Friday November 2, 2018
This Sunday November 4th students all around North, Central, and South America will play in the 17th World Students Go Oza Championship. Watch LIVE on Pandanet starting at 8am EST for each of the two groups. This tournament is not only for students but run by the All Japan Students Go Association. Check the Schedule throughout the day to see regular updates on who is advancing through the tournament.
Friday November 2, 2018
by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama’s sextuple crown under assault: This is an unusual report. Though he lost the Gosei title to Kyo Kagen, Iyama Yuta still holds six titles, but he is now engaged in defending three of them and is meeting with setbacks in each one. I don’t believe any previous report has included so many Iyama losses over such a short period. These are the last of the top-seven title matches for this year, so at this point all Iyama can be completely confident of is that he will greet the New Year with at least three titles.
Yoda wins international invitational: Yet another special international tournament has been held in China. The previous one was the International Weiqi Great Players Tournament (described in my July 22 report). This one is called Camphor Tree: The Chinese Medical Capital Cup and was held in Camphor Tree (or Zhangshu) City in Jiangxi Province. I was unable to elucidate the meaning of the name, but it sounds as if there’s an interesting story behind it. A player was invited from each of Korea, Japan, and China, and an irregular knock-out was held on October 10 and 11. In the first game, Chang Hao 9P of China (B) beat Yoda Norimoto 9P of Japan by 3.5 points. Chang went directly to the final. In the second round, Yoda (B) beat Lee Changho 9P (Korea) by 1.5 points. The final was held on the second day. Taking white, Yoda beat Chang by resignation, winning the first prize of 150,000 yuan (a little over $21,500).
Fan of China dominates opening Nong Shim round: The first round of the 20th Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup was held in Beijing in mid-October. Japan got off to a good start when Shibano Toramaru won the first game, but then Fan Tingyu of China took over and won the remaining three games in this round. Results are given below:
Game 1 (Oct. 16). Shibano Toramaru 7P (Japan) (B) beat Ahn Kukhyun 8P (Korea) by resig.
Game 2 (Oct. 17). Fan Tingyu 9P (China) (W) beat Shibano by resig.
Game 3 (Oct. 18). Fan (B) beat Shin Minjoon 9P (Korea) by resig.
Game 4 (Oct. 19). Fan (W) beat Motoki Katsuya 8P (Japan) by resig.
The second round will be played in Busan from November 23 to 27 and the final round in Shanghai from February 18 to 22.
Tengen title match tied: The first game of the 44th Tengen title match was held at the Matsuya Sensen inn in Awara
Hot Spring, Awara City, Fukui Prefecture on October 19. From the opening on, the game featured fierce fighting that spread over the whole board. Playing white, Iyama Yuta punished Black for a mistake toward the end of the game and secured a resignation after 234 moves. However, in the second game, played at the Toyo Grand Hotel in the town of Nakashibetsu (which in Ainu means “a place with many salmon”) in Hokkaido on October 29, Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) won by half a point after 312 moves. There is now a break of three and a half weeks till the third game, scheduled for November 23. Note: photo is from Game 3
Cho catches up in Meijin title match: In my previous report, I promised some more details on the fifth game of the 43rd Meijin title match. Playing white, the challenger, Cho U, won by 9.5 points. This made the score 2-3 and kept his chances alive. The game was held at the Tokiwa Hotel in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, on October 15 and 16. Unlike the previous game, there was a peaceful start, so it looked like becoming an endgame contest. However, around the evening of the second day, Iyama Yuta Meijin made a do-or-die move, so complicated fighting started. This was tough on Iyama because he was in byo-yomi. Cho has a policy of trying to leave as much time for the late middle game and endgame; when Iyama reached his last ten minutes, which is when byo-yomi starts, Cho still had three hours and a half hours on his clock.
The fighting in the latter part of the game is too complicated to describe; suffice it to say that a major trade took place. During a subsequent ko fight, Iyama went wrong 
with his ko threat, so Cho took a safe lead.
