News from the American Go Association
August 20, 2005
Volume 5, #73
In This Issue:
LATEST GO NEWS: Congress Updates; Hung Wins Ing Redmond; 2005 Lasker Awards; Tie-Break Clarification; Lefler, Remembered; On Board And Online
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GO REVIEW: A Dan & Kyu View of "A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki"
GAME COMMENTARY: Pro-Pro & US Open Round 5
GO CLASSIFIED
ATTACHED FILES: 2005.08.09 ProPro Wendong Zhang 9P, China (W) vs Hideo Son 4P, Japan (B).sgf; 2005.08.12 USOpen5 Lu Wang 8d-Yongfei Ge 8d.sgf
LATEST GO NEWS
CONGRESS UPDATES: HUNG WINS ING REDMOND: Joey Hung 8d won this year's Ing Redmond, reports None Redmond. Ed Kao was the runner-up. 2005 LASKER AWARDS: Also awarded last wee
k at the Go Congress were the Edward Lasker Awards, given to express the American Go Association's appreciation for the long labor of a distinguished go organizer. This year the award was given to longtime database manager Sam Zimmerman and Craig Hutchins
on, who has kept the AGA's archives for over thirty years. The award is named in honor of chess Grandmaster Dr. Edward Lasker, who, as reported in the Congress program and on the AGA website "learned go late in life, recognized its beauty and value, decla
red it a better game than chess, wrote a beginners book, 'Go and Go-Moku' and - with others - founded the AGA in 1947." As the ever-alert Hutchinson points out, however, "The AGA was established in 1935," not 1947, "adding "E
dward Lasker was a vice president." TIE-BREAK CLARIFICATION: There was a flurry of last-minute confusion last weekend about the top places in the U.S. Open, as three players - Xufen Lin, Takahiro Kitaga
wa and Yongfei Ge - wound up with 5-1 records. Although there was a verbal announcement during the week that tie-breaks would be settled by head-to-head results (which would have meant that Yongfei Ge's last-round win over Xuefen Lin would have won him th
e championship), the criteria published in the Congress handbook was the usual SOS (sum of opponents' scores), SODOS (sum of defeated opponents' scores) and then FTF (face-to-face) results. The published criteria (which has been used in previous Opens) pr
evailed, resulting in Lin, Kitagawa and Ge placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
LEFLER, REMEMBERED: An online tribute page has been set up for Greg Lefler, who died last week (We Have Lost A Great Heart, 8/10 EJ). The page includes a preliminary photo gallery and a section for "Greg stories." Check it out at http://ifotoz.com/lefler Meanwhile, the Empty Sky Go Club page, which had been down, is temporarily up at http://sano.rh.rit.edu/esgc/ The
club continues to welcome kifu (written game records), .sgfs and photos of Greg; send them to emptyskygo@gmail.com
SEDOL TO FACE CHEOLHAN IN ZHONGHUAN CUP FINALS: The finals of the second international Zhonghuan Cup will be between Lee Sedol 9P of Korea and Choi Cheolhan 9P of Korea. Lee defeated Hane Naoki 9P of Japan and Choi defeated Yoda Norimoto 9P of Japan in t
he semifinals for an all Korean final match. Results on Monday.
YASHIRO TO CHALLENGE CHINEN FOR WOMEN'S HONINBO: Yashiro Kumiko 5P defeated Kato Keiko 4P to win the challenger's position in the 24th Women's Honinbo in Japan. The current title holder is Chinen Kaori 3P. Details on Monday.
