place, I have tried my best. Overall, the 31st World Youth Goe Championship gave me an opportunity to make friends and compete with the top youth players in the world.” Fourteen countries participated, with twelve players in each division. Yen placed 8th in the Senior, while Zhou and Liu placed 6th and 8th in the Junior. The runner up of the Senior was Lee Eodeokdung 5d from Korea, and the runner up in the Junior was Shih Ching Yao 6d from Taiwan. Complete results, plus photos of the event can be found on the 31st WYGC website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor, with Albert Yen. Photo: Albert Yen (l) of the US vs. Low Rea Qiu of Malaysia.

Categories: U.S./North America,World,Youth

West America Student Go Championship Launches

Monday September 1, 2014

A new tournament for California students, the West America Student Go Championship, is being organized by Clement Wong of the Riverside Go Club, and Yunxuan Li of the Diamond Bar High School Go Club. The tournament will be held on September 27, from 11 AM to 8 PM at the University of California, Riverside. “We sincerely hope students of all age can come and compete with each other and develop a friendly bond,” says Li “There will be many great prizes, such as trophies for winners, and other awards, and pizza for lunch, at a small fee, along with other refreshments. We really hope this will be a competitive and fun event for young people to enjoy”. The registration form is here, and there is no fee to participate. Direct any questions to Yunxuan Li at YunxuanL@Live.cn.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Zhang Co-President of AGHS; Officer Positions Open

Saturday August 23, 2014

Hugh Zhang 7d will be serving a second term as co-president of the American Go Honor Society (AGHS), alongside Calvin Sun 1P, who will be serving his first term. The organization, run entirely by high school students, has opted for two presidents several times before. “It’s great to see a lot of new faces joining the AGHS. I’m excited for the coming year and hope it will be our most successful yet!” Zhang told the E-Journal. “A lot of new ideas were suggested by various members this year, and we hope to implement some of them in the coming year.” Officer positions are still open, and the AGHS has extended the deadline until August 28th. Sign up today and help build the future of American go. Details and the application are available on the AGHS website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Hugh Zhang 7d competing in the 2013 Korean Prime Minister’s Tournament.

Categories: Go News,U.S./North America,Youth

Lin and Ye Win Redmond Cup; Youth Team Results

Saturday August 16, 2014

Bill Lin 7d and Aaron Ye 6d are the winners of the Redmond Cup, after a series of online matches, and then a live final at the US Go Congress. In the Junior Division (under 13) Ye, who has held the Redmond title for the past three years, made it clear he has no intention of giving up his title. He won all five rounds of the online qualifiers, and then cemented his status with two wins in a row against runner up Jeremy Chiu 6d, who lost on time in round 1 on Sunday, and then was defeated on the board again on Monday. Both boys are 12 years old. In the Senior Division (under 18) Bill Lin was undefeated in the six round qualifiers, but then stumbled in the first round of the finals, losing to two year reigning champ Jianing Gan 7d on Sunday afternoon. He came back fighting strong on Monday though, winning that round, and then claiming the title with a second win on Thursday. Matches from both divisions were broadcast live on KGS, and hundreds of viewers watched the games.

Friday’s big event in the Youth Room at Congress was the Youth Team Tourney, where teams of three compete against each other, just like in Hikaru no Go. 16 teams competed, 48 kids total, in both dan and kyu brackets. Top honors were won by Zhen Xianan 7d, Yifei Gao 6d, and Xinying Jiang 6d (with Aaron Ye as the alternate on one match). In the Kyu Division, Patrick Zhao 10k, Kilin Tang 12k and Daniel Zhao 14k won first place. All six received prizes in the Youth Room, as a well as a trophy at the awards banquet, and a free one month membership for Baduk TV. – Story and photos by Paul Barchilon E-J Youth Editor. Top: Bill Lin 7d vs. Jianing Gan 7d in the Redmond Cup finals; Bottom: Kyu Division winners in the Youth Team, at right, demonstrate the advanced strategy that won them the match.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

Go Congress Youth Room Packed

Wednesday August 13, 2014

The Youth Room at the US Go Congress has been bustling all week, with over 100 kids and teens registered this year. Sunday drew scores of kids for Lightning Go, and 9×9 and 13×13 were very popular on Monday afternoon. Tuesday’s Youth Adult Pair Go featured 68 players, although several of them were Rengo (same sex pairs) instead of male-female. Many charming pairs were children playing with their parents, or strong players joining with younger siblings and relatives, even Andy Liu 1P got in on the action, playing with Alex Jiang 7k . After the day off break, Relay Go is planned for Thursday. The most popular event of the week, the Youth Team Tourney (where teams of three will compete in the same format seen in the Hikaru no Go manga) is set for Friday. Winners at all of these events have had their choice of a slew of great prizes: Hinoki Press generously donated a full case of each of their popular Heart of Go Series, all seven volumes, while Winston Jen donated both anime, and copies of the latest Japanese manga about go, Hoshizora no Karasu (Crow in the Starry Sky) – in the original Japanese, as it has not been translated into English. GoGameGuru donated both sets of stones, and copies of Speed Baduk Vol. 2. Youth Room directors Paul Barchilon and Fritz Balwit “have had our hands full, but are having a great time with the kids,” Balwit told the E-Journal.

