Vermont Go Club

The Vermont Go Club meets on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Onion River Food Co-op (South End), 75 Briggs St., Burlington, VT.  

We welcome anyone of any age who is interested in playing go, from experienced players to absolute beginners!  For more information, please e-mail David Felcan at dfelcan@gmail.com

The Vermont Go Club is active, both online and in-person.

In-Person Playing (Wednesdays 5:00 PM)

Fully vaccinated members have resumed playing Go in-person at our regular meeting space inside the South End City Market Onion River Coop. For more information or to see if anyone is planning to meet up on a given day, contact Pete via email at schumer@middlebury.edu.


Online Study Group (Mondays 5:30 PM) Note: Day and time may vary for online study. Email for more information! 

The virtual study group meets online every Monday at 5:30 PM. Topics include life & death (tsumego), basic shape, opening strategy, and various pro and amateur game reviews. The meetings require Zoom for voice/video and use KGS for game study. For more information, contact Rich via email at shauke.go@gmail.com.


We hope to see you soon!


2024 Vermont Go Championship - Sunday, June 2nd, 2024

IMPORTANT VENUE UPDATE: The event will now be held at Axinn Center room 220 (which is just a short walk along Old Chapel Road across from Warner Hall).  Park anywhere nearby.  (Access to the building is on Old Chapel Road opposite McCullough Student Center.)  Due to college preparations for some other upcoming events, Warner turned out to be off-limits for Sunday.  But the new room is very nice with lots of windows and a pretty view (which might be an improvement over the basement rooms we typically use.)

The Vermont Go Club is excited to host the 2024 Vermont Go Championship on Sunday, June 2nd, 2024, in beautiful Middlebury, Vermont!

Event registration form and details can be found at https://www.vermontgo.org/2024

2023 Vermont Go Championship and Fall Tournament

Sixteen go players from Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island played on a beautiful autumn day in Middlebury at the Fall Vermont Go Tournament on Saturday, October 28.  Peter Schumer was the TD and Jack Cary served as co-organizer and promoter.  First place (and new Vermont state champion) is Kentaro (Ken) Murakami (5k) who was the only player undefeated in four rounds of play.  Second place went to Micah Feldman (3d) on 3 -1 and third place to Bill Arrand (2k) also 3 - 1.   Donuts, banana bread, apples, cookies, and cider were available for all to enjoy.  Several prizes were given to all players including trophies, framed certificates, go books and magazines from the AGA, maple syrup and honey from Rich Chalmers, go sets from Yellow Mountain Imports, lessons from Guo Juan (5p), and gift cards for access to the app Badukpop.  We thank all our participants and sponsors for a very fun and engaging day of go games and good fellowship!


A Boon From the American Go Foundation

As of today (2/23/2023) we have received around 30 books from the American Go Association. These are available for loan to anyone interested. I am especially intrigued by "Master Go in 10 Days". Quite a book!

Here is a picture of all the books:

Stay Home Vermont Go Tournament - 2020 Online Edition

October 23rd-24th, 2020 on the KGS Go Server (Vermont Go Club room)

See event page for details:  Stay Home Vermont Go Tournament

Registration required by October 16th! 


Club Shutdown Due to Coronavirus

As of 3/18/2020 The Vermont Go Club is no longer meeting in person due to Coronavirus concerns. We hope that we will resume in person play at some point in the future!

Go Beginner's Night

The Club will be hosting its first ever beginner's night! Looking to spread the word about this amazing game that we all love and enjoy. 

Details:

What: Go Beginner Night - learn the game and play against other new players!

Where: QuarterStaff Games, 152 Church St. Burlington

When: Monday, November 18th 7pm

Who: Dave Felcan, Go Club Member

How Long: An hour to an hour-and-a-half

2019 Vermont Go Championship and Fall Tournament Concluded

20 folks participated in the largest Go tournament in Vermont to date! Thanks to Peter Schumer for his amazingly smooth direction and management. Thanks also to Jack Cary for arranging so many sponsors and doing general advertising. A resounding success that would have not been possible without these efforts! Congratulations to all the winners!

