Uncovering the link between go and education Go is a game, a hobby, a profession. It’s a competition, it’s a communication tool and it’s a way of life. But what happens when go enters home and school as an educational tool? Xinming Simon Guo, founder of the Go and Math Academy in Chicago, Illinois, will explore go’s impact in his keynote remarks at this year’s US Go Congress opening ceremonies this Saturday in St. Paul, Minnesota. “Imagine an era in which every student has opportunities to learn math through go and fall in love with both of them,” says Guo.

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Alistair Wall Wins at 27th Milton Keynes Go Tournament: 35 players gathered in the sunny Open University Sports Pavilion for the 27th Milton Keynes Go Tournament on June 27. First place went to Alistair Wall 2d and second place to  Ngoc-Trang (Nyoshi) Cao 2d.

Ngoc-Trang Cao wins the Welsh Open: The 23rd Welsh Open was held at the Min-Y-Mor Hotel in Barmouth and organised by Martin and Helen Harvey. Over the two days, 26 players took part. Ngoc-Trang (Nyoshi) Cao 2d  and Mingcan Xu 3d Cardiff finished on 5 wins, but Cao won by tiebreak. Prizes for 4 wins went to Richard Hunter 2d, Roger Huyshe 3k, and David Horan 7k.

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The US Go Congress starts this Saturday August 1, and so do the games. Tune in on Pandanet at 3PM in the AGA City League room. We’ll be showing all three games LIVE for Los Angeles vs Greater Washington. The lineup will be:

Board 1: Mark Lee vs Tim Song

Board 2: Evan Cho vs Eric Lui

Board 3: Daniel Ko vs Yuan Zhou

The winner of this tournament will collect $5000, runner up will win $2500. Look out soon for news for the next year’s City League registration!

– Steve Colburn

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Ryo Maeda 6P at the Seattle Go Center in 2014

Seattle will benefit from the upcoming U.S. Go Congress in St. Paul, even though it is 1700 miles away, as visitors stop by before and after the August 1-9 event.  Ryo Maeda 6P and Koyo Hoshikawa 3P from the Kansai Ki-in of Japan will visit the Seattle Go Center on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28 and 29.  They will play simultaneous games on Tuesday, and Maeda Sensei will give one of his famous lectures for kyu players on Wednesday evening.

The weekend after the Go Congress, August 15 and 16,  Myungwan Kim 9P will conduct a workshop for strong players.  He will be assisted by Mark Lee, winner of the U.S. Open in 2014.  The workshop will feature simultaneous games with the two teachers,  game analysis of student games, analysis of top games from the U.S. Go Congress, and lessons on the Korean style opening.

The next weekend, August 22 and 23, Inseong Hwang of the on-line Go school the “American Yunguseng Dojang“, will teach a workshop for players 15 kyu and stronger.  It will include games between workshop participants, game analysis and lectures. Mr. Hwang says he often explains moves both at the 6-7 kyu level and also at the 1-2 dan level, since that is where people get stuck.  Mr. Hwang is the highest rated Go player in Europe (EGF).  He will also attend the US Go Congress on his trip.
– photo and report by Brian Allen

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EJ photographer Phil Straus spotted this unusual go board recently at an airport Marriott in Salt Lake City, Utah.  

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NOVA Go Club organizer, Garrett Smith (left), also known as PopPop, reports that he is engaged in extensive preparation for the 2015 U.S. Go Congress next month.  He hopes to see a big turnout August 1-9 in St. Paul, MN. If you’re going to the Go Congress too — and some 350 are already signed up — let us know how you’re preparing for the biggest go event in the country! Email your reports and/or photos to us at journal@usgo.org

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Patterson’s NYPD Red 2: In James Patterson’s “NYPD Red 2,” one of the NYPD’s detectives is searching for witnesses to an abduction near a park in a Chinese community, reports AGA Life Member David Kent. “The detective, a Caucasian, approaches a go game being played in the park, and challenges the local champion to a game, betting $100. After a hard-fought hour the detective intentionally makes a mistake, throwing the game, which only the champion, an old man, recognizes,” says Kent. “This soon pays off with the old man coming to the aid of the detectives, leading to a witness. The detective plans to give the old man a kaya board from a 700 year old tree instead of the hand-made plywood board he has been using.”

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Go in John Green’s Crash Course World History: “Hey, I was watching John Green’s Crash Course World History 2 series and spotted both a depiction of and mention of go,” writes Evan Hale of the Columbus Tesuji Go Club. “In the episode, Green covers the Heian Period of Japan and mentions go when talking about how the elite, upper class spent their leisure time. The mention is a little bit after 7:00 in the video.”

China’s News Silk Road Strategy & Go: In Weiqi Versus Chess (Huffington Post 4/3/2015), David Gosset says that “China’s New Silk Road strategy certainly integrates the importance of Eurasia but it also neutralizes the US pivot to Asia by enveloping it in a move which is broader both in space and in time: an approach inspired by the intelligence of Weiqi has outwitted the calculation of a chess player.” Thanks to reader Ted Joe for passing this along.

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Go author and blogger Jonathan Hop has launched a project to translate videos of professional games with commentary into English. “It’s all free and available on YouTube for all to see,” he tells the E-Journal. Hop says he’ll “try to do one or two a week depending on my schedule.” Available so far: Mukai Chiaki vs. Yamada Kimio, Cho Sonjin vs. Yukawa Mitsuhisa in the 63rd NHK Tournament, Takemiya Masaki vs. Goto Shungo and Kanazawa Makoto vs Akiyama Jiro in the 63rd NHK Cup.

Hop is back teaching and playing go after a long hiatus. After going to Korea, studying at a professional dojo and writing four books on go, he realized he didn’t want to be a professional go player, “So when the game felt like a chore, when studying was no longer exciting, I just plain stopped,” he writes on his blog. But now he’s heading to China next month and says “There’s no way I’m going to be in China and not play. So I decided I needed to get back in shape before I go.”

In addition to the pro game translations, Hop is playing on Twitch TV and archiving the games on YouTube. He’s also offering to review kyu level games or low level dan games for free and make videos of the review available on Youtube; send games to sundaygolessons@gmail.com. He’s also planning a go-playing marathon when he reaches 1,000 subscribers, and says that “I think I’m at 997 which is close enough for me to schedule it.  Sunday August 2nd, 12 straight hours of go beginning around 11 a.m.”

Photos: (right) Cho Chikun commenting the Mukai Chiaki vs. Yamada Kimio game; (left) Hop playing on Twitch.TV

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The American Go E-Journal has a few openings on its US Go Congress team. Anyone interested in helping record/broadcast top-board games at the US Open should email journal@usgo.org. Prior experience is useful but not absolutely necessary. You must be available either mornings (Sun-Sat) or evenings (Sunday, Tuesday, or Friday). “This is a terrific opportunity to get an up—close look at top-board games at a major tournament and be a part of the team bringing this event to the world,” says E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock. “Plus, it’ll improve your own go!”

Tennis Alert: Tennis players be sure to pack your racquets, as there are courts available at this year’s Congress site and E-Journal editor Chris Garlock will be organizing games throughout the week. Email journal@usgo.org if interested in participating.
photo: The EJ’s Dennis Wheeler records a 2014 US Open Masters game; photo by Chris Garlock

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