American Go E-Journal

Kevin Chao Wins AGF Board Auction

Saturday August 15, 2015

The Orange County Go Club’s Kevin Chao 6D (right) prevailed in a spirited bidding war at the annual go board auction at the 2015 U.S. Go Congress banquet August 8. For much of the auction, conducted by E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock and American Go Foundation president Terry Benson, it was a 3-man duel between Brady Daniels, Congress Director Josh Larson and an increasingly hoarse banquet MC Andrew Jackson. The back of the board — donated by Yutopian — had been signed by most of the professional go players attending the Go Congress, and previous winner Andy Okun testified to the veracity of Garlock’s promise of improvement, noting that he’d been 1-kyu when he won the auction and is now shodan.

When Jackson’s bid of $1,200 knocked Daniels out, the board seemed destined to head to Seattle, but then Chao swooped in with a bid of $1,500, his first of the evening, and it proved decisive. “This is so amazingly generous,” said Benson. “This will help fund American Go Foundation activities and programs that promote go across the United States, including important future investments like go camp scholarships.”

“The support of go players like Kevin and Chris (whose recent walk across Wales raised $2,400 for the AGF) is what makes this such an incredible community,” added American Go Association president Andy Okun. “They, and all our generous AGF contributors, are truly planting the seeds for the future of American go.”
photo: (top left) Benson, Okun & Garlock; photos by Phil Straus

Categories: U.S. Go Congress

Canadian Open Set for Sept. 4-7 in Montreal

Saturday August 15, 2015

The 2015 Canadian Open will be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from September 4-7. Click here for complete details or check out the event’s Facebook page. The 6-round event also features professional go players who will teach, analyze games and lecture. Sohyun Park 3p from Korea has been confirmed as attending, and will be joining forces with Stephanie Yin 1p to teach go during the event. The event is sponsored by Caisse populaire Desjardins du Mont-Royal, Huawei Technologies and Salon de thé et de Go Senthé, “The perfect place to play go in Montréal.”

Categories: U.S./North America

US Go Congress Updates: Ratings, Winner Reports, Game Records & Congress Coverage Goes Viral

Friday August 14, 2015

2015 Congress Ratings Update: As of Friday, August 14th, the results of four Congress tournaments have been submitted, reports Jonathan Bresler. “The four tournaments are the U.S. Open, the U.S. Open Masters, the DieHard and the Girls 16 and Under. The DieHard and Girls have been rated.” Self-Paired results are expected to be submitted Monday. Click here for AGA ratings.
(8/16 Update/Clarification: the U.S. Open and U.S. Open Masters results were just submitted on August 14 and have not yet been rated)

Winner Reports Posted: Complete Congress tournament winner reports are now posted online.

Got Game Records? Send in your US Open game records and we’ll add them to the official crosstab (thanks to everyone who’s already done so!) Email them to us at journal@usgo.org

Congress Coverage Going Viral: The EJ’s Congress posts on Twitter and Facebook have been generating lots of traffic and likes, and the videos on our YouTube page have been getting tons of views. Our story on the Cuban delegation, for example, reached over 1,000 people on Facebook, the report on go pioneer John Goodell reached nearly 1,000 and photo albums like Phil Straus’ recent collection of Pair Go photos reached nearly 600. Over on YouTube, the 23 Congress videos reached people in over 100 countries, added almost 1,000 subscribers and the most-viewed video was Round 4, Mark Lee vs Cao Youyin with Haylee commenting, with over 2,600 views since it went live.
photo: 2015 US Open players; photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: Go Photos,U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Pandanet AGA City League Registration begins, as A & B Leagues expand

Tuesday August 11, 2015

In the new season for the Pandanet AGA City League, the A and B League will enlarged to eight teams each. The teams in last place for the A League and the winners of the B League will be demoted and promoted as normal. The other teams in the B League will be promoted until there are 8 teams in play. The B League will be the same way with the C League until there are 8 teams. “Start gathering your team for the fourth season of this exciting league,” says League coordinator Steve CColburn. The new season include some revised rules to make the seasons longer and more challenging games. Check the rules for a special registration deal for the teams. “Does your team have what it takes to defeat our winners from last year?” Colburn asks. Registration is open until September 20th. Email steve.colburn@usgo.org for more information or to register your team.

