American Go E-Journal » Youth

Teacher of the Year Nominations

Saturday March 3, 2012

Nominations for the American Go Foundations Teacher of the Year award are now open. The award is presented each year at the U.S. Go Congress and recognizes an outstanding American teacher. The winner will receive an all expenses paid trip to the congress. To be eligible, a teacher must be a member of the AGA, have been teaching go to children for at least two hours a week for two years, have started a go club or organization for youth, and have helped their students enter appropriate tournaments, if possible. If you would like to nominate someone for this award, including yourself, e-mail mail@agfgo.org. Nominations are due by April 15 and should include a description of the teacher’s activities, how long they have been teaching, and how many students attend their program. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Last year’s winner Fritz Balwit, with his son Theo. Photo by Fritz Balwit.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Zavala, Shakti, Top Mexican Youth Go Championships

Monday February 27, 2012

Lillian Zavala 9k and Ogam Shakti 15k led the top division of the Mexican Youth Go Championships, held Feb. 11 in Mexico City. 44 kids attended the event, which was limited to those under the age of 12. “We had the support of some of the pioneer go players in Mexico,” reports Mexican Youth Coordinator Siddhartha Avila. “Dr. Marcos Arámbula helped organize, and Dr. Ricardo Quintero was the referee, both were active in the 80’s, when the game was almost unknown in Mexico. The kids had a great time at Ekoji Buddhist Temple where the tournament took place, a special thanks goes to Rev. Todaka and the Temple’s staff for kindly hosting the event. Before the tournament we saw kendokas training at their dojo, with them, the garden, the altar, the statues, tatami rooms, go boards, bowls and stones, the atmosphere took us for a moment on a trip to ancient Japan where Igo has been practiced for so long. Santiago Dimayuga, a 6 year old child with autism played in Section C, reaching 4th place. He has been playing for just a couple months, with the support of his Teacher Ana María who taught him the basics; this is a great achievement, he seems to like go very much. This proves once again the inclusive nature of go, and how we can break barriers through its practice. This experience broadened our vision about teaching, and there are talks about making a deeper approach in the field of go and autism. In Section A there was a tie between Lilian Zavala 9k and Ogam Shakti 15k each with 4-0 records, the final will be played soon, Vicente A. Cortez 14k came in third place. Omar Zavala 13k won Section B, followed by Hans Torres 20k and Fernando López 20k. Section C was topped by Leonardo Pineda 24k, second place went to E. Amélie Zdeinert 24k and third place to Ximena Tejada 25k. We would like to thank all the teachers, parents and volunteers for their support in making this event possible, as well as the American Go Association for their prize sponsorship – the winners had nice sets of Yunzi stones as prizes,” writes Avila. Full Results are here, a photo gallery is here. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo and report by Siddhartha Avila.

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

Collegiate Go League Forms

Sunday February 26, 2012

The Collegiate Go League, a new competitive league for university go clubs, is attracting new schools and players. Funded by the Ing Foundation, the group was created by eleven college students from the US, who attended the first ever Shanghai Ing Foundation China Summer Go Camp. The team experienced Chinese culture first-hand and played friendly matches with students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing Normal University, and Fudan University. “We organized our US league to create a stronger network of school-based go clubs,” writes Brian Lee. “We’ve successfully held two rounds of matches, with 4, then 6 schools. We’re in the process of inviting more schools, and we’ve got at least 8 teams slated for our next match on March 3rd.” Matches are held on the KGS Go Server, in the “Collegiate Go League” club room. Every other week on Saturdays at 1pm EST / 10am PST, school go clubs field a team of five players. “Games are handicapped, and after the matches, strong players will be available to review games, giving a chance for kyu and dan-level players alike to improve and meet other players in the collegiate go community. Current participating schools include: Brown, Brandeis, MIT, Northeastern, Cornell, Princeton, U-Michigan, and U-Maryland. We are looking to add more teams, and would love for you to join us,” adds Lee. The next match is March 3rd, more details are here. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

