“T minus 25 days and counting,” reports 2022 U.S. Go Congress Co-Director Eric Wainwright. Nearly 400 have signed up for the first in-person Go Congress since 2019, set for July 30 through August 7 in the scenic Rocky Mountains in Estes Park, Colorado. In addition to both rated and unrated tournaments, the Congress features 85 sessions with professional go players, including lectures, game analysis, and simuls. “On-site lodging is full,” Wainwright reports, “but we’re seeing a few random cancellations. The waitlist is near empty, so get your name added here.” Some off-day tours are still available, including Rocky Mountain National Park, horseback riding, and town tour.
A pair of precocious 14-year-olds are North America’s newest professional go players.
Kevin Yang and Alexander Qi topped a competitive field at the North American Go Federation’s (NAGF) 2022 Pro Qualification tournament this week. Click here for final standings, game records and links to video commentaries.
Held at the National Go Center in Washington D.C., the pro qualifier featured eleven top North American amateurs facing off in two rounds a day over five grueling days starting last Monday. Yang swept Group A, defeating Eric Yoder, Qiyou Wu, Eric Lee, Yuan Zhou and Val Lewis. Qi was also undefeated in Group B, beating Remi Campagnie, Edward Zhang, Nate Morse and Tyler Oyakawa.
Yang and Qi then faced off in a best-of-three match, splitting the first two games, with Yang winning the third game on Thursday morning to clinch the first pro spot. Qi then took on Eric Yoder for the second pro slot, going 2-0.
American Go Association president Andy Okun congratulated all the players for their “extremely high level of play,” and said that it was a “special pleasure” to award Yang and Qi the 2022 NAGF professional certificates after their impressive performances this week. Okun thanked the NAGF for organizing the qualification tournament, I-Han Lui for directing, and the National Go Center for hosting. The qualification tournament was partly sponsored by the Iwamoto North American Foundation for Go (INAF).
Yang, who hails from California, started playing go when he was nine years old and in addition to his mother, who got him started, credits professional instruction for improving his game. His favorite part of the game, he told the EJ, “is probably the fighting in the middle game. It really gets your adrenaline flowing, you know?” His advice to amateurs who want to improve is “study life and death and don’t get too caught up in AI game analysis” because the AI moves are so high level they can be confusing “until you get up around 6-dan.”
Qi, who’s from New Jersey, started playing go when he was eight years old, learning from his father. He credits studying life and death with helping improve his game, along with reviewing pro games. Although he says he doesn’t have a lot of time for other hobbies, he does enjoy playing table tennis.
Special thanks to all the game recorders at the NGC this week, and to the amazing team at Baduk Club – led by Devin Fraze – who provided the online game commentary for the NAGF Pro Qualification tournament. – report by Chris Garlock NOTE: (7/6) Post updated to reflect INAF’s sponsorship.
Clockwise from top left: Postgame analysis of the final Qi-Yoder game; Rene Campagnie ponders Yoder’s broken ladder magic; postgame analysis of the final Yang-Qi game; Yang (standing in yellow) and Qi at the 2018 Cotsen Open; Yang-Qi final round game; AGA president Andy Okun, TD I-Han Lui, Yang and Qi with their pro certificates and winner’s checks. photos by Chris Garlock except the 2018 Yang-Qi photo by Robert Qi.
The next NAGF professional will be decided at Thursday morning’s final between Kevin Yang and Alex Qi, who split games on Wednesday. Yang — the top player in Group A — prevailed in their head-to-head match Wednesday morning, but Qi — the top player in Group B — bounced back to take Game Two on Wednesday afternoon, setting up the exciting finale on Thursday.
Eric Yoder and Remi Campagnie, who had both placed second in their groups and lost their semifinal placement games, mirrored the top-board battle, with Yoder taking the Wednesday morning game and Campagnie returning the favor that afternoon. The winner of their next match on Thursday morning will play the loser in Group A, and the winner of that final best of three showdown will become the second North American professional.
