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Globis Cup Qualifier schedule set for this weekend

Thursday February 7, 2019

The schedule for the Globis Cup Qualifier is now set for this weekend, February 9-10, with an additional game on Monday evening, if necessary. The format will be a double-elimination between the four top entrants: Willis Huang, 6D (16); Brandon Zhou, 6D (15); Nate Morse, 4D (19); Sophia Wang, 3D (14).

All games will be played on KGS in the AGA Tournaments Room. AGA rules will be used, 7.5 komi, 1 hour basic time with 5 periods of 30 seconds byo-yomi.

The games will begin at 11 AM and 3PM EDT.

Round 1 (Saturday 2/9, 11A EDT):
Game 1: Willis Huang (KGS: whuang) vs. Sophia Wang (sophia)
Game 2: Brandon Zhou (atlbrandon) vs. Nate Morse (PassPeer)

Round 2 (Saturday 2/9, 3P EDT):
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2

Round 3 (Sunday 2/10, 11A EDT)
Game 5: Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 3

Round 4 (Sunday 2/10, 3P EDT)
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5

In the event that after Game 6 both players have a 1-1 record, a final game will be played Monday, 6P EDT to determine the championship and the North American representative to the 2019 Globis Cup in Japan.

– Jeff Shaevel, AGA National Tournament Coordinator

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

The Traveling Board: Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur

Tuesday February 5, 2019

Max Dohme of Berlin, Germany recently completed a swing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur, managing to find and make new go friends at each stop, “including a go lesson from Jimmy Cheng, secretary of the Malaysia Weiqi Association!” During the trip, Max — who started out as a 2-kyu — was promoted to Singapore 1-dan by Yang Jinhua 6p. He also kept records of his games and got them analyzed online by an AI:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Categories: Main Page,Traveling Go Board

Your Move/Readers Write: Even the Gray Lady and her pundits know about Go

Tuesday February 5, 2019

by Terry Benson

In an Op-Ed in The New York Times on Wednesday Jan 30th, columnist Thomas Friedman noted the success of AlphaGo and correctly reported on AlphaZero learning from itself in declaring that the word for the year should be “deep.” Computers are taking us “deep” and in Friedman’s opinion our institutions are not prepared for it.

Go players were shocked by AlphaGo’s success – we were toppled off the mountain – and we are trying to process what we’ve learned about Go. What happens when machines can run – not faster – but longer processing years of experience in hours and finding deep patterns – one thing we’ve always considered the essence of being human and of our very human game?

For Friedman, the power of AI machines in the hands of “bad actors” (as he characterizes some whole governments) by going “deep” is scary.

Go players know to look at the whole board and see the flow of the stones. We lose if we get caught paying attention only to our own corner or blindly following our opponent – a crafty machine – around the board. How can we go as deep? How can we see what the machines cannot? In game terms, how can we keep control of the evaluating function: our right to decide what is important for people, what should be known, what should be shared, and who will be in control of the machines.

It’s too late to pull the pull. It’s not possible to put this new genie back in the bottle. The ancient warning is the same: be careful what you wish for.

Benson, president of the American Go Foundation, is a former president of the American Go Association and former editor of the American Go Journal.
The E-Journal welcomes your thoughts and comments about the game of go and all things related. Email us at journal@usgo.org

Categories: Columns,Main Page,Your Move: Readers Write

U.S. and EGF pros to face off in Transatlantic Professional Go Team Championship

Monday February 4, 2019

The European Go Federation (EGF) and the American Go Association (AGA) will co-host the 2019 Transatlantic Professional Go Team Championship this Spring, with a prize of €10,000 for the winning team. “While top European and American go players have faced off before, at the SportAccord Games and IEMG for instance,” said AGA president Andy Okun, “this establishes a more formal setting for a healthy rivalry between the growing fields of EGF and AGA certified pros.”

Each team will consist of five EGF- and AGA-certified professional players. The Championship will use a win-and-continue format: each player continues to play until defeated. The first round is scheduled for April 7 at 20:00 Central European Time (14:00 US EST). Later rounds will follow weekly at the same time (with some rescheduling possible for tournament conflicts. There will be no game on Apr. 28) All games will be broadcast live by the AGA broadcasting team on both YouTube and Twitch.

Categories: Europe,Main Page,U.S./North America

AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 28 (Part 1): Who’s zooming who?

Sunday February 3, 2019

In their latest in the popular video commentary series, Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, review the first half of the 28th game of the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games. The 50-game series was published by Deepmind after AlphaGo’s victory over world champion Ke Jie 9p in May 2017.

“There’s a lot packed into this game,” says Redmond. “We start with a slightly confusing fight on the lower side, things slow down for a bit, then there are all these weak groups and it gets a bit confusing to tell who’s attacking and who’s in trouble, so it’s a pretty interesting middle game.” “Buckle your seatbelts!” adds Garlock. Part 2 will be published next Friday, February 8.

These videos are made possible by the support of the American Go Association; please consider joining today!

