The fifth Korean Ambassador’s Cup will be held on Saturday the 14th of August and Sunday the 15th of August at the Young Go Academy in Strathfield, Sydney. Attending as guests are An Younggil 8p and Kyung-Min Yu 6p from the YGA, and Youngmin Yoon 3p and Sohyun Park 3p from Korea.

• Division A (fifth dan and stronger) will be played in six rounds over the two days.
• Division B (first dan to fourth dan) will be played in five rounds on the Saturday.
• Division C (ninth kyu to first kyu) will be played in five rounds on the Sunday.

Prize money is $300 (first place), $200 (second place) and $100 (third place) for each division. Registration is $10 for seniors and students, and $30 for everyone else. Lunch and refreshments will be provided on both days. AGA representative points will be granted to members who compete, on the usual basis. For interstate visitors, remember that the YGA is open for play 2pm to 10pm, seven days a week.

For more information or to preregister, please contact Jungwoong Lee (0410 910 600) and Yoonguk Noh (0430 273 393) of the Korean Baduk Association of Australia (who are organising the tournament) or An Younggil of the YGA (anyoungkil@gmail.com).

Play at the Korean Ambassador's Cup, 2009

A report from last year’s KAC was posted to the Journal. It looks like this year’s will be even more fun.

The 2010 ACT Championships will be on the weekend of 24-25 July. The new venue is the ANU School of Art – located at the “C” of Childers Street in the attached ANU Campus map. For those coming from interstate, take a right off Northbourne Ave southbound onto London Circuit, then right at University Ave, then left onto Childers St at the end of University Ave; the School of Art is at the end of the road. Parking is available. Registration is 9am on the Saturday. Contact Neville Smythe of the Canberra Go Club.

Update:The tournament was in conjunction with the 18th ANU Chess Festival at Fenner Hall in the Australian National University, Canberra. Times are unchanged: registration 9am Sat Jul 23.

This is just a reminder that the 2010 New South Wales Go Championships are in Sydney on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th of June. This year they’ll be run by An Young Gil 8p, Sydney’s resident professional, assisted by Robert Vadas and a stalwart band of other volunteers from the city’s go clubs. Players from out of state are welcome.

Venue and other details will be announced closer to the date. Contact anyoungkil@gmail.com or ravadas@yahoo.com to preregister or ask questions.

Around this time of year in Victoria the local Go population get a snifter of fighting spirit and charge off to the ever-popular NEC Cup. Unfortunately, as many people would know, NEC has withdrawn their sponsorship and the tournament no longer exists.

However, every black cloud has a silver lining (unless it is Yunzi in which case it has a green halo instead). This year we have a brand new tournament to absorb our excess fight! Thanks to sponsorship from ‘Only Choice Properties’ the Victorian Go Club is delighted to be able to host this fabulous new tournament.

As with the NEC Cup before it, the Golden Aussie Go Tournament competitors who are AGA members are awarded representative points to go towards their Australian ranking. For details see the tournament flyer below. We hope to see you there!

Update: the entry form and flyer with more details of the venue is here

This is a placeholder for the weekend in mid-April when the Keio Old Boys will be visiting Brisbane for their annual shindig with the Brisbane Go Club. Dinner on Saturday evening, random go, lunch and the now-traditional team vs team match on Sunday. RSVP and/or query John Hardy at the club, if you’re in Brisbane at all and want to come play.

Fresh off the Perth mailing list: the Perth go players are holding a Beginners Session on Sunday afternoon. Like their last beginners session, this is also a regular playing meet up, so all strengths and ages of player are encouraged to turn up and play. The venue is 93 Circe Circle, Dalkeith, opposite the Dalkeith Primary School playing fields. Parking near the fields, or come by bus or train to nearby Clairemont Station, and they’ll pick you up. RSVP to the usual suspects, Clive Hunt or Peiran Guo.

On Wednesday evening this week (3 March), members of the Brisbane Go Club will host a banquet with guest of honour Wang Runan 8p, the current chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, who is visiting several cities in eastern Australia. The venue is the Rasa Malaysia Chinese Restaurant, Underwood. Please RSVP to John Hardy at the AGA before turning up, as a cover charge does apply; dinner starts at six, go probably around eight.

All else being equal, there will also be a less formal barbeque on Thursday evening, and more go, at St Mark’s Lutheran Church, Mount Gravatt. As this event is free, please RSVP to Larry Wen at the AGA beforehand so they can lay on enough food. The BBQ starts at half past five for six o’clock, and go will happen after that.

Further events on Wang Runan’s visit to Australia are being coordinated by David He in Sydney, and Billy Sun in Melbourne. Please contact them for more information as to what’s happening in your city, and do feel free to tell us!

