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While the pandemic may have put a pause on many tournaments, the annual suite of AGA youth tournaments will remain in full swing for 2021. Registration is now open for the 8th North American Kyu Championships (NAKC), the 28th Redmond Cup, and the 4th AGA Girls Cup. For all three tournaments, competitors must reside in North America and be a member of the his or her country’s national Go organization.

Youth competing at the US Go Congress

The 8th North American Kyu Championships will be held on February 20th and is a four-round, one-day tournament on the KGS Go Server for North American kyu players under the age of 18. Top junior (under 13) and senior (13-17) players in each division can win personalized crystal trophies, and the junior and senior champions of the top division will be invited to play in the Redmond Cup, which traditionally requires one to have a dan-level rank to compete. Players who complete all rounds of the NAKC will also be eligible for a $200 scholarship to the 2021 US Go Congress (USGC) in Cleveland, Ohio courtesy of the American Go Foundation. If there is no in-person USGC in 2021 due to the pandemic, the scholarship will be transferrable to the next in-person USGC. Registration for the NAKC closes on February 14th, and interested competitors can read about the rules and additional details for more information.

The 28th Redmond Cup and 4th AGA Girls Cup are premier tournaments for North American youth under 18 and females under 16 respectively. Players must have an accredited rank of 1-dan or higher to participate in the Redmond Cup, and an accredited rank of 10-kyu or higher to participate in the AGA Girls Cup. The Redmond Cup features both a Junior (under 13) and a Senior (13-17) division, while the AGA Girls Cup will feature one division. Both tournaments are online preliminaries to determine two finalists in each division who will be invited to play in a best-of-three match at the 2021 US Go Congress. The American Go Foundation will cover all reasonable expenses for the finalists of both tournaments to travel to and compete at the 2021 USGC. If there is no in-person 2021 USGC, the Finals will be played at the following in-person USGC. Players who complete all rounds of either tournament will also be eligible for a $200 scholarship to the next in-person USGC. Registration for the Redmond Cup will close on March 10th, with competition starting on March 15th. Registration for the AGA Girls Cup will close on March 17th, with competition starting on March 22nd. Interested competitors can read about the rules for the Redmond Cup and rules for the AGA Girls Cup for more information.

— Story by Justin Teng; photo by Paul Barchilon, AGA Youth Coordinators

David Matson and Peter Freedman report an article published in issue 94 of Nautilus on understanding evolution through the lens of games, called Playing Go with Darwin.

Roy Laird reports on Go’s puzzle appearance: “#120 across in the Dec 20th NYT crossword puzzle: “Piece in the game go” – five letters, I wonder what it could be?”

Michael Goerss found two references to weiqi in 1636: The China Venture by Eric Flint & Iver P. Cooper. “A character showing photographs in China  (p. 188), ‘Here’s a print of you and your father playing weiqi.’ And in the epilogue (p. 426) while mentioning an omen in a letter, ‘This happened just as I was playing the board game Weiqi . . . with the Beijing minister of war.’

Goerss, along with reader Liam McFadden, also reported on the appearance of Go in the new video game Cyberpunk 2077. “Oddly enough, as you get further away from the board, the texture switches from showing a 19×19 board to a 10×10,” says McFadden. Goerss noticed this as well; “While the positions look like reasonable board positions, the board has ten lines.  However, stones are placed midway between intersections, too, which would make the board 19×19.  Maybe the graphics for a true 19×19 board were too hard?”

EJournal and Buzzfeed reader David Bogie reports on this list at Buzzfeed, book #28: “If you liked watching “The Queen’s Gambit”, you should read “The Girl Who Played Go”, by Shan Sa.”

-photos courtesy of Liam McFadden

To encourage players to play on western Go servers and support the western Go community, Shawn Ray (Clossius) has launched the Western Dan Challenge. Sponsored by Ray, and as a result of various donations, the prize pool has steadily increased to $1200, with prizes being added for more divisions of the event. One sponsor, Aneok, has added prizes for players who choose to play exclusively on OGS. Three divisions overall include a dan division, a single digit kyu division, and a double digit kyu division, with a prize available for most ranked games played in February. Click here for Ray’s Youtube video on the event.

Rules:

• Only games played in February will count
• Must be a ranked game.
• Must be on a western server like OGS or KGS
• Must be on the same account. (Makes it easier to track)
• Must not use AI. I will be having people check.
• Minimum time settings of 1min 10sec x 5
• Must use an overtime clock equivalent to the minimum time settings.
• No Sudden Death
• Only 19×19 games
• Do not find flaws with the rules that defeat the spirit of the challenge.