2019 Vermont Go Championship and Fall Tournament

Saturday, October 26th, 2019

Middlebury College (Warner Hall – room 506)

Vermont Go Championship

 

The Vermont Go Championship will be a single-elimination three-round AGA-rated no handicap go tournament for the top 8 Vermont players registered.  The winner will be crowned the Vermont State Champion for 2019.  (Initially, the determination of the top 8 players is based on current AGA ratings.  But players can challenge to move up the ladder between now and October 21.)

 

The Vermont Fall Go Tournament will be held at the same time for all other players and for those dropping out of the Vermont Go Championship.  This will be a three-round AGA-rated handicap go tournament with the same fees and rules as shown below.  The Vermont Fall Go Tournament is open to all players with current AGA memberships.  Please renew ahead of time if needed.  Thank you!

Registration

Must pre-register by Thursday, October 24 by sending a note to

Peter Schumer at schumer@middlebury.edu

Cost:  $15 (paid at registration – 9:00 – 9:30 A.M. on Saturday, Oct. 26)

Rules / Schedule

Time limits:  45 minutes/player plus 5 30-second byo-yomi

Rules:  Japanese scoring with a komi of 6.5 points

9:00 A.M. - Registration / Check-in

9:45 A.M. - Round 1

1:00 P.M. - Round 2

3:15 P.M. - Round 3

NEW 2019 Event Prize Sponsors!!!

Yellow Mountain Imports

Yellow Mountain Imports
Japan America Society of Vermont
Guo Juan's Internet Go School
Quarterstaff Games
Yunguseng Dojang
American Go Association
Kiseido Publishing Company
Slate & Shell

Vermont Made Honey from Rich Chalmers

Vermont Made Honey

Massachusetts Go Championship and Fall Tournament

November 27th, 2018

Just a quick note that Massachusetts is having their State Championship Go Tournament this coming weekend (Dec. 1st)! You can find details here:

https://www.meetup.com/massgo/events/255374034/

Do note that there is a handicap division as well open to all comers, not just competitors for the state championship!


6/9/2018 - Meeting Place Change

Our long beloved meeting place, Uncommon Grounds cafe downtown unfortunately has changed their hours to end business at 6pm. This has required us to find a new place to meet and play Go. We are now meeting at the (new) Onion River Co-op location in the south end of Burlington, at the same Wednesday evenings from 6:00-9:00pm. See you there!

10/17/2017 - Children's Go at The Brownell Library in Essex

Club member Max Ekstrom and his daughter Celia are hosting a children's Go club at the Essex Library. Starting November 6th 2017, they will be teaching and playing Go on Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm. A great opportunity for young folks to learn and enjoy the game!

Brownell Library

10/03/2017 - Ursiny wins Everything Must Go Tournament

Go players from Vermont, New York, and Montreal gathered together for four rounds of fun at the Everything Must Go Tournament lastSaturday, September 30th in Middlebury, Vermont, reports Peter Schumer. The top three players all went 3-1, with Robert Ursiny 4k (right) winning the tournament. Second place went to Remi Compagnie 7d (left), with Peter Schumer 2k coming in third. True to the tournament’s name, everyone received a prize from a collection of books, magazines, fans and mugs.

2017.10.02_Remi Compagnie playing Robert Ursiny

09/10/2017 - Peter Schumer Hosts "Everything Must Go" tournament in Middlebury on Saturday, September 30

Long time Vermont Go Club member and founder Peter Schumer is hosting a tournament in Middlebury, VT on September 30th! The games will be held in Warner Hall (room 506) on Middlebury College campus (the "usual" place.)  Registration begins at 9:30 and Peter hopes to get things up and running quickly so that there will be four rounds of play.  Please update your AGA memberships in order for the games to count for AGA rating purposes. If you are not an AGA member currently, you are encouraged to join, but non-AGA members will be accomodated!

03/30/2017 - Go Club at This Year's Spring Matsuri at St. Mike's

Members of the Vermont Go Club manned the Go demonstration booth at this year's Matsuri! Many games were played and taught on 9 X 9 boards. Always a fun time! Thanks to all who taught and learned!