Video produced by Michael Wanek & Andrew Jackson.

[link]

Categories: Computer Go/AI,Main Page,Master/AlphaGo Commentaries,Redmond Reviews

5th Orion Latin American u18 Team Tournament “A great success”

Saturday February 2, 2019

The fifth edition of the Orion Latin American u18 Team Tournament held December 8/9 on OGS was a great success with 11 school and academy teams from Mexico to the southern tip of Chile and the Pacific coast (Ecuador) to the Atlantic (Argentina).

First place in the 6-round event was Team Villa High de México (Sebastián Bañuelos, Bruno Michaca and Paola Ortega), 2nd: British School of Chile (Gustavo Gibbons, Fernando Gallardo and Fernando Cárdenas). 3rd: Dojo de Go de México (Diego Luciano, Omar Zavala and Ruben Hernandez).

The decisive match was Round 5 between Villa High and the British School. Boards 1 and 3 had finished and split one each. It all came down to move 259 when the Chilean, Gallardo, had a winning placement to catch a group of Machaca’s – but was off by one intersection.

Thanks to the sponsorship of the American Go Foundation, the players of the Villa High team of Mexico will represent Latin America at the next US GO Congress next summer in Madison, Wisconsin.

Special thanks go to the board of the Ibero-American Go Federation, to the team coaches: Ernesto Cepeda, Haroldo Brown, Diego Albuja, Siddharta Ávila and Sebastián Montiel, and especially to the 33 youth players who brought tremendous enthusiasm and commitment to the contest.

Cross grid and event photos here.

– Terry Benson from a report by Sebastian Montiel of Chile.

Categories: Latin America,Main Page,Youth

Misc go news: Montclair Go Club

Tuesday January 29, 2019

“I recently started a new AGA chapter and I’m trying to generate some awareness of our newly established monthly game,” writes Matthew. “I’ve convinced the library at which I’m hosting it that if we get enough attendance for a few months in a row, they’ll let me start an actual teaching program for kids!”

The club meets the first Saturday of February:
Montclair Go Club
Montclair, NJ
Montclair Public Library
50 South Fullerton Ave
Montclair, NJ 07042
10am – 1pm
1st Saturday of every month

Got go club/chapter news? Let us know! journal@usgo.org

Categories: Main Page,U.S./North America

AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 27: That kind of a game

Sunday January 27, 2019

Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, continue their popular series with a review of the 27th game of the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games. The 50-game series was published by Deepmind after AlphaGo’s victory over world champion Ke Jie 9p in May 2017.

This game features two of the AG 3-3 invasions, a symmetrical shape and then “group after group appear on the upper side, right next to each other, and we’re going to have fun counting the number of groups,” says Redmond. “So it’s going to be that kind of a game.”

“Simply astounding game,” writes GerSHAK. “One of my favourites so far. Incredible detective work from Michael. Thank you so much.” Adds Rory Mitchell: “Wow! Just…wow!”

These videos are made possible by the support of the American Go Association; please consider joining today!

Video produced by Michael Wanek & Andrew Jackson.

[link]

Categories: Computer Go/AI,Main Page,Master/AlphaGo Commentaries,Redmond Reviews

Strong players under 20 wanted for 6th GLOBIS

Saturday January 26, 2019

The AGA is seeking a representative from North America to participate in the 6th GLOBIS Cup U-20 World Go Championship to be held in Tokyo, Japan between April 18-22. To be eligible, the player must be under 20 years old as of Jan. 1, 2019. Food and lodging will be paid for (including for a chaperone if the player is under 18), but NOT the cost of getting to and from Japan. If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please write to tournaments@usgo.org no later than Sunday, Feb. 3. Depending on the number of entries received there may be a preliminary tournament sometime between Feb. 4 and Feb. 15 to make the final selection.

– Jeff Shaevel, AGA National Tournament Coordinator

Categories: Japan,Main Page,U.S./North America

Multilingual Go Book Project launches

Friday January 25, 2019

The simplest ideas are often the most complex. For example: a basic go book in multiple languages to spread the game around the world. That’s the idea behind the Multilingual Go Book Project. “The project came to be due to the difficulties of promoting go in my home country, Greece,” says H. Kapolos. “We didn’t have educational material in our language and there were young people and adults who wanted to learn the game, but could not read English.”

When Kapolos participated in the European Go Championship, he noticed “that some countries around our division and our region didn’t have too many young players in them either,” and it occurred to him that “maybe they need a book in their language as well. Something that could circulate in libraries, schools, universities and game shops. Places where young people with a passion for board games might be found.” So, he thought, “why should we stop at only English and Greek? We should make the book in more languages and have it be free for everyone.”

So far, the project has two books of 192 pages of content — more than 700 diagrams each — in English and Greek, both completely free. Kapolos is now looking for collaborators to translate it into other languages, “especially in Spanish and Portuguese, whose translations have already begun.”

Categories: Main Page,Tools: books, software & hardware

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