Monday November 9, 2020
This is the final week to register for the Pandanet AGA City League . Check the rules for the tournament. Talk to your club this week. Register by November 15th to get your team in this year competition. Be a part of the strongest tournament in North America. Looking forward to see your team play this season!.
Saturday November 7, 2020
With the hiatus in over-the board tournament play due to Covid-19, there has been a lot of interest in online tournaments. The online US Open at this year’s e-Go Congress was hugely successful with hundreds of players participating from around the world.
At its upcoming Fall Tournament on November 14, the National Go Center will test a new project to rate online tournaments. “We wanted to do something to make online tournaments more attractive while also advancing the state of the art for ratings,” said project coordinator Josh Lee. The project uses the Glicko2 algorithm, which is used by the OGS go server, Chess.com and other sports.
Current AGA membership is required to play in the NGC tournament, and the online rating will be initialized from a player’s current AGA rating. Testing of the algorithm is being done with two earlier online tournaments from this year, with sample results posted here (Note that these are just a sample and the numbers are still changing as the calculations and parameters are being finalized).
Tuesday November 3, 2020
A couple more weeks remain to register for the Pandanet AGA City League Year 9. Read the rules for this team tournament. Register by November 15th to get your team in this year competition. Be a part of the strongest tournament in North America. Contact the TD with any questions.
Monday October 26, 2020
Bart Lipofsky reports that on a recent episode of Jeopardy, aired on October 16, 2020, featured Go about two minutes into the segment. “‘Category: 2 letter words – The name of the game seen here,’ with a nice view of a stone being placed on the board,” says Lipofsky.
Sunday October 25, 2020
“We had a very smooth and successful Stay Home Vermont Go Tournament this weekend,” reports Pete Schumer. “We began with a friendly Zoom get together Friday night, followed by Round 1 on KGS. Then on Saturday, we played rounds 2, 3, 4 and then had a fun wrap-up gathering on Zoom as well. There were 15 players mostly from Vermont, but also one from California, one from Japan, one from China, and one from Thailand. Kudos to the players from East Asia who kept up their good spirits despite the sleep deprivation.”
The tournament’s winner was Rich Chalmers (1D) who was the only player with a perfect 4-0 record. “In fact, this is a repeat performance for Rich who was already the current state champion,” says Schumer. Second place went to Jack Cary (3k) with a record of 3 -1. “Jack was also very busy helping to promote and set up the tournament and doing all the technical support throughout the weekend. Very much appreciated!” Dan Deneen (2k) finished third on 3 -1, and fourth place went to Caleb Lesher (6k) who also had a 3 – 1 record.
“We hope that more clubs will follow our lead, as well as that of the US Go Congress organizers, the Austin Go Club and a few others to continue to host additional tournaments on-line,” says Schumer. “It’s a great way to keep our wonderful community connected!”
Wednesday October 21, 2020
Team Boston, comprised of students from the Newton Chinese Language School (NCLS) and New Legacy Cultural Center (NLCC), was the champion of the Xiamen Kōdō Cup International Youth Go Tournament over the weekend of October 10/11. Players from the USA, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Australia, and New Zealand – 130 in total – competed every weekend of a two months of competition season. The players formed 10 teams for post-season competition; team Boston beat team Melbourne (8:0), Toronto (7:1) and Ninghai (5:3) to win the championship. Team members are Andrew Xu 3d, Jenny Li 2d, Ruihan Cao 4d, Albert Tang 1k, Yao Xiao 1d, Steven Chen 3k, Christopher Huang 3k, and Ernest Lam 6k, coached by Ke Lu 4d. Andrew Xu was named MVP of the post-season. Corey Zhao and Charles Gu participated in the regular season. Youth players interested in participating in the second Kōdō Cup next year should contact Ke Lu at Go.KeLu@gmail.com.
-report and photos provided by Ke Lu
Tuesday October 20, 2020
“Registration for the American Go Honor Society’s 2020 Young Lions Tournament is now open,” says Promotion Head Jenny Li, “This is one of AGHS’ longest running events and will be held on November 22nd and 29th this year. All eligible participants must be 18 years of age or younger, or currently enrolled in high school, and are citizens/permanent residents of North America. The tournament will be held in the AGHS Tournament Room on KGS. Prizes will be awarded to top finishers in each division. The registration deadline is November 15th, so be sure not to miss it! If you have any questions about the event, feel free to contact aghsregister@gmail.com.”
For rules and regulations, click here
For registration, click here
Friday October 16, 2020
by Keith Arnold, ska, with Patrick Bannister
Sad news on October 8, Germany’s Dr. Felix Duebell (left), passed away at age 90. Known as the “German Honinbo,” Dr. Duebell studied under Shusai and was the recipient of the first Okura prize. He was posthumously awarded the rank of 6 dan, back when that was truly strong. His role in organizing Go in Germany and Europe cannot be overstated.
But the promised main event this month was the culmination of the Meijin title. The big smiling black and white photo of Shuko tells the story. On October 6/7 Shuko took the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Shuko looks content in this picture (right) from early in the game, and who would not be in front of that beautiful kaya board (below). Find the game record here.
The title was won on October 16/17 as we see a huge crowd gathered at the finish (below). Look closely at the picture, can you find Abe Yoshiteru (but you find him in the back of all of this sort of picture. Or perhaps to you spot Kato Masao, or Ishida Akira, author of Ishi Press’s “Attack and Defense.” Finally, I think I see a young Cho Hun-hyeon. Let us know if you spot anyone else!
Friday October 16, 2020
Dave Weimer reports that in Adrian McKinty’s novel, Rain Dogs, the protagonist – a Northern Ireland detective investigating a murder – goes to Finland to interview the prime suspect. When he arrives, he finds the suspect playing Go. In a later chapter entitled “Kami no Itte” the suspect cleverly eludes trial.
Weimer further reports that on page 162 of The Vegetarian, by Han Kang (translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. London: Hogarth, 2016. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize and one of NYT 10 Best Books of 2016), there is the following passage: “There’d been a time when she could spend hours like this weighting up all the variables that might have contributed to determining Yeong-hye’s fate. Of course it was entirely in vain, this act of mentally picking up and counting the paduk stones that had been laid out on the board of her sister’s life.”
Redmond AlphaGo game commentary live tonight at 7p EDT
Sunday November 1, 2020
Michael Redmond 9P returns with more live commentary, this time on AlphaGo vs AlphaGo Game 49, tonight at 7p EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel. His review of the relatively peaceful Game 48 was released Friday night and the latest in the AlphaGo vs. The World series features AlphaGo Master vs. Meng Tailing 9P.