American Go E-Journal

Joshua Lee 6d defeated Qingbo Zhang 5d in the final of the 1st Virginia State Go Championship, held at Korean American Baduk Association in Annandale VA on November 16, 2019. The game was full of battles, but Lee kept a solid lead throughout the game. The Virginia chapters will host the next qualifier for VA Championship in summer of 2020. “We hope for more female and youth players in the next VA State Championship to win the prepared perpetual trophies,” says organizer Edward Zhang. “With AGA’s 50-State Championship program running for multiple years now we’ve been able to follow the progress of players all over the country.” Updated information for the Virginia Go Championships can be found here.

Organizers and Volunteers Acknowledgement:
CAFA Inc, Liang Yu, Justin Teng, Gary Smith, James Lee, Gurujeet Khalsa, Weiping Chen, Xinyu Zhang, Anna Liu, Qingbo Zhang, Grace Shan, Yuchen Zhu, Mark Keam, Ge Li, Dinny Li, Xinran Zuo, Huiming Zeng, Jing Zhang, Sihao Li, Jingfei Chen, Yufei Jiang, Shuo Wang, Jingyi Zhang, Kevin Wu, Xi Chen, Zhenying Gu, Kejun Kang.

8^thVirginia Open Winners Report on 9/28.
Open Division 1^st-4^th places: Eric Lui 3-0, Justin Teng 2-1, Qingbo Zhang 2-1, Joshua Lee 2-1.
Women’s 1^st-2^nd places: Sarah Crites, Ivy Zhang
Expert Division 1^st-3^rd places: Xuhui Zhang 3-0, Jialong Qing 2-1, Jiayang Su 2-1.
Intermediate Division 1^st-3^rd places: Derek Zhou 3-0, John Christensen 2-1, Bob Crites 2-1.
Novice Division 1^st-2^nd places: Adam King 2-1, Evan Moore 2-1.

photos by Liang Yu
report by Edward Zhang

The fifth South Central Go Tournament will be held Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 16 in Dallas, Texas, at the Center for Asian Studies, a venue generously donated by the University of Texas and located on their campus in Richardson. There will be three rounds per day for a total of six; all AGA members are welcome at the tournament in either the Open Section or the Handicap Section and players may register for either. The Texas resident who places highest in the Open Section will become the 2020 Texas State Champion and will receive an engraved trophy.

Prior tournaments have drawn around 40 players altogether. All will receive a certificate of participation for competing; first, second, and third place finishers in the Open Section will get certificates acknowledging this achievement, and in the Handicap Section, first, second, and third place finishers in each band will also be awarded certificates. Further prizes are under consideration.

On-line registration is open at www.GoClubs.org, and you can find updated tournament details on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/southcentralgotournament. Send questions about the Texas State Championship to Bart Jacob at bart.jacob@gmail.com, or general questions to Bob Gilman at bobgilman.aga@gmail.com