August

Posted on 2019-08-01 by John

Looking forward… August

Online Interprovincials
The final round is partly done

Further ahead… September

Belfast Go Tournament
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th

Confucius Cup
This heavyweight of the 2019 Irish lineup (a level C event in the European Grand Prix) will take place over the weekend of September 28th/29th at the Confucius Institute in UCD

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Cork – Tuesday 20:30 in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral Hall
Dublin – Wednesday 19:00 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th-and-a-half PGETC
The EGF has coverage of the 2019 finals in Brussels

Transatlantic Pro Go Team Championship
After a wedding-related substitution, the EGF team has won the first ever TPGTP

Looking back… July

World Amateur Go Championship
Noel has posted an extensive writeup of his experience at the 40th WAGC

Cork Meetups Resume
And we’re back! Made it past the one-month milestone, with old players returning and a few new faces. Around 3-4 attending weekly, with a high of seven.
Third Cork City meeting of 2019

Irish Correspondence Tournament
Nearly there

On the continent…

European Youth Team Championship
The EGC invites European Youth to take part in the 6th European Youth Team Championship. This will run from November to February on the KGS Go Server. Registration closes September 9th.

EGC 2019 Coverage
The European Go Congress wrapped up at the weekend. Daily reports by the EGF: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

EGF AGM
Minutes (and a summary) are now available

Tenuki

My Journey to Korea – Everyone begins with an empty board!
Follow the adventure of Gabriela as she undertakes a sure to be epic journey from Romania to Korea. (Although I had mentioned this on CorkGo back in March, I’ve neglected to include it in the bulletin since.)

UK 1k
The London Go Centre is nearly halfway to its goal of 1000 subscribers on its youtube channel to level up the account’s streaming privileges

Posted in Cork, Europe, Ireland, Online, World | Tagged , , | Comments Off on August

July

Posted on 2019-07-02 by John

Quite a bit to get through this month, especially if you are the sort who likes to follow all the links.

Looking forward… July

EGC 2019
Starting late in the month, the European Go Congress will run from July 20th to August 4th in Brussels

Online Interprovincials
The final round is currently underway. Results from round 2 were:
Munster v Ulster: 1-2
Connaught v Leinster: 3-0

Further ahead… September

Belfast Go Tournament
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Cork – Tuesday 20:30 in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral Hall
Dublin – Wednesday 19:00 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

UPDATE: Cork meetings will resume Tuesday 9th in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral Hall, Dean Street on a trial basis.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th-and-a-half PGETC
While the main tournament has wrapped up, there is a special 2019 Qualifier which will involve face-to-face games.

Transatlantic Pro Go Team Championship
After staying on long enough to pull the AGA back up to 3 – 3, Eric Lui lost to Artem in the 7th round. While the result has not yet made it onto the TPGTP site, the game is available on OGS. (Actually, they have a facebook page too, if you are that way inclined.) The next two rounds will be on the 7th and 14th.

Looking back… June

World Amateur Go Championship
Noel placed 36th representing Ireland at the 40th WAGC

Irish Correspondence Tournament
Play continues

On the continent…

EGCC Closure
In an unfortunate turn of events, the European Go Cultural Centre will shut down later this year

Tenuki

Argentina Walks Towards Gender Equity in Go
“Argentina’s Gender Commission was founded with the purpose of achieving more gender equity and inclusion. There are more males than females playing Go, despite there being no gendered differences in intellectual ability. [There are already some quite strong female players.] An increasing number of clubs are trying to address the causes behind this disparity.”

UK 1k
The London Go Centre is aiming for 1000 subscribers on its youtube channel to level up the account’s streaming privileges

ZBaduk
A new LeelaZero site, with options to play against the bot or review an uploaded game

OGS Joseki Dictionary
Another month, another promising feature

Posted in Cork, Europe, Ireland, Online, World | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

June

Posted on 2019-06-01 by John

Looking forward… June

Online Interprovincials
More games to come. 3 of the 6 for round 2 have been played. Scores so far…
Munster v Ulster: 0-2
Leinster v Connaught: 0-1

World Amateur Go Championship
Noel will be representing Ireland at the 40th WAGC

2019 KPMC Registration Deadline
With June 14th being the cutoff for entry, a representative is still sought for the 14th Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship

Further ahead… September

Belfast Go Tournament
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Dublin – Wednesday 19:00 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

Cork meetings should resume on Tuesdays in mid-July. Details tbc but provisionally 20:30-22:30 in St. Finn Barre’s Cathedral Hall on Dean Street.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th PGETC
Ireland wrapped up the final round winning 3 games against Portugal. Finishing top of the table secures promotion to League C for the 10th iteration later this year.