Fresh off the nzgs mailing list: there will be a go tournament in five rounds at the International Cultures Festival in Napier, NZ, starting on the afternoon of Saturday the 6th of March and finishing Sunday evening. The Festival is organised by the New Zealand China Friendship Society and this is the first annual tournament of the new Hawkes Bay Go Club. Contact details and schedule are on the NZGS wiki.

Update: Long Yang Li 5d and Juhua Zhou tied for first place. For the rest, see Graeme Parmenter’s excellent tournament report on the NZGS wiki.

The Insei League on KGS has Australia’s own An Younggil 8p participating. In the KGS English Room on February 27 (1pm GMT, 11pm Brisbane time), there will be a live review of his game against Ilya Shiksin 8d. They invite everyone and anyone interested to come and watch; they’re hoping to get a record number of observers, and will repeat the event later on if they do.

If you’re going to be around the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus on Wednesday the 24th, drop by the Queensland University Gaming Society stall, where they will be raffling off a Hikaru no Go-themed beginners go set and various other gaming gear, to kick off first semester. They usually run a weekly go session on campus during semester. More go players of all strengths always welcome…

The Melbourne University Students Playing Go collective are kicking off first semester with their traditional Beginners’ Night from 4pm on Friday the fifth of March. If you’re around Melbourne Uni then, RSVP via Facebook or just turn up. Here are some pictures of last year’s beginners night.

It’s back. The All Keio Igo Association will meet the Brisbane Go Club (and connections) in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server for the annual friendly team vs team match on the afternoon of Sunday the seventeenth of January. Come and watch. If you’re a Brisbane player, or know someone who once played go against someone who once had a beer in Brisbane, contact John Hardy and see if there’s still a place or two open on the team.

Kickoff is at 3pm Brisbane time, 2pm Tokyo time. Games will be played in tournament time and at tournament strength.

At the very last minute, we’ve arranged a teams match between Melbourne (MU-SPGO and the Victorian Go Club) and Brisbane (Brisbane Go Club and QUGS). It’s on at 2pm Brisbane time tomorrow (Sunday the thirteenth of December) in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server. More details at Sensei’s Library.

The thirtieth Queensland Championships will occur over Saturday 6 February and Sunday 7 February, 2010, in the Holt Room at the Student Union on the University of Queensland campus at St Lucia in Brisbane. There will be an open division for dan players (attracting AGA representative points) and a handicap division for kyu players. First round of six starts at nine o’clock, and there is a published schedule running until five o’clock both days.

Please RSVP to your nearest Brisbane Go Club officer – use the registration form or write an email. If you’re interstate, that’s horatio@go.org.au. Because this is an AGA-sanctioned championship, competitors will need to either have current Australian Go Association membership or be prepared to acquire some during registration (club membership will do nicely), and will accrue AGA credit points from their placings. Entry is five dollars for students and juniors (thank QUGS for this one) and thirty-five dollars for everyone else. Anyone and everyone who plays any sort of go in the greater Brisbane area is welcome and strongly encouraged to turn out and play.

The 2010 annual general meeting of the Brisbane Go Club, including elections, will take place on the Sunday of the tournament, during lunch.

The Wellington Go Club is holding the 2009 Wellington Open on Saturday the twenty-first and Sunday the twenty-second of November in New Zealand. Contact Teruhisa Yanagihashi for more information.

As always, photos and kifu and amusing anecdotes and results can be sent here to the Journal, and we will even publish them. :)

…and barbeque (alright, mostly a BBQ) at our president Mark Bell’s house (55 White Street, Wavell Heights), on the northside of Brisbane, on Saturday the nineteenth of December. We will be playing rengo (teams of two) on 13×13 boards, in order to fit sufficient rounds into one day. BYO pairs (also your own alcoholic drinks and desserts) and RSVP to your nearest Brisbane Go Club member, mentioning if you are a vegetarian or similar. Any go player within range is cordially invited to turn up and join in. Please pass the word to anyone unlikely to read it here.

Play starts at nine o’clock. A BBQ lunch will happen around noon, and there will be tea and coffee and soft drinks laid on. We anticipate finishing around three o’clock, but our mileage will vary.

The draw will use the Gray & Mackay algorithm pioneered last year, and any leftover unpaired entrants will be paired quasi-randomly, or left free to play side games. The event does not attract AGA representative points, however if we get any traditional mixed pairs playing better than average, this will be noted for future use in selecting Australian pair go teams. :)

A few of us will be holding a friendly go afternoon at Gen Con Australia, a rather large gaming convention on 18-20 September, 2009 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. We’ll be in the gaming area on Sunday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm, playing random go and teaching all comers. If you’d like a game or you’re at the convention anyhow, feel free to drop in.

