Show co-host Dr. Jerry Jaffe 1d was so inspired by his short visit to the 2018 US Go Congress in Williamsburg that this year he registered as a player and participated in the entire week. An episode of his podcast also resulted, of course. During the week he interviewed Congress Director Dave Weimer on the Congress, Myungwan Kim 9P on his project teaching people with autism, and Ryan Li 1P on the New York Institute of GO.
Listen to the full podcast here (also available through iTunes and Stitcher) if you want to learn the answer to Dave Weimer’s favorite go joke: How many go players does it take to change a lightbulb?
My father, Peter Morris (AGA #3222), passed away last week. He was an active Go player for many years. He and his three sons (Doug – #2856, Brett – #7468, and Trevor – #2829) began playing Go in the late 1970’s, and started playing at the Greater Washington Go Club around 1984. Through the rest of the 80s – before the day of internet Go servers – we would often take the hour drive from Shepherdstown, WV to the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. on Friday nights to play.
As a family, we would often play Go on vacation. Games were a bonding activity for us, with Go being the one we would always return to. Peter continued to play Go and be active in tournaments for more than 30 years, from the late 1970’s through the early 2010’s. He will be missed.
-by Trevor Morris -photo provided by Trevor Morris -read Peter Morris’ obituary here.
The New York Institute of Go is launching a new series based on the 2019 US Go Congress on its YouTube channel. The series, featuring Stephanie Yin 1P, is as follows: -Monday, August 5: 5 Best Moves -Monday, August 12: Top 5 Mistakes -Monday, August 19: Pro Game Review. Zhongfan Jian vs Mark Lee -Monday, August 26: Top 5 Go Fighting Tactics
The AGA is regularly asked for new chapters around the country. These are the newly registered chapters from July 2019:
Peoria & Normal Go Club – Approximately every two weeks on Saturday or Sunday afternoon – Contact Brad Rose
Members should check their information when logging in. If you are not receiving the EJ make sure your email is up to date. Chapters can always update their current chapter through the AGA Membership Manager if they have changed.
Go is now among the themes available for classes on Google Classroom, reports Alicia Seifrid. First launched in 2014, Google Classroom is an all-in-one platform for teachers, giving them online tools to post lesson material, distribute, collect and grade assignments, and communicate with students. When creating a new class (something any user with a Google account can do), you can apply a graphic theme to your class pages. For the Go graphic, under the “Other” category, look for the “Game Night” theme. – edited by Brian Olive
Crystalline waters, comforting warmth and miles of golf courses… everything you’d expect at the Phileas Beach Resort in Selangor, Malaysia. But behind these peaceful scenes, a vicious battle rages on. Not a physical struggle, of course, but one of mentality, and awareness. The 36th World Youth Go Championship has started, and the players are ready to prove themselves, including the three U.S. representatives, Alexander Qi 4d and Noah Flaherty 15k for the Junior Division, and Ary Chen 5d for the Senior Division.
The tournament begins with Alex Qi facing Artemii Pishchaniklov (Russia), Noah Flaherty facing Shuntaro Saga (Japan), and Ary Chen facing Shih-Chun Chung (Chinese Taipei). After two and a half hours of intense fighting and quick calculating, the U.S. team pulls two victories. They’ve got some time before the next round, and there’s plenty to do as they relax and unwind, exploring the stunning resort, the pool and so much more.
However, as they flood back into the playing room, the tension is still palpable as the players, refreshed, prepare for the second round. The second round pairings are Ary Chen against Li HoaTong (1P, China) Alex Qi against Hsu Ni-Ni (Chinese Taipei, 7d) and Noah Flaherty against Oleskandr Shchepaniuk (Ukraine, 4k), and this time the U.S. team falls to their stronger opponents. Still, under the encouragement and guidance of team leader MingJiu Jiang, they look forward to the next rounds. Now that this day’s grueling “war” has come to a close, the U.S. players can finally relax, and let all their tensions flood away. After all, tomorrow brings a new day – and there are players to beat, and battles to win. -report/photos by Ashley Qi
The 6th Mexican Go Congress was a lifetime experience. I was both instructor and referee. I played simuls every afternoon, gave a lecture on life and death problems, and tried to review as many Congress games as possible. While only there three days, I hope my teaching could indeed offer them some insights into the thinking of a pro-level player when playing the game. They were polite and respectful when asking me to review the games, and whenever I saw them understand and gain from my teachings, I would genuinely feel really happy and fulfilled. They would laugh back at me, too.
