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In a bit of welcome good news in the midst of the uncertainty around in-person play during the global pandemic, an exclusive stadium for Baduk – as Go is known in Korea — is being planned for a municipality north of Seoul, reports Korea Bizwire. The proposed Baduk stadium will be located on the grounds of the former Defense Security Command (DSC) in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, according to an official at the city government.

According to the proposal, the Go stadium will cover an area of 10,000 square meters with four floors above ground, along with one basement level, and the city government is planning to complete the construction by 2023.

The stadium will include Baduk playing rooms, viewing rooms, education halls and exhibition rooms, as well as media rooms and reception rooms for broadcasting Baduk games. The city of Uijeongbu has already completed a feasibility test for the proposal and held a final report meeting on Tuesday. The project cost is estimated at 30 billion won, excluding land purchase costs.

Go drew worldwide attention in 2016 when Google arranged a groundbreaking match in Seoul between South Korean Lee Sedol, one of the world’s best Go players, and AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence system designed by a team of researchers at DeepMind.

Download SGF File

Commentary: Guo Juan 5P
Game Editor: Myron Souris
Published in the August 4, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal

Guo Juan 5P, in these two kyu games from a mother and her daughter, stresses the strategic importance of not only keeping track of territory counts in a moyo game, but also keeping your own stones connected.

Guo Juan gives these player overviews: “I have known the mother, Vivienne Blandy, for many years now. First, we met online for go lessons, and then she joined my website, and finally we met in person at US Go Congresses. I saw how Vivienne became a big “killer” from a scared defending player. Now her daughter Mika has started to play go. I wish one day I will meet Mika in person to play a game.”

Guo Juan 5P is a popular go teacher based in Amsterdam. Check out her online go school, featuring recorded lectures and problems presented in a Spaced Repetition System. Here you will learn and remember correct play. And there’s a one month free trial!

Download SGF File

Black to play. Black must use the inside weak stones.
Published in the August 11, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. You can reach him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

e-Go Congress social hours on Zoom, hosted by Julie Burrall, gave old friends and new a chance to mingle, catch up, and play fun games

Nearly one thousand players took part in the AGA’s first e-Go Congress from August 1 – 9 across multiple online platforms. This dedicated team of volunteers worked tirelessly to put the e-Go Congress together in under three months after the US Go Congress in Estes Park, CO was cancelled due to COVID-19. We wanted to take a moment to gratefully acknowledge their work. Next year’s Congress is set for July 24 – August 1, 2021 in Cleveland, OH; if you’d like to consider being a part of the Congress team, email  lisa.scott@gocongress.org or journal@usgo.org if you’re interested in the E-Journal team.

Congress Staff
Director/Congress Coordinator – Lisa Scott
Deputy Directors – Audrey Wang, Stephen Hu
Registrar – Emil Meng
Pro Coordinator – Audrey Wang
Pro Facilitators – Cat Man, Megan Wheeldon
Logo Design – Ken Lukas
Teachers – Myungwan Kim 9P, Yoonyoung Kim 8P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P, Yilun Yang 7P, Guo Juan 5P, Cathy Li 1P, Francis Meyer 1P, Eric Lui 1P, Ryan Li 1P, In-seong Hwang 8d, Michael Chen 7d, Yuan Zhou 7d, Julie Burrall, David Kahn, Joseph Chaves, William Luff, Cat Mai, Howie Marshall, Milan Mladenovic
Tournament Directors – Steve Colburn, Dan Ritter, Cat Mai, Milan Mladenovic, Neil Ritter, Eric Wainwright, Ke Lu, Emil Meng, Solomon Smilack, Jon Boley, Orion Campbell, Katherine Xie, Bart Lipofsky, Andrew Zhang, Devin Fraze, Justin Teng, Lionel Zhang, Kevin Hwang, Audrey Wang, William Luff, Michael Chen, Eric Lui, Michael Fodera, Sichen Zong
Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest organizers – Terry Benson, Chris Kirschner
Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest Judges – Brady Daniels, Mike Lash, Hajin Lee 4P, Audrey Wang
AI Round Table Hosts – Devin Fraze, Audrey Wang
AI Round Table Guest Speakers – Lukas Baker, Andreas Hauenstein, Hajin Lee 4P, Sichen Zhong
Hangouts Host – Julie Burrall

