Stephanie Yin

President and Founder, Professional Go Player

Stephanie Yin (Mingming, Chinese Transcription: 殷明明) is the founder and president of New York Institute of Go (NYIG). Stephanie is 1 dan professional Go player in American Go Association and Chinese Weiqi Association. She became professional in 2007 and won multiple tournaments in the US since 2010. As an experienced Go teacher, Stephanie is fluent in both English and Chinese. Since the founding of NYIG, Stephanie has been invited to multiple international Go events including US Go Congress. In May 2017, Stephanie attended the "Future of Go Summit" in China as a main commentator of the Google team DeepMind.

Ryan Li

Associate Director, Professional Go Player

Ryan became professional in the 3rd AGA professional qualification tournament. He represented North America in numerous occasions, including IMSA (International Mind Sport Association) Elite Mind Games, Samsung Cup, and Mlily World Go Open. In the 3rd Mlily World Go Open, Ryan defeated world champion Chen Yaoye 9p to advance to the final 16 players. Ryan is current PhD student at Yale University studying earth sciences. He also teaches regularly at the annual US Go Congress.

Hanchen Zhang

Instructor, Professional Go Player

Hanchen is a 1 dan professional Go player in Chinese Weiqi Association. Hanchen became professional in 2010 and won multiple tournaments in Canadian Open and US Go Congress. Hanchen has been a NYIG guest teacher since 2017.

Michael Chen

Master Amateur Go player, AGA 7d 

Michael graduated from Princeton University in 2011. In 2016, Michael was interviewed by CNN’s Quest Means Business on CNN International about the first match between Google Deepmind and world Go champion Lee Sedol. Michael has won the 2006 North American ING Masters Cup Champion. Michael has won the 2006 Redmond Cup North American Youth Champion. Michael represented North America in 2014Samsung Cup and made it to top 32 players.

David Glekel

Expert Amateur Go player, AGA 4d 

David graduated from Cornell University in 2013. As president of the Cornell Go Club, he taught many new players and organized tournaments. He then moved to Japan, where he interpreted for the Kansai-Kiin and worked as an English teacher in the JET Program. In 2016 he returned to New York City to obtain his masters at Columbia University. He has since directed the annual Gotham Go Tournament, New York’s biggest go event.