The video for GFriend’s new single looks like any other bouncy K-Pop video, except that it takes place in a Korean go club populated with the usual cast of old men hunched over go boards. GFriend (여자친구) has a new album coming out called “Parallel,” and the first single is “Love Whisper” (귀를 기울이면). They filmed the video at the Jongno Kiwon baduk salon outside of Seoul, where the baduk players’ reaction to the dancing, singing pop stars alternates between bemusement and obliviousness as they focus on their games. Thanks to fojiaotu posting to Reddit. The full article is on the AllKPop.com website.
– Steve Colburn
American Go E-Journal
How would you react if a K-Pop band showed up at your go club?
Sunday August 6, 2017
U.S. Go Congress Updates: US Open game records wanted; Record games, get stronger; Got cool Congress photos? Congress Classified
Sunday August 6, 2017
Sunday’s Congress Coverage: The E-Journal’s live coverage on Sunday, August 6 begins with a preview of the day — and an interview with “Surrounding Game” filmmakers Cole Pruitt (right) and Will Lockhart — on YouTube and Twitch at 8:30a PDT, and 
broadcast of the U.S. Masters top boards starts at 9a on YouTube/Twitch and KGS, with pro commentary starting around 10a by Jennie Shen 2P on KGS and Shirley Lin 1P on YouTube/Twitch.
Coverage of the Redmond Cup, featuring top young players, continues on all three platforms starting at 3p.
Starting at 7p our coverage of Round 2 of the U.S. Masters will be carried on YouTube/Twitch and KGS, with pro commentary by Yilun Yang 7P (KGS) and Stephanie Yin 1P (YouTube/Twitch) starting about an hour later.
US Open game records wanted: If you’d like your game records added to the official US Open crosstab, please email your sgf files to us at journal@usgo.org. Be sure to complete the game information with both player’s names and the game result. For best results, please send them in by 6p on the day the game is played.
Record games, get stronger: There’s another way of improving your game at this w
eek’s Go Congress, in addition to the simuls, lectures and lessons. Record games at the evening rounds of the US Masters, as the country’s top players battle it out. The rounds are Sunday, Monday and Friday, starting at 7p and running until 10p or so. No experience necessary but you must have your own laptop with the latest KGS client installed. If interested, email journal@usgo.org.
Got cool Congress photos? We’d love to see and post them! Email your best shots to us at journal@usgo.org and then watch for them on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Congress Classified: Seeking female Pair Go partner
“I am searching for a Pair Go partner for this Thursday’s tournament,” writes Boris Bernadsky 1d. “Must be 8 kyu or stronger, or already have cool costumes prepared.” Email badukboris@gmail.com
Got a go classified (Congress or other)? Email it to us at journal@usgo.org!
photos by Phil Straus (upper right) and Chris Garlock (lower left)
Canwa Vancouver 1 wins Pandanet City League for third time
Sunday August 6, 2017
A tournament that began last October culminated in a 3-game showdown Saturday afternoon at the U.S. Go Congress in San Diego.
The Canwa Vancouver 1 team faced Greater Washington in the finals of the Pandanet AGA City League, having topped the A League over seven rounds since October. In the end, Canwa Vancouver 1 prevailed, adding a third City League title to their wins in 2014 and 2016, and collecting the $5,000 top prize.
Canwa’s Matthew Hu 1p (B, second from right) lost to Greater Washington’s Tim Song 1p (W; left) on Board 1, but Canwa’s Ryan Li 1p (B, right) defeated Eric Lui 1p (w) on Board 2 and teammate Bill Lin 7d (b) defeated Yuan Zhou 7d (w) on Board 3 to secure the win for Canwa Vancouver. Cathy Li 1p (second from left) captained the team.
“Each of these players took the maximum amount of time to play,” reports TD Steve Colburn. “They each seemed to be intently thinking during their one hour of main time and played most of the game during byo-yomi. It was very tense at the ending of each game as most of the players were hanging on with only one period of time left.”