Broadcast Team
Executive Producer – Stephen Hu
Line Producers – James Funk, Jared Meadows, Shawn Ray
Twitch stream hosts – Julie Burrall, Michael Fodera, Devin Fraze, Stephen Hu, Cat Mai, Shawn Ray, Jonathan Schrantz, Lisa Scott, Audrey Wang, Brandon Zhou, Steve Zilber
Twitch stream commentators – Myungwan Kim 9P, Michael Redmond 9P, Yoonyoung Kim 9P, Guo Juan 5P, Eric Lui 1P, Inseong Hwang 8d
Twitch Chat Moderators – @anago, @cdpruitt, @clossius, @ejournal, @gobaduk, @hajinlee21, @istari2022, @nicksib, @omniraden, @perigril, @polarbearsplaygo, @s_singh99, @thelovingsun, @vash3g, @xed_over, @xhu98
Braodcast Overlay Design – Stephen Hu
Motion Graphics/Transition – Jared Meadows
Music – “Centered” by Tritonal x Nick Sibicky, Tritonalmusic.com
Content Sponsors – AI Sensei (Benjamin Teuber), Guo Juan’s Internet Go School (Guo Juan 5P), New York Institute of Go (Ryan Li 1P and Stephanie Yin 1P), Yunguseng Dojang (Inseong Hwang 8d)

Special Thanks
Will Lockhart and Cole Pruitt of The Surrounding Game Movie, Darrell Malick, and prize sponsors AI Sensei, Guo Juan’s Internet Go School, ZBaduk, Feng Yin 9P, Yoonyoung Kim 8P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P, Yilun Yang 7P, Eric Lui 1P, Ryan Li 1P

e-Go Congress Coverage
Twitch broadcast videos

-screenshot by Phil Straus

We have a winner! The mystery go player shown in the last 50 years aGO is Takagi Shoichi, 9-dan. We had a number of incorrect guesses, including Noriyuki Nakayama – well-known for his wide and infectious smile — and Takagawa Kajiwara, who did write an Ishi Press book. “It does look like Kajiwara,” says Keith Arnold, “However the timing is way off, this guy is way too young to be Kajiwara, and Kajiwara never came to a Congress.”

In the end, Alexandre Dinerchtein came through, saying that Takagi is “One of my favourite masters. I really like his active playing style and fuseki (5-4 stones, thickness). He is the author of Beyond Forcing Moves.” Takagi “had a mane of wild hair Sakata- or Cho Chikun-style as he aged, so the closer cropped hair totally stumped me,” says Arnold.

This is a preview of the upcoming August 50 years aGO, which will feature Takagi, who won the Shin’ei Tournament — final match with Kudō Norio played on 2 August 1970. The caption mentions that he had recently won the Shushō Cup in 1969.

This year’s e-Go Congress is providing hundreds of players with opportunities for competition, fun games, and connection with friends while streaming live on Twitch, proving that even a pandemic can not stop Go players from getting together – albeit virtually – in summer for the Go Congress. Even if you haven’t registered for the event or played in one of the many tournaments that have started so far, there are still ways you can participate in this year’s e-Go Congress!

If you have been thinking about upgrading your playing equipment and want to support youth and Go education, consider bidding on the AGF auction board. This year’s board is an antique floor board and stones generously donated by Solomon Smilack, who has spend a considerable amount of time tracking down and collecting vintage Go equipment from Japan.

There have been several creative submissions to this year’s Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest, and voting is open! Vote on your favorite go-themed song and poem here.

Want to get your game reviewed or play against a professional? There are still spots open for the final three 2020 e-Go Congress Pro Small Group Sessions on Friday 8/7 and Saturday 8/8. See details and sign up here!  