Categories: Pandanet-AGA City League

Go Spotting: Jeffery Deaver’s “Trouble in Mind”

Tuesday August 11, 2015

Jeffery Deaver’s 2014 book of short crime stories “Trouble in Mind” has a story “The Competitors” set at the Beijing Olympics, reports Tony Atkins. “In it, the Chinese head of security out-thinks terrorists as he is a go player,” says Atkins, who’s Vice-President of the British Go Association. “He explains to the US and Russian officers ‘It’s our version of Chess. Only better, of course.'” The head of security “I look forward when I play the game. You must always look forward to beat your opponent at go. You must see beyond the board.”

Atkins has added this book to the exhaustive round-up of “Novels and Other Books Featuring Go” on the BGA website.

Categories: Go Spotting

The Power Report: Shida qualifies for Samsung; Iyama defends Gosei; Rin Kaiho wins 1,400 games

Sunday August 9, 2015

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Shida qualifies for Samsung: The General Preliminary Tournament for the 20th Samsung Cup was held in Seoul from August 1 to 5. This is a massive tournament and the preliminary is held on a proportionate scale, with additional qualifying sections for women and senior players besides the open section. Five Japanese representatives took part in the open section, of whom one was successful. Shida Tatsuya 7P (at left) won a place in the main tournament by defeating Pak Seung-hwa 6P of Korea in the final. Oya Koichi 9P and Goto Shungo 9P competed in the senior section but without success. The opening rounds of the main tournament will be held in Beijing on September 8 and 10. Nineteen qualifiers through the preliminary will join 13 seeded players. The seeded players for Japan are Ida Atsushi 8P and Yoda Norimoto 9P.

Iyama defends Gosei, maintains quadruple crown: The fourth game of the 40th Gosei title match was played at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo on August 7. Playing white, Iyama (left) forced a resignation after just 122 moves and so defended his title by a 3-1 margin. He has now won this title for four years in a row, so one more win and he will qualify for the title of Honorary Gosei. Iyama has beaten Yamashita Keigo in the three title matches they have contested so far this year; the others were the Kisei and Honinbo. Incidentally, three matches in the same year equals for record for the same two players. They have played 16 games with each other this year, which also equals the record. Iyama seemed to gain a slight advantage in the first major fight of the game, which occurred when he set out to reduce Black’s top moyo. Yamashita went all out and got back into the game, but then went wrong in the decisive fight. Iyama cut off and killed a large group, deciding the game. As mentioned in my report in May, when Yamashita became the Gosei challenger, two pairs of players had previously played three matches in the same year. They were Otake Hideo and Cho Chikun in 1982 and Kato Masao and Kobayashi Koichi in 1988. It was the latter two who previously played 16 games in one year.

Promotions: To 3-dan: Fujisawa Rina (40 wins) (as of August 7); To 2-dan: Bian Wenkai (30 wins) (as of August 7)

Rin Kaiho wins 1,400 games: On August 6, Rin Kaiho, Honorary Tengen (left), became the second Nihon Ki-in player to win 1,400 games when he beat Takemiya Masaki 9P in a game (right) in the 41st Gosei Preliminary B. Taking white, Rin won by half a point. The first player to reach this landmark was 25th Honinbo Cho Chikun. Rin was born in 1942 and became a professional in 1955.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

AGA Board meeting highlights

Sunday August 9, 2015

At the AGA Board meeting held August 4, in Minneapolis, MN at the U.S. Go Congress, Chris Kirschner , Martin Lebl and Diego Pierrottet were congratulated for winning election to the AGA Board; they’ll serve September 1, 2015 to September 1, 2017.

The 2014 Go Congress in New York City had a very healthy surplus. The 2016 Congress will be held in Boston, almost certainly at Boston University, near Fenway Park and across the river from MIT.

There was a discussion on how to award qualifying North American Masters points for the next year. The points will be used to help select the team for the 2016 World Mind Sports Games and eligibility for the Open Masters section as well as its North American prize. A committee will have a proposal circulated before the next board meeting.

At the end of 2014, the AGA had 96 chapters and 2012 members. These numbers have been steady over the last couple of years.
The board was informed of purchase of audio/visual equipment that enabled commentated games from the 2015 Go Congress to appear on YouTube. The equipment can be used for similar purposes at other go tournaments.

