From August 17 to 23, 2026, Vilanova i la Geltrú hosted the ninth edition of the Go Seminar. Seven straight days of Go at the Sociedad Cultural Recreativa "La Gran Penya," with activities organized by the Nam-Ban Go Club of Madrid, including parallel tournaments of all kinds, simultaneous games, game analysis, and even a concert. It was a whole week of living Go. The seminar was announced with a tightly packed schedule: mornings of main tournament play and game analysis, blitz at midday, lunch, lessons in the afternoon, simultaneous games, and a different tournament each evening before dinner. Thursday the 20th was deliberately left free, as a breather in the middle of the week, and on Saturday a separate Class C tournament got under way for anyone who couldn't take the whole week off. La Gran Penya is a popular athenaeum right on the Rambla Principal, in the heart of Vilanova. It is a cultural and recreational society with activities of all kinds, among them chess and, of course, Go, promoted by the tireless editor of this very magazine, Joan Lluís i Rabassó. The organizers recommended staying at the Residencia Vila Nova, a ten-minute walk away, with weekday and weekend rates. For those traveling from out of town, Vilanova has the advantage of being well connected by train to Barcelona, with the beach just a short walk away. La Gran Penya split the seminar across two floors: the main playing room on one, and several smaller rooms on the other, devoted to lessons and to game commentary after each round. Having the analysis in its own space, separate from the playing area, made it possible to review games without disturbing those who were still playing. Fortunately, the rooms were air-conditioned, which was greatly appreciated given the high temperatures of August. The guest lineup was as follows: Yuki Kato (加藤由紀) (1p). A Japanese professional since 2023, trained at the "Hong Dojo" in Tokyo. It was her first visit to Spain. She spent the week mostly giving lessons and reviewing games, though she also sat down to play: she competed in the weekend tournament, entered as a 7d. Joanna Koike (4d). Ambassador of the Nihon Ki-in, in charge of Wednesday's concert. She only got to play one round in the main tournament. Akira Fukushima-Maekawa (4d). Go popularizer based in Germany, with her own YouTube channel. Fourth in the main tournament and third over the weekend. Kaku Maekawa (前川 角) (6d). A researcher and physician trained at Kyoto University, now living in Germany. He was, without question, the player of the week: he won both tournaments with a perfect record. We found it very fitting, because each one teaches in their own way, and so we saw different perspectives on the game. The classes were taught in English. Yuki Kato struggled a little with the language, and every so often a fellow attendee who knew Japanese lent a hand, but the truth is that he made himself understood very well. All three were very good, but if I personally had to single one out, it would be Kaku Maekawa's classes for the single-digit kyu. He devoted a good part of his time to counting in the yose: learning to count the groups on the board to decide in what order to close them and so get the maximum number of points out of the end of the game. It is one of those topics you know is costing you points in every tournament, yet almost never study in an orderly way, and coming away with a method to apply it was, for me and for the rest of my fellow students, among the most useful things of the whole week. The teaching load of the seminar fell to three of them: Yuki Kato, Kaku Maekawa and Akira Fukushima. We students were split into three groups by level (dan, single-digit kyu and double-digit kyu), and the teachers rotated between groups each session, so that over the course of the week everyone ended up going through all three. The The simultaneous games, held almost daily, were run by the same three instructors and followed the same rotation scheme as the classes: players switched tables each session, so that over the course of the week one could end up sitting across from Yuki, Kaku and Akira. As for the main tournament, twenty players took part, with five rounds spread from Monday to Friday and a range of levels running from 5d to 20k. It was dominated by Kaku Maekawa (前川角) (6d), who won all five of his games, and without dodging anyone, since he faced the five players who finished right behind him. Behind him, Yoshihiro Nonogaki (野々垣良弘) (5d) and Rodolphe Azouvy (2d) rounded out the podium with three wins each, decided by tiebreak. The best Spanish player was Pedro Méndez (1d, Nam-Ban), who finished fourth with two wins. A special mention goes to Lucas Ortega (2k, Nam-Ban), who won three games and moved into seventh place overall, the best result in the standings among the kyu players. Additionally, the side tournaments deserve a mention. Each day also had its own activity apart from the main tournament: a blitz tournament spread over three lunchtimes, rengo on Monday and Friday nights, toroidal Go on Tuesday, and the Nishimoto Cup, the beer tournament, on Wednesday. Not everything went according to plan: The blitz tournament ended up with five rounds. The schedule called for six, but in the end only five were played because one of the games ran too long. The toroidal Go tournament did not take place. It was scheduled for Tuesday the 18th in the evening and was replaced by another one with a fixed opening. The Nishimoto Cup, the famous beer tournament, was played on the evening of Wednesday the 19th. The starting position from which all the games began. Black to play. The replacement for the toroidal go was a two-round tournament in which the opening was predetermined. The stones came already placed on the board, in a Korean-style arrangement that renders known josekis worthless and leads to an all-out battle from the very first move. "It's just brawling from the very start," Pedro Méndez summed it up. The Nishimoto Cup, or "beer tournament," takes its name from the first professional who attended the first Sepúlveda Seminar organized by Nam-Ban, and who ended up lending his name to this cup. It is an informal, festive variant: ten minutes of main time, ten-second byoyomi, and a three-stone handicap. On top of that comes the scoring twist that gives it its