Though my perspective is different from a player, I was not alienated from the exciting event at all. The passion for the game of go connected everyone at the Congress. On the last day, many people brought their own boards and started playing at the front door of the building. To be honest, I envy their passion towards the game sometimes. Whenever they finished, they would never directly put the stones back into the boxes before going back to the game to discuss the important fights or game-deciding moments.
Emil, the president of the Mexican Go Association, and his girlfriend, Dafne, welcomed me to stay at their place during the Congress. They cared for my needs and gave me the most comfortable stay possible. All the other people at the event were really hospitable as well, and I feel bad for not remembering all their names. What I do remember is that every night after the congress games, we went to dinner, drank and talked for hours. On the last day, they insisted on walking with me to the Art Museum and Chinatown in Mexico City to show me the different facets that Mexico City has to offer.
I sincerely hope that I can go back again. With funding from the American Go Foundation, Zirui Song, 1P from Chicago, was the AGA representative at the Mexican Go Congress. -photos provided by Zirui Song. Report edited by Terry Benson.
Ronnie Fan 4d (left) vs. Tina Li 3d (right) at the 2019 AGA Girls Cup Finals
Tina Li 3d defeated Ronnie Fan 4d 2-1 in the AGA Girls Cup Finals at the US Go Congress in Madison, Wisconsin to defend her title and claim her second consecutive championship. Both girls are 13 years old. Taking black in game 1, Li launched an all-out-attack on one of Fan’s dragons, but Fan was able to live and cruise to victory by resignation as Li had little potential remaining after the attack. However, Li did not back down in game 2 the next day, turning the game into a large-scale battle where the status of multiple large dragons came into question. In the end, everything lived on both sides, but Li had the territorial advantage and won by 14.5 points. The final decisive game was much more peaceful with Li (who drew black) staking out a large framework and Fan slowly chipping away at it throughout the game. While Fan managed to make large incisions, it was not enough and Li secured the victory by 13.5 points as well as this year’s title. See below for the records of all three games.
Special thanks to Seowoo Wang for broadcasting the games live on KGS as well as for assisting during the preliminaries, and to the American Go Foundation for sponsoring this tournament. This year’s tournament was the second edition of the annual AGA Girls Cup, which holds online preliminaries for two finalist spots and invitations to play in the Finals live at the US Go Congress. Registration for next year’s tournament will open in early 2020; competitors must be residents of North America, a female aged 15 or under, and a member of her national Go organization with an official rank of 10 kyu or stronger. – story/photo by AGA Youth Coordinator and AGA Girls Cup TD Justin Teng
Longtime EJ contributor Janice Kim recently sent along this screenshot “from my favorite anime, Hunter x Hunter. In this longer scene, the King of the Chimera Ants learns Go from books, and takes on the national champion, winning after playing just ten games. His advisors had mentioned to him that Go is quite more difficult than chess or shoji (not agreeing, just reporting there :) and so he wanted a challenge while he’s waiting to take over the world.
“This is from episode 102, fourth season I believe. The first three seasons are on Netflix, but you have to go on crunchyroll to see episodes from there. The first episodes are a little slow, but there is a lot in there about training, that I’m perhaps somewhat hilariously extrapolating to Go, with I think good results.”
The National Go Center just announced its schedule of classes for the Fall. “This is the first time we have had a formal schedule of classes and we’re very excited about this step forward,” said Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa. There will be a 6-week Saturday Children’s Beginner class for ages 6-12. This grew out of the Family Go program the NGC has been running for parents and children for the past two years. Josh Lee 6d will draw on his extensive experience at Family Go to lead the class. The kids will have a peer to look up to as well with Frederick Bao 5d assisting Josh fresh from his triumph at the US Open in Madison. “In another first for the NGC” says Khalsa, “we put an ad in Washington Parent magazine’s August issue, a prime spot for finding youth enrichment activities.” All of the children will be getting a copy of the first volume of the Level Up! Series as a workbook also with fun manga comics explaining the game.
There will also be a 3-week Adult/Youth(13+) Beginner Class. “New folks have always found the NGC to be a welcoming place to learn from others,” reports Khalsa, “but many people have expressed an interest in a class just for beginners to get started with go, and this is for them.” Daniel Chou 6d has volunteered to teach a 6-week class for Kyu level players to help them move towards Shodan and get more enjoyment out of playing. Rounding out the Fall schedule will be two monthly workshops led by Yuan Zhou. Zhou’s popular workshops are becoming part of the NGC curriculum with registration through the NGC website.
The NGC Classes page has links to all the classes with details and registration information. Says Khalsa, “This is just the beginning. We’ll be looking to expand in a Winter term with more classes, especially follow-ons for those taking beginner lessons.”