Campagnie (left) vs Yoder; photo by I-Han Lui
Complete standings here, and follow the NAGF Pro Qualifier’s live streaming coverage at 9:30am ET and 2:30pm ET, click here for live pairings and game files. Click here for photos, follow on Twitter, tournament details and player profiles here.
With a 4-0 record, Kevin Yang leads Group A in the NAGF Pro Qualifier taking place at the National Go Center in Washington, DC, while Alexander Qi is 3-0 in Group B. Complete standings here, and follow the NAGF Pro Qualifier’s live streaming coverage daily at 9:30am ET and 2:30pm ET, click here for live pairings and game files. Click here for photos, follow on Twitter, tournament details and player profiles here.
The 2022 North American Go Federation pro qualifiers kicked off today. Players are split into two groups, and from each group two will make it to a playoff round. Eleven players are competing, after one late withdrawal. After two preliminary rounds, Kevin Yang and Eric Lee are 2-0 in Group A, while Edward Zhang, Remi Coulon and Alexander Qi are 1-0 in Group B. Click here for informal standings (stay tuned for a formal version with SGF links) and here for photos. Tournament details and player profiles here.
by Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal
After seven months of intense competition between nine teams, the 2021-2022 season of the major Korean Go League came to an end in May. Below are some key features and highlights of the season. The KB Baduk League was named after its title sponsor Kookmin Bank (KB). It is the biggest professional Go tournament in Korea in terms of the number of games played and prize money. The 2021-22 season featured nine teams, and each was named after its sponsor (see table).
The qualifiers were held in October 2021. The regular season began in November 2021 and ended in April 2022 which was then followed by the play-in tournament and postseason. Only the top five teams plus the sponsor’s pick advanced to the play-in tournament and postseason. Different from most other professional go competitions held in Korea, all players received a participation fee for each game played during the regular season. The winner got 3 million KRW ($2,300) and the loser 600,000 KRW ($500). A new team called Youwho participated and was coached by Han Haewon 3p, who is the first female coach in the history of the KB League. Furthermore, the thinking time of one hour per player, and a byoyomi of 30 seconds 3 times was unified for all five games, in contrast to previous seasons which had two different thinking limits. Lastly, all games per round were played concurrently. The regular season was a double league which consisted of 18 rounds, 72 team matches, and 360 games. It ended with Suryeohan Hapcheon in the first place, followed by Posco Chemical. Both teams scored 10 wins out of 16 matches and shared the same number of board points (BP), however, Suryeohan Hapcheon had a better head-to-head score (2:0).
Table: KB Baduk League Season 2021-22: Final standings of the regular season.
Ace player Shin Jinseo’s team, Celltrion, placed only 6th in the regular season. However, they managed to rise like a phoenix by winning the play-in tournament against fifth-placed team Baduk Mecca Uijeongbu and then defeated three more higher-ranked teams in the postseason to reach the finals. In the finals, Celltrion fell short against the eventual league winner, team Suryeohan Hapcheon.
Figure: Play-in Tournament andPostseason of the KB Baduk League 2021-2022
Remarkably, Shin Jinseo succeeded in winning all his games in the regular season, the play-in tournament, and the postseason, resulting in a perfect score of 27:0 which is a new record in the history of the Korean Go League. During the prize-giving ceremony, the top five teams were honored, and individual awards were given to Shin Jinseo (MVP, Most Wins) and Ko Keuntae (Best Coach) as listed below. KB Baduk League Champion: Team Suryeohan Hapcheong (200M KRW = $155,000) Runner-up: Team Celltrion (100M KRW = $78,000) 3rd Place: Team Posco Medical (50M KRW = $39,000) 4th Place: Team Com2usTygem (25M KRW = $19,000) 5th Place: Team Kixx (15M KRW = $12,000) MVP Award: Shin Jinseo (Celltrion) (10M KRW = $7,800) Most-Win Award: Shin Jinseo (Celltrion) (5M KRW = $3,900) Best Coach Award: Ko Keuntae (Suryeohan Hapcheong) (25M KRW=$19,000)
Photo: Suryeohan Hapcheon won the KB Baduk League 2021-22. Photo courtesy of KBA.
