GO in Ft. Myers, Florida

A blog about the Ft. Myers Go Club, a registered chapter of the AGA, American Go Association.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sarasota Go Tournament 24, 25 January 2009

The Sarasota Go Club hosted a weekend tournament at the New College in Sarasota. Tournament Director, Hughes Searcy, 1 dan, did an excellent job organizing and running this tournament.

16 players showed up to play 7 rounds in the two days. I will send out a full report when I get all the info.

Thanks to the Sarasota Go Club and Hughes for the tournament.

Some that showed up are:
Sarasota Go Club
Karsten Henckell, 4 dan
Hughes Searcy, 1 dan (TD)
Larry Rabinowitz, 2 kyu
Don Colladay, 5 kyu
Jung Sok Yo, 5 kyu
Chris Angerman, 6 kyu

Go Orlando

Joshua Lee, 4 dan
Anthony Yon, 8 kyu
Philip Brix, 10 kyu
Paul Wiegand, 12 kyu


Miami Go Club
Joel Sanet, 2 dan

Ft. Myers Go Club
Kent Secor, 11 kyu
Nick Ponader, 15 kyu


Sunday, December 7, 2008

Ft. Myers GO Club Store

Yes, you read that right. The Ft. Myers GO Club now has a store. I have opened an online store and will have it prepared for sales in the next two weeks.

Many at the tournament last Saturday, expressed a desire for t-shirts.

I have options of providing t-shirts, polo shirts, hoodies, mugs, hats and such. I will have a selection to choice from.

Please shop our store and support your club.

December 6th Tournament

On December 6th the Ft. Myers GO Club hosted the Christmas GO Tournament.

We had a record of 54 players participate. The tournament was directed by Joshua Frye and held at the school he teaches at, Lexington Middle School. We met in the library, which was a very good room for the amount of people we had show up. We did have 7 games being played traditional style, sitting on the floor.

Next tournament we will probably use the cafeteria, as it has many more seats and tables.

We had three bands of players.

"A" band was single kyus and dan players.

"B" band was middle kyu players.

"C" band was lower kyu players.

I will post more once Joshua gets his report finished.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Sunday Afternoon at Barnes and Nobles

Sunday afternoon found me facing my old friend Nathan Slider in the cafe at Barnes and Nobles to play GO.

We met about 2pm and played 5 games in about 3 hours. It was great catching up with you Nathan, thanks for coming up from Naples.

Nathan is now about my strength, 11kyu. We started with Nate taking a three stone handicap and beating me. The following games we decreased the handicap till we played an even game with only a few stones difference between us.

I will plan on being at Barnes and Nobles each Sunday afternoon to play GO! I hope to see more show up.

In the plans, a club ladder, mini tournaments, an on going tournament, attendance prizes, most improved prizes, most games played (at club meetings only) prizes, Go problems quiz prize.

Let's Play GO!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Meeting of the Ft. Myers Go Club

There is interest in restarting the Ft. Myers Go Club meetings.

I will be at the Barnes and Nobles, S. Ft. Myers, in the World Plaza, from 2pm. As long as players show up, I will stay there. We can play until everyone has to leave.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Ft. Myers Go Club start back up?

Hi campers,

I hope everyone had a great summer and good start to this school year.

Mr. Frye has got three GO classes in full swing this year at Lexington Middle School, here in Ft. Myers.

Some have expressed interest in starting the Go club meeting back up. Some of our members have gotten very strong over the last year. A couple of the club members were invited to attend a youth tournament up in the Northern lands.

Alex DeSouza and Sam Ponander traveled to Somerset, NJ to play in the United States Youth GO Championship, May 24, 25.

We have an active group that plays on KGS. Check us out in the Florida Go Community room.

I, Mr. Frye and Rob Cheney got together last weekend to play GO. We discussed starting back up the club and holding tournaments. Mr. Frye thinks we will be able to hold tournaments at Lexington Middle School.

We will email all when plans are made and Mr. Frye will be making announcements to all the students at Lexington.