The E-Journal is looking for a volunteer Assistant Game Editor to work with Bill Cobb, who’s assuming the duties of EJ Game Editor Myron Souris, who’s moving on to other projects. The weekly game commentaries by Guo Juan, Yuan Zhou, Kaz Furuyama, Gansheng Shi and Albert Yen – as well as life and death puzzles by Yilun Yang – have long been a favorite EJ feature. Anyone interested can email journal@usgo.org

“I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to outgoing EJ Game Editor Myron Souris,” said EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock. “Myron is an absolute joy to work with, and his eye for detail, superlative systems management and unending patience have been a constant inspiration.” Souris also worked closely with Garlock and Michael Redmond on Alpha to Zero and Garlock said that “Myron was the key to resolving many of the sticky technical and workflow challenges that came up on that project.”

Bill Cobb brings a tremendous amount of experience to the Game Editor position, thanks to his role as Slate and Shell publisher, and he’s also been part of the EJ team in various capacities over the years. “With such capable shoes to fill, we’re very fortunate to welcome Bill back to an active role on the team,” said Garlock.

“The Eastern Youth Open (EYO) is a 4-round open youth tournament hosted by the New York Go Association (NYGA) for players of all levels under the age of 18. Having started in 2019, the EYO provides an opportunity for young players to play in a high-standard formal tournament. Due to the pandemic, this year’s tournament will be held virtually on the KGS Go Server,” says Stephanie Yin, President of the New York Go Association.

The top three players in each division will receive certificates and trophies. This year’s tournament will take place on Sunday, February 21st with registration closing on February 14th. For more information and to register, please visit the NYGA event page. In addition, the NYGA is hosting a 5-day Spring Intense Training Camp from Feb 15-19. Come have fun with excited Go peers and prepare for the tournament!

Download SGF File

Black plays. Happy New Year!
Published in the January 12, 2021 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.

Download SGF File

Black to play. White has plenty of eye space, but some stones are short of liberties.
Published in the January 12, 2021 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.

“Registration for the first AGHS Pair Go Tournament is now open,” says Promotion Head Jenny Li, “We welcome players from across the globe and of all ages. This two-round event will be hosted in the AGHS Tournament Room on KGS on February 6th, 2021, with the first and second round starting respectively at 4pm EST and 7pm EST. Each pair must consist of at least one youth player. To be eligible for a prize, each pair must also consist of one female and one male player, however, this is not a requirement to participate in the event.”

If you are looking for a partner, please enter your information in this document. The registration deadline for this year’s AGHS Pair Go Tournament is January 30, 2021, 11:59 pm PT. If you would like to play and still do not have a partner by the registration deadline, please indicate so on the registration form, and the AGHS tournament directors will assign you a partner. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the tournament. If you have any questions, please contact aghsregister@gmail.com. For more information, please read the rules and regulations.

After over 23 years of meetings at the Un-Urban Coffee shop were interrupted by the pandemic, the Santa Monica Go Club is set to resume weekly meetings on KGS in the new Santa Monica Go Club room this Thursday. “Without even really announcing it yet, multiple players have joined the SMGC Room and played some games!” says room creator Patrick Ferl. “Our first thought was to reunite as many of the in person club members as possible, but anyone is welcome to join the room and participate to make new friends in the Go community. We hope to help foster the health of the online Go, and also are looking at the possibility of some inter-club online friendly matches.” Meetings will be held every Thursday evening from 6pm to midnight Pacific Time. The SMGC’s long-running annual tournament, the Coffee Cup, will be held online in the spring. 

Download SGF File

Black to play. To attack White, Black must use the inside stone properly.
Published in the January 5, 2021 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.

The Pandanet AGA City League is getting into swing with the second round coming up this weekend. Sunday January 10th most games will be held in the AGA City League and AGA City League Manual Rooms. Watch LIVE Sunday at 3PM for most games to start. The full schedules for games can be found on each of the League pages.

A League – B League – C League – D League

Download SGF File

Black plays. Happy New Year! (Answer appears next week.)
Published in the January 5, 2021 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.

Welcome to the American Go Yearbook 2020 Member’s Edition Collection! One of the benefits of your membership in the American Go Association is the Member’s Edition of the American Go E-Journal, the largest English language go publication in the world.

