Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 2

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B r o u g h t to y o u b y th e A m e ri ca n Go H o n o r So c i e t y
ING Team National Go Tournament Shows Spectacular Results
STATE POINTS F.A.Q.
Starting from the 2008-09
season, the State Points
system is the new tiebreaking system for the
Team Tournament. It is calculated as such:
The first two days of the
first round have finished!
Forty-eights have been
played over all the divisions with some majorly
impressive results. 2007
National Champions Stuyvesant HS (NY) are leading
the charge with a close 2-1
victory over JP Stevens of
New Jersey. However, 6
teams have posted impressive 3-0 records, with Jasper HS (TX) winning in an
impressive sweep. To the
right, you see the opening
moves of this issue’s Game
of the Week, more details
on page 2.
Each Individual Win: +2
Each Individual Loss: +1
Each Forfeit Loss:
+0
Team Wins Series +1
Your Team Did Not Forfeit
Any Matches
+2
Both Teams Did Not Forfeit
Any Matches
+1
NY: ”Always a bridesmaid,
never a bride:” New York
Maximum: 10 POINTS
takes 2nd place honors in
both standings. Good luck
This system was established next round!.
to break the ties for teams
who have earned the same 2009 STATES CUP:
number of team and indi- 1. California (38.45)
vidual wins. Thus, the next 2. New York (30.50)
thing we look at is how 3. New Jersey (19.25)
active your team was in
participation. The third tie- 2009 SCHOOL SWEEPS
breaker is based 30% on 1. JP Stevens (NJ) (14.10)
your participation, which 2. Stuyvesant (NY) (13.40)
we wanted to value for all 2. E Meadows (NY) (13.40)
Controversy Mars First Day of Competition
In the lower divisions, a
complaint was filed towards the American Go
Honor Society in regards to
one of the matches being
played. In the Novice division, the match between
NY11 and TX05 quickly got
out of hand because of the
one-sided match being
played out. A quick consultation of the match asked
teams. Plus, these scores will
be added up to determine
who is the 2009 States Cup
Winner for this year. Texas
came off to a fast start
winning six of the first seven
awards, but they haven’t
come close since 2005.
New York and California
are the major contenders
and won respectively in
2007 and 2008, plus lead
the standings this year. Full
standings can be seen at
www.aghs.cc
for the do-over under even
rules. In a 4-0 vote (Hoang,
Mallory, McCaffery, Vu in
favor, Chang abstains). The
officers agreed that a rematch should take place
and change the starting
rank of one player because
the skill he displayed differed from his entry by
seven stones, a huge
amount. Hoang discussed,
by Hwang M.R.
“The lower divisions are
handicapped to allow for
the gap in playing ability
to be bridged, however, to
have more than a five stone
handicap requires immediate adjustment.” Chang
agreed, but abstained because of personal affiliation
with one of the two schools.
Leslie Tran is a staff reporter for
26 February 2009
Volume 1, Issue 2
Inside this issue:
Fireside Chat
2
In the Game
2
Advisors’ Corner
2
Running the Club II
Game of the Week
3
Kristen’s College
Corner
5
The Last Word:
6
Controversy Erupts
The Rising Star
Page 2
Fireside Chat: Words with Matt
This past weekend was incredible! There were plenty
of amazing games to watch
with tons of spectator commentary. AGHS' own Kevin
Chang (Tsuijin) bounced from
game to game commenting
and sparking conversation.
This is how go is meant to be
played! With participation
from everyone, watching and
commenting about what the
best or next move will be.
We still had a few forfeits
from players not showing up.
Team captains and advisors,
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In the Game—
Shawn Ray (KGS: clossius)
opened a demonstration of
the game between Aichan
Tewahade (Chichi) vs. Albert
Hwang (Amaster008) to
play out a set of moves
allowing white to live. See if
you can find it: white to play
move 118. Solution posted
on Page 5.
please stay on top of your
players to make sure they
are aware of their games.