meaning: every beer consumed during the game counts as a ten-stone advantage, so besides keeping track of the level of Go, you also have to manage your own blood alcohol level and your opponent's. Logistics were handled by Lucas Ortega and Ignacio Insua, who also took the opportunity to explain to the participants the whole technique for pouring beer without foam. Akira, who had come from Germany, remarked that the Mahou had seemed lighter and smoother than the ones back there, and that "it goes down so easily that it's dangerous." One rule was also made clear: whoever throws up loses automatically… and also has to clean everything up again. It was enormously fun and more hard-fought than it sounds. There were memorable games, such as the one between Pedro Méndez and Akira, who gave it their all for second place. And the victory, curiously, went to Kaku Maekawa, who won without consuming a single drop of alcohol. Because of its uninhibited, festive spirit, many consider this to be the real main tournament of the Nam-Ban seminars. Rengo tournaments are played in pairs, alternating stones and without being allowed to talk to your partner, and the fun grows when you get paired with someone of a different level whom you don't know, in a wild, fast game against another team suffering exactly the same thing: the dans build and resolve in step with the single-digit kyu, while the double-digit kyu go a bit their own way. On Wednesday the 19th, in mid-afternoon, the program paused for more than half an hour for a concert by Joanna Koike (小池ジョアナ), ambassador of the Nihon Ki-in. The repertoire, prepared especially for the seminar, was a pleasant surprise: versions of anime themes, such as the one from Evangelion, a song of her own, and even a song in Spanish, "Superestrella," which she took on even though it is not her language. It was a treat to hear her sing in her first performance outside Japan, and one of the moments we enjoyed most all week. On Thursday, by contrast, nothing was organized: everyone went their own way. Some took the chance to head to Barcelona, but the weather in Vilanova didn't help either, as a good storm rolled in and the beach plans were foiled. Even so, a day of disconnecting came in very handy to keep going with renewed energy. On Saturday the 22nd, the seminar changed its face. A separate Class C tournament was opened for those who couldn't afford the full week, the opening ceremony was repeated for the new arrivals, and the playing hall grew from twenty to twenty-five players. The newcomers also raised the level at the top: Masaru Mikami (6d, Nam-Ban) and Yuki Kato herself entered the scene, joined by Álvaro Tirado (1d), Agostina Romero (1d, La Pedra) and Iago González (7k, Nam-Ban). The outcome, however, was the same: Kaku Maekawa (前川 格) won everything again. Five out of five once more, including the first-round victory over Masaru Mikami (三上 勝), the 6d from Nam-Ban. Mikami finished second and Akira Fukushima (福島 明) third, both with three wins, the same as Yuki Kato (加藤 由紀) and Rodolphe Azouvy: once again the podium was decided by tiebreak. It's worth noting that Mikami lost in the fourth round to Akira, partly because of a slip with the clock: he kept forgetting to press it, and on occasion it was she herself who pressed it for him so that his time wouldn't run out. Akira won, but it was she who came away with an impression of his style of play, which she described as "deep and very powerful." Below the bar, the protagonist was Ignacio Insua (7k, Nam-Ban), who recorded four wins in five games, the best record in the tournament after the champion, and finished twelfth. Horia Salca (16k) also closed with four wins. On Sunday, after the last round of the morning and a final lesson, the closing ceremony arrived, which had three parts. But before it began, the formal announcement was made that the 2028 European Go Congress will be organized by the Nam-Ban club in Salamanca. Closing out a week like this with confirmation that Europe's biggest Go event will be coming to Spain was, probably, the best possible way of saying see you next time. Next, the instructors took the floor, each giving a short speech reflecting on the week, all of them sincerely moving. Then came the awards ceremony, with criteria better suited to the dinner table than the trophy case: gastronomic souvenirs —packages of slices of ham included—, T-shirts and a prize drawing with a roulette wheel, courtesy of the Nihon Ki-in, from which almost nobody left empty-handed. Personally, this was my first seminar. I had been hearing about the Sepúlveda editions for years, so when this time it happened to be relatively close to home, I decided not to miss it. Unfortunately, I missed the first day because I was coming back from a trip, but on Tuesday I got down to work like everyone else. For the rest of the week, Go was in the air from morning to night. In the hall at La Gran Penya, players of all levels coexisted without any problem. The atmosphere was spectacular: we all commented on each other's moves, the games were hard-fought but relaxed, and around the hall you could see Go T-shirts from congresses, from tournaments, and a few more peculiar ones. The Japanese teachers were very attentive: they talked with everyone and made sure we understood what they were explaining. The classes were a constant stream of questions, and when the lightbulb finally went on for one of us, you could see the satisfaction on their faces. It was a week to remember, regardless of the results. I take away what I learned and experienced, the friendships and new contacts, and the confirmation of something many of us have been saying for a long time: that the Go community in Spain is wonderful, and that, at both tournaments and seminars, it's far more enjoyable with people in front of you than through a screen. I hope we'll see each other again at the next events, and I encourage more fans, both men and women, to take the plunge and take part. またね！ To learn more Akira Fukushima — x.com/GoLifeinGermany · youtu.be/h5DDM9LUf98 (vlog of the week as a teacher at the seminar) Joanna Koike — x.com/joan711 · youtu.be/Ij5agHH9dKI (her video about the Nam-Ban seminar) Both videos are in Japanese. Published in La Esquina #011 (November 2026). Download the full magazine as a PDF
