American Go E-Journal

Ninth Virginia Open welcomes all, features cash prizes and VA State Championship Prelim – register by 11/30

Saturday November 21, 2020

The Capital Go Club is proud to announce the 9th Virginia Open and 2nd VA State Championship Qualifier to be held on OGS and BadukClub on Saturday, December 5th and Sunday, December 6th. Players will compete across four divisions for four rounds: Open (4D+), Expert (1-4D), Intermediate (5-1K), and Novice (6K and below). Prizes will be $100, $50 and $25 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Open Division respectively, and $20 and $10 for 1st and 2nd in all other divisions. Female and youth winners (aged 17 and below) will be awarded additional $10 (minimal 2 wins). Go books are also available as rewards, sponsored by Hinoki Press. Prizes are sponsored by the Honest401k team. The first three rounds of the Open Division will be held Saturday 12/5 with the 4th round on Sunday 12/6. Other divisions will have all 4 rounds on Saturday 12/5.

The top four finishing Virginia residents will be invited to compete for the VA Champion in January of 2021 in a safe format, details to be announced. Last year Joshua Lee 6D defeated Qingbo Zhang 5D in the final and declared the first Virginia State Champion. “We encourage more youth players and more female players,” says organizer Edward Zhang. “Our perpetual trophy will be awarded to not only the VA State Champion, but also to the VA Youth Champion and VA Women’s Champion if more than three contenders compete in each subdivision.”

Pre-registration is required to participate in the tournament. The deadline for pre-registration is 5pm ET Nov. 30. Click here to sign up. The Registration fee is waived for AGA members, and $10 for non-AGA members. Players may pay by PayPal with reference to the player’s name. All games will be played on OGS, with pairing and results information available here. For questions or inquiries, please email Jeff Zhang at AGATD1@gmail.com. For more details and to register, visit the Washington Go Festival website. Thanks go to Jeff Zhang 5D for gathering tournaments history from AGA E-Journal featured on the website, including an Open Division winners list for tournaments of the Greater Washington metro area for the past 13 years.

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

Support American Go during the holiday season and beyond

Monday November 16, 2020

During this holiday season you’re going to do a lot of online shopping. While you’re on Amazon help American Go by donating a portion to the AGF. Amazon Smile helps by donating a portion of purchases through their Smile website. Please set your charity to “US GO FOUNDATION, dba American Go Foundation”. There are browser extensions (Chrome – Firefox) that will help redirect your browser to always support the Smile Program. Most purchases give back to this program and support Go in the US. Sign up today!

Categories: AGA Chapters,Main Page

Tony Yang 5D sweeps NGC Fall Online Tournament

Sunday November 15, 2020

Seventy six players from across the country participated in the National Go Center’s first online tournament on Saturday, November 14, competing via Zoom and KGS. Tony Yang 5D was the overall tournament champion with a perfect 4-0 score. All three- and four-game winners are being sent an NGC t-shirt in the style and color of their choice as a prize. Co-TD’s Gurujeet Khalsa and Garrett Smith kept the rounds running on time. “It helped a lot,” reports Smith, “to have an optional training session on Zoom the night before the tournament so everyone knew how to use the technology. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t and will use that in future online tournaments.”

The tournament was also the pilot of the online ratings system that Josh Lee and the NGC have developed. Says Khalsa, “After reviewing the numbers with Josh, we will publish the results online for community comment.”

Winner Report
4 Game winners: Tony Yang (5D), Jared Nishikawa (2D), Mario Espinoza (6K), David Rohlfing (9K)
3 Game winners: Soren Jaffe (5D), Rujun Ding (5D), Sophie Lin (2D), Alan Yang (1D), Jerry Jaffe (1D), Jeroen Meijer (1K), Peter Schumer (2K), Austin Robinson (2K), Michael Sherman (2K), Gordon Fraser (3K), Eric Yang (3K), John Gipson (5K), Ragnarr Markssen (5K), Theodore Terpstra (5K), Caleb Lesher (6K), Bradley Johnston (10K), Howard Cornett (10K), Juliet Zhang (11K), Adam King (13K), Lewis Reining (13K), Vaughn Hannon (14K), Nicholas Liddington (17K), Patrick Blackstone (18K)

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

Michael Redmond 9P joins Osaka Go School teachers

Friday November 13, 2020

After two months of successful operation, the Osaka Go School staff is excited to welcome new teacher Michael Redmond 9P, who joined the school in November. The Osaka Go School opened in September with 25 students, including 10 American players. Redmond joins teachers Ryo Maeda 6P, Francis Meyer 1P, and Ting Li 1P of the Kansai-Kiin. “Mr. Redmond will play special teaching games every month,” reports Ryo Maeda 6P, who founded the school and is one of the primary organizers. The school offers players teaching games, game reviews, and professional lectures all online every month, giving players a chance to continue to study and have fun with Go during a time when much activity is restricted due to COVID-19. Mr. Maeda invites all interested players to the International Osaka Go School website for more information. “Please come join us!”

Categories: Japan,Main Page,World

Redmond vs O Meien Sunday night

Friday November 13, 2020

Michael Redmond 9P’s next live game commentary will be on his recent game with O Meien (right), known for his quick fuseki and fighting ability. He became a pro in 1977, two years after moving to Japan, and advanced to 9 dan in 1992. A very determined fighter, with plenty of kiai, in February 25 2010, O Meien hit the 900 landmark by beating Ko Iso in the final prelim of the 35th Kisei. O won the Honinbo title in 2000 and held it the following year before losing it to Kato Masao in 2002. O took the Oza title from Cho Chikun in December 2002. In July 2012, O Meien won his sixth title, the 2nd Igo Masters Cup, beating Cho Chikun.

The live commentary is set for this Sunday, November 15, 7p EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel, and will be hosted by American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock.

Categories: Main Page,Redmond Reviews

50 years aGO – November 1970

Wednesday November 11, 2020

by Keith L. Arnold, hka with Patrick Bannister

Fujisawa Shuko Meijin followed up on his victory with another title final. However, perhaps exhausted by his effort against youthful Rin Kaiho, he was defeated by his longtime rival, Sakata Eio, who returned to the world of titleholders with the Oza. Sakata won the first game in a mere 65 moves on November 5, and won the best-of-three match on November 19 (picture, game records).

A Go expo was held on November 6 at the Tokyo Department Store. It included a fourth match between the Koyukai ladies and the “Western” team, which was victorious including players Richard Bozulich, James Davies and Stuart Horowitz.

Go History Quiz! Pictured on the right in this GoWeekly ad is a professional go player – Who is he? if you know the answer, part two of this quiz will be easy – what is his significance to Western go? And finally, and a bit harder, why do we ask about him this month? We will share your responses in a follow up column later this month.

Categories: 50 years aGO,Main Page

Registration for 2020 Young Lions Tournament Closing Soon

Tuesday November 10, 2020

“The AGHS Young Lion’s tournament is just a few weeks away,” 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 Young Lions Tournament is funded by the American Go Foundation.
Registration deadline is 11/15/2020 at 11:59 pm PST.

For rules and regulations, click here
For registration, click here

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

Last week to Register for the Pandanet AGA City League

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!.

Categories: Main Page,Pandanet-AGA City League

National Go Center to test online ratings at upcoming Fall Tournament

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).

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

Dont forget to register for the Pandanet AGA City League

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.

Categories: Main Page,Pandanet-AGA City League