News

Advanced GO Class, Winter-Spring 2019

Yue Zhang’s new Advanced Go class, for players single-digit kyu and stronger, is now running weekly. Please pre-register either in person at the Go Center (a sign-up sheet is on the reception desk), or via the online registration page. Register by Monday evening prior to the class. (For example, to attend the Thursday, March 28 session, you should register no later than Monday, March 25.) Sessions that don’t have six or more registered may be canceled. (So get a bunch of your Go rivals to sign up too!)

Yue (Vincent) Zhang

Classes will run Thursdays, 7:00 – 9:00 PM at the Go Center. Tuition for these unique two-hour classes is $25 per class, including Go Center admission ($20 per class for Youth under 18, and Go Center voting members). Scholarships are available for players for whom the tuition would be a burden, bringing the cost to just $10 per class; and the application process is simple — email or talk to Mike (the programs manager) for info.

The class will feature group games and AI-assisted review, among other things. Rated 7 dan in the AGA, Yue has twice won the Open section at Seattle tournaments, and has years of experience teaching college.

New (and Familiar) Classes Starting Jan. 2019

The Go Center schedule is settling down after the holidays, with exciting new additions to our educational offerings.  Here are our regularly scheduled weekly classes:

(Note – informal instruction for beginners is also available Tuesdays and Saturdays.)
[ Read more… ]

Tournament Report: 6th Pair Go Gala

Saturday, December 8, 2018 was the Go Center’s 6th annual Pair Go Tournament — the Gala Night of Pair Go!  Thirty Go players teamed up in pairs, seeking to beat the other pairs at their table.

Go players smiling and laughing in the middle of their games.

Table 3 players express their mirth. (Catherine Ozols Photography)

Each table had four teams — so, two games going at once. The winners of Round 1 faced each other in Round 2. At the end of Round 2, each table had one undefeated pair.

Final results – 2018 Pair Go Table Winners:
Table 1 – Lee Anne Bowie, 4k and Bill Chiles, 3k
Table 2 – Xiangnan Chen, 3k and Brian Dai, 7k
Table 3 – Monique Nickerson, 15k and Rick Campbell, 14k
Table 4 – Ann Thompson, 18k and Bill Thompson, 13k

Go players pose in a group, displaying prize folding fans.

Seattle 2018 Pair Go Table Winners. (Catherine Ozols Photography)

Fun fact: Hajin Lee, professional 4 dan, and her partner defeated popular Go Center lecturer Nick Sibicky and his partner, in Round 1. Here’s Nick’s review of his Pair Go match vs Hajin Lee.

Go players gaze fiercely at the board in the early midgame.

Hajin Lee and Dan Maas vs. Nick Sibicky and Sonny Cho (Table 1, Round 1). (Catherine Ozols Photography)

–Mike M.

Schedule Change – Closed Wednesdays until January 2019

Beginning December 12, 2018, the Go Center is closed on Wednesdays (due to recent low turnout, expected to be exacerbated by the winter holidays).  Regularly scheduled Wednesday operations will resume January 16, 2019, with interesting new classes — announcement coming soon.

–Mike M.

Lending Library

Shelves of books about the game of Go / Baduk / Weiqi

Seattle Go Center’s lending library

Seattle Go Center has library of books, magazines, and other media available for members to use.  There are materials in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.  Some of these items (the ones for which we have duplicates) can be checked out for a period of a month by any youth member or any paying member.

Frank Brown has recently completed a volunteer project to catalogue the portion of the library available for lending.  See sgc-lending-library for the catalogue.

–Mike M.

Gala Pair Go Tournament Dec. 8 With Haylee!

Seattle Go Center is pleased to present the 6th Annual Gala Night of Pair Go

  • * Saturday, December 8 (following 2nd Saturday Speed League).
  • * Register in person, 5:00 – 5:30 PM.
  • * $10 entry ($5 for youth 17 and younger / Go Center voting members).

This is a great holiday event, with two rounds of Pair Go, cake, prizes and lots of fun.  (We expect to finish the evening around 10 PM.)  We will be following International Pair Go Rules.  Each team must have one male partner, and one female, transgender, or non-binary partner.  Team members may be of any age.  This is not an official Pair Go competition, so formal dress is encouraged, but not required.

Special guest Hajin Lee, 4 Dan professional —  Haylee’s World of Go/Baduk — is expected to play!