Once selected, game records or PDFs open up quickly and easily for your review or download. We appreciate your support of the AGA and hope that you will find this collection a valuable and useful resource; comments and suggestions are welcome at journal@usgo.org – Chris Garlock, Managing Editor

These game records, commentaries and other material are distributed to you as a member of the American Go Association as a benefit of membership. You may download unlimited copies for your own use; please do not circulate them to non-members.

Production Team: Chris Garlock, Managing Editor; Myron Souris, Games Editor

Member Edition SGF files are in this handy downloadable zip file: 2020 SGFs

As an additional convenience, Michael Redmond 9P’s recent non-member E-Journal commentaries on AlphaGo and a few other games are in this zip file: Redmond 2020 SGFs.

JANUARY
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a 5 Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s January Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s 2020 New Year’s Puzzle (answer)
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 34: The AI and the ponnuki
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s January Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 17: Michael Redmond 9P vs Takao Shinji 9P
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 35: The ko that wasn’t
Member’s Edition: Gansheng Shi 1P on Go Seigen Women’s Championship
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 18: Michael Redmond 9P vs Ri Ishu 8P

FEBRUARY
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a Casual Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s February Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a Kyu Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s February Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 19: Michael Redmond 9P vs Kudo Norio 9P
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 36: The ladder game
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 20: Michael Redmond 9P vs Shiraishi Yuichi 7P

MARCH
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s March Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a City League Game
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a Pro Handicap Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s March Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on The Tenuki Strategy

APRIL
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s April Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a 2 Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s April Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Members’ Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on the 21st Nongshim Cup
Member’s Edition: Gansheng Shi 1P on Korean Qualifiers, LG Cup
Redmond’s Reviews, AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 38: Trippy stuff with ladders

MAY
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on USA vs China
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s May Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a Double Digit Kyu Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s May Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Dan Game
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 39: Playing Away
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 40: It gets weird in the endgame
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 22: Yasui Sanchi 7P vs Honinbo Shusaku 6P
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 41: Michael’s mom and some exciting fighting

JUNE
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s June Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Gansheng Shi 1P on Chinese League A
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on USA vs China
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s June Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a 2-3 Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a Pandanet Game

JULY
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Low Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s July Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s July Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on an Online Kyu Game
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on Tournament Preparation

AUGUST
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s August Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on Two Online Games
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s August Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Single Digit Kyu Game

SEPTEMBER
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s September Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on Two Club Games
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s September Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a Pandanet Game
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Kyu Game

OCTOBER
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s October Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a Club Game
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s October Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a Fox Server Game
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on an Online Pro Game

NOVEMBER
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on an SDK League Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s November Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s November Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Low Dan Game
Member’s Edition: Gansheng Shi 1P on 2020 Samsung Cup

DECEMBER
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s December Easy Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Guo Juan 5P on a Study Group Game
Member’s Edition: Yilun Yang’s December Hard Life and Death Puzzle
Member’s Edition: Lessons with Kaz: Common Mistakes
Member’s Edition: Yuan Zhou on a Single Digit Kyu Game
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on an Online Game
Member’s Edition: Albert Yen 7d on a City League Match

Tango cat go art link sent in by Daniel R. Grayson.

Dark River
“I just wanted to let you know that go plays a pivotal role in my new novel, Dark River, in which the main character is trying to solve a 20-year-old murder,” writes Avery Jenkins. “In fact, the game provides him with the solution to that mystery — and others as well. Though the cover blurb doesn’t mention go, trust me — it’s in there.” You can find out more about the novel here.

Rain Dogs and The Vegetarian
In Adrian McKinty’s novel, Rain Dogs, the protagonist, a Northern Ireland detective investigating a murder, goes to Finland to interview the prime suspect, reports Dave Weimer. “When he arrives, he finds the suspect playing go. In a later chapter entitled ‘Kami no Itte’ the suspect cleverly eludes trial.”

Dave also reports that “On page 162 of The Vegetarian, by Han Kang (translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith. London: Hogarth, 2016. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize and one of NYT 10 Best Books of 2016),” there is the following passage: “There’d been a time when she could spend hours like this weighting up all the variables that might have contributed to determining Yeong-hye’s fate. Of course it was entirely in vain, this act of mentally picking up and counting the paduk stones that had been laid out on the board of her sister’s life.”

The Andromeda Evolution
Fifty years after “Andromeda Strain” we have a sequel by another author: The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson reports the National Go Center’s Gary Smith. “He (her father) explained that life was like the game — and every word spoken, every emotion betrayed through gesture or expression, constituted a move. By controlling each of your moves, you could reduce anxiousness and win the game. Peng Wu found that she very much liked winning at weiqi and at life.”

