News from the American Go Association
October 13,
2006
Volume 7, #87 (Member's Edition)
LIN,
JIANG, YANG NOTCH WINS IN NAMT
HUANG & AN MOST-IMPROVED
IN PRINCETON
DC
CLUB CHALLENGES CONTINUES TONIGHT
SYRACUSE
DOUBLEHEADER
ROMANIAN TEAM WINS EURO
CHAMPIONSHIP
CHO U WINS
FIFTH JAPANESE TITLE
HIKARU'S NEW
RIVAL?
NOVEMBER YANG WORKSHOP IN
LANCASTER, PA
KNOX NEW CAMP
COORDINATOR
WEEKEND ACTION:
Westminster, CO
JOHNSON WINS
QUIZ
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Who's Not
Meijin-Honinbo?
GAME COMMENTARY: Chinese Agon Cup Pros &
US Open Kyus
GO
REVIEW: Go Basics: Concepts and Strategies for New Players
ATTACHED FILES: 2006.10.13 Lee-Cho, GS Caltex,
Dinerchtein; 2006.10.13 Dougherty 4k-Malveaux 5k, US Open,
Hung
LIN, JIANG, YANG NOTCH WINS IN
NAMT: Xuefen Lin 1P defeated Thomas Hsiang 7d by resignation in
Wednesday's round of the North American Master's Tournament, while Mingjiu Jiang
7P narrowly edged out Feng Yun 9P by a point in Thursday's round. In the second
match Thursday, Yilun Yang 7P beat Xuefen Lin by resignation. Four more games
will be played over the weekend. Saturday 11A: Huiren Yang 1P vs ZhaoNian Chen
8d; Sunday 12:30P: Minjiu Jiang 7P vs Thomas Hsiang 7d; 1P: Yilun Yang 7P vs Jie
Li 9d; 1P: ZhaoNian Chen 8d vs Xuefen Lin 1P. Details, including the full
schedule, are online at www.usgo.org (click on
NAMT on the right).
HUANG & AN MOST-IMPROVED IN
PRINCETON: Sean Huang jumped 8.9 stones from his -32.3 rating to
finish at -23.3 at the October 8 Princeton Fall Self-Paired, while Terence An
picked up 8.6 stones to move from -16.7 to -8.1. Zhaonian Chen 8d dropped by to
offer commentary and play some unrated games with Princeton club members.
Organizer Rick Mott says there was something "historic" about the tournament;
check out the photo at www.usgo.org and email
us at journal@usgo.org if you know what was so special. Full tourney details
Monday.
DC CLUB CHALLENGES CONTINUES
TONIGHT: The metro Washington DC-area club matches continue tonight
as the Greater Washington Go Club (GWGC) plays a rematch against the Rockville
club. "This being Friday the 13th, I'm a bit nervous this may be the time GWGC
will break its streak of victories," says organizer Hal Small. "Of course,
Rockville's ignominious record may only worsen." Play starts at 8P; for info
email haskellsmall@starpower.net
SYRACUSE DOUBLEHEADER: The Syracuse Go
Club participated in two recent events in upstate New York. The club ran a booth
at the Westcott Cultural Fair in Syracuse, NY on Sunday, September 24, and gave
lessons at the October 12 Game Night hosted by the Syracuse University Math
Club, Pi Mu Epsilon. Full details Monday.
ROMANIAN TEAM WINS EURO
CHAMPIONSHIP: The Romanian team of Catalin Taranu, Cristian Pop,
Cornel Burzo, and Lucian Corlan won a smashing victory in the recent European
Team Championship, losing only two games in six rounds. Details on
Monday.
CHO U WINS FIFTH JAPANESE
TITLE: Cho U 9P has added a fifth title to his current list by
defeating Hane Naoki 9P in the Agon Cup last Saturday. Details on
Monday.
HIKARU'S NEW RIVAL?: This just in: a Chinese anime company is
producing a series starring a boy who plays go. With nearly thirty episodes
already completed, the series could find a ready audience among go-savvy anime
fans who enjoy Hikaru's exploits. Hikaru lives in the modern world, but "Go Boy"
looks like a historical drama, judging from the appearance of the main
characters at the web site: http://www.cctv.com/program/yhjc/02/01/index.shtml.
We'd love to get a look at them, and tell you more about them! If they're on DVD
and you know where to find them, let us know at journal@usgo.org
- Roy Laird
NOVEMBER YANG WORKSHOP IN
LANCASTER, PA: You lose won games.Your opening is not up to par.Just
plain mystified about how to improve? Attend the 10th Annual Lancaster Yang
Workshop Thursday -Sunday November 2-5. The workshop starts at 9A Thursday and
ends at 3P Sunday. Mr. Yang will give lectures about various aspects of the game
and analyze games the attendees play at the workshop. The workshop will be
directed to both strong and improving players. "There will be something in here
for everyone," promises organizer Sam Zimmerman. Cost is $225 for adults, $125
for children (fees are customizable depending on how many days you attend).