Matsuri 2017

03/31/2016 - Go Club Member Avery Thomson Publishes Article About Alpha Go

Avery has a nice article summarizing the workings of Alpha Go and the ramifications of its existence - http://www.lateralmag.com/articles/issue-8/the-self-taught-machine-that-beat-the-world-go-champion

03/17/2016 - Sayonara to Takuma at Gil's House

Unfortunately for the Go Club, Takuma is returning to Japan and won't be playing with us again for the foreseeable future. Gil was kind enough to host a going away party - much good food and libations were enjoyed by all as well exciting Go play! 

Best of luck to Takuma!

03/08/2016 - Alpha Go Vs. Lee Sedol

In an exciting match, Lee Sedol will be playing the new best computer Go player, Alpha GO. Alpha Go has already defeated a European pro level player. Is this the end of the dominance of humanity in Go?

Live broadcast on You Tube, 11pm EST 03/08/2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFr3K2DORc8

People in the club have taken bets.....

12/16/2015 - Vermont Go Club on TV

Pete Schumer, David Felcan and Kim Villemaire from the Vermont Go Club give an overview and introduction to the game on local television. Everything you could want to know about the game if you've never played it in 45 minutes!

Thanks to Kim Villemaire and Chittenden County TV for making this possible!

11/9/2015 - Tournament in Middlebury - Burlington City League Gets You Tube Exposure

Recently (on 11/7) a Go Tournament was held in Middlebury. Vermont Go Club member Brandon Tries took first place! Congratulations Brandon!

Also, some of our members are playing in the Pandanet City League (http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/agacityleague) which is a nation-wide online tournament with games monthly.

A You Tuber, known as xhu98 has created a video running commentary of the recent games that were played in October 2015. Featured there are our own Quan wei (qwei33) and Rich Chalmers (shauke) duking it out with members of the Atlanta 1 team.

Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRRQJ14xLyM

04/10/2015 - Go at the St Michael's Matsuri    

The Japan Society of Vermont is hosting a Matsuri (Spring Cherry Blossom festival) at St. Michael's College. We will be there, teaching people Go and doing demo games. Come check it out!

04/10/2015 - Go at the St Michael's Matsuri    

The Japan Society of Vermont is hosting a Matsuri (Spring Cherry Blossom festival) at St. Michael's College. We will be there, teaching people Go and doing demo games. Come check it out!

02/11/2015 - Go at the Echo Center

The ECHO center here in Burlington is hosting a board games exhibit. ECHO is a children's museum and nature center. We spoke with them and produced a Go section for them to put up. Dave spent some time there showing patrons the Capture Game.

http://www.echovermont.org/exhibits/games.html

01/20/2015 - Pete Schumer Holding Tournament in Middlebury Vermont

Pete will be hosting a Go tournament at Middlebury College on Saturday, January 24th, 2015. It will be held in Warner Hall room 506 (the usual venue) with registration starting at 9:30 A.M. sharp. We hope to complete two rounds in the morning and two in the afternoon. I hope you can join us!

In the meantime, please verify that your AGA membership is up to date (and if not, please renew it beforehand.) The tournament registration fee will be $10 and I'll make sure we have some nice prizes for the top finishers.

 See you soon!  

11/30/2014 - Three Dragons Emerge from the River Go Tournament is Done!

About 10 folks played. Edward Lin 7d was the winner. Congratulations Edward!

Queen City Go Tourney Spring 2014 - Concluded, Goes International!

A fun time was had by all, of course! This tournament saw four players from Canada come down to play with us Americans! So it became a bit of a USA vs. Canada tourney, to which I have to say kudos to the Canadians!

Results:

1st Place - Jean-Sebastian Lechassean (5d)

2nd Place - David Felcan (2d)

3rd Place - Georges Nehme (1d)

Thanks all for coming!

Dave Felcan Congratulates Jean-Sebastian on his 1st Place Finish

Queen City Go Tourney Spring 2014

The Vermont Go Club is hosting a tournament! It will take place at The Fletcher Free Library on March 16th (Sunday), registration to begin at noon, with games commencing around 12:30. All are welcome! Come and have a great time!