The full list of winners from the other Leagues are:
A League: Third = Boston; Fourth = Seattle 1; Fifth = Bay Area
B League: Winner = NY City; Second = Chicago; Third = Wash DC 1; Fourth = SF 1
C League: Winner = Syracuse; Second = Ottawa 2
D League: Winner = Cincinnati; Second = New Mexico
photo by Steve Colburn
E-Journal’s U.S. Go Congress coverage begins Saturday afternoon
Saturday August 5, 2017
The American Go E-Journal’s coverage of the 2017 US Go Congress begins Saturday, August 5 with live broadcasts on both our YouTube and Twitch channels at
2:30p PST with a Congress overview and intro with AGA president Andy Okun and Go Congress Co-Director Ted Terpstra, hosted by EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock. Then at 3p PST catch the City League finals with Jennie Shen 2p, hosted by Andrew Jackson. After the finals, Garlock will host a wrap-up and preview with the directors of “The Surrounding Game,” which screens Saturday night at the Congress opening. And be sure to follow us on Twitter for live tweets from the Congress site in San Diego.
photo: Steve Colburn preps game recorder laptops on Friday; photo by Chris Garlock
“Invisible” collects 78 AlphaGo games
Friday August 4, 2017
Ever since AlphaGo burst on the scene in January 2016 when it was revealed that the go AI had defeated European Go Champion and 
Chinese professional Fan Hui 2P 5-0 in a secret series, its games have been studied closely by go players around the world. As AlphaGo has established its dominance, defeating Lee Sedol 4-1 last year, amassing an astounding 60-0 record against top pros online this past January and then beating Ke Jie 3-0 in May, a 
number of commentaries have been published, both online and in print. The latest is “Invisible. The Games of AlphaGo,” (click here for a sample) a comprehensive collection of all 78 officially played games by AlphaGo against human opponents, 73 of them with professional commentary in English by Finnish go professional Antti Törmänen 1P and other professionals.
The title of the new book pays tribute to the classic “Invincible,” the collection of games by go master Shusaku, one of the . AlphaGo “has not only dominated the games against human opponents, but has also contributed a lot to the further development of go theory by playing some new josekis and setting new accents in the opening, and – last but not least – also breaking some previously valid iron rules of go theory,” says Tobias Berben of Hebsacker Verlag, which published the book. “You could say the AI has crushed the humans to free their go!”
“Invisible” is available to US customers for 40 Euros including shipping (book rate, uninsured) until the end of August 2017, when paying via Paypal to info@hebsacker-verlag.de; send your shipping address to info@hebsacker-verlag.de.
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 3: Three 3-3 invasions, a big moyo and a fight that fills the center of the board
Thursday August 3, 2017
This exciting game features an astonishing three invasions at the 3-3 point, prompting Michael Redmond 9p to note that “This version of AlphaGo 
will invade here at any time when there is no urgent fighting going on. AlphaGo played an early invasion at the 3-3 in just two of the 60 Master series games, but that was shocking, as it defied the common knowledge of pros that such an early invasion should be bad. In this 50-game series AlphaGo played an early 3-3 invasion about 40 times.”
Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which as usual includes extra variations.
“Black plays a big moyo game, and then chases an eyeless White group into Black’s moyo, to start a fight that fills the center of the board,” adds Redmond.
The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.
Meet the 2017 Redmond Cup Finalists
Wednesday August 2, 2017
After a preliminary tournament spanning nearly three months, Muzhen Ai 7d and Matthew Cheng 5d emerged at the top of the pack in the Senior (13-17) and Junior (12 and under) divisions respectively to compete in their first Redmond Cup Finals. However, they will face stiff competition against 4-time champion Aaron Ye 7d and 2-time champion Ary Cheng 6d, who placed second in their respective divisions. The first round of the best-of-3 Finals will take place at the 2017 US Go Congress on August 6th, with live commentary for the Senior Division by Eric Lui 1p and Julie Burrall 1d on the AGA Youtube channel. Learn more about the young finalists below:
17-year old Muzhen “Alan” Ai (at left) is from Dallas, Texas and is looking for his first Redmond Cup title after barely failing to qualify for the Finals last year. Despite sweeping the preliminaries 6-0, Ai told the EJ that he was “surprised to have made the finals after not studying go for a long time.” Ai started playing go at the age of 5 in Hebei, China after his mother accidentally took him to the wrong room of an apartment, which just so happened to be a go classroom. Studying with Zhao Yuhong 5p, Ai managed to achieve 5 dan in 3 years after barely passing the promotion tournament. On the last day of the tournament, he recalls, “I left early after losing my last game and thought I had no chance to get to 5 dan. When my mom was blaming me, she received a phone call from a teacher and was told that I was the last one on the promotion list.” Having moved to the US in 2015, Ai says that he “regrets not putting enough effort into studying go when he was little” but looks forward to playing some good games in the Finals.