We send out reminder emails a couple days before
game day, but sometimes
this is not enough. You can
even collect phone numbers
to call your teammate if he
or she does not show up.
On Sunday we had an issue
because there were a few
players that were underranked.
For people that
have not played online or at
AGA tournaments, it is diffi-
by Matt Mallory
cult to establish a secure
rank, and this is quite understandable. If you are worried that your rank is not
well defined, please contact
the AGHS at aghsregister@gmail.com, and we can
set up a game to help determine your strength.
Matthew Mallory is the fifth
president of the American Go
Honor Society, succeeding the
fourth in 2007.
Volume 1, Issue 2
Page 3
Advisor’s Corner: Running the Club II
Now that we’ve covered go
basics, we should look at
how to keep the members in
your club happy.
First, some have short attention spans. Even though our
role is to educate, we have
to realize that they can only
learn to a critical point, until
we lose their interest, and
potentially lose them from
the club completely.
Some good strategies deal
with understanding what sort
of people come into your
club. If possible, try to make
a fun environment so that
people always have others
that they know and don’t
mind hanging around for a
long period of time. Those
who are isolated tend to
drop out quickly.
Furthermore, if you will host
by Christopher Vu
lessons, try to keep it to less
than half of the club meeting
time so the students will still
have time to experiment with
the new techniques and have
time for playing and horsing
around with the other club
members. After all, we’re
trying to promote fun in the
classroom environment.
Chris Vu was the fourth president of the AGHS to 2007.
Game of the Week :
featuring Randy Van & Andrew Thaler
This week’s featured game comes from
the first round of the Ing Team Nationals. The front page featured the first
fifty moves of this epic games. What
made this game unique is that White
utilized a deep opening strategy to
use up all his main time within the first
thirty moves. Here is this week’s game.
ING Team Nationals
Division: Varsity
Lowell HS vs. Aberdeen HS
Round: 1
Table: 7 (Board 1)
Black: CA20—Randy Van 4-kyu
White: MD01—Andrew Thacker 1-kyu
Komi: 8.0 points
(game continued on page 4)
Page 4
The Rising Star
Game of the Week (continued)
Along with this game, our Newsletter is brining to you an exclusive
interview with the two players so
we can learn, here’s black player
Randy Van and white player Andrew Thaler.
Rising Star: First off, wow! This was
the first three hour game we’ve
had all season.
Randy Van: Haha. He played a
LONG time.
Andrew Thaler: I don’t normally
take this long. He was just a strong
fighter.
Star: Was this part of your
strategy?
AT: I just try to read out as much
as I can without looking at time.
Star: Why did you start playing go?
RV: My bro. He decided to learn go
for a school essay and I went with to
a San Fran go club with him.
AT: From Hikaru no Go, lol.
Star: Why enter this tournament?
AT: My friend found the link to the
tournament and we immediately
decided to join.
RV: I found it online by chance and
thought it would be a good chance
for our club members.
RV: We actually have two teams
competing this year.
AT: We joined for practice. This is
the first tournament any of our members have been in.
Star: What do you think of go now
Randy Van (2nd from right gives a shoutout to his friends.
Fight on, Lowell High School!
294 at 288 (E-9) 297 at 291 (E-10) 300 at 288 (E-9)
303 at 291 (E-10) 304—PASS
305 at 288 (E-9)
306—PASS
RESULT: White wins by 5 points.
that you’ve played it?
AT: I really enjoy playing it and
hope to continue my play in the
future.
RV: I think go is fun, but it’s very
time consuming.
Star: What are your Impressions
of your opponents?
RV: I always think my opponents
see what I do, so I don’t like to
play risky moves, just to be safe.
AT: I expect my opponent to catch
any hamete I play, so I try to play
only good moves.
Star: Any last words?
RV: I expected my opponent to
attack me instantly, but he held it
off for a bit and let me survive.