Next year, if this idea holds water, we might actually take up their offer to hold a tournament there. Watch this space.

The 2009 New Zealand Open Go Championships have just been announced on the NZGS mailing list. They will be held in Auckland on the weekend of 12-13 September. As well as the open division to choose the New Zealand champion, there will be a handicap division for kyu players. Both divisions will be run in six rounds using a McMahon draw. There will be a social function on the Saturday night, and any go players in the area are welcome to drop by for a game.

For more information, contact Colin Grierson or fetch the entry form from the New Zealand Go Society wiki.

The Melbourne University Students Playing Go club are holding their biannual beginners night on 29th July in the Graham Cornish Room at Union House. If you’re on campus, or even if you’re not, come down from 4pm-7pm, be sociable, learn some go. See the entry on their blog for more details, or contact shamim@go.org.au.

Details of the Australian National Championships are confirmed as follows:

Venue: Members’ Lounge, Ground Floor, Union House, University of Melbourne
Registration form is here
On-the-day registration begins at Saturday 9:00am, but please register in advance!
AGA Annual General Meeting begins Saturday 5:30pm
Closing ceremony begins Sunday 5:30pm
Contact: SPGO or or Box 11, Union House, University of Melbourne, Vic 3010

The Tournament Referee will be An Young Gil 6p.

The 4th Korean Ambassador’s Cup in Sydney will be held at Sila Restaurant (161 Beamish Street, Campsie, phone 9718 1029) by the Sydney Ki-Won on Saturday the eighth of August. This is a one-day tournament and the open division will determine the Australian representative in the Korean Prime Minister’s Cup. For more details, contact Raphael Shin at the Sydney Korean Go Club.

(This is a placeholder for the event calendar. Will someone actually at the club please come forward and give us some more details to post?)

With Easter comes chocolate eggs and the eagerly awaited mini break for Melbourne University Students (good luck to those diligently completing their assignments) and for Students Playing Go it’s prime time for the annual tournament. As per previous years there’s a madcap dash to book rooms, sort out equipment, hijacking students for promotional purposes and of course poring over potential prizes. There will be two divisions in anticipation of the many new players, round robin style and a mini 9×9 competition, and this year a promise of a rocking fantastic first place prize (so practice now!). It’s a good chance for players to test your skills and have some fun, especially right before the NEC Cup.

Date- Wednesday 15th April, 10a.m-4p.m

Place- Alice Hoy, room 109, Melbourne University Parkville Campus

Directions- The room is tucked away under the building, please take the tram up Swanston to Melbourne University (last stop) and walk down Monash Road, look to your left for stairs going down to classrooms, there’ll be a sign saying 108-109.

Tournament opened to all players, free entry to members (and lots of free food!)

And for those going to the NEC Cup at the end of the week, whether as entrants or to support your fellow players, please say hello to the SPGO committee members who are there to cover the event and strike your best smile and challenge pose ;)

With students settling down and finding their classes, and deciding (finally) to join the go club, it’s time again for Beginners’ Night, a casual evening event organised by Students Playing Go at the University of Melbourne. It’s aimed at introducing new players to go and to other members and has been widely successful the past two years. There will be various activities, including life+death demonstrations, opening strategy tips and one-on-one teaching games. Beginners’ Night is completely free and opened to everyone (even non-members) so if you’re in Melbourne, bring yourself and friends! It’ll also be fully-catered, and seriously, who can resist free food and go games? =)

Details:

When: 24th March (Tuesday), 4-7pm

Where: Union House (centre of University of Melbourne Parkville Campus), lvl 2, Cornish Graham A+B (Opposite Rowden White library)

Please note the SPGO website at http://www.spgo.org.au is currently down. Write to mu.spgo@gmail.com (temporary address) for more information or to join the mailing list. We’re working to bringing the site back up.

This year’s ACT championships, hosted by the Canberra Go Club, will be held in July. The event is also held in the middle of the ANU Chess Festival, so if you suddenly find yourself craving a game of chess (for some strange reason), no doubt you’ll find one. The venue is as it has been in the past, the ABU student residence Fenner Hall. It is conveniently located in the middle of the city (see map) with plenty of accommodation nearby.

The entry fee will be $30; $20 for students, and all players must be AGA members. Don’t worry though, joining has been made simple and easy on the AGA website. You should also be able to join up on the day.