15-year old Aaron Ye (at right) from Cupertino, California is a familiar face in the Redmond Cup, having won the Junior division title four times in a row from 2011-2014. However, this is his first Finals in the Senior Division, and he is looking to achieve the honorary title of Redmond Meijin, which is granted to those who win the Redmond Cup at least 5 times. So far, this has only been achieved by Eric Lui 1p in 2001 and Curtis Tang 8d in 2010. Going 5-1 in the preliminaries, Ye told the EJ that he is happy to have made the Finals, and would like to thank the AGF and the volunteers who run the tournament every year for so many years. In addition, he looks forward to having fun in San Diego with his go friends. When Ye was 5 years old, he stumbled upon go when a family friend’s son happened to have an extra spot in a group lesson. He currently studies with Myungwan Kim 9p and while he barely has time to play games due to schoolwork, he watches pro games while doing homework to keep himself in shape. Outside of go, Ye enjoys cooking and enjoying good food.
10-year old Matthew Cheng (at left) is from San Jose, California. He is qualifying for the second time this year, but only competing for the first. Last year he was busy attending the World Youth Go Championships as the US Junior representative and had to cede his spot in the Redmond. Matthew started playing go at the age of 5, and first learned by watching Youtube videos and then attending a local go class. In addition to learning from several teachers in the past (currently he studies by himself over the internet), Matthew also plays on IGS/KGS, does tsumego often, and reads many Chinese and English go books. Outside of go, Matthew also enjoys playing table tennis.
11-year old Ary Cheng (at right – no relation to Matthew) is from Sunnyvale, California and is the only returning finalist from last year’s tournament. Having held the Junior title for the last two years in a row, Ary is looking to defend his title once again. Ary started playing go at the age of 6 after attending a group lesson in a Chinese school, and has never stopped playing since. Currently, he is studying with Mingjiu Jiang 7p and practices by playing on IGS and doing life and death problems. Outside of go, Ary also enjoys playing table tennis.
The Redmond Cup is a premier youth tournament named after Michael Redmond 9p for dan players under the age of 18. Players compete in an online preliminary tournament in April to determine two finalists in both a Junior (under 13) and Senior (under 18) division. Finalists are given a free trip to the US Go Congress to compete in a best-of-three finals. – Justin Teng, AGA Youth Coordinator
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 2; Fighting throughout, a surprising sacrifice, a final huge ko
Wednesday August 2, 2017
“In this game AlphaGo shows great flexibility in the early stages, and also its ability to calculate extremely complicated fights later in the game,” 
says Michael Redmond 9P in his commentary on Game 2 in the AlphaGo-AlphaGo self-played series. Click here for his video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which includes the extra variations Redmond refers to in the video. “Against Black’s sanrensei, White plays two unusual moves at 10 and 16 to create a unique opening,” says Redmond. “As the fighting starts, White makes a surprising sacrifice, abandoning a group to take the offensive in the center. Fighting continues throughout the game to climax in a final huge ko.” The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.
Redmond’s AlphaGo-AlphaGo commentaries launched
Tuesday August 1, 2017
In the first in a new series of AlphaGo video commentaries, Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, reviews Game 1 of the amazing 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. Games 2-4 will be released this week, leading up to this year’s U.S. Go Congress in San Diego, which starts on Saturday.
“In the Master series earlier this year, AlphaGo first showed its big shimaris, and often played to dominate the center of the board in the early opening, using its famous shoulder hits to do so,” says Redmond. The Master version “had an early advantage in almost all of the games,” Redmond says, “and I was impressed with its ability to simplify complicated middle game positions and bring the game to an early outcome. Less convincing was the way Master handled complicated joseki. It also had a disturbing habit of losing several points in the endgame to win by the smallest possible margin.”
“With this new self-played series,” says Redmond, “I wanted to see how these traits had survived AlphaGo’s evolution; five months is a long period of time for a self-teaching AI. The exciting news is that Alphago has changed dramatically.” Click here, to find out how in the video commentary and see below for Redmond’s extensively commented sgf file. The videos are produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson; sgf editing support by Myron Souris.
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 4: Reminders of Go Seigen, escalating trades and semeais, and a final ko
Friday August 4, 2017
“With this game I get to talk about some moves in AlphaGo’s opening that remind me of the great player Go Seigen,” says Michael Redmond 9p
in his game commentary on AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 4. “The territory is very close throughout the game, while fighting in the center gradually escalates with trades and semeais to be calculated and discarded, and even during a final ko to kill a huge Black group, the correct variations leads to a half point difference.”
Click here for Redmond’s nearly 90-minute video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which as usual includes extra variations.
The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.
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