AT: [RV] played some very good
moves.
RV: (laughs) As did you!
Star: Any shoutouts?
RV: Hi, Mom!
AT: Umm…
Thaler won the game, but Lowell
swept the series 2-1. Check them
out in round 2 action starting in
March.
Volume 1, Issue 2
Page 5
Kristen’s College Corner
What is college all about?
After taking your SATs and
APs, what should you expect? That is a question that
most incoming freshmen need
to think about. College is an
excellent experience, but
there are a lot of expectations you need to uphold.
Most freshmen forget most
importantly is academics.
When you go away from
home, many find a new
sense of freedom and like to
explore what it’s like to live
on their own for the first time
of their lives. It’s true. Col-
In the Game—Solution
by Kristen Arce
lege is an excellent experience, but there are also a lot
of standards you need to
uphold. I norder to have
decent grades in school, students need to develop time
management. New students
forget this because of the
new lifestyle you have to
adjust to, but it is still important regardless. From experience, time management
is an important skill for all
people to have, not just for
incoming freshmen nor college students in general. If
you are able to manage
your time wisely, then you
can rise to unprecedented
heights that you thought was
only possible in dreams. This
is what the college dream is
all about.
Kristin Arce is a nursing major
at Seton Hall University. She
likes shopping in New York
City and making fun of the
AGHS officers as they try to
bring out the latest issue for
your viewing pleasure.
Quote of the Day
“The young have
Just like Hikaru had to
look hard to find the one
path to life in his game
against Waya to become
a go pro, you should
always be on the lookout
for ways to keep your
groups alive! Work hard,
members of AGHS!
Thanks to Vash13 for
providing screen captures
and detailed solution
sets.
aspirations that never
come to pass, the old
have reminiscences of
what never happened.”
~ Saki (1870-1916)
“What one doesn’t
dream, will never come
to pass. Better to try then
never have tried at all.”
~ The Fourth President
of AGHS (2003-2007)
President
Matthew Mallory
He rocks the shades.
Brought to you by the
Mission Statement
A prediction once stated that it would take the Western nations
one century to catch up to the strength of Asian countries. The
American Go Honor Society was established to break this prediction and help the go players of the world rival the players
from the Orient.
Brief History
American Go honor Society.
Primary Business Address
400 South Orange Avenue
Suite 0479
South Orange, NJ 07079
Phone: 832-260-2832
Email: aghsregister@gmail.com
We’re on the Web!
Www.aghs.cc
In 2000, a manga scanlation team brought Hikaru no Go into the English-speaking world for the first time. It became such a hit, that the
team created an online go club to play with each other. But in 2002,
when the manga had been completed for the first time, the members
dwindled. Three high school students from different parts of North
America decided to create the Sea Otters Go Club in order to promote
go among youth. Their programs became so popular and the nowknown American Go Honor Society was founded to help develop leadership abilities in the American youth to become the next leaders in go
and the community.
The American Go Honor Society Wants You!
The American Go Honor
Society is an organization
dedicated to providing only
the best support and the resources for the youth in
America, not only for go,
but also for
promoting leader potentials
and But we can’t do this
without your help! The
American Go Honor Society
needs you to enter the ranks
and become the next leaders
for the American Go Honor
Society and its members.
CLASS 2009 AGHS
YOUTH LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM—OPEN
Select participants will work
together with past and current national officers on
what it takes to successfully
organize a national program.
PRGRAM COMPONENTS
- Seminars from past and
present officers
- Internship with different
departments of AGHS
- Networking opportunities
- International opportunities
We are also looking for people to help:
- Officiate games
- Edit games for public
- Help plan tournaments
- Work with international
organizations
- Join fundraising committees to help us run programs
- Work in program development to come up with new
ideas to benefit everyone
- Join PR and write articles
and contribute stories for
publication.
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are solely the words of the contributing authors and do not reflect the organization at