“Bringing light to contacting the large knight’s shimari.”
Board by Bill Saltman; stones from Solomon Smilack

“The movie Sanjuro has a couple of scenes with a nice go board in view,” reports Daniel R. Grayson. Sanjuro is a 1962 black-and-white Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. It is a sequel to Kurosawa’s 1961 Yojimbo (Wikipedia)

‘Quantum go machine’ plays ancient board game using entangled photons
A quantum-mechanical version of the ancient board game go has been demonstrated experimentally by physicists in China, according to a report in PhysicsWorld. “Using entangled photons, the researchers placed go pieces (called stones) in quantum superpositions to vastly increase the complexity of the game. They foresee the technology serving as the ultimate test for machine players that use ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI).” (Robert Cordingley)

Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue
In David Mitchell’s new book Utopia Avenue, the character in his current novel set in the 1960’s England is “remembering” a scene from the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob van de Zoet, a novel that takes place in 18th century Japan, reports Ken Parel-Sewell. “It’s a huge spoiler and very complicated to explain why this happens. David Mitchell’s books are fascinating alone, and even more fascinating when you read them all.”

The History of Home
In episode two of The History of Home, narrated by master woodworker Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), go is seen at 48:27 in a transition between explaining the historical importance of board games and the modern pastime of playing video games, reports Tyler Keithley, President of the Southwest Missouri Go Club. “Go is then mentioned by Twitch streamer Sonja Reid ‘OMGITSFIREFOXX’ at around 50 minutes and 30 seconds into the show.”

A more-or-less random selection of go-related stuff that somehow we just never got around to publishing this year, but that we don’t want to forget, file or delete. Thanks to everyone who sent us tips and suggestions this year; keep ’em coming to journal@usgo.org!

Download SGF File

White: Albert Yen 8d
Black: Brady Zhang 7d
Commentary: Albert Yen
Game Editor: Myron Souris
Published in the December 29, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal

In this game from round 1 of the 2020-2021 City League A match between Chicago and Vancouver, Albert Yen gives a detailed guided tour through the extensive middle game fighting.

Albert give this overview of his opponent and the fighting: “My disappointing result in this game demonstrates that ultimately games are decided by reading. I had a near perfect opening, but the 3-4 point advantage was quickly erased (and overwhelmed) by misreadings in the first fight. I’ve played Brady in the Redmond Cup back in 2017, so I know he is a very strong player. He typically doesn’t dwell too much on the opening, but is very strong in local fighting and reading. In both of our games I fell to his powerful midgame.”

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 BS/MD program in Chicago. Outside of go, Albert enjoys running and ping pong.

A more-or-less random selection of go-related stuff that somehow we just never got around to publishing this year, but that we don’t want to forget, file or delete. Thanks to everyone who sent us tips and suggestions this year and we promise to do better in 2021!

The wild and crazy folks at Shut Up & Sit Down tackle go. Thanks to Peter Freedman for the link.

Understanding Chinese Culture via the Board Game Go
Ze-Li Dou tackles ancient Chinese civilization, Confucianism and Daoism through the lens of go, “examining how philosophical attitudes are reflected in Go by literary means, which will also illustrate the interconnectedness of literature, philosophy, history, and art in China.” Or, put another way, “Go is like a little stone found on the bank of our grand metaphoric river; a close inspection of its polish and patina may throw light on the nature and history of the river itself.” Thanks to Roy Laird for passing this along.

Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke – Breakdown
EJ reader Geoff Pippin found this piece by a small Australian classical ensemble called “Nonsemble” on YouTube, about the famous 1953 game between Go Seigen and Fujisawa Kuranosuke. “The best part is that it is really an excellent piece!” says Pippin.
From the Nonsemble website: “A 30 minute work for chamber septet, using the moves of 1953 championship game of Go as stimulus for harmonic, rhythmic and melodic material. It’s an experiment in extracting musical ideas from abstract patterns and sequences, and allowing these ideas to develop intuitively into a large-scale work.”

Why Do People Love Games?
The Game Maker for The New York Times (Yes! There is a Game Maker) explains. “Although Go’s origin is unclear, many scholars speculate that it was created to teach tactics and strategy. When we enter the magic circle, we give ourselves permission to explore, to fail, to lose. When we stop playing Go, we carry that experience with us.” Thanks (again) to Roy Laird for the link.