Hello, Go Junkies! With the 2025 Chicago Open closing in on us (pun FULLY intended), I thought who better to hear from than one of the people that’s been organizing the tournaments we love? I caught up with Jamie Tang, our Evanston Go Club’s outreach director. Please enjoy! State your name and rank for the record I am Jamie Tang, 2-Kyu AGA. How long have you been playing Go? Almost six years. In August 2019, my Taiwanese aunts introduced me to the anime Hikaru no Go. I returned home and taught myself the game, reaching 10-Kyu. A year later, I joined the New York Institute of Go, where Ryan Li 4P and Stephanie Yi 1P opened many doors in the Go community. What do you do behind the scenes for the Chicago Open and Chicago Rapid? As outreach director, I help shape the creative vision of the Evanston Go Club’s biannual Chicago Rapid and Open Championships. Back in high school, I drew on my journalism background and kept expanding from there. My work includes assisting with venue clean-up, securing sponsors, liaising with partners, writing promotional materials and training our youth media team. How did you get involved with organizing tournaments in the first place? After I won the Bob High Memorial Song and Poetry Contest at the 2022 U.S. Go Congress, my first Go event, Albert Yen 8D invited me to volunteer for Evanston Go Club. Within months, in 11th grade, I became the outreach director. Since then, I helped quadruple our out-of-state players and secure a fiscal agent to host world champion Kim Jiseok 9P, among other cool things. I served as president for the high school-level American Go Honor Society, co-founded the college-level American Collegiate Go Association, advised the creation of Baduk News, wrote for Go Magic, coordinated prizes for the 2023 U.S. Go Congress and hosted the 2024 Michigan Go Championship. I recently started a Substack newsletter at https://umebyjamietang.substack.com/. What have been the biggest challenges in dealing with these events so far, taking into account that you’ve only been doing them for the last few years? Harassment. My younger self prioritized professionality in difficult, sometimes scary situations to avoid escalation and protect the interests of my events. These incidents chip away at your sense of safety and love for the game. You give so much to keep getting hurt. Consent comes in many forms. The first "no" deserves to be heard. It’s the responsibility of the harasser, not the victim, to change their behavior. We must respect boundaries and uplift others so future Go players can enjoy a supportive and welcoming community. If you experience or witness misconduct, please review the American Go Association’s Code of Conduct (available at https://www.usgo.org/content.aspx?page_id=86&club_id=454497 under AGA’s “Governance and Policy”) and immediately report the incident to your club leader or tournament director. Due to the demanding schedule of running these tournaments, it is difficult to play in them. Do you regret that? Absolutely. Go is not just a part of my life. It’s a part of who I am. Every mistake reminds you to push harder. It’s easier to give up on yourself than to put in the work. I threw myself into organizing so others could grow. Even during matches, I cannot help but observe my surroundings to ensure the tournament goes well. Yet, organizing led me to mentors and experiences I could never imagine in my wildest dreams. How do you handle the stress of managing large-scale tournaments? Teamwork. We want to make each event a smoother experience for our players. Now in college, I want to transition from organizing to competition. I narrowed my responsibilities to the supportive team at Evanston Go Club, led by president Mark Rubenstein and organizing director Albert Yen. I am grateful to Albert and Cheuk for playing countless teaching games, surviving my antics and making me a better person everyday. Thanks to them, I get the easy end of the stick and always get to compete. You get through mud when you’re surrounded by good friends. So far, I’ve been talking about the headaches in dealing with these tournaments. As you and I both know, they can also feel quite rewarding. What are some of the most rewarding things for you that come out of managing these tournaments? It’s taught me to love people. The Go community allows you to help build something that lasts. When organizer Julia Zhang and I restarted the American Collegiate Go Association, we learned it had split into groups that wouldn’t communicate, consisting of either American students or Chinese international students. We used our cross-cultural skills to bring them together. Under Julia’s leadership, the American Collegiate Go Association blossomed into hosting the Collegiate Go League. When Go becomes your heart, it’s a joy to meet others who share that dedication. There you have it! Huge thanks to Jamie for sharing her journey in this amazing sport. Happy reading, and best of luck to everyone at the 2025 Chicago Open!