KB Future’s Baduk League Season 2021-22 The KB Future’s League is the minor league among the two KB leagues. Both leagues share the title sponsor, teams, and the coaches; however, the team members are different. Rising stars in the KB Future’s League get the opportunity to play as reserve players in the KB Baduk League. The minor league has only three games per round, and the games are much faster: 10 minutes basic time plus 40 seconds byoyomi 5 times. Also, the game fees (win 450,000 KRW = $350, loss 200,000 KRW=$155), prize money, and notoriety that comes with winning the league are lower.
Photo: KB Future’s Baduk League Champion 2021-22 team Suryeohan Hapcheon. Photo courtesy of Han Changkyu (Hangame).
This year, team Suryeohan Hapcheon achieved the double champion title by winning both KB Leagues. Surprisingly, team Celltrion also came in second – just like in the KB Baduk League. The final standings, players, and coaches are shown in the table. The award for most wins was given to three players who won 12 out of 16 games (75%). Below is the list of the winners and the prize money.
KB Future’s Baduk League Champion: Team Suryeohan Hapcheon (30M KRW = $23,300) Runner-up: Team Celltrion (12M KRW = $9,300) 3rd Place: Team Posco Chemical (6M KRW = $4,650) Most-Win Award: Lee Hyunho 6p, Lee Wondo 8p, Wi Taewoong 5p (3M KRW = $2,300 split equally)
Table: Final standings of the KB Future’s Baduk League 2021-22.
The month began with a tour group visit by 25 Japanese amateur players to London where an informal match was held at Imperial College on June 1. The group was led by Itō Tomoe, who was then 4d. Itō was a disciple of Kita Fumiko, and by the time of the tour, she had won the Women’s Championship seven times, including five consecutive victories. The British Go Journal reported that the locals won most of their games, but “Mrs. Itō…won all of her games.” The photo attached was taken when the tour group visited Köln, Germany.
The big story continued to be the Hon’inbo title rematch between Ishida Hon’inbo and Rin Meijin. The month began with the challenger leading 2-1. On June 7 and 8, Ishida evened the score with a comeback win in Game 4. However, we see a confident Rin after going up 3-2 on June 16 and 17. Finally, we see Ishida concentrating from over the challenger’s shoulder as he survived kadoban and evened the series at 3-3 on June 29 and 30. (Game records: Game Four, Game Five, Game Six).
On the weekend of June 23-24, John Diamond 4d defeated Tony Goddard 4d in straight games for the British Championship.
Photos from Go Review, game records from SmartGoOne
The Gotham Go Group had a go teaching event at Harlem with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) and Marcus Meets Malcom earlier this month. Our group, invited by AAFE, taught half a dozen students, and Peter Armenia got some mini go boards to give away to interested students. We had different go players who came to support us, including Collin Baker, Peter Armenia (organizer of the Gotham Go Club), Joy Messer, Andrew McGowan, Dorothy, and Paul for coming to help out with the event. -Howard Wong, who served as the main organizer for the event.
Earlier this year Go Minimal was released for direct download on the Nintendo Switch. The game features local and online multiplayer. Another Go game for the Nintendo switch, Being Stronger While Playing! SilverStar Go DX, has local multiplayer only, but includes a tutorial mode and AI of various levels.
The New York Go Honor Society is having their annual Summer Open on July 2 and July 9. Players of any rank can join this 4 round Swiss style tournament. There will be a registration fee of $12 which will go towards tournament prizes. Registration will stay open until June 30th. To register, please use this link. Any other information on the rules and regulations can be found here.
