Welcome to the American Go Association

The Seattle Go Center recently honored Dennis Wheeler for his longtime dedication to teaching and sharing the game of go. Over 50 people came to the Seattle center on Saturday, Jan. 11, to share pizza, have a chat, play a game, and pose for pictures. Program Manager Mike Malveaux noted that Dennis helped Frank Fukuda at the Uwajimaya Wednesday outreach event for many years, and then took the lead in 2013. Dennis has also been teaching at festivals, such as Sakura-con, for over a decade. In addition, he has held the Saturday Manager position at the Seattle Go Center since 2012, where he particularly enjoys teaching children, and making newcomers feel welcome.

Now, Dennis is dealing with chemotherapy, and needs to reduce his outside activities. He will still be coming to the Seattle Go Center on some Saturdays. He continues to use social media, such as Facebook.

The party included Dennis’s wife Vicki, their three daughters, and their partners, as well as neighbors who learned go from Dennis and many old friends from the Seattle Go Center.

Mike also noted the contributions that Dennis has made to the national go scene. He was one of the organizers of the 2005 Go Congress in Tacoma, and he has been a excellent game recorder for many national AGA tournaments, usually reporting on the first board.

When he wrote about the party, Mike Malveaux noted: “My emotions are mixed — sadness that Dennis has to go through chemo, plus relief that he had some advance warning about it, and pride at Dennis’ contributions to American go, and pleasure that I’ve known him, because he’s really a great guy to spend time with.” Photos and report by Brian Allen

At its annual retreat on November 11, 2019, the AGA board of directors discussed several initiatives and their long-term priority of making go more mainstream. They passed motions to create a system for the AGA to provide limited financial support to develop/maintain tournaments, and established a scholarship fund to make the US Go Congress more affordable. They also discussed implementing an improved format for the North American Masters Tournament, held at Go Congress each year, based on feedback from strong players. Andy Okun also provided his President’s Report, including an update on work towards a North American Go Federation, which the board approved.

Seventy players came out for the first day of the first-ever Midwest Open held in Columbus, Ohio. “The open division is sporting a highly competitive field of 14 high-dan players in a show-down for the championship title,” said organizer Devin Fraze, who also serves as Central Region Representative on the AGA Board. Event sponsor BadukClub is streaming the top board with commentary by DanielML on the club’s Twitch channel. Round Three will begin at 9:30a (CST) on Sunday, with commentary by Yoonyoung Kim 8P at 1:30p CST.

The AGA-rated event brought together players from as far away as Texas, Colorado and California, as well as many of the midwestern states. Pairings in the main playing hall are being done with an innovative self-paired system created by Chicago Go organizer Mark Rubenstein, enabling participants to play more games with less waiting between matches.