The sixth game was played at the Atami Sekitei, a traditional Japanese inn that has hosted many important games and is located in Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture, on October 22 and 23. There were no major fights in the first part of the game, so it looked like becoming a contest in endurance. However, Cho, playing black, built a strong wall that affected the whole board and helped him to gain points in various places. As in the previous game, Iyama launched a do-or-die attack in an attempt to upset Cho’s lead. In the difficult fight that followed, Cho’s reading surpassed that of the defending champion, so Iyama resigned after move 195. Akiyama Jiro 9P, the Asahi Newspaper commentator, summed up the game as follows: “This was a convincing win for the challenger. Rather than saying that the Meijin played some bad moves, my feeling was that the challenger’s performance surpassed that of the Meijin.” The deciding game will be played on November 1 and 2.
Tomorrow: Honinbo League; Korea wins International Gratitude Cup; Kono reaches Kisei play-off; Ichiriki makes good start in Oza
Friday November 2, 2018
The 8th season of the Collegiate Go League (CGL) is currently underway with last season’s third-place team, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign leading the A-League, and UCLA’s B team leading the B-League. Rounds take place on KGS every two weeks during the academic year, where schools can meet and compete with other university students around the continent. The A-League features highly-competitive even matches, with last season’s average playoff team strength hovering around 5 dan and above. Schools may also join the B-League, which features handicap matches for mainly kyu-level players. Cash prizes are given to top finishers in both leagues.
Last season’s broadcast of the A-League Finals was watched by thousands of viewers on Twitch.tv, featuring a nail-biting half-point victory on the first board for UC Irvine over UCLA to win the championship. If you’re an undergraduate or graduate student at a university in North America, gather at least two other students from your school and you too can compete for glory and eternal posterity on the perennial championship trophy.
Check out the detailed rules, and register to join the next round of the CGL.
Thursday November 1, 2018
California go players have a couple of interesting events coming up.
This Saturday, November 3 from 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m., three visiting Korean pros — Paul Ah 9P (now living in Southern California), Seo Nungwuk 9P, and Na Joonhoon 8P — will play simultaneous exhibitions and do game analysis in San Diego. The site will be at the University Community Public Library (4155 Governor Dr, San Diego 92122, 858-552-1655. Free parking is available and doors open at 9:30a. Hosted by the San Diego Go Club. Click here for more upcoming events.
And next Wednesday, November 7, Google DeepMind’s Thore Graepel will give a lecture on “Training Artificial Intelligence by Playing Games” at the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. Registration is optional, but space is limited. Register to reserve a seat. The lecture is at 6p; refreshments at 5:30p.
“Intelligence can be viewed as the ability of agents to achieve goals in a wide range of environments. If we wish to use machine learning to train intelligent agents, we need ways of creating rich environments that provide appropriate challenges and feedback signals to learning agents. Just as in real life (and evolution), the most challenging environments for learning agents arise from interaction with other co-adapting learning agents. So, let’s play games with AI!”
“The first example is learning from self-play in the context of the AlphaGo project which led to the first computer program to beat a top professional Go player at the full-size game of Go. Similar ideas can be used to study the age-old question of how cooperation arises among self-interested agents. Finally, we look at training artificial agents to play the game of Capture-The-Flag, a competitive team game played from a first-person perspective in a complex 3D world.”
Theoretically Speaking is a lecture series highlighting exciting advances in theoretical computer science for a broad general audience. Events are held at the David Brower Center in Downtown Berkeley, and are free and open to the public. No special background is assumed. This event is made possible in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation.
NOTE: San Diego is in Southern, not Northern California. The post has been updated with this correction.
Thursday November 1, 2018
“Registration for the 2018 American Go Honor Society Young Lions Tournament closes this Saturday, November 3,” says AGHS Vice President Jeremy Chiu, “The Young Lions Tournament is a four round tournament held on November 11 and 18 that is open to all youth players in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
For more detailed rules, please click here.
For registration, please click here.
Wednesday October 31, 2018
This Saturday, November 3, local go players will run a workshop at Youmacon, an anime convention in Detroit, Michigan,
from 5 to 7p. “Representatives from the London and Windsor go clubs from Canada, as well as the West Michigan and Columbus go clubs from the United States will be running a go workshop to hopefully spread interest and teach people about this game that we all love,” reports the Columbus Go Club’s Alexander Yehsakul. The workshop will be held in Room 141 at the Cobo Center. “It should be a good time, with plenty of play equipment, friendly convention goers, and even some prizes,” Yehsakul adds. “Also, if you follow the Twitch Go scene, streamers such as DanielML001, Balonator, and Skatmaker will be there for the duration of the event.”
