News from the American Go Association
November 17, 2006
Volume 7, #98 (Member's Edition)
LEAHY WINS DOTE MEMORIAL
TOURNEY
E-JOURNAL ADDS YOUTH
EDITOR, NORTHWEST PHOTOG
YAMASHITA TIES UP JAPANESE OZA
LEE SEDOL PULLS AHEAD IN GS
CALTEX CUP
PAL
SANNES TOPS LATEST EVENT IN EUROPEAN TOUR
WEEKEND ACTION: College Park, Syracuse,
Tempe
AGA HAPPENINGS: Gousios
Steps Up on Tourney Software Project
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Will The Real Congress Directors Please
Stand Up?
GAME COMMENTARY: A
Promising Beginning
GO REVIEW: In
The Beginning
ATTACHED FILE(S): 2006.11.17 Lee-Fan, Samsung,
Dinerchtein
LEAHY WINS DOTE MEMORIAL
TOURNEY: Brian Leahy 2d won the top division in the Dote Memorial
Tournament, held November 11-12 in San Francisco. Twenty-nine people attended
the annual event, held in Japantown, with 13 dan players including a strong
5-dan visitor from Minnesota. William Fraser 5k won the upper kyu division, and
Julie Burrall 10k won the lower kyu division. Started in 1999, this tournament
is held in memorial of Dote Shinji, who helped many aspiring go players improve
their game. Steve Burrall directed. Full details in Monday's edition.
-
Reported by Lawrence Ku, West Coast E-Journal Reporter
E-JOURNAL ADDS YOUTH EDITOR, NORTHWEST PHOTOG: As part of the E-Journal's continuing work to expand go news coverage, we're pleased to welcome two new contributors. AGF Teacher of the Year Paul Barchilon is joining the E-Journal staff as the new Youth Editor, and Brian Allen is our new Northwest photographer. Barchilon plans to feature youth topics including articles with "A kid's-eye view," as well as youth photos, player and club profiles and game commentaries. Allen, a gifted photographer whose work has previously run in the American Go Yearbook and on the AGA website, will cover events in the Northwest United States E-mail Youth submissions to Barchilon at shimari@comcast.net and look for his first report - and a Youth game - Monday. Inquiries about having Allen cover an even in the Northwest can be directed to journal@usgo.org
YAMASHITA TIES UP JAPANESE
OZA: Yamashita Keigo 9P beat Cho U 9P and current Oza title holder
by 1.5 points yesterday to take the second game of the title match and tie up
the best-of-five-game match 1-1. Details Monday.
LEE SEDOL PULLS AHEAD IN GS CALTEX
CUP: Lee Sedol 9P made it 2-0 in his challenge of Choi Cheolhan 9P
for the GS Caltex Cup title in Korea, wining the second game in their
best-of-five-game match by a half point on Tuesday. Details on
Monday.
PAL SANNES TOPS LATEST
EVENT IN EUROPEAN TOUR: The latest event in the Toyota IGS PandaNet
European Tour, in Gothenburg, Sweden, was won by Pal Sannes 4d. Details
Monday.
WEEKEND ACTION: College Park,
Syracuse, Tempe
- November 18-19, 2006: College Park,
MD
Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship
http://chapters.usgo.org/umd/MidAtlantic.html
Steve
Mount go@outfoxing.com 301.405.6934
- November 18, 2006: Syracuse,
NY
3rd Annual Fall Ratings Tournament
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/syracusegotournament/
Richard
Moseson mosesons@earthlink.net 315.682.7720
- November 18, 2006: Tempe,
AZ
Arizona Go Rating Tournament
W Gundberg
wgundberg@telliercompanies.com 480.429.0300
OHASHI WINS QUIZ: Yoko Ohashi of Chiba City, Japan, is this week's Go Quiz winner, chosen at random from those who identified "Black wins by center pushing" as the correct, literal translation of a resignation in the Japanese. Your quizmaster came across this tidbit in the introduction to "Go Battles of Modern Masters", compiled in 1936 by early AGA President WD Witt. I took it to refer to the Japanese method of picking up the stones when a game is over - pushing them to middle and then picking them up - but this happens whether a game is resigned or not. So the E-Journal checked with John Power, long-time Go World editor and author of "Invincible" for his take. "Chu-oshi", is, literally "in centre" and "pushing" Even Power is not sure, but he offers "I would have guessed that the 'chu' meant 'during the game', or 'on the way' and that 'oshi' meant 'pushing the opponent out of the ring' " This certainly rings true - a nice reference to sumo wrestling. G ot Quiz? Send us your ideas for future Go Quiz questions at journal@usgo.org
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Will
The Real Congress Directors Please Stand Up?