Transatlantic Pro Go Team Championship
There was huge controversy surrounding Mateusz Surma’s loss in the 4th game. This spawned much discussion online and has apparently led to a change of server and some rewriting of the rules. (For those looking to dig into it, I suggest starting with these threads in the Pro forum over on L19.)
Games 5 and 6 are currently scheduled for the 2nd and 9th of this month.

Looking back… May

Galway Tournament
The club has posted a brief comment with photos on their facebook.

Irish Correspondence Tournament
Play continues

On the continent…

Twitching
The EGF are working to improve their twitch channel, including plans to open it up to European streamers

The 7th Euro Pro
Tanguy Le Calvé has become the 7th European Pro after facing down Lukáš Podpera in the final of the 5th Pro Qualification.
Coverage of round 1, 2&3, and the quarters/semis.

Yikes!
The EGF have posted a writeup on the 5th European Go Grand Slam Tournament (aka the Yike Cup)

Mind Games
Martin Stiassny, the EGF president, interviewed the team of European players who attendant the 2019 IMSA World Masters Championship

Tenuki

YGN archive
The BGA’s irregular Youth Go newsletter is freely available to non members.

Posted in Europe, Ireland, Online, World | Tagged , , | Comments Off on June

May

Posted on 2019-04-30 by John

Exciting happenings in both the PGETC and TPGTC. Also, applications are open for the KPMC.
Clearly, the Go community has not caught on to the idea of backronyms…

Looking forward… May

Galway Tournament
A 2-day tournament will be held on May 25th-26th in the Galway Bridge Centre

Online Interprovincials
Round 2, real soon now
Munster v Ulster
Leinster v Connaught

Further ahead… September

Belfast Go Tournament
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th

2019 KPMC
The search is on for an Irish player to attend the 14th Korea Prime Minister Cup International Baduk Championship

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Dublin – Wednesday 19:00 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

Kindly note that Dublin meetings are now starting earlier (allegedly in the hope of finishing earlier)

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th PGETC
With Ireland’s 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan in the penultimate round, the team now stands at the top of the table. League C beckons next year…
The final round versus Portugal takes place on the 7th.

Transatlantic Pro Go Team Championship
Mateusz Surma has eliminated all opposition so far in the TPGTC. The EGF posted an interview with him after the second round.
The next game will take place on May 5th.

Looking back… April

Top 8
This year’s Top 8 kicked off over the weekend

Online Interprovincials
The third game between Connaught and Ulster was played, putting Connaught ahead 2-1, and bringing an end to round 1.

Irish Correspondence Tournament
Play continues

Further back… March

2019 Irish Go Congress
The IGA has a detailed writeup of the event.
The BGA also posted one entitled Irish Open Runs Smoothly on April 1st, which I’m sure was completely unintentional.

On the continent…

EGF – The Movie?
Someone has started a thread over on L19 about the cons and pros (pun intended) of creating a movie. The concept is vague but the discussion is lively.

Tenuki

Leela Zero Reviews OGS
OGS are building LZ analysis into the site

Autumn 1989
Someone recently linked me an old issue of the British Go Journal, to highlight how far computer Go has progressed in the last 30 years. However, there was an unexpected fragment from the past on page 15…
BGJ fragment

Posted in Europe, Ireland, Online, World | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Journey to the East

Posted on 2019-03-31 by John

My Journey to Korea
Everyone begins with an empty board!

A new blog starting last month. Follow the adventure of Gabriela as she undertakes a sure to be epic journey from Romania to Korea. There is a video of her first scholarship game with a 9-dan pro embedded in the 3rd entry.