Tuesday October 30, 2018
Ten players participated in the Vermont Go Championship on Saturday, October 27th. Dave Felcan 2d (standing at far left) went undefeated with three wins to take first place. Second place went to Jack Homer 1k with a record of 2-1. Rich Chalmers 1d claimed third place, also with a 2-1 record. “It was a very fun and exciting day with lots of great games and tough matches,” reports organizer Pete Schumer. All players received prizes including trophies, books, magazines, go playing cards, and DVDs. “We look forward to hearing from our fellow states!” Pete tells us.
Saturday October 27, 2018
By Terry Benson
Following up on last year’s first-ever Latin American Go Congress in Cancun, Mexico, the Ibero American Go Federation staged a well-run event October 13-15 at the Porta Hotel Antigua in Antigua, 
Guatemala.
The Porta Hotel has five stars but still feels authentic and local, with Guatemalan art, crafts and design throughout. The playing room was large and could be set up simultaneously for lecture, simuls and the tournament rounds.
Forty six players – including ten above 3 dan – were spread over six MacMahon bands, run by TD Adrian Ramirez 5k of Guatemala. Abraham Florencia 5d from Mexico won the 2018 Latin American Championship, and Mexico also took the second Pandanet Team Latin American Championship, beating Chile in the final of the 10-team event which started back in January. The second Latin American Youth Tournament was taken by Juan David Ramirez 3d of Colombia, while the winners of the third Latin American Pair Tournament were Eun-kyo Do 1p of Korea and Hector Paiz of Guatemala.
Like the US Go Congress – on which it’s modeled — there was a lot to do at the Latin American Go Congress. Korea once again sent two excellent 
representatives; Cho Hye-yeon was her effervescent and engaging self and Eun-kyo Do was quiet, charming…and deadly. From the U.S., Zirui Song 1d (right) from Chicago attended with funding from the American Go Foundation. The pros played simuls every day, offered free commentary on games as they finished, and each gave a lecture. Zirui’s contribution on Friday detailed two high level games – including one of his own from the last US Go Congress. He led the group though multiple variations – including the “why you can’t cut there” sort of questions which are obvious to the pros but not to the strivers.
On Sunday I ran Crazy Go (left) – known in this case as “Go Loco” — with the usual laughter at Rengo Kriegspeil, puzzled looks over the spiral board, and real interest in Coupon Go – including from Zirui.
Antigua is a beautifully preserved and restored Spanish city catering to tourists. The food at the Congress was superb – especially the
included lunch – and reasonably priced for the location. Other than the last day, when the cultural tour encountered several hours of torrential downpour, the weather cooperated – the thunder storms came while we were playing and the temperature was always temperate.
Great credit goes to the team from Guatemala including main Congress organizer Jose Romero (at far right with Abraham Florencia, and two Korean pros), to IberoAmerican Go Federation president Emil Garcia (left), and to the many other volunteers who helped in the typical spirit of go congresses.
The venue for next year’s Latin American congre
ss is uncertain, though Buenos Aires is a prime candidate. What is certain is the quality of the event and the fun of an international gathering like this, which will only grow as Latin American players come to know the unforgettable experiences at a Go congress.
Benson is president of the American Go Foundation; photos by Daniela Salamanca and Terry Benson
Thursday October 25, 2018
The Fall 2018 Austin, Texas Go Tournament was held on October 20th and 21st. Seventeen players participated. Prizes and certificates were 
awarded for the top three places in two divisions. The winners were:
Thursday October 25, 2018
The Mountain View (California) Go Club hosted its first tournament on September 29th at the Palo Alto public library. Forty players filled 
the available space to compete in three rounds. One factor contributing to the large turnout is the growing go scene in the South SF Bay area, which is home to many tech companies. The Bay Area Go Players Association hosts regular tournaments in San Francisco and Berkeley, but this is the first tournament in the South Bay in several years. For six players, this was their first tournament. Hajin Lee 4P went 3-0 to win her third tournament of the year. Going forward, the MVGC plans to host quarterly tournaments.
- Adam Bender