Tuagom Go Tournament

Project Description

Go in Thailand has developed for 20 years, but is still only known by a small group of people, because there are not yet enough teachers and no Go professionals in the country. There is a select group of people that know how to play and just a few tournaments all year round. Another problem is that the awards and prizes that players can win at the tournaments are not as attractive as those of other sports.   

Tuagom is a private Go institute that aims to expand Go to the public, especially to kids who start playing Go from around 4 years old. The institute has been open for almost two years and has organised two Go tournaments for youth players under 18 years of age. The first tournament attracted 120 participants and the second grew to 150 participants. The venue of our tournament was the Gateway Shopping mall, of which the renting fee is expensive, but which offers a convenient location for the participants, and is also open to the public. 
We plan to organise three tournaments a year, in January, May and December. So far, we have financed the event ourselves. We approached business organisations for sponsorship, but they mostly provided us with vouchers as gifts, and snacks and drinks for the participants.  

Our tournament has 5 rounds of competition. To get third place, a player has to win 3 out of 5 rounds, second place will go to a player who scores 4 wins out of 5 rounds and first places goes to the player who wins all 5 games. All participants will get certificates. The winners of 3rd and 2nd place will also receive bronze and silver medals, and the overall winner of the tournament receives a cup. We provide medals to all who can reach the criteria of 3 to 5 wins, in order to motivate the kids to keep playing and improving at Go. This is unlike most tournaments, that only provide medals for participants who get to the top five. This is the purpose of the Tuagom principal. Therefore, our costs to organise the tournament are quite high. We hope that someday we can provide scholarships as prizes for our tournament, if we manage to get more sponsors.

Aim of the Project

The goal of the Tuagom Tournament is to promote Go to the public, to motivate kids and youth to play Go and inspire them to continue practicing and develop their Go skills.
Our target audience is kids and youth players.

Timeline

The 3rd Tuagom Tournament of 2018 will be during the second week of December.
The preparation starts two months before the event. We have to contact all equipment rentals, Venue and order the medals and the cup for the top three prizes. We start contacting for new sponsor.  We contact the teachers who can be the referee. Also we will promote the tounament online, on the Facebook page and the website of the Tuagom institute. The poster and brochure will be launched a month in advance. The poster will be placed at the Gateway Shopping Mall. The brochure will be sent to schools and other network associations.

Location

The tournament will be held in the Ekamai Gateway Shopping Mall in Bangkok.

Means of the Project

Tables and chairs for competition, carpet and fence for the demarcation of the competition zone.
Stage and audio equipment.
Go stones and boards: 9*9, and 19*19 boards.
Computer and printer for result evaluation.
Announcement board.
Facebook and website of the Tuagom institution.
Prizes: certificates, medals and cups.

Results

Potential results are:

1. Social awareness of Go, since we hold the tournament in a mall (public area).
2. Kids and youth players have more inspiration to practice Go and hone their skills.
3. Attract new people who are interesed in Go, but don't know where to learn the game.

Human Resources

1. Participants, kids and youth players.
2. Referees.
3. Parents of the kids and youth players who play Go.
4. Tuagom staff.
5. Gateway customers and passersby, prospect of interesting them in playing Go.

Financial Resources

For the past two tournaments, the Tuagom Go Institute has managed all financial investments through its own budget. We were sponsored for drinks and snacks for the participants of the events by the parents of our students who study Go with us. For our last tournament that took place on 13 May 2018, we collected a sponsorship of 12,000 Thai Baht (300€), which was raised through the parents as well.

Exposure

The public awareness about Go will be increased when we have more Go tournaments in the public domain. People will know more about Go and know where to learn how to play. We opened the Go institution recently and plan to expand it in the near future. We hope to open a Go cafe, like those available in Japan, when we have more human and financial resources. The Tuagom Go Tournament is our event to help promoting Go to the public.

Perspective

We want to extend our player base and improve our players' Go skills, expanding the Go community. Go could be as popular as football or basketball when we can create more fun events and attractive prizes.

Wishes

We wish to have your support and hope to win a scholarship award. We would use your financial support to offer scholarship prizes to the winners in each level of our tournament. 

Additional Comments

We would like to see Go becoming more popular among the upcoming generations, because it is a very good game to develop human thinking skills as well as emotional skills. We hope we can create more public awareness of Go.