Life In 19x19

Below came in my most recent e-journal - also viewable at usgo.org. Trying to figure out what it all means.
- Will there be no US rep this year?
- Will there be a US rep, but they will have to secure outside funding?
- How does this rank on the US Go richter scale? Right now it seems like less of a big deal than the recent disagreements between the Nihon-Kiin and the Japanese Go Centers in America.

Thoughts?????



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Ing Backs Out of USYGC
Jan 05, 2013 02:38 pm | Paul Barchilon
In a surprise move, the Ing Chang-Ki Goe Foundation, sponsors of the World Youth Goe Championships (WYGC), have decided to hold their own qualification process, instead of accepting the US Youth Champion as their representative to the WYGC. “After a long and serious consideration,” writes Executive Secretary Yang Yu-Chia, ”[we] would like to inform you that the selection process of World Youth Goe Championships in North America will be conducted by the Foundation and its liaison office in Menlo Park, California, with the hope that we can expand our influence of promotions for the youth there in the future.” No further reason was given. AGA President Andy Okun, in a formal response, stated “The AGA’s practice is to support nearly all Go activities in the US, regardless of who organizes them. For the most part, we welcome the Ing Foundation doing activities on its own. However, regarding international representation, this is one area where we do care who does what in the US. While the Ing Foundation is a private group, and may choose to invite whomever they like to their events, it should be made clear that if the Foundation selects an American player for the WYGC without AGA involvement and endorsement, that player cannot be called the US representative.” The AGA Board moved swiftly in approving a new set of prizes for the USYGC, which will still be held on Jan. 19th, and will select our national champions. The winner of the top sections, in both age divisions, will receive an all expenses paid trip to the US Go Congress. All other brackets will also still receive their national titles, as well as etched crystal trophies. Everyone who enters will also be eligible for AGF Scholarships to the AGA Go Camp, or the US Go Congress, first come first serve.. - Paul Barchilon, E.J. Youth Editor.

I'm curious about this. How is it that a person selected without the AGA cannot be called the American representative? By what authority could that possibly be enforced? Is this just the typical behavior for an organization trying to ensure its relevance?

Does this mean the USYGC isn't a WYGC qualifier anymore, or is this in addition?

It definitely means the USYGC will not select the representative to the World Youth. My understanding is that the Ing Foundation will hold their own qualifier for the event, in the Bay Area. Kids who don't happen to live there will likely be out of luck, unless the Foundation decides to hold live qualifiers and pay for transportation. We will have to wait and see what they do. There is no question they will select representatives this year, the only questions are when and how.

Any idea on what triggered Ing's decision? Will this also affect Canada and Europe?

harpreet wrote:I'm curious about this. How is it that a person selected without the AGA cannot be called the American representative? By what authority could that possibly be enforced? Is this just the typical behavior for an organization trying to ensure its relevance?

Clearly there's no enforcement possible, but the International Go Federation recognizes the AGA as the national go association of the United States of America.

The Ing Foundation is certainly welcome to invite a representative directly, but the AGA should (and apparently will) make it clear that he is not their representative. Any E-Journal reports or AGA web pages on the World Youth tournament (e.g., https://www.usgo.org/world-youth-goe-championship) will have to make it clear that this person is just an invitee from the regional, not the national representative.

I'm not clear if this is a deliberate slap in the face by the Ing Foundation or just cluelessness. The AGA has been equally moronic in the past by calling their national pair go event the North American championship.

The AGA is often a flawed organization, but as far as I can see, it (and the AGF, which is distinct, but obviously closely related), are the only organizations that I see trying to create a national go community. So long as it acts fairly, with an open process, I think it has the right to determine who will represent the US.

gobert wrote:Any idea on what triggered Ing's decision? Will this also affect Canada and Europe?

My guess is they want to make their branch office in Menlo Park a bit more relevant. I've been there a couple times, and it's a bit small and doesn't seem to do much. Maybe this will help them a bit.

I'm not sure where else Ing has branch offices, but I wouldn't be surprised in places where they exist, they would switch to this system.

Yeah, I was very confused by this announcement,

I just can't imagine this being prominent enough on anyone's radar to be interested in doing it at the expense of antagonizing the AGA.

Which suggests to me that the slap was the point.

But who knows...

Maybe it's that AGA rules are more popular than Ing rules and they want to bring all their tournaments in-house in order to enforce them...

God help us if that's the case...

I think you have to wait to see what the Ing Goe Foundation does before passing judgement. It does all sound a little odd to me, but I would trust them enough to believe that they know what they are doing.

Javaness2 wrote:I think you have to wait to see what the Ing Goe Foundation does before passing judgement. It does all sound a little odd to me, but I would trust them enough to believe that they know what they are doing.

Yeah, I should have worded my response a bit better. I think this is more to promote Ing's efforts in the US better and not a questioning of who AGA has sent in the past or the AGA's efforts. They want to run a qualifier at their own facility. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me though I prefer the way it was done in the past.

shapenaji wrote:Maybe it's that AGA rules are more popular than Ing rules and they want to bring all their tournaments in-house in order to enforce them...

Makes sense to me. After all, Ing was not a disinterested go philanthropist. He spent a good deal of his life trying to come up with the best set of rules that he could, and promoting them along with GOE.

With the Ing '96 rules he finally got a rule set that meshed with his intuition and was only a little ambiguous (about whether a ko is fighting or disturbing). I expect that the Ing Foundation feels duty bound to promote that rule set.