Table Winners Reports: Lightning: Daniel Liu, Gilbert Feng, Frederick Bao, Patrick Lu, Daniel Zhao, Douglas Patz; 9×9: Forest Song, Willis Huang, Benjamin Peng, Yuga Suzuki, Sarah Crites, Seth Liang; 13×13: Sammy Zhang, Mike Fellner, Yuga Suzuki, Patrick Bao, Dowson Yang, Alex Du; Youth Adult Pair Go: Lirui Wu 7d and Dongfang Li 1P, April Ye 1d and Dae Hyuk Ko 7d, Melissa Zhang 2d and James Sedgwick 6d, Kelly Lu 3k and Michael Chen 7d, Melissa Cao 5k and Jie Liang 7d, Ann Wu 10k and Steven Wu 10k, Sammy Suastegui 15k and Jesy Felicca 6k, Sarah Crites 16k and Bob Crites 8k, Douglas Patz 22k and Alexandra Patz 13k. -Story and Photos by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor; top: Youti Wen 22k and Shen Wen 4k at left, vs. Alice Sedgwick 17k and Richard Newman 12k; Bottom: Prizes in the Youth Room, courtesy of Hinoki Press, GoGameGuru, and Winston Jen.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

Gan and Ye Up One in Redmond Finals

Sunday August 10, 2014

Finals for the 21st annual Redmond Cup got under way Sunday afternoon at the US Go Congress. In the senior division, two-year reigning champion Jianing Gan 7d faced off against Bill Lin 7d, who was undefeated in the preliminary rounds; both are 17 and in their last year of eligibility to compete in the Redmond. Gan, playing black, was determined not to lose, and defeated Lin by 3.5 points. In the Junior Division twelve-year-old Jeremy Chiu 6d duked it out with 3-year reigning champ Aaron Ye 6d. Chiu edged out top seed David Lu 6d in the preliminaries for the chance to play Ye in the finals. Ye, who spent much of the game sucking on a lollipop, forced Chiu into byo-yomi and then won on time. The next games in both divisions will be broadcast live on KGS (USGO1 and USGO2) at 3pm on Monday and Thursday. Story by Paul Barchilon with Karoline Li. Photo: Ye plays the Lollipop Tesuji at the Redmond Finals. Photo by Paul Barchilon
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Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

Zhang Named Co-President of AGHS

Saturday August 9, 2014

Hugh Zhang 7d will be serving a second term as co-president of the American Go Honor Society (AGHS), alongside Calvin Sun, who will be serving his first term. The organization, run entirely by high school students, has opted for two presidents several times before. “I have been concerned that we were getting lower and lower turnouts for our events, especially the School Teams Tournament ,” Zhang told the E-Journal. “A lot of new ideas were suggested by various members this year, and we hope to implement some of them in the coming year.” -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Hugh Zhang 7d competing in the 2013 Korean Prime Minister’s Tournament.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Go Classified: Teacher Wanted in San Jose

Wednesday August 6, 2014

I have been teaching at the Berryessa Chinese School for 14 years now and am honored to have had this opportunity,” writes Jean deMaiffe. “Because of my rewarding relationship with BCS, I am hoping to help them find other (preferably English-fluent) regular and substitute go teachers for their culture program. BCS has three campuses in the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose, California. One is for ‘the little kids’, one for the middle range (roughly eight through twelve years old) and one for high schoolers. My venue has been the middle range school, which I have very much enjoyed. Currently, BCS needs a teacher for the high school, may need one for the little kids, and may also need one for my school this coming year or the year after (negotiable) when I plan to retire. Clearly, if a teacher does well with the BCS school students, the teaching relationship can continue indefinitely. The middle school has its own equipment and a set of problem books. BCS has been willing to acquire classroom materials as necessary for my class. Interested teachers can contact BCS directly through their website, and may contact me via email at jean@dougandjean.com“

Categories: Go Classified,U.S./North America,Youth

IGF Launches Facebook Page

Tuesday August 5, 2014

The International Go Federation has launched a Facebook page and is urging go players worldwide to check it out and “like” the page. Recent posts include photos and updates from the European Go Congress in Sibiu, Romania as well as promoting the upcoming US Go Congress, which starts this Saturday in New York City.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware,Youth

McCormick Elementary Students Learn Go (And Math)

Tuesday July 29, 2014

Students at McCormick Elementary, in Chicago, IL, had the opportunity recently to learn to play go from Xinming Simon Guo 2d, a licensed math teacher and founder of the GoAndMath Academy. “Students were playing a simple game during the class, blissfully unaware that they were also working on math skills as they put every stone on the board and counted the result at the end of the game,” Guo told the E-Journal.

At McCormick, the go class is part of the Chinese Artists-In-Residency Program, co-sponsored by Confucius Institute in Chicago (CIC) and GoAndMath Academy. The Chinese language teachers at McCormick — where 99.5% of the students are hispanic and 50% are English Language Learners — Ms. Yeh and Ms. Huang, heard about the go program during the professional workshop organized by CIC last year. “Go is an ideal tool to achieve the goal of our Chinese curriculum–to enhance students’ understanding of Chinese culture, and reinforce their learning of language skills,” says Guo. “During the entire 2013-2014 school year, the go program offered more than 130 learning sections to more than 4500 students in Chicago public schools,” said Jane Lu, the director of CIC and coordinator of CPS Chinese World Language Program.

“Go is not just a simple game,” says Guo. “Research by GoAndMath Academy reveals that there exists a hidden natural connection between math and go. Students can experience math concepts without even noticing them. More specifically, go helps students develop number sense, and three domains in Common Core standards: Counting and Cardinality; Operations and Algebraic Thinking; and Number and Operations in Base Ten. GoAndMath Academy designed the educational go program, which is appropriate for Pre-K through eighth grade, is aligned with the common core standards, and can be played with peers in school or around the world. This fantastic game combines math, science, art, and competition, as well as ancient oriental philosophy and culture. Go requires the highest level of critical thinking. It cultivates the abilities of observing, reflecting, imagining, reasoning, innovating, and decision-making,” says Guo.
– Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Guo demonstrates the secrets of holding the go stone.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

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