Posted in Europe | 1 Comment

April

Posted on 2019-03-31 by John

A lot to cover this month. I have dropped the numbers from the title, going back to just the month name. Looked a bit unwieldily and these bulletins aren’t really intended for archival purposes anyway. Comments to the usual address…

Looking forward… April

2019 Online Interprovincials
Round 2, at some point

TPGTC
The first round of the Transatlantic Pro Go Team Championship is scheduled for 20:00 CET on April 7th

The Young One
The AGA’s Power Report has coverage on the career of 9-year-old Nakamura Sumire, who will make her professional debut this month

Further ahead… September

2019 Belfast Go Tournament
There will be a one day tournament in Belfast on Saturday September 14th

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Dublin – Wednesday 20:30 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00 on OGS
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th PGETC
Ireland trounced Cyprus 4-nil in the 7th round.
Although Ireland and Iceland now both have the same match points, and total board points, and first board points, Iceland’s second board has more points than Ireland’s second board, so Iceland remain at the top of the table. For now…
The penultimate round will be against Kazakhstan on the 16th, with the final round versus Portugal taking place in May.

Looking back… March

2019 Irish Go Congress
Results for the Open are available

2019 Online Interprovincials
The first round is nearly complete. Leinster claimed a 2-1 victory over Munster, while there was one game to play between Connaught and Ulster when last updated.

2019 AGM
This took place during the Irish Go Congress. No minutes posted yet but Eoghan has stepped into the position of president.

2018 Irish Championship
James is the new Irish Champion. Games can be viewed online (1 2) and Cian has posted sgf files commented by Antti Törmänen 1p to the Irish Go mailing list

2019 Irish Correspondence Tournament
Play continues

On the continent…

2019 Euro Pro Championship
Held last month in Jena, Germany. The EGF has a report.

Grand Slam Qualification
EGF article covering the 2019 tournament. The Grand Slam itself will take place at the end of April.

The EYE
Catalin Taranu has proposed creating an European Youth Elite team

Tenuki

The Future of Go in the West
A lengthy but worthwhile read, focusing on online content

How to “Teach” Go
Taking a different approach to introducing new players.

The Road to Recovery
Janice Kim, a well-known professional, successfully underwent surgery to have a brain tumour removed

Go Compare
A comparison of ranks across servers & associations from OGS survey data
rank comparison from OGS survery

Posted in Europe, Ireland, Online, World | Tagged , , | Comments Off on April

2019-03 March

Posted on 2019-03-02 by John

Looking forward… March

2019 Irish Go Congress
The Open & Rapid will take place over the weekend of March 22nd-24th. More than two dozen attendees are already registered, about a quarter being dan-level.

2019 Online Interprovincials
Teams have been formed and round 1 is currently being scheduled.

Weekly Meetings

Galway – Tuesday 19:30 in Mc Swiggans
Dublin – Wednesday 20:30 in Toners
Online – Thursday 20:00-22:00 on OGS
Stillorgan – Sunday 14:00-18:00 at PingZone, St Benildus College

West Cork
A new player in the Bantry area, Terry, is looking for other players in that region. If you are interested in getting in touch, email corkgo@gmail.com and I will pass along contact details.

Pandanet Go European Team Championship
9th PGETC
Ireland beat Iceland, who are currently top of the table in League D, by 3 games to 1 in the 6th round.
Opponent in round 7 on the 26th will be Cyprus. Two rounds remain after that, in April and May, with Iceland sitting out the final one. (Due to the uneven number of countries, one had to take a bye each round.)
The IGA has posted a brief comment on Ireland’s performance.

Looking back… February

2018 Final
These matches have apparently just gotten started

2019 Irish Correspondence Tournament
Play continues

On the continent…

Go Cards
With Noord-Holland refused entry to the 2019 Online Interprovincials on geopolitical grounds, ambassador Kim of Murugandi has demanded that Irish players purchase at least 3 sets of their new Go-themed post cards in order to prevent the international incident from escalating.

Tenuki

AlphaGo Groupies
A chart showing daily games played on OGS in recent years, with dates for AlphaGo events highlighted.
the surrounding game logo

Posted in Ireland, Online | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 2019-03 March