The schedule for the weekend, as we have it, is as follows:

Saturday
Registration: 9 – 10am
Round 1: 10 am
Lunch: 12.30  pm
Round 2: 1.30 pm
Round 3: 3.45 pm

Sunday
Round 4: 9.30 am
Lunch: 12 noon
Round 5: 1 pm
Round 6: 3.30 pm
Closing Ceremony: Approx. 5.45 pm

There will be the usual open division for dans and handicap division for kyus. It is, like all state championships, AGA-sanctioned (meaning credit points and everything else that implies). More information as we get it, but, in the meantime, if you’re planning to head to Canberra, remember to take warm clothes! We’re informed that it can get a little nippy at night around that time of year.

Following the success of the Brisbane-Keio match, Adelaide has decided to join the party. The inaugural Adelaide-Brisbane match will take place in the Australia room of KGS on Sunday 22nd February. Games will start at 3 p.m. Adelaide time (2:30 Brisbane, 3:30 Melbourne/Sydney, 4:30 a.m. GMT).

Come and cheer for your favourite team, or laugh at our mistakes–you choose!

Two days of go at the Brisbane Bridge Centre, 104 Frederick Street, Annerley, from the twenty-eighth to the twenty-ninth of March, hosted by the BGC. Participation attracts AGA representative points. There will be an open division (all strengths of dan player) to determine the Queensland Open Champion, and a handicap division on the McMahon system for kyu players. The tournament fee is $35 for student and junior players, and $55 for everybody else. This price includes the tournament, morning and afternoon teas, and lunch, both days. All welcome, especially AGA members from other states.

• An Young Gil 6P will be teaching on Friday from noon to 8:30pm, this is an extra $15 to participate.
• The Brisbane Go Club will have its annual general meeting on Saturday lunchtime.
• There is a tournament dinner on Saturday night for an additional cost, opt in at registration.
• Side games are eligible for entry into the Oceania Go Ladder.

If travelling from interstate, try the Annerley Motor Inn or the Lancaster Court Motel, each of which is five to ten minutes from the venue. You will need to be a member in good standing of the Australian Go Association; individual memberships will be sold on the day for ten dollars, or you can arrange something through your club – for Queenslanders, that’s the Brisbane Go Club, which you will need to (re)join if you aren’t already a member.

To register, please email your name, rank, club, and contact details to the tournament director, Horatio Davis (horatio@go.org.au), or find the nearest BGC committee member and hand them a filled-in copy of the entry form. If you have particular needs for the dinner or morning tea (vegetarian, kosher, coffee, black forest cake) or wish to attend the teaching afternoon on the Friday or the tournament dinner on the Saturday, please mention these in your email. Registration fees will be collected on the day.

The Journal will of course be reporting live from the event. :)

Update: As of one week before the event, there are sixteen players registered in the open division and fifteen in the kyu division. Come on in, the water’s fine!

Second update: The schedule for the tournament is here. Short version: teaching half-day starts at noon, Saturday and Sunday we start at nine in the morning.

This year’s Australian Go Camp will be held on the Labour Day weekend at the Ballina Beach Resort, New South Wales. Two-ish days of sun, sand, surf, and go, with An Young Gil 6P flying up from Sydney to teach, and a contingent driving down from Brisbane to play. More details in the flyer.

The Journal will of course be reporting live from the event. :)

The Sydney City Go Club will be holding this year’s New South Wales State Championships. It’ll be held on  Saturday 6^th June to Sunday 7^th June (which is conveniently the Queen’s Birthday long weekend). The venue is Philas House. This is AGA-sanctioned, with all that implies: representative points, etc. For more information, registration, questions, contact Robert Vadas at ravadas@yahoo.com.

The Melbourne Go Club will be running the 13th NEC Cup on April 18th & 19th 2009. The venue this year is the Vibe Savoy hotel – 630 Collins St Melbourne. For more information, or to register, contact Brad Melki at bmelki@hotkey.net.au, or read the entry form.

The All Keio Igo Association has challenged the Brisbane Go Club to a friendly match over the internet in January, with the intent to make this an annual event. The match will take place in the public Australian Room of the KGS Go Server, between a picked team of eleven Keio University alumni and a Brisbane team, plus ring-ins.

The main event kicks off at 3PM Brisbane time (4pm Sydney time, 3:30pm Adelaide time) and is scheduled to take around three hours. An Young Gil 6P (KGS handle younggil), currently based in Sydney, will play a demonstration match against Yamashita-san 9d from Keio, which he will then review. Master Gil is also going to select and review one of the team matches.

All Australian go players are invited to watch any or all of the games and reviews. If you don’t have a KGS account, it is easy enough to log in and create one; KGS is where most of the AGA’s public activities occur, outside of tournaments.