American Go E-Journal

The AGA, together with the American Go Foundation (AGF), will bring two Cuban players to the US Go Congress in St. Paul this August and is raising funds to support the effort . “Cuba has a very active go community,” says AGA Director Bob Gilman, who has taken the lead in organizing this visit, “Bringing these Cubans to the Go Congress will help build links with players in the United States and is very timely as relationships between the US and Cuban governments continue to improve.”

The players are Rafael Torres Miranda, President of the Academia Cubana de Go, Cuban 2 dan, and Professor Lazaro Bueno Perez from the province of Camaguey, Cuban 8 kyu. Professor Bueno has been active in teaching the game in his home province. Because the Cuban players cannot afford the trip on their own, the AGF is conducting an independent fund-raising campaign to bring them to the Congress. For more on how to support the effort, see the additional information here.

Youwhan Kim 7d, former Korean insei and winner of last year’s Cotsen Open (10/26 EJ), will be sipping his coffee from the 9th annual Santa Monica Coffee Cup.  Kim (right) took top honors by going 3-0 in the one-day tournament, beating fellow Korean visitor Seunghee Ryu 7d in the final.  Ryu and Kim were the strongest of a strong “Espresso” section; eight of the 48 competitors were 5d or stronger.   Other 3-0 winners were Tyler Oyakawa 3d in the Java Section, Jeff McLellan 4k in the Mocha Section, Greg Kulevich 8k in the Latte Section and Jeremy Cook 17k and Ryan Kim 23k in the Decaf section.  In addition to hand-painted mugs and tiles for first through fourth place, winners and placers got bags of organic Peruvian light-roast coffee ground and packed by owner Pam Stollings of the UnUrban Coffeehouse.   Players with no wins received a portable go board courtesy of the Korean Baduk Association as a consolation prize.  TD Joe Cepiel also awarded one of the KBA boards to the youngest player attending, six-year-old Oliver Williams (at left, with Andy Okun and Myungwan Kim 9p), who completed a game in good form.  The turnout, close to the Coffee Cup’s highest, was boosted not only by visitors from Korea, but by large contingents from San Diego and Arizona and a player from Hamburg, as well as the cool, sunny weather.
– report/photos courtesy Andy Okun

The three American Go Association (AGA) regional Board of Director seats are up for election and with just over two weeks to go, no candidates have been nominated. The current terms of office expire this September. Nominations, including self-nominations may be made by full members for the region in which the member resides and must be received by June 15, 2015. Nominations and questions must be emailed to elections@usgo.org. Click here for complete election information and qualifications.

Lee Hajin 3p, popularly known on YouTube as Haylee, will record one of her signature play-and-explain games at the US Go Congress, the AGA announced.  Though the exact format is still to be determined, her opposition will include fellow YouTube broadcaster Nick Sibicky, possibly as part of a team, said AGA VP of Operations Andrew Jackson. “The idea is we stream Hajin in one room telling us about her game while the opponents are debating their fate in another room, probably also recorded.  We’ll edit the two videos together later to put on YouTube.” This year’s Congress runs August 1-9 in St Paul, MN.

In her videos, Hajin records as she plays a random player on Tygem, explaining her moves and thinking as she goes along.  In Haylee’s gentle but disciplined playing style, games usually proceed rather quietly until her opponent — generally a very strong player — makes a modest mistake and their game disintegrates like an airplane whose rivets turn out to have been made of putty. Lee, a frequent Go Congress attendee, does the Haylee videos as a sideline to her current job as Secretary General of the International Go Federation.  She has more than 2,800 subscribers and 214,000 views for her 90 videos.  Nick Sibicky started his YouTube channel with recordings of his DDK lessons at the Seattle Go Center, and they have grown in popularity, reaching nearly 9,000 subscribers with more than three quarters of a million views.
– Andy Okun