A vintage Goban is being auctioned online as a fundraiser for the AGF, in lieu of the traditional auction held at the final banquet at the Go Congress. “I’ve spent the last several months of the quarantine tracking down vintage go equipment from Japan with the hope of bringing it to US players at affordable prices. To that end, I have opened an Etsy shop called DangerMonkeyGoStones where I have listed a number of pieces of Go Equipment,” writes Solomon Smilack.

The auction is live on ebay and will close on Sunday Aug. 9 at 12:30 pm. The board and stones were donated by Smilack, and 100% of the proceeds will benefit the AGF. Click here to visit the auction. -Paul Barchilon, AGF VP

by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal

Iyama defends Honinbo, matches Takagawa: The fifth game of the 75th Honinbo title match was held at the Todaya hotel in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, on July 8 and 9. Taking white, Honinbo Monyu, aka Iyama Yuta, won by 4.5 points after 243 moves. Shibano did not seem to make any big mistakes, but Iyama took the lead in territory. With move 116, Iyama went for more territory instead of strengthening his only weak group. He staked the game on being able to look after it and was successful. Iyama defended his title with four wins to one loss. This is his ninth successive Honinbo title, so he has matched the record of 22nd Honinbo Shukaku (Takagawa Kaku), who held the title from 1952 to 1960. Next year he will have a chance to draw even with 25th Honinbo Chikun (Cho Chikun), who won the title for ten years in a row. 

45th Meijin League: Ichiriki Ryo, now on 6-1, has maintained the pressure on Iyama Yuta by winning his July game. Iyama is on 6-0 and faces Cho U in this round. Results since my last report follow.
(July 6) Ichiriki Ryo 8P (W) beat Hane Naoki Gosei by resig.
(July 9) Kono Rin 9P (W) beat Yamashita Keigo 9P by 1.5 points.

S League: With two out of three second-round games played in the 45th Kisei S League, Kyo Kagen 8P has the provisional lead on 2-0. Cho U, on 0-2, is in trouble. Just one game has been played since my last report. On July 13, Kyo Kagen (W) beat Cho U by resig.

Sumire’s winning streak ends: “Streak” is perhaps an exaggeration. Nakamura Sumire 1P won her first three games after the resumption of professional go last month, with one of the wins earning her one of the 16 seats in the main tournament of the 5th Senko Cup. Unfortunately, the luck of the draw pitted her against Ueno Asami, holder of the Women’s Honinbo title, who is one of the top two women players in Japan at present. Taking white, Ueno won by resignation after 164 moves. This was Sumire’s first game with a current titleholder. Her record for the year is now 10-11. As there was no title-match game last week, this game adorned the front page of Go Weekly.     The Korean server Cyber Oro, which runs the Nihon Ki-in’s server, has organized a series of Net games, called “Sumire’s Oro Challenge,” among Sumire and four Korean players. She plays each player three times, so it’s quite a large-scale project. The games are fast games, with a time allowance of 10 minutes per player plus byo-yomi of 40 seconds x 3. The first opponent was Korea’s number two woman player Kim Chaeyoung 6P; the first game was played on July 10 and the next two the following day. Not surprisingly, Kim won 3-0. The second opponent was Seo Neung-uk 9P; the games were played on July 17 and 18, but I don’t have the results yet. The third opponent is the legendary Suh Bongsu 9P, with the games to be played on July 24 and 25. The fourth player is Jeong Yujin 1P, and the games are scheduled for July 31 and August 1. I would have chosen four Korean female 1-dans for a series like this, but you could say that Sumire has been lucky to get to play so many top players. We know from the invitational games organized last year that losses to top-level opposition doesn’t discourage her.