Contact Zimmerman at 717-892-1249 or szimmerman@ctipc.com
KNOX NEW CAMP
COORDINATOR: Walter Knox from Mathews, North Carolina is the new
Summer Camps Coordinator, reports AGA President Mike Lash. "Walter brings years
of project management and solid coordination experience to bear on the job,"
says Lash. "He also benefits from the recent successes of our Camp Coordinators
at the East and West Summer Camps who already know the drill from the local
perspective." Knox with provide a constant single point of contact all year long
for information, support and coordination on summer camps. "This includes
providing basic set up for accounting forms, helping do break-even analyses for
planning, event scheduling, results reporting, etc," says Lash, who adds that
"the 2007 season is off to a great head start from the American Go Foundation"
which is awarding up to 16 partial Summer Go Camp scholarships for the US Youth
GO Championship winners at the eight qualifier s, "building an immediate base of
happy campers!"
WEEKEND ACTION: Westminster, CO
October 14,
2006: Westminster, CO
Rocky Mountain Fall Go Tournament
A 4-round, one-day
handicap tournament.
David Weiss dweiss51@excite.com
303.495.6352
JOHNSON WINS QUIZ: Evan Johnson of
Providence, RI is this week's Go Quiz Winner. His name was selected at random
from those who knew that the American Go Journal was the first English-language
periodical about go. Johnson wins a go vendor gift certificate. The Journal was
first published in 1949 by Lester and Elizabeth Morris. Although, as Keith
Arnold notes, WD Witt published Volume 1, #1 of "GO: A Bulletin Devoted to the
Game of Go" in April 1936, this proved to be the first and last edition of the
Bulletin. The Nihon Kiin published Go Review from 1961 to 1975; the demise of Go
Review inspired John Power and Richard Bozulich to create Go World, which began
publication in 1977 and just published issue #107. The British Go Journal
started publication in 1967. According to reader Theo van Ees M. Moonsstraat of
Leiden, The Netherlands the nod for oldest Western go publication goes to the
German go journal D eutsche Go Zeitung "which started in 1909 with 10 issues,
really started in 1920 and is still publishing." Quiz question submitted by Roy
Laird. Got Quiz? Send us your ideas for future Go Quiz questions at
journal@usgo.org
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Who's Not
Meijin-Honinbo?
Takao Shinji is one win away
from being only the sixth player to hold both the Meijin and Honinbo titles
simultaneously. One of the following is NOT one of those players: who's the
imposter? Cho U, Ishida Yoshio, Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi or Sakata Eio.
Bonus points if you can also name the missing Meijin-Honinbo. Click here now to
enter our Go Quiz Question of The Week: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=330212370809
One winner will be drawn at random from the correct answers and will be awarded
a go book or $15 gift certificate from one of our fine go vendors. Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold,
hka
GAME
COMMENTARY: Chinese Agon Cup Pros & US Open
Kyus
Today's pro game -- Round 1 of the 8th
Chinese Agon Cup - features an unusual early move by Black and a clever
group-saving tesuji by White in the August 3 game between Xie He 6P and Piao
Wenyao 5P. Alexander Dinerchtein 1P provides the commentary.
Our bonus game today is from Round 3 of the
2006 U.S. Open - played on August 15 -- and features Michael Dougherty 6k
playing Mike Malveaux 6k. The commentary is by Joey Hung 8d, one of the
strongest amateurs in the US. Hung runs a go school in California (see www.egogames.com) and
regularly does game commentaries for the E-Journal. He was the 2006 US
representative to the World Amateur Go Championship in
Japan.
To view
the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then
open using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need
.sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html
GO REVIEW: Go Basics:
Concepts and Strategies for New Players
by Peter Shotwell
Tuttle 2006
$16.95
Reviewed by Vincent
Solimine
"GO Basics" is prolific go
writer Peter Shotwell's second basics book. Though his "Go! More Than a Game"
(2003) was impressively comprehensive, "GO Basics" delivers on its sub-title
premise of providing concepts and strategies for new players. And while there
are many go primers available, this book stands out with Shotwell's unique
approach to teaching the fundamentals of go.
Many fundamentals-oriented books teach by
using isolated 19x19 board examples. Such an approach may adequately demonstrate
a concept but often fail to provide the new player with an understanding of the
relationship of the concept to the entire game. In contrast, "GO Basics" uses
seven professional 9x9 games to teach the reader everything found in a complete
game of go.
The first game takes up half the
book, covering the opening game, including captures, ladders, nets, and tesuji.
In the middle game, Shotwell reviews life & death, eyes, territorial play,
running fights, sente, gote, ko, and seki. The endgame is handled with another
unique approach. First, the beginner's play is reviewed by showing the reader
what not to do. This is followed by a review of the professional's play in the
endgame, which of course, is the right way to play. The last six games cover
advanced concepts such as sacrifice, big ko's, cross-cuts, hunting big groups,
invasions and thinking territorially.
Also
included are an actual 9x9 go set and the American Go Association CD-ROM's
treasure trove of materials with its interactive playing program, cementing "GO
Basics" as a complete primer for beginners, young and old
alike.
Vincent
Solimine lives in Glen Cove, NY. You can reach him at vsolimine@optonline.net
Got a different opinion on this or other reviews? Send it to us at
journal@usgo.org!
Published by the American Go
Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill
Cobb
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