A series of videos from the recent Southeast Asia Go Congress in Singapore will be released on the AGA’s YouTube channel. The broadcasts, produced by the E-Journal’s Stephen Hu, feature commentaries from Michael Redmond 9p, Cho Hye-yeon 9p, Maeda Ryo 6p, Yang Shuang 2p and other strong players from Southeast Asia.
In the first video, Masters Division Round 2, Hu teams up with Maeda Ryo 6P to comment the game between Chi-hao Shen and Zhongfan Jian.
Videos in the series will be released Tuesdays at 6p EDT.
The Seattle Go Center recently honored Dennis Wheeler for his longtime dedication to teaching and sharing the game of go. Over 50 people came to the Seattle center on Saturday, Jan. 11, to share pizza, have a chat, play a game, and pose for pictures. Program Manager Mike Malveaux noted that Dennis helped Frank Fukuda at the Uwajimaya Wednesday outreach event for many years, and then took the lead in 2013. Dennis has also been teaching at festivals, such as Sakura-con, for over a decade. In addition, he has held the Saturday Manager position at the Seattle Go Center since 2012, where he particularly enjoys teaching children, and making newcomers feel welcome.
Dennis (right) at Sakura-Con 2017
Now, Dennis is dealing with chemotherapy, and needs to reduce his outside activities. He will still be coming to the Seattle Go Center on some Saturdays. He continues to use social media, such as Facebook.
The party included Dennis’s wife Vicki, their three daughters, and their partners, as well as neighbors who learned go from Dennis and many old friends from the Seattle Go Center.
Mike also noted the contributions that Dennis has made to the national go scene. He was one of the organizers of the 2005 Go Congress in Tacoma, and he has been a excellent game recorder for many national AGA tournaments, usually reporting on the first board.
Dennis Wheeler with family and friends at the Seattle Go Center
When he wrote about the party, Mike Malveaux noted: “My emotions are mixed — sadness that Dennis has to go through chemo, plus relief that he had some advance warning about it, and pride at Dennis’ contributions to American go, and pleasure that I’ve known him, because he’s really a great guy to spend time with.” Photos and report by Brian Allen
At its annual retreat on November 11, 2019, the AGA board of directors discussed several initiatives and their long-term priority of making go more mainstream. They passed motions to create a system for the AGA to provide limited financial support to develop/maintain tournaments, and established a scholarship fund to make the US Go Congress more affordable. They also discussed implementing an improved format for the North American Masters Tournament, held at Go Congress each year, based on feedback from strong players. Andy Okun also provided his President’s Report, including an update on work towards a North American Go Federation, which the board approved.
Seventy players came out for the first day of the first-ever Midwest Open held in Columbus, Ohio. “The open division is sporting a highly competitive field of 14 high-dan players in a show-down for the championship title,” said organizer Devin Fraze, who also serves as Central Region Representative on the AGA Board. Event sponsor BadukClub is streaming the top board with commentary by DanielML on the club’s Twitch channel. Round Three will begin at 9:30a (CST) on Sunday, with commentary by Yoonyoung Kim 8P at 1:30p CST.
The AGA-rated
event brought together players from as far away as Texas, Colorado and
California, as well as many of the midwestern states. Pairings in the main
playing hall are being done with an innovative self-paired system created by
Chicago Go organizer Mark Rubenstein, enabling participants to play more games with
less waiting between matches.
In this 93-minute episode, Michael reviews his Meijin tournament game with Takao Shinji 9P, which he calls his “best game of the year,” or as he also puts it, “my one half-decent game.” Most of the time, Redmond adds, “I seem to have the right idea” in this game, which features a lot of fighting. Takao held the Meijin title three years ago, dropped out of the league the next year, and the following year made the league’s final section. “He’s still at the top of the tournament scene in many ways,” Redmond says, noting that Takao is in the highest league of the Kisei tournament. A prodigy from an early age, Takao “played a thick, influence-oriented style, until he was confronted by Cho U,” whose territory-oriented style “inspired Takao to adapt his style and he does more fighting nowadays.” Chris and Michael also chat about what they were up to during their break from producing video commentaries, along with an update on their AlphaGo book-in-progress.
The commentary was originally streamed live on Twitch, which gave viewers a chance to interact with Redmond and Garlock, who will be live-streaming more game commentaries — some AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo and some of Redmond’s games — on January 23 and 30 on the AGA’s Twitch channel. Follow the AGA’s Twitch channel and get notified of live streams.
Video produced by Stephen Hu, Allen Moy, Chris Garlock and Andrew Jackson.
Do you have a need to watch high level go? Join us this Sunday January 19th at 3PM EST for the start of the third round. Follow your favorite local teams and players as they battle it out this season. Games can be found using the GoPanda2 client in the AGA City League rooms. Check the schedules for each league for detailed information for each game; A League, B League, C League, D League.
“The AGHS is hosting its Youth Go League which will start in February 2020,” says Promotion Head Sophia Wang, “Because playing games is crucial to improving quickly, the league offers young go players an opportunity to play more serious online games.”
There will be 4-5 rounds each month, paired by divisions using a ladder system such that players face others of similar strength. All youth ages 18 and under from the US, Canada, and Mexico are invited to participate in these friendly yet competitive matches. Prizes will be awarded. The registration deadline is 11:59 PM PST on January 26, 2020.
For rules and regulations, click here. For registration, click here.
Tune in the AGA’s Twitch channel tonight at 7p EST for a livestream game commentary by Michael Redmond 9P with Chris Garlock. Follow the AGA’s Twitch channel and get notified of live streams. “Hope this series never ends!” said psyopus syzygy. “Learn so much from Michael. Thank youuuuu!!”
Registration is now open for the 36th annual U.S. Go Congress, which will be held August 1-9 at the YMCA camp near Estes Park, CO. Click here for details on registering.
The main playing site is Assembly Hall in the center of camp, which is surrounded by many indoor and outdoor amenities, plus the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains. “It’s the perfect setting for both players and non-players alike, an ideal vacation destination for the whole family!” say Congress organizers.
The camp is just outside Estes Park, just under two hours from Denver International Airport (DIA). You can sign up for the airport shuttle during registration, or rent a car at the airport. The Congress has plenty of rooms reserved on-site, or you can choose from many off-site locations (but act soon as summer fills up quickly). Click here for detailed information about the Congress.
The Start Here tab on the Congress website allows you to register and sign up for lodging and meal plans, the banquet, and the day-off activities.
“There are official tours to please almost everyone, from open-air trollies servicing Rocky Mountain National Park, ghost tours at the historic Stanley Hotel, cable-car rides to the top of Prospect mountain, and horseback riding,” says Congress Co-Director Eric Wainwright. “If any of these don’t fit the bill, there’s an abundance of informal tours and other activities as well.” Click here to see the full list.
The New York Go Association kicked off the New Year with its first 2020 NYGA Monthly Tournament (NMT) on January 4. A field of 21 players participated their first go tournament of the year, with Alexander Qi 4D winning the open division by 2 SOS points in the tie breaker against Joel Kenny 4D, who defeated Alex in the final round. Afa Zhou 1D and Leo Martin 22K won Division 2 and 3 respectively, both with perfect 4-0 records.
Starting this month, the top eight players in the NMTs will earn
NMT Points for the NYGA Grand Final Championship. Players who collected NMT
points this month are Alexander Qi (20), Joel Kenny (16), Chen Yong (12),
Micheal Fodera(10), Enyo Shirakata(8), Ozawa Toranosuke(6), Afa Zhou(2) and
Andy Segal(1). For more information regarding NMP points and rules, click here https://www.ny-go.org/nyga-gf
for more details.