Ichiriki makes good start in 45th Gosei challenge: Ichiriki Ryo 8P is making his fourth challenge for a top-seven title, after three failures against Iyama Yuta. In the case of the Gosei title, he has the added incentive that his family’s newspaper, the Hokkoku (North Country) Newspaper, which is based in Sendai, is a member of the Newspaper Igo League that sponsors the tournament. Since graduating from university, he has been working in the Tokyo office of the newspaper, so conceivably he could also report on his own performance. The defending titleholder is Hane Naoki 9P, who beat Ichiriki in the play-off to decide the challenger last year. He beat Kyo Kagen in the title match, winning his first title since winning the Gosei title in 2011. He is aged 43 to Ichiriki’s 23. The first game was played at the Hokkoku Newspaper Hall in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, on July 18. Taking white, Ichiriki won by 1.5 points after 261 moves. The second game will be played on August 3.

More tournaments rescheduled: The 7th Hollyhock Cup title match, in which Suzuki Ayumi, Women’s Kisei, is challenging Fujisawa Rina, will be played at the Nihon Ki-in on July 27, 29, and, if necessary, 31.
The 7th Globis Cup was originally scheduled for May 8 to 10 this year, but it was another of the victims of Covid-19. It is now scheduled to be played on the Net on August 1 and 2.
The opening rounds of the 13th Chunlan Cup were supposed to be played in February, but this Chinese-sponsored international tournament was one of the first casualties of Covid-19. It has finally been decided to play the games on the Net, with Round 1 slated for July 29 and Round 2 July 31. Both Iyama and Shibano will play in this tournament.

Promotion: To 9-dan: Arimura Hiroshi (200 wins, as of July 7)

Retirement: Ms. Furusho Katsuko 2P has retired as of July 8, which is her birthday. Born in Tokyo in 1943, she became a disciple of Nakaoka Jiro 9P. She became 1-dan in 1969 and was promoted to 2-dan in 2005. She was promoted to 3-dan after her retirement.

“Is the photo a very young Ishida Yoshio?” wonders Shai Simonson, in response to our recent 50 years aGO stumper: Who’s pictured in the photo at left? Hints were that he attended a U.S. Go Congress and wrote an Ishi Press book. “(Ishida) wrote ‘All About Thickness’ for Ishi Press, and attended the (first?) Go Congress in 1985 in Maryland,” adds Simonson.
“It looks like it could be a young Takemiya Masaki, who later wrote ‘Enclosure Josekis’ and attended the 29th US Go Congress,” writes Michael Kyriakakis.
Nope and nope, says Keith Arnold. If you think you know the answer, send it to us c/o journal@usgo.org.

Download SGF File

Black to play. How to attack White’s rich eye shape?
Published in the August 4, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. You can reach him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

Chumley’s ID’s: All these IDs are ‘probably'” writes Terry Benson in response to a request for photo ID’s in our July 28 report on the closing of Chumley’s, the former West Village speakeasy where the American Go Association was founded in 1935. “Playing Dr. Lasker (back left) is Elizabeth Morris (back right), an early AGA organizer and, with her husband Lester, author of an early introduction to go pamphlet. Watching them (back middle) is – I believe – Lasker’s good friend George Chernowitz – 25 at the time – or (possibly) Lester Morris. The other woman (front right) is likely Edith Chernowitz. The navy officer (front right) is perhaps Lieutenant Ingersoll, a math teacher at the Naval Academy, who – along with Lasker – presented Emmanuel Lasker’s go board and stones to the Academy that same year (1942) as the photo.
photo: New York Post, LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images

The real goal of improving: “Maybe my winning percentage will go up’” (The Empty Board: Philosophical Reflections on Go #16 7/25 EJ). “When we were taking lessons from Janice Kim,” writes Michael Ryan, “one of our number said something about hoping that person’s winning percentage would go up. Janice replied, ‘The purpose of improving your game is not to win more games. It is to be able to play stronger players.’ The implication is that you will have more interesting games that way. Just so.”

