News

This Dec 9th and 10th, we will host the second annual AGA WA State Championship at our new location (see seattlego.org/directions for a map). There will be an Open Tournament for strong, qualifying attendees (all even games to determine the state champion) and a Handicap Ratings Tournament. There will be 5 rounds — two rounds Saturday and three rounds Sunday. 

The top scoring player in the Open Tournament who has lived in Washington state for six months or more will win the 2023 Washington State Championship title and trophy.

The top scoring players in the Open Tournament that are employable in the United States win the championship prize money — $500 for top score, $250 for second top score, and $125 for third top score.

Handicap Tournament cash prizes and youth prizes depend on registrations.

You must have a current AGA membership. Please renew ahead of time to make registration easier and to make starting on time possible. Go to AGA membership join/update page to check your membership status, or join. Parents, you must make sure your kids are valid members. If someone cannot become an AGA member before the first round of pairing, you cannot play because we submit all game records to the AGA.

Tournament Details:
* Registration time: December 9th, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
* Saturday First Round Starts: December 9th, 10:30 AM (second round around 2:00pm)
* Sunday Third Round Starts: December 10th, 10:30 AM (fourth around around 1:30pm, fifth round around 3:30pm)
* Entry Free: $20 for non-voting members, $10 for voting members, Youth (under 18) are free (the $10 fee is paid by a grant from AGF), and Spectators are free.
* Time Controls: 45 mins with 5 byo-yomi periods of 30 seconds.
* Tie-Breaker: SOS (sum of opponent scores), SODOS (sum of defeated opponents’ scores), and lastly a tie-breaking game

This event is sponsored by the AGA State Championship fund, the AGA Tournament Support Program, and the Seattle AGA Chapter. Big thanks to the AGA for their support.

November 5th, We will be hosting our Anniversary Tournament.

We will have both and open (all even games) and handicap tournament. The open tournament is for the 8 strongest players and will have a cash prize of $150 for the player winning 3 games.  Our handicap tournament will also have some cash prizes for those who win 3 games (or divided over those who win 2 games if no one wins 3).  There is also our usual kids prize of $25 for the person under 18 years old who wins the most games (playing with a higher ranks break ties).  We will provide pizza for lunch, see below.

Tournament Info

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Registration: 9:00am – 9:45am sharp (NOTE: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME ends this day at 2am when we turn clocks back one hour)

First Game: 10:00 am. Second Game: 1pm.  Third Game: 3pm.

Rounds: 3

Entry Fee: $20 for non-voting members, $10 for voting members. Free if under 18 years old.

Time Controls:  45 minutes, 5 periods 30 second byomi

Rule set: Japanese counting, AGA guidelines (Like the monthly)

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We will provide free pizza for lunch.  A big thanks to the AGA for helping provide pizza for our tournament.  We will count how many slices people want before the first round (cheese or pepperoni), and we will have the pizza delivered around noon.

To learn more email programs@seattlgo.org.

This October 3rd at 6:00pm, we will be hosting a party to celebrate our new location at Phinney Ridge Community Center. Come Join us for Food, Drinks and the return of lighting Go in a fun mini tournament. We will also be displaying a goban for a future raffle (more in the upcoming weeks).

We had a very good first evening at the new Phinney Community Center location. It was nice to see old friends and a few new folks showed up.   We’re still settling in a bit, but people seem pretty happy with the space.  Looking forward to see you at SGC and enjoying some Go play.

See seattlego.org/directions for how to get our new location, or google maps has a pin at our doorway if you search for “Seattle Go Center”. 

we have just confirmed we are moving to Phinney Community Center, and we are re-opening 12 SEP, Tue, for normal hours.  We will also be open 16 SEP, Sat, for normal hours.  We are still working out the status of the Wed class, and we are still looking at bringing back Kids Time and Women+ Night in OCT (please send feedback if you have a desire for those programs fall through spring time).

Please note, use this address for google maps, 6611 Dayton Av N, because the official PNA address is off due to the size of their campus.  Also, there is free parking in both parking lots of PNA.  The 5 Line and E Line buses run frequently near PNA.  We will also have some yellow sandwich signs out in the parking lots that will direct you to our new entrance.  I’ve also tried to declare a pin for google maps at our new entrance.

This coming week is a bit of a soft opening and getting our legs back, but stay tuned for a site warming party and possibly a lightning tournament or something fun once we settle in and unpack.

SGC must close until it finds a temporary location to rent. Our landlord says they are defaulting on their loan, and we need to leave the premises by 27 JUL. SGC will operate normally through 18 JUL in its current location. We hope to find a new temporary location soon and resume normal programs. Until we rent a temporary location for SGC, we are looking for a location to host Tue evenings, for example, a restaurant or coffee shop that is closed on Tue. Please email manager@seattlego.org with any suggestions or questions.

This weekend, the Seattle Go Center will be returning to U District Street Fair. Last year we reach over 80 people and this year we are looking to reach even more. We will be at University Way NE booth number 303 from 11am-6pm on 20th-21th. We love to see you there.

This May 17th at 7:00pm, Chris Wells will be hosting a series of workshops. These workshops aim to help SDK-DDK get better at understand Fuseki, Joseki Choices, and the Opening in the Modern AI Era along with general ideas and concepts of the game. The workshops will consist of lectures, game discussions and take home problems for those who wish to dive in deeper to the subjects. After the workshop, there will be an hour of free play to practice what you have learn, ask more questions or just enjoy some games.

This class will hopefully be the first of several lectures. If you are a strong player that would like to host a class/workshop. Please reach out to us at Programs@seattlego.org to learn more.

The Seattle Go center has to major events coming up this April, and we need help from you. This April 7-9th, we have one our biggest events in Sakura Con. We are looking for 10-20 volunteers to help manage the room and promote the game of Go. We also need 2-4 volunteers that would be willing to help with set up on Friday and take down on Sunday. All volunteers that sign up ahead of time will be award badges to the event. Be aware that volunteers will have to follow the Sakura Con Masking and Vaccine policy.

Also this April 14-16, we will be returning the the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival. This a moderately size event and We are looking for around 5-7 Volunteers to help manage our booth. We also like to have 2~ volunteers to help set up the event.

To learn more about this event or to sign up for one of these events please email programs@seattlego.org or contact Kyle Burg.

This March 25th, the SGC is hosting our first lighting tournament. We will have 5 rounds of lighting fast game play to test your gut level evaluations and fast reading skills. Along with the joy of winning, Players can also get book prizes. Entry is free, and no AGA membership is required because the games will not be submitted for ratings. 

Registration: 

1:00pm-1:45pm 

First game starts at 2pm

Tournament settings:

Handicap

5 rounds

5 mins 3 byo 10 second

Standard Saturday hours apply during the tournament.