Fall Youth Tournament Nov. 18

Sunday November 18, 2018, Seattle Go Center held our annual Fall Youth Tournament. It was a fun event where the kids could choose whether to play their games on 19×19 or 13×13. Eight kids played three rounds on 19×19, and thirteen played four rounds on 13×13.

A girl and a boy studying their game of Go moves

Intent 13×13 players

For most of them, it was their first tournament ever. The youngest player was in preschool! The oldest players were in 7th grade.

All participants got to choose a prize from a pool of Go equipment, toys, and interesting items, awarded in order of results. Players with more wins and higher SODOS statistics got to choose their prize sooner. The Go sets went very quickly! (Go equipment prizes were donated, so if you have a board in good condition that you just don’t use anymore, consider donating it to the Go Center.)

Smiling boy holds game of Go equipment

Go equipment – most popular prize

Deep thanks go to Sonny Cho, Peter Kron, and Brian Allen for making it smooth and satisfying; also to the families who make it possible for their kids to play!

Kids and an adult observe a Go game in progress

Competitors and onlookers

–Mike M.

Thanksgiving Week Hours

We have a few changes at the Go Center this week to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday.

  • – Open as usual Monday (6:30-8:30 PM) and Tuesday (1:00-10:00 PM).
  • – Open a little later Wednesday (6:30-9:00 this week), and Drew Barnett’s “Basics” class is canceled this week. (Larry Eclipse will cover for Drew.)
  • – Closed Thursday (which is Thanksgiving).
  • – Closed as usual Friday.
  • – Regular hours Saturday (Michael Brown will cover for Dennis Wheeler).

As of Monday evening, I don’t yet have a full picture of our outreach locations. I will update this when I have more info. For now:

  • – Wednesday Uwajimaya Go meetup is canceled ahead of Thanksgiving.
  • – Thursday Go meetup at Hurry Curry is canceled, because the restaurant is closed for Thanksgiving.
  • – Thursday Go meetup at Couth Buzzard is canceled, because they are closed for Thanksgiving.
  • – Zoka Coffee / Greenlake will be open, and at least one or two Go players will be meeting there, 9:00 AM – 12:00 noon. (They’re closing early — 1:00 PM.)

–Mike M.

Lending Library Literature Listed

Thanks to the volunteer efforts of Frank Brown, the items in the Go Center’s lending library are now listed online! Paying members (Lifetime, Annual, Quarterly, or Ten-Visits Card) members may borrow up to two books at a time, for up to a month. Check with the Day Manager to sign a book out.

To see the items currently available:
www.seattlego.org/books-in-sgcs-lending-library

Click the top of a column to sort by that column. Click again to reverse the order.

The lending library catalogue is a work in progress. There are plans to add keywords like “tsumego” and “beginner” to roughly group books by subject.

–Mike M.

Go Terms in Four Languages

We have gotten a second shipment of Chihyung Nam’s new book, “Go Terms”.  This is a great book for Seattle Go Center players, since it compares Go terms across four languages: English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.  While English is the most common language at the Go Center, a lot of our stronger players use Japanese, Chinese or Korean as their first language.

“Go Terms” is available in our book and equipment shop for $25, including tax.  (We are sorry, but we do not do mail order or internet sales.)

The book is organized for English readers, with explanations in English, and diagrams, and the corresponding Asian words, along with their Romanized versions.  There are tables in the back of the book to help Japanese, Chinese and Korean speakers find corresponding terms in English.

Readers will find that many Japanese terms are listed in the English columns as well, such as komi, sente and hane.  In other situations, Ms. Nam suggests using English terms, which would make the game more understandable to beginners who speak English.  So she uses “corner pattern” for joseki,  and “play elsewhere” for tenuki.   Often there is not an exact match across all four languages. The entry on “Continuous atari” includes a comparison of 7 Asian terms, including the Japanese oiotoshi, and the Korean chokchoksu.

Chihyung Nam was one of the first female pros in Korea, and she is a good friend of the Seattle Go Center.  She is a professor at the Buduk Studies program at Myungji University, and has represented Korea at several international conferences on unifying Go rules. Her earlier book, “Contemporary Go Terms”, went out of print a long time ago, when Oromedia Publishing closed.  We are very happy that she has thoroughly rewritten her book, and found a new publisher.   Report and photo by Brian Allen