This year’s AGA Board of Directors election winners by region are:
Eastern – Stephanie Yin
Central – Lisa Scott
At-Large – Ted Terpstra
Western, by write-in vote –  Lester C. Lanphear III 
Thanks to all the candidates and voters for participating in this year’s elections. And condolences to write-in candidates Donald Duck and Alphago.
– Arnold Eudell

“I’m looking forward to seeing some spirited Go this week,” says TD Jon Boley of the start of the e-GoCongress answer to any players missing the Go Congress’ beloved Lightning Tournament. With mini-tournaments of three rounds each on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday on KGS beginning at 1pm EDT, registered players will have plenty of opportunities to put themselves into atari and otherwise participate in time-honored blitz and lightning go mistakes. Any players with questions about the tournament or any issues should contact the TD at blitz@gocongress.org.

The start of the 2020 e-Go Congress brings a week of exciting tournaments this year. This will end the eighth year of the Pandanet AGA City League. This tournament comes down to the top two teams from the A League: New York City vs Bay Area. A showdown for coastal supremacy between this years teams.

Starting in November we have had four leagues and 31 teams from across the US and Canada. They’ve played once a month since then to find the top teams. The leagues range in ranks from 10 kyu to more than a few professional players. Full list of the rules from this season can be found on the Pandanet page.

This week we will watch the A League Finalists. Each game will take place on the AGA Twitch Channel at 8PM EDT/5PM PDT/9AM JST (Next Morning). The lineup for the three nights of games are:

Monday August 3rd – Board 3 – Zhongfan Jian 7d (NYC) vs Jeremy Chiu 7d (Bay Area)
Wednesday August 5th – Board 2 – Hanchen Zhang 1p (NYC) vs Hajin Lee 4p (Bay Area)
Friday August 7th – Board 1 – Ryan Li 1p (NYC) vs Mingjiu Jiang 7p (Bay Area)

The games will take place in the AGA City League room on Pandanet. Board 3 will nigiri for colors and the other games will alternate colors based on that.

For each of our leagues the winners will be promoted to the next league next year. We look forward to seeing how they will shake up their new leagues next year.
A League:
3rd Place: Greater Washington
4th Place: Canwa Vancouver 1
5th Place: Waterloo 1
B League:
1st Place: Chicago
2nd Place: Waterloo 2
3rd Place: Canwa Vancouver 2
C League:
1st Place: Los Angeles
2nd Place: Montreal
3rd Place: Atlanta
D League:
1st Place: Seattle 2
2nd Place: New Mexico
3rd Place: NY City 2

There will be an informational meeting the second week of congress for the City League. This will be one of the meeting on Saturday August 15th. Full meeting schedules for the week can be found on the Chapters Email list.

Frank and his daughter Alice promoting go at a local school.

Frank Luo has been chosen as the AGF Teacher of the Year. The traditional prize, of a free trip to congress, will have to be delayed until next year but the AGF wanted to celebrate Luo’s accomplishments now. Luo will give a talk on the AGA’s Twitch channel on Sunday, Aug. 2 at 4 pm EDT.

“I am so honored to receive the 2020 AGF Teacher of the Year Award,” writes Luo. “Thank you all, especially our parents for supporting their kids playing this educational board game.

“Just like many other go teachers, I started teaching with a desire to connect with my own kids by playing go. Over time, it became a way to share this fascinating game with other families in the local community of Mason, Ohio. In the winter of 2007, I took over an enrichment activity that a few kids, including my own son, had enjoyed greatly. Time flies, it has been more than 12 years now and our go program has had dozens of students since then. With the help of other parents, volunteers, and Huaxia Chinese school in Mason, Ohio, our program has expanded from one class with four students to two classes in the winter of 2019. Now, we have several different levels of groups of young go players active all year round. 2020 has been a year with much uncertainty, so we moved all classes online. We not only have one hour of instruction time, but we also have three playing times each week using Zoom where kids play games and can also socialize with each other. Playing time also serves as a reminder to play go regularly. We teach, we learn, we play with each other, and we play with friends from other parts of the country and other parts of the world.

“We have had all kinds of go activities in the past, including meetups at the libraries, go pizza parties, online team challenge matches, and annual local tournaments that attract players from other cities in Ohio and neighboring states. We organize our students to participate in all AGA/AGHS activities including the School Team Tournament (we always have more than one team), NAKC, Young Lion’s Cup and AGA Youth Go Camp. Our students have performed very well in these activities and received many medals and trophies. We compete with players across the United State and it is fun.