School Teams Tourney Deadline March 1

Thursday February 23, 2012

The deadline to sign up for the American Go Honor Society’s School Team Tournament is March 1. The tournament will be held online, March 17 and 24. Teams must have three students currently enrolled in the same K-12 school/learning institution, and may include an alternate player in case of no shows. Prizes include Go sets, Go books, and plaques for division winners, as well as Go bucks for all teams that play their games. Visit the AGHS website for more info. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Jasmine Yan: First Place plaque for Jr. Varsity Division, from last year.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Ye Wins USYGC

Monday February 20, 2012

Nine-year-old Aaron Ye 5d, has done it again, defending his title as the US Youth Champion in the under 12 age bracket. Ye entered the finals in third place, having lost a game in the qualifiers to his rival Jeremy Chiu 4d, age 9, but went on to win all other matches and secure his spot on the US team at the World Youth Go Championships this summer. The qualifiers were held on Jan. 21 on KGS, with the top four youth moving on to double elimination finals. In addition to Chiu and Ye, Justin Ching 1d and Daniel Liu 3d also made the finals. Ye got even for his loss in the qualifier, by defeating Chiu in the second round, while Ching was knocked out after losing to Liu and Chiu, which made the final matches a showdown between children who all live in the Bay Area. The last rounds were held live, at the BAGPA ratings tourney on Feb. 11. Chiu played Liu first, drawing black and opening with the High Chinese, which led to a strong win, and set the stage for his face off with Ye. With no losses in the finals, Ye was in strong form. He drew black and opened with the Low Chinese. Chiu resisted strongly, but had to resign when Ye gained the advantage in a fight between dueling eyeless dragons. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Steve Burrall: Jeremy Chiu 4d (l) vs. Aaron Ye 5d (r).

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Portland Elementary Schools Duel

Monday February 20, 2012

On Sunday, Feb. 19th, two eight player teams, from Irvington Elementary School and Sun Montesorri School, in Portland OR, played a two round match. The score was 8-8. Irvington was a player short and added a ‘ringer’ in Theo Balwit (organizer Fritz Balwit’s son) to even the playing field. The players are in the 2nd through 5 grades and this is their first year in team play. Sunstone won 6 games in the opening round, Irvington 6 in the second. In a battle with big swings, Holden Anderson was able to hold out over Ellis Zehnder for a 2 1/2 point win. It’s not clear which team won the game of tag after the go match. Both teams would like to play again. Results: Irvington Team: Theo Balwit, 2-0; McCaleb Nesseler-Cass, 1-1; Jordan Reed, 1-1; Ellis Zehnder, 0-2; Aden Corkum, 2-0; Ben Snead, 1-1; Tyler Reed, 1-1; Alton Lechner, 0-2. Sunstone Montesorri Team: Amos Brown, 1-1, Holden Anderson, 2-0; Hanson Lian, 0-2; Ishan Varma, 1-1; Nico Karassik, 0-2; Soren Lindseth, 1-1; Shalem Len, 1-1, Dylan Lian, 2-0. – Story and photo by Peter Freedman

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Mexico Schools Portland

Monday February 6, 2012

Four teams of elementary school kids in Portland OR and Mexico City, competed against each other in a friendly inter-school match on KGS, Jan. 21st. The kids from Mexico attend Pipiolo Art Institute, and are taught by Siddhartha Avila, who is building a vital Mexican Go community around his youth programs. In Portland, Peter Freedman is workingwith kids at the Irvington School Chess and Go Club. Each school fielded two teams of three kids, the youngest player was 6 years old. The Mexican kids have been playing longer, and won an impressive 10 out of 12 games. “The kids on both sides were really, really, excited,” reports Freedman. “They chatted nicely with each other as they played: ‘How old are you?’ ‘You won. You are better than me.’…We Skyped at the same time, so the kids could see each other. We made introductions, saw Sid’s classroom…it was very, very cool,” added Freedman.
– Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor. Photos: top: Peter Freedman and the Irvington School kids; bottom: Siddhartha Avila with the Pipolo students

