The American Go Association (AGA) was founded in 1935, to promote the board game of Go in the United States.
Founded by chess master Edward Lasker and some friends at Chumley's restaurant in New York City, the AGA is one of the oldest Western Go associations.
Famous Go player:
Janice Kim
(1965 - )
Kim was born in Illinois in 1969 and grew up in New Mexico. She earned a bachelor's degree from New York University.
As a teenager, she studied Go in Korea under Jeong Soo-hyon. She represented the U.S. in the first World Youth Go Championship in 1984, placing third. In 1986, she played for the U.S. again and won the event. In 1987, she became the first westerner to be accepted by the Korea Baduk Association as a pro. She remains one of only five western females ever to attain professional status (with Joanne Missingham, Svetlana Shikshina, Diana Koszegi and Mariya Zakharchenko).
In 1997, she created Samarkand, an online store for go-related items. Samarkand later became wholesale only. In 2003, she was promoted to a 3-Dan professional Go player, the first female westerner to do so. Kim is the author of the Getting Go articles that accompany installments of Hikaru No Go, a manga about a boy who releases the spirit of a famous Go player, in the American magazine Shonen Jump. She also writes occasionally for The American Go E-Journal.
Michael Redmond
(May 25, 1963 - )
Michael Sean Redmond is an American-born professional Go player. He is one of only a few such players, as Go is not as widespread or developed outside of China, South Korea and Japan. He is the only Westerner to reach the highest grade of 9-dan.
Michael Redmond was born in 1963 in Santa Barbara, California, and began playing Go at age 11. At 14, he moved to Japan and became an insei (Go apprentice) at the Nihon Ki-in, one of the two major Japanese Go associations. He was promoted to professional 1 dan at age 18, and 2 dan the same year. He was promoted to 5 dan in 1985; 8 dan in 1996; and 9 dan in 2000, becoming the first Western Go professional to reach 9 dan.
Redmond has not won any tournament titles but has come close. He was runner-up in the Shinjin-O, Kisei 7 dan section, and NEC Shun-Ei competitions in the early 1990s. He was also a quarter-finalist in the Fujitsu Cup and Tong Yang Cup. Currently, he is a celebrated commentator for the NHK channel. In 2005, he was voted "Best Commentator" for the NHK channel, over Ishida Yoshio.
In August 2006, he taught at the AGA East Coast Go Camp in Pennsylvania, and attended the 22nd annual US Go Congress in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He has also attended several other US Go Congresses.