“Several years ago, with the help of my friend and go parent, Tong, we started publishing stories in our community’s newsletter and we started to gain recognition in locally. We also began introducing go to local elementary schools and universities with game nights and many other activities. Many local kids have gotten to know this fascinating board game as a result.

“I try to integrate independent thinking, math concepts, sport spirit, culture, and language elements into my lessons. I hope playing go becomes part of our young kids’ life when they grow up, enjoying the ebb and flow of the game and life. Teaching go has also enriched my own life. Every teaching moment and every event challenges me to do better so our kids can do better as well. We have been thinking about creating a grade level online tournament for double digit kyu players and we are looking for other go teachers who are interested in this idea.

“I appreciate the AGF and the AGA’s commitment to go and look forward to working together to promote go in the future,” said Luo. -Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor. Photo by Frank Luo.

The 2020 e-Go Congress closed registration the evening of July 29, with 941 people from 52 countries officially registered to attend. Congress organizers urge all registrants to fill out the check-in form as soon as possible, and at least by 8pm on 7/31 or risk having their registration cancelled.

Anyone who missed registration but still hopes to participate can join the waitlist here. Individual TDs may be able to let people from the waitlist join their tournament. There are still many events that will be open for public viewing for those who are not able to play in the 2020 e-Go Congress tournaments.

Whether or not you plan to participate in the events, everyone is welcome to peruse the official 2020 e-Go Congress store: https://usgo-stuff.org/.  At the store, you can find t-shirts (men’s, women’s, and children’s styles), mugs, lapel pins, canvas grocery bags, and masks, all with the 2020 e-Go Congress logo!

For more information, check out the congress website: https://www.gocongress.org/2020.  

by Roy Laird

In 1935, a German immigrant and a few of his friends met at Chumley’s, a speakeasy in the West Village, and founded The American Go Association. While the AGA lives on, it has sadly come to light that the storied bar, host to many famous Village denizens and others over the years, has succumbed to the pandemic. Click here to see the New York Post story, which includes a wonderful historic photograph of go players there from 1942. (A meeting of The New York Go Club?) I’m pretty sure that Edward Lasker, the immigrant, who was also a noted chess player and the author of Go and Go-Moku, one of the first go books in English, is the gentleman playing the far game. Can’t resist bragging — I lost a game at nine stones to Lasker in the 1970’s when he had arranged for the NYGC to occupy the basement of The Marshall Chess Club. Can anyone out there identify any of the other players in the photograph?

With the e-Go Congress starting in just a few days, the organizers have published the final list of Broadcast events and small group lessons with pros and strong amateurs.

Small-group sessions with pros and strong amateurs are available to registered attendees only (at a fee of $35 per event).  These sessions include game reviews and simuls with Myungwan Kim 9p, Yoonyoung Kim 8p, Mingjiu Jiang 7p, Yilun Yang 7p, Ryo Maeda 6p, Cathy Li 1p, Ryan Li 1p, Michael Chen 7d, and Yuan Zhou 7d.  Register here if you would like to participate in the e-Go Congress and be eligible to register for the small-group pro events.

The e-Go Congress will have a full schedule of broadcasts on Twitch, including game commentaries, pro lectures, public game reviews, a film screening, and the AGF Teacher of the Year Presentation. The schedule for those events is below (and on the e-Go Congress website, gocongress.org).  Pros and strong amateurs offering these events include Michael Redmond 9p, Myungwan Kim 9p, Yoonyoung Kim 8p, Guo Juan 5p, Eric Lui 1p, Ryan Li 1p, and Inseong Hwang 7d.

While it doesn’t have a specific broadcast timeslot, this year’s e-Go Congress is also continuing the tradition of holding the Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest.  Entries to the contest are due by 11pm EDT on Monday, August 3, and can be submitted here.  A panel of 3-5 judges will each read and rate all entries, and the top scoring entries will become the finalists.  The final winner will be selected by e-Go Congress attendees and viewers of the AGA’s Twitch channel.  