This week, the quiz turns to local
matters and tests your U.S. Go Congress knowledge. Which of the following WAS
NOT a Director of a U.S. Go Congress - Paul Mathews, Grant Franks, Roy Laird or
Ned Phipps? Click here if you know the answer: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=330212370809
One prize-winner will be drawn at random from the correct answers and will be
awarded a prize from one of our fine go vendors.
- Go Quiz Editor: Keith
L. Arnold, hka
AGA HAPPENINGS: Gousios Steps
Up on Tourney Software Project
The
AGA's primary purpose is to promote the game of go, and support the local
go-playing community. We're always looking for ideas to enhance our services and
benefits. Even better, we love to hear ideas from members when they're followed
up with an offer to volunteer, since we can only get as much done as we have the
volunteers to do the work. One of these volunteers, Peter Gousios, joined us at
the last US Go Congress after attending the volunteer meeting. Noting that our
current tournament pairing software was becoming outdated, Peter not only
suggested it was time to upgrade the tournament software, but said that he was
interested in working on the project and had already written a fair amount of
code. Although this isn't a project that will be done tomorrow, we're excited
about the new software, and thankful that a member brought an idea to table and
was willing to support it with his own effort as well. Thanks Peter!
-
Kevin Purvis, Volunteer Coordinator
GAME COMMENTARY: A Promising
Beginning
A promising beginning for
Fan Weiqing 1P of China crumbles under active play by Lee Sedol 9P of Korea in
today's game commentary from Round 1 of the 11th Samsung Cup, played on
September 6. The commentary is by Alexander Dinerchtein
1P.
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: In The Beginning
By
Ikuro Ishigure
Kiseido Publishing Co
http://kiseido.com
Reviewed
by Hans Ongchua 20k
Between
opponents of equal strength in the middle and endgame, it can be notably
difficult to make up for a poor opening. Ishigure's book addresses this
oft-neglected stage among amateurs and is targeted at elementary to intermediate
players. As you and your opponents become stronger, the opening becomes
increasingly critical.
In The
Beginning gives you the tools and analytical insight for the early stage of the
game. Chapter 1 focuses on general strategy and tactics while Chapter 2 expounds
on nine principles to consider when assessing the direction of play and
application of tactics. Ishigure does a very good job of guiding one's thinking
as to which moves can give the greatest potential profit and stability while
adversely impacting those of one's opponent. He also takes a whole-board
approach to help the reader understand the timing of moves and when some of
these become strategically urgent.
I especially like the way Ishigure
presents his ten problems in Chapter 3 and how he assigns relative values to
several possible moves. Even if you don't pick any of the optimal moves, you can
at least see if you are applying some elements of good opening sense. He
explains at least three of the choices to show why they are superior, of modest
value, or inferior. He also explains how a move in the right direction of play
but of one more or less space, or on a higher or lower line, may completely
change its value.
Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris
Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org
Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.
To make name or address corrections, go to http://www.listlynx.com/MailUser1.asp
Story suggestions, event announcements, Letters to the Editor and other material
are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space, and should be directed
to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
journal@usgo.org