Thanks for all that made it out for this Spring Tournament, and a Special Congrats to our winners.
Open First: Harrison Dow
Open Second: Kenny Jin
Handicap: Thomas Gehrt
News
We are glad to announce our upcoming Spring Tournament this April 6th (first sunday of the month). We will have both and open (all even games) and handicap tournament. The open being our 4-8 strongest players facing off in even game for prize money of $100 for first place and $75 for second. The handicap tournament will have $50 prize for strongest band winner of 3 games, and $20 for the lower band winner of 3 games. There is a youth prize of $20 to the youth winner of 3 games or the youth who won the most games.
Registration:
9:00am-9:45am (an hour earlier than monthly ratings)
The Entrance fees:
$20 for non-voting members
$10 for voting members
$10 for youth under 18 (entrance fees will be paid by the AGF)
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR AGA MEMBERSHIP IS UP TO DATE AHEAD OF TIME. If you are not an AGA member when we pair the first round, you cannot play.
We will also order pizza if participants want. It costs $15, and we will order 4 slices per person.
We are hosting a Maeda Sensei workshop, 15-16 MAR. His workshop was quite popular last year. Admission is $30 per day for non-voting members (or $50 for both days) and $20 per day voting members (lifetime or annual). Saturday, 15 MAR, SGC is closed to people not taking the class.
ROUGH SCHEDULE:
* Saturday, 15 MAR 1:00pm start — doors open for registration and playing Go at noon.
The start time is a little soft since we will be coming directly from the airport.
* Saturday — probably lecture, game review, and possibly simuls
* Saturday 6pm-ish — class ends for the day
* Sunday 10am — class resumes with mixture of lecture, game reviews, simuls
* Sunday 12pm — lunch break (usual $15 for 4 slices of pizza option)
* Sunday 1:00-5pm-ish — final workshop session
MAEDA SENSEI BACKGROUND
Maeda Sensei is a 6p from the Kansai Ki-in Japanese professional organization. He is very popular at the Go Congresses for many fun and entertaining lectures. He has attended the Go Congress almost every year for the past 20+ years. He usually stops in Seattle on his way to or from the Congress.
Maeda Sensei created and runs the Osaka Go Summer Camp that is very popular. It runs every JUL/AUG for 3 weeks, ending in the Japanese Go Congress that Maeda created in the image of our Go Congress. He also runs the Osaka International Online School — weekly serious games with ~30 min reviews and 2x/mo private teaching game with a pro.
Korean 9d pro Lee Dong-hoon (became pro at 14 and by 19 years old was 9d and one of the strongest pros in recent years) will give a workshop 22-23 FEB. We have very strong amateurs (one was insei) translating with one of our regular members as backup translator.
Saturday and Sunday will start at 10am, have a lunch break 12-1pm, and end each day around 5pm. Doors will open on Saturday at 9am for registration. Please arrive BEFORE 10am and settle payment before the workshop begins as respect for the pro.
The cost will be $40 for non-voting members and $30 for voting members (annual or lifetime membership). We will do the usual pizza order each day for those who do not want to bring their lunch ($15/day for 4 slices of a large 10-cut pie).
Email Programs@seattlego.org for more information.
This January 25th, we are hosting another Lightning tournament from 2pm to 6pm. This is a casual, lots-of-fun handicap tournament with fast time control (1 min main time with 5x10second byo yomi). They say lightning Go is about instinct, not reading, so abandon the intensity of reading for more cutting and crashing and burning and laughter. There will be 5 rounds with an estimated 20-30 min per game.
Seattle Go Center will be closed Tue 24 DEC, Sat 28 DEC, and Tue 31 DEC for the holidays.
Seattle AGA Chapter hosted the WA State Championship at the Seattle Go Center. There were 26 attendees, smaller than last year, but a good competition with several strong players participating and many intense games. As always, it was a fun and festive atmosphere with serious interesting games . We held five rounds and gave cash prizes to first, second, and third places in the open tournament as well as high band handicapped tournament, low band, and a kids prize to the person under 18 who won the most games.
A special congratulation our winners (from left to right), for first place, Difei Pan, for second place, Zhuoran Zhang, for third place, Kenny Jin, and the high band and youth prizes go to Woody.
Some people have asked about organizing a time for pair Go, just a low-key time/event. This will be the original form of pair Go without gender requirements, no fees, but also no banquet license or cake or donuts … just the fun and goofiness of pair Go. This is a pure fun event, and it is great to bring life partners, significant others, beginners, etc., to make Go accessible and fun to them.
We would love to see 32 or 40 (or more 😊) folks show up and join in for fun. You can bring a pair partner, ask someone during registration time, or we can make pairs from singletons. Pair Go works best with multiples of 8, so that each table with two boards can have two games, with round 2 being composed of winners playing winners, and there being a winning team for the table who win both games. We can work with multiples of 4 if need be. PLEASE come and play!!!
Event time is 16 NOV, Sat — registration 1-2pm, round 1 is 2-3:30, and round 2 is roughly 3:30-5:00. There will be 40 min of main time with no byo yomi.
We are glad to announce that on Dec 7th and 8th, we will host the third annual AGA WA State Championship. 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. SGC will order pizza for attendees’ lunch convenience, and the cost is $15 per person per day (for 4 slices of a cheese or pepperoni large pie cut into 10 slices).
The top scoring player in the Open Tournament who has lived in Washington state for six months or more will win the 2024 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 — $300 for top score, $150 for second top score, and $75 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, renew, 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 7th, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
* Saturday First Round Starts: December 7th, 10:30 AM (second round around 2:00pm)
* Sunday Third Round Starts: December 8th, 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 main time 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.
Seattle Go Center hosted their 29th Anniversary Tournament on 21 OCT. There were a total of 23 attendees and 18 competitors playing in the tournament. Congrats to Kenny Jin, 6d, for taking first place in the open with an intense final round game that took almost 3 hours with byouyomi. Yuancheng Yuan 1D (Cody) won the high handicap bracket, and John Lelivelt 6k won the low handicap bracket. Sadly, there was only one youth, so there was no kids prize as usual.
