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San Diego Go Club welcomes Chinese pro Jai Li

Last weekend, at the San Diego Go Club's spring go soiree, Chinese professional Jai Li was welcomed back to the city by more than two dozen attendees. Jai Li, a 5P Chinese professional, and his wife, Ya Wen, last week relocated to southern California from China. They both attended last summer's Go Congress in San Diego and brought students from their go school in China. The club was honored that he would play a simultaneous exhibition at the soiree against six of the club members. The Lis were accompanied by their son, Bochen, who is a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Rochester. Bochen, who is a go enthusiast himself, acted as the official translator for his parents. The Club was hosting its first event at the newly renovated San Diego Chess Club which is in Balboa Park. The Chess Club is a beautiful facility seating 100 for competition and has a separate lecture room big enough for 30 attendees. 

 Included in the building is a large office, several storage areas, bathrooms and a large patio with picnic tables. While still in the planning stage, the SDGC is hoping to have a series of go lectures by Jai Li and Ya Wen at the chess club on Sunday afternoons. The facility is large enough that Jai can be teaching the stronger dan and kyu players in one room, while Ya is working with the younger and less experienced players in another. Ya Wen is an outstanding go teacher of youth, having developed advanced go teaching methods in China. - Ted Terpstra, president, San Diego Go Club photos: (top right) Henry You (left) taking on Jai Li as part of a simultaneous exhibition; photo by Ephraim Borja; (bottom left) Arunas Rudvalis, Ted Terpstra, Jai Li, Bochen Li, Yixian Zhou and Henry You at the San Diego Go Club Spring Soiree; photo by Ted Terpstra.