The first award of the Washington Open Baduk Championship was announced after just one round on the first day of play. Tournament Director Allan Abramson presented retired Ambassador Suh Dae-won of Korea with an award recognizing his work promoting the game of go. Ambassador Suh played a key role bringing the annual Cotsen Open to the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles in recent years (dates were recently confirmed for 2014-2016), facilitated the organizing of the first Washington Open Baduk Championship this weekend in Northern Virginia – where nearly 100 players turned out Saturday — and is now in discussions about an event in Europe. “Bringing together the various go communities in our country has long been a dream of ours and efforts like this show just how far we have come,” said American Go Association president Andy Okun. “I’m very honored to receive this award,” said Ambassador Suh. “The Korean Amateur Baduk Association is committed to developing baduk in the United States. As the world’s largest economy and because of its huge influence worldwide this is a very important place to grow this global game. Thanks to all the organizers of this event for your dedication and hard work to make this event a success.” Also on hand was the Korean Minister for Economic Affairs, who declared himself “Very happy to see so many people playing the game in this country,” adding that “our embassy hopes to see this event continue next year and on into the future.”
– report/photo by Chris Garlock

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Ukraine: The Second League Ukrainian Championship finished on April 13 in Kiev with Andrii Kravets 6d in first, Volodymyr Kokozei 5d in second, and Bohdan Zhurakovskyi 5d in third. Norway: Yaqi Fu 6d took the 2014 Nordic Championship in Bergen on April 20. Behind him were Paal Sannes 3d in second and Severin Hanevik 1d in third. Romania: Silvestru State 2d (left) led the Roman Youth Championship U 16 Final on April 13. Elian Ioan Grigoriu 1d placed second and Mircea Nitu 12k came in third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

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The Ishi Go Club will host the Open IGC 2014 on May 17 and 18 at the Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland. Amateur and experienced players are welcome to play. Registration is 30 CHF for adults and 15 CHF for youth (under 18) and students. In addition to the tournament, Hwang In-Seong will provide lessons and lectures. For more information, please visit the official Open ICG 2014 website.

The Scottish Open Go Tournament will be May 24 and 25 at the University of Glasgow. Registration for non-BGA members is 9 GBP while BGA-members will receive a 3 GBP discount. In addition to the tournament, there will be an informal lightning event on Friday, May 23 for players already in town. Accommodations are available through local players or seeglasgow.com. For more information, please visit the official Scottish Open tournament page.
—Annalia Linnan; for complete listings, check out the European Tournament Calendar

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“I got dressed to disco music this morning (Go Spotting: Disco A-Go-Go! 4/23/2014 EJ),” writes Phil Straus. “Thank you.”

In that same story, we said that “Perhaps a Japanese-speaking reader can translate the spoken section halfway through.” Reader Pieter Mioch came through for us:
Through the go board the stones make (bring about) ever changing variations
Go is like a scaled down version of life
goban wo bankai ni ishi ga kamoshidasu senpenbanka
go to wa jinsei no shukuzu no yo na mono desu.
碁盤を媒介に石が醸し出す千変万化
碁とは人生の縮図の様な物です。

And Tony Collman, our diligent UK correspondent who wrote the original story, did a little more digging and discovered that “Chris Linn is the stage name for Christer Lindstedt 2d who plays (played?) at Gothenburg. His last tournament play was at the 1998 Grand Prix d’Europe, where he placed 49th. He formed the Gothenburg Association of Songwriters in 2002.”

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“It is a very random show, but this episode of Tonari no Seki-kun features go. Sort of,” reports Joseph Cua. “‘Don’t lose to your shadow!’ Pretty funny.”

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Attendance is expected to be near 100 at this weekend’s Washington Open Baduk Championship in Northern Virginia, reports organizer Allan Abramson.  Top players so far include Mingming Yin 9d (right), Zhaonian Chen 8d, Charles Choi 7d, James Park 7d, Changlong Wu 7d, Liang Yu 7d, Yuan Zhou 7d, Xinying Elaine Jiang 6d, Josh Lee 6d and Zhiyuan Edward Zhang 6d, “with plenty of players of all strengths ensuring a good field for everyone,” Abramson promises. He’s also planning to ask strong players to volunteer for simuls, “so everyone who wants a simul will get one on Sunday.” Top boards will be broadcast live on KGS; anyone interested in helping record/broadcast can email journal@usgo.org.

Players are competing for a top prize of at least $1,200 and cash prizes for every section. Myungwan Kim 9P and Sohyun Park 3P will give lectures for both dan and kyu players on Saturday night, followed by a rapid tournament, and the professionals will do game reviews and simuls on Sunday afternoon. The tournament will be held at the Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Center (1952 Gallows Road, Suite 330) in Vienna, VA and is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Cultural Center – DC, and Scorpion Sport Inc. in L.A. It is co-hosted by the Korean Amateur Baduk Association (KABA) and the American Go Association (AGA), and organized by the NOVA Go Club, the Baltimore Go Club, and the Korean-American Go Association. There’s no entry fee but AGA membership is required and lunch is free.

Click here to register. Organizers have negotiated a discounted rate with Extended Stay America (8281 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax VA 22031), 4.5 miles from the playing site; call 703-204-0088 and ask for the NOVA Go Club rate, or email MRD@extendedstay.com.
photo by Chris Garlock 

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The fourth round in the AGA City League is set for this Saturday, April 26th on Pandanet.  Click here for the pairings: A League; B League; C League. “As always catch the action live on game day at 3PM EST on Pandanet using the new GoPanda2 software,” reports TD Steve Colburn. Games will be played in the AGA City League room.

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The go booth at the 54th Sakura Mat­suri Street Fes­ti­val on April 12 in Wash­ing­ton D.C. was so popular that organizers quickly went through the more than 200 brochures they brought. The event runs in conjunction with the annual Cherry Blos­som Fes­ti­val in Washington. Teachers — including booth coordinator John Goon, Todd Heidenreich and Benjamin Hong — found themselves teaching multiple students while spectators watched and eagerly awaited their turn at the boards. “For all those who have any Japan­ese cul­tural events in your local area, I def­i­nitely encour­age you all to try and set up a booth like we did,” says Hong. “Because at the end of the day, if there was only one thing I learned from this event, it is that go has a real poten­tial to appeal to all types of peo­ple and can even­tu­ally become a house­hold sta­ple like chess or check­ers if we keep spread­ing the word with out­reach ini­tia­tives like this one.”
– photo courtesy Benjamin Hong; read his complete Sakura Matsuri blog post here

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by Barry Pasicznyk

Every year go players from the Penn Go Society and Phoenixville Go Club teach go at Philadelphia’s Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Festival. This year an especially poignant moment occurred that I wanted to share with other go players.

While we were teaching people how to play go, a man approached our tables. He said that he wanted to donate a go set so we could pass it on. He mentioned that when he was in the hospital with cancer that someone came to the hospital to play go with him. Now he was cured of the cancer; I was under the impression that he had not expected to survive. He said that he was eternally grateful for the act of kindness in his most desolate time, and that he wanted to pass the go set on so others could enjoy the game.

So we accepted the go set and gave it to a group of young adults who seemed to be enjoying the game. We told them the story of the set so that maybe it would inspire them to acts of kindness.

Sometimes go is more than just a game.

photo courtesy BoomsBeat 

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