DateTimePro/Host/PresenterEvent (all on Twitch)Saturday, 8/11pm-3pm EDTe-Go Congress OrganizersOpening CeremonySunday, 8/24pm-5pm EDTFrank LuoAGF Teacher of the Year Presentation5pm-6pm EDTRyan Li 1PLecture6pm-7pm EDTInseong Hwang 8dLectureMonday, 8/38pm-11pm EDTMyungwan Kim 9P and Brandon ZhouPandanet AGA City League board 3 commentaryTuesday, 8/48pm-11pm EDTDavid KahnBeginners Introduction (20 mins)Eric Lui 1P and Will LockhartTwitch Plays Go (1 hour)The Surrounding GameFilm screeningWednesday, 8/54pm-5pm EDTGuo Juan 5PGame review (public, entry by lottery)8pm-11pm EDTInseong Hwang 8d and Cat MaiPandanet AGA City League board 2 commentaryThursday, 8/64pm-5pm EDTGuo Juan 5PGame review (public, entry by lottery)8pm-11pm EDTYoonyoung Kim 8PPair Go top board commentaryFriday, 8/74pm-5pm EDTGuo Juan 5PGame review (public, entry by lottery)8pm-11pm EDTMichael Redmond 9PPandanet AGA City League board 1 commentarySaturday, 8/84pm-5pm EDTGuo Juan 5PGame review (public, entry by lottery)5pm-6pm EDTRyan Li 1PLecture6pm-7pm EDTInseong Hwang 8dLecture8pm-11pm EDTMyungwan Kim 9PTeam Relay Go commentarySunday, 8/91pm-3pm EDTe-Go Congress OrganizersClosing Ceremony

Registration for the 2020 e-Go Congress has continued to be strong, breaking all US Go Congress records. As of this writing, registration is at 772 people overall. However, registration will close on Wednesday, 7/29 at 8pm EDT so register now if you want to play! A waitlist will open when registration closes, but there’s no guarantee that those on the waitlist willet the chance to play. After registration, all registered attendees are required to fill out the check-in form if they would like to play in tournaments.

A few of the tournaments reached their capacity in the past few days, including: the Double-Digit Kyu Tournament with 120 registered and a growing waitlist, the Relay Go Tournament with 100 registered and a waitlist half again that length, and the 9×9 Tournament with 240 people and a dozen on the waitlist. The e-Go Congress Open – currently with 591 players – the Blitz Tournament – currently 258 players – and the Pair Go Tournament – currently 159 players not all of whom have partners – are still accepting registrations, but not for long, so get registered!

Download SGF File

White: anon 2d
Black: anon 2d
Commentary: Albert Yen 7d
Game Editor: Myron Souris
Published in the July 28, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal

With the long-awaited e-Congress kicking off, Albert devotes this commentary to tournament preparation. Albert gives this overview of the practical playing techniques that appear throughout:

“I won’t go into as much detail about specific moves or give “textbook” answers generated by Leela. But rather I will focus on the players’ thinking process. Having a consistent trend of thought is vital to winning the game. Even if we don’t have the skill to play 9P-level moves, we should still play confidently. In this review I will refrain from showing very advanced variations and just think from the perspective of a 2 dan. There are ways to reason out why some moves are better without doing deep reading.”

Albert Yen is an 8 dan player from Chicago. He first started playing go at the age of five after watching Hikaru no Go on television, and became 6 dan in Taiwan when he was 7. Albert continued to compete in America after he moved to Chicago in fifth grade and studied under Jiang Mingjiu 7p. To date, he has made several showings in national and international tournaments, including winning representation to the World Youth Goe Championship in 2014, 1st place in the Redmond Cup in 2015, and 4th place at the 2019 World Amateur Go Championship. Albert is currently a second year undergraduate student in UIC’s GPPA BA/MD program in Chicago. Outside of go, Albert enjoys running and ping pong.