I will be joining with Rob at the Cape Coral Public Library Tuesday nights to play go if anyone can come over. It will be from 5:30 to 9:00.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Ft. Myers Go Tournament November 3rd





Ft. Myers Go Tournament
November 3rd
to be held at the
***Change of location***
$5 Tournament fee
lunch included


Morning session starts at 9AM
lunch break at 12AM
Afternoon session starts at 1PM
Afternoon session ends at 5PM
with prize presentations and clean up to follow
Out of building by 6PM
We will use the PyTD v. 1 software for pairing and tournament reporting
************************
AGA rated tournament
AGA membership required to enter the tournament.
Registration for the AGA will be available at the door.
AGA membership fees are
Adult $15
Youth $10
************************
Donations for club activities will be accepted.
Prizes provided by Yellow Mountain Imports and Shell and Slate.
Please support these fine Go stores with your business.
William Cobb of Shell and Slate has provided 6 excellant Go study books for prizes.
Pong Yen of Yellow Mountain Imports has provided the three following items for prizes.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Ft. Myers Go Club Fall Bash Tournament

FT. MYERS GO CLUB FALL BASH TOURNAMENT
By Kent1956

The Ft. Myers Go Club had its first Go tournament of the school year Saturday September 8th. 29 Go players gathered to test their strength and enjoy a day of the ancient Chinese game of Go.

They gathered in an upper room of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in historic Ft. Myers, just a few paces from the Edison / Ford estate. Like sentry guards at the Moon Palace of the Emperor, the royal palms lining McGregor Blvd. led the contestants to the Church.


At precisely 9 am, give or take an hour, the contest of will and intellect began. Play was set up in pairs with the strongest players at the head of the room. Pairing was set by the tournament software, PyTD v.1.0, with handicaps. Five rounds were played with most players able to play all five rounds. Play ended around 5 pm.
There was a mixed age group from 10 to 60, with most of the players being under 16.

Players came from Orlando, West Palm, Sarasota and Naples to join with the local players.
From Orlando Mr. Joshua Lee, 1 dan joined us.
Representing the West Palm Go Club we had Shaun Sullivan, 2 kyu, and Joshua Fallon, 5kyu.
Representing the Sarasota Go Club we had Larry Rabinowitz, 1 kyu and Don Colladay, 5 kyu.
From Naples Nathan Slider, 15 kyu, one of our own club members.




Joshua Lee, 1 dan
Thanks to these guys for traveling so far to make this tournament extra special.
The local players were (by rank) single kyus: James Shenko, 5 kyu; Rob Cheney, 8 kyu; Joshua Frye, 9 kyu.
Kent Secor, 11 kyu; Cory Cunningham, 12 kyu; Alex Bonham, 12 kyu; Jordan Winters, 12 kyu; Alex DeSouza, 12 kyu; Blaine Talbot, 13 kyu; Jake King, 14 kyu; Zachery Wilson, 15 kyu; Jesse Crowel, 15 kyu; Aaron Ruster-Mack, 16 kyu; Conner Allison, 16 kyu; Nikolaus Ponader, 16 kyu; Leandro Singh, 16 kyu; Tariqa Liebermann, 18 kyu; Steven Brosy, 20 kyu; Sam Ponader, 20 kyu; Miguel Azcuy, 21 kyu; Diego Azcuy, 21 kyu; Chris Ponader, 22 kyu; Derek Pinto, 25 kyu.

(List according to ranking results from the tournament.)
We had five new members sign up for the AGA at this tournament. Zachary Wilson, Derek Pinto, Miguel Azcuy, Diego Azcuy, and Cory Cunningham. Welcome all.




Game sets were available for sale. Profits from the sales will be used to promote Go in the community. Donations of $20 were given to support the club, thanks all for your support.

The tournament was sponsored by the Ponader family, who secured the room and provided snacks for the players. They also ran to get the pizzas for the lunch. Thanks Linda and Jonathan for your support.

The tournament director, Joshua Frye and tournament organizer, Kent Secor want to thank everyone for participating and making this, second tournament of the Ft. Myers Go club a success. Special thanks to the stronger players that traveled so far to join us, your participation was inspiring to all the lower kyu players.




















Next tournament is planned for November 3rd. We are looking to use the Lexington Middle School cafeteria or gym, thanks to Mr. Frye. Tournament fee will be $5 and an AGA membership is required (membership may be paid at the door). Lunch will be included, with a lunch break.

Contact this reporter for more information. If you want to be on the tournament email list, write me at mailto:kent1956_go@yahoo.com