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

Redmond Cup Open for Registration

Monday February 6, 2012

Young American go players can now sign up for the 19th annual Redmond Cup Tournament. Preliminary games will be played on the Internet, courtesy of IGS-PandaNet, and the four finalists will be invited to the 2012 US Go Congress to play the final games. There are two divisions in the Cup; the Junior league for kids under 12 years old, and the Senior league for those under 18, on August 1st 2012. Competitors in the Senior League must have an AGA rank of 1 dan or higher, in the Junior 5 kyu or stronger. 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. The tournament director for the Redmond Cup is Michael Bull; Ing rules of Goe for all games. To register e-mail youth@usgo.org with your name, phone #, date of birth, AGA rating, IGS ID, and citizenship. The registration deadline is March 8, 2012. The Cup is sponsored by Michael Redmond 9P and his family, the American Go Association and the American Go Foundation. Photo: 2011 finalists, Aaron Ye 4d (l), and Sammy Zhang 3d(r) compete at the US Go Congres in Santa Barbara. – Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Sun Wins U.S. Youth Go Championships

Monday January 30, 2012

Fourteen-year-old Calvin Sun 7d reasserted his position as the strongest youth player in America this past weekend. He entered the double elimination finals for the US Youth Go Championships as one of four finalists, in the Senior Division, but went on to win every game in a dynamic show of force. Andrew Lu 6d was the only player to beat Sun in the qualifiers, also scoring a win against Hugh Zhang 7d, which gave him the top slot as the finals began. Lu started out well, defeating Zhang again in the first round of the finals, while Sun beat Matthew Harwit 4d. Round 2 saw Zhang knocking out Harwit, while Sun got even with Lu for his earlier defeat. Next Lu and Zhang squared off, but Zhang was determined not to lose a third time to Lu, and knocked him out in a strong third round showing. Zhang was now aiming for Sun again, the two boys have been rivals for years, competing in the Redmond Cup and other events since they were both small children. Sun stood his ground yet again though, knocking Zhang out in the exciting final match – and claiming the championship. The games drew over 200 spectators on KGS, and a great deal of enthusiasm from US youngsters who had competed in the qualifiers the week before. Sun will go on to represent the US at the World Youth Go Championships this summer. In the Junior Division, Aaron Ye 4d and Jeremy Chiu 4d faced off against Daniel Liu 3d and Justin Ching 1d. Ching was knocked out, setting the stage for a showdown between Liu, Chiu, and Ye. As all three boys live in the Bay Area, they will compete live at the BAGPA ratings tourney on Feb. 11. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Brian Allen: Calvin Sun at the US Go Congress.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Lu and Chiu Top USYGC

Monday January 23, 2012

The United States Youth Go Championships (USYGC) pulled in almost 70 players this past weekend on KGS. Kids and teens competed in five different bands, with players ranging from 7 dan to the double digit kyus. Dan level kids were also competing for entry into the four player finals, and the right to represent the US at the World Youth Go Championships this summer. Fifteen-year-old Andrew Lu 6d (at left) finished first in the qualifiers for the Senior Division (under 16) while nine-year-old Jeremy Chiu 4d (at right) placed first in the Junior (under 12). The finals are double-elimination, and the first two rounds were held Sunday. The finals continue next week on KGS for the Senior Division, while Jr. Division kids will square off in person on Feb. 11th, at the BAGPA ratings tourney in Menlo Park CA. For full qualifier results, go here; for schedule and results in the finals go here. Senior finalists are Andrew Lu 6d, Hugh Zhang 7d, Calvin Sun 7d and Matthew Harwit 4d; Junior finalists are Jeremy Chiu 4d, Justin Ching 1d, Aaron Ye 4d, and Daniel Liu 3d. Winners Report: 1st place Sr. 5-8 dan: Andrew Lu 6d; 1st place Jr. dan: Jeremy Chiu 4d; 1st place Sr. 1-4 dan: Matthew Harwit 4d; 1st place Sr. 1-5 kyu: Anurag Varma 3k; 1st place Jr. 1-5 kyu: Austen Liao; 1st place Sr. 6-10 kyu: Louie Liu 7k; 1st place Jr. 6-10 kyu: Raymond Liu 6k; 1st place Sr. 11-15 kyu band: Kalinda Fraser 12k; 1st place Jr. 11-15 kyu band: Bryan Tan 12k. The tournament was run by Paul Barchilon and Karoline Burrall. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

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