
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.
- Felipo Jian, Tournament Director










AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 34: The AI and the ponnuki
Friday January 10, 2020
After a brief break for the holidays, Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock return with their latest AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo game commentary.
The game features a ponnuki* near the center of the board,” and Redmond says that “nowadays with people getting new ideas from AI’s, a lot of the old ideas — the old values, you might say — about things like ponnukis or josekis have been questioned. So in this game we get to see how an AI handles a ponnuki.” After that, Redmond warns, “things get very tactical, there’s a lot of calculating, a lot of groups and you have to figure out what’s alive and what’s dead; there’s a lot to figure out.”
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 16, 23 and 30 on the AGA’s Twitch channel. Follow the AGA’s Twitch channel and get notified of live streams.
* Capturing a single stone, leaving a diamond shape. According to the proverb, “A ponnuki is worth thirty points” Sensei’s Library
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