The next AGA Board meeting will be held on Sunday, September 13.
– Ted Terpstra, AGA Western Region Board Member

Categories: U.S./North America

Yulin Tong Wins U.S. Open Masters Tournament; Albert Yen Wins U.S. Open

Saturday August 8, 2015

Yulin Tong 4P defeated Zexiang Sui 7D in just 126 moves (click here to see the game) Saturday morning to lock up his 2015 U.S. Open MastersTournament championship, losing just one game, to defending champion Mark Lee, on his way to an 8-1 record. Click here for complete results and to see the professional review by Cho Hye-yeon 9P and Myungwan Kim 9P on the AGA’s YouTube page. Albert Yen won the U.S. Open; click here for complete results.
photo: Tong (second from left) reviews the Round 9, Board 2 game with Chen Wang 7D and Qun Wang 8P, as Yongfe Ge 7D, Ryan Li 1P and Eric Lui 7D watch; photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Cuban delegation to U.S. Go Congress “bringing back much” to island nation

Saturday August 8, 2015

Rafael Torres Miranda had a problem. The automotive importer had just discovered the game of go in 1990 but had no one to teach him and, worse yet, no one to play with. Twenty five years later, he’s attending the U.S. Go Congress as President of the Cuban Go Federation, the first time a delegation of Cuban go players has ever participated.

“The high level of play and the variety — as well as sheer quantity — of go activities is very impressive,” Miranda (at right, in white shirt) told the E-Journal. The other member of the delegation is Dr. Lazaro Bueno Perez (far left), a professor of chess and go at the University of Camaguey, and both said that they “will be bringing much back to Cuba from the Go Congress.”

Miranda says that there are some 2,000 go players in Cuba, ranging in strength from 5-dan to double-digit kyu players. “We’ve come a long way in a very short time,” he said. Miranda learned about the game from a Japanese colleague in the automotive business. The game intrigued him immediately. Although his colleague didn’t think he was serious, but he did teach Miranda the rules and they played. “No one in Cuba played go,” he laughs, “everyone played chess.” But as a judo teacher Miranda knew how to study and train and determination did the rest. They have had major support from the Association for International Go Exchange (a group of retired Japanese who love the game) and pros from the Nihon Ki-in. The Cubans make their own go equipment and there are now players in every city in the country.

In addition to the obvious barriers posed by Cuba’s political isolation, perhaps the biggest obstacle to spreading the game and improving Cuban go player’s strength has been one that go players around the world can appreciate: extremely limited internet access. There’s also a real hunger to participate in go tournaments around the world. “Always we want to participate,” Miranda said, chuckling. “We can’t, but we want to.” He hopes that the timing of the Cuban delegation to the U.S. Go Congress as official relations between the United States and Cuba have been established this year may be a harbinger of more opportunities to travel and compete internationally. “We are grateful to the AGA, the American Go Foundation, and to Bob Gilman for making this possible.”

Cuba will host the 17th Iberoamerican Go Championships October 9-11 at the Cuban Go Academy in Havana. Cuba. In addition to the chance for Cuban go players to meet their comrades from other Latin American countries, Miranda said it’s an opportunity for the Cuban Go Federation to be in the spotlight; after all Cuba organized the first four international tournaments in Latin America (1998-2001) before the current Championship series began.
– Chris Garlock; photo by Phil Straus

Categories: Latin America,U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

US Go Congress Updates: Yulin Tong Takes Lead in US Open Masters; Albert Yen Leads in US Open

Saturday August 8, 2015

Yulin Tong Takes Lead in US Open Masters: Yulin Tong is now the leading contender for 2015 US Open Masters champion, defeating Beomgeun (Evan) Cho for a 7-1 record going into the final round Saturday morning. Other contenders include Zexiang Sui, who’s 6-2, and Chen Wang, also 6-2. Defending champion Mark Lee lost to Sui to drop to 5-3, taking him out of contention. Click here for complete results through Round 8.

Albert Yen Leads in US Open: Albert Yen 7D, undefeated going into the final round of the US Open on Saturday, is the favorite to win this year’s Open. Other 5-0 players: Xiaocheng Hu 4D; Yifan Zhang 3D; Gilbert Feng 2D; Brian Kirby 1D; Kelly Liu 1D; Mark Fraser 7K; Sherrie Echols 9K; Ryan Kim 21K. Click here for complete results through Round 5.

Saturday Broadcast Schedule: Catch the US Open Masters Board 1 game live on KGS — with video streaming on the AGA’s YouTube channel — starting at 9a CST. Board 2 will also be broadcast on KGS.

Game Records Wanted: Send in your US Open game records and we’ll add them to the official crosstab. Email them to us at journal@usgo.org

photo: Friday night’s live US Masters Open pro commentary by Myungwan Kim 9P (at board) with E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock; Yilun Yang 7P also provided commentary. photo by Steve Colburn

Categories: U.S./North America

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