ON BOARD AND ONLINE: Last week's coverage of the US Go Congress included live broadcast of all three Masters games, Boards 1 & 2 for every round of the Ing and US Open, plus bonuses like the Pro-Am and Pro-Pro games, as well as the Pair Go championship g
ames, for a grand total of 32 games broadcast on the IGS and KGS. We posted 20 games on the AGA's website, ten of those were commented, and six were sent out to EJ readers. We're tremendously proud of this historic accomplishment, and once again extend th
anks and appreciation to game recorders Ethan Baldridge, Brian Leahy and Chris Garlock, techmeister extraordinaire Jeff Boscole, web-techs Chuck Robbins and Sergej Zoubok and a very special thanks to tweet at IGS and William Shubert at KGS, who enabled us
to bring the Congress to hundreds of go players around the world. In case you didn't get a chance to download the online games, here's where you can find them now:
2005.08.07 ING1 Yongfe Ge-Edward Kim
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050807ING1GeY-KimE.sgf
2005.08.07 ING1 Jie Li-Yuan Zhou
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050807ING1LiJ-Zhoy.sgf
2005.08.07 Masters1 Jie Li-Thomas Hsiang
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050807MAS1LiJ-HsiT.sgf
2005.08.07 USOpen1 Xuefen Lin-Ted Ning
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050807USO1LinX-NinT.sgf
2005.08.08 ING2 Jie Li-Jung Hoon Lee
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050808ING2LeeJ-LiJ.sgf
2005.08.08 USOpen2 Zhaonian Chen-Xuefen Lin
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050808USO2ChenZ-LinX.sgf
2005.08.08 USOpen2 Lu Wang-I-Han Lui
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050808USO2WanL-LuiI.sgf
2005.08.09 ING3 Dewu Zhang-Jung Hoon Lee
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050809ING3ZhaD-LeeJ.sgf
2005.08.09 Masters2 Thomas Hsiang-Jie Li
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050809MAS2Hsi-LiJ.sgf
2005.08.09 USOpen3 Lu Wang-Cornel Burzo 7d
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050809USO3WanL-BurC.sgf
2005.08.09 USOpen3 Haifeng Liu-Xuefen Lin
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050809USO3LiuH-LinX.sgf
2005.08.10 ING3 Joey Hung-Jie Li
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050810ING3HunJ-LiJ.sgf
2005.08.11 ProAm Kim Myung-Wan vs Jie Li 9d
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050811PROMyuK-Li.sgf
2005.08.11 USOpen4 Joey Hung-Xuefen Lin
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050811USO4HunJ-LinX.sgf
2005.08.11 USOpen4 Takahiro Kitagawa-Lu Wang
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050811USO4KitT-WanL.sgf
2005.08.12 ING4 Jong Moon Lee-Jie Li
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050812ING4LeeJ-LiJ.sgf
2005.08.12 ING4 Eric Lui-Joey Hung
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050812ING4LuiE-HunJ.sgf
2005.08.12 USMasters3 Jie Li-Thomas Hsiang
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050812MAS3LiJ-HsiT.sgf
2005.08.12 USOpen5 Xuefen Lin-Takahiro Kitagawa
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050812USO5LinX-KitT.sgf
2005.08.12 USOpen5 Lu Wang 8d-Yongfei Ge 8d
http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005/games/20050812USO5WanL-GeY.sgf
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
ANOTHER NJ CLUB: "Palisades Park has one of the best (non-AGA) Korean clubs in the New York area, run by Mr. Kim Dae-Yol," writes David Saunders in response to the EJ reader looking for a club in New Jersey ("Clubs Just A Click Away" 8/15 EJ). "The club
is a bit smoky and is almost entirely adults, so it is not very suitable for young kids. However, Mr. Kim himself from time to time has also offered private classes for kids. Mr. Kim can be reached on his cell phone at 201-638-7531." The Myung-In Go Clu
b is at 10 East Edsall Blvd., Palisades Park, NJ 07650, 201-585-7662.
GO REVIEW: A Dan & Kyu View of "A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki, The Korean Style"
Compiled by Seolim Publishing Company
Translated by Kim Seong June
290 pp; Kiseido Publishing Co
Reviewed by Lawrence Ku, 2d
If you're looking for a book with modern fusekis and how to play and deal with them, A Dictionary of Modern Fuseki is just the ticket. Previously published fuseki books such as the Nihon-Kiin Fuseki Small Encyclopedia and Sakata Eio's 2 volumes of Josek
i and Fuseki cover older fusekis that are not as popular now as they were 20 years ago. The Dictionary covers 59 patterns involving many common and some not so common fusekis. Especially, it covers the mini-Chinese -- a recently popular fuseki -- and the
Chinese opening in several patterns, and how to avoid them. I like this book because it explains the thinking of the white or black player playing the fuseki, so I know where the opponent wants to play, and why. In those 59 patterns, each one has aroun
d 10 diagrams talking about the different variations; common fusekis such as the Chinese opening have several patterns devoted to them. One of the best fuseki books around in English, I would recommend it if you are a high k
yu player or a dan player.
Reviewed by Michael Heinich 13k
Since I almost always feel behind just 2 moves into the opening, I hoped this book could at least improve the direction of my openings. The Dictionary is very well put together with only a few typos, including an amusing example where it says "white deci
des to mimic white's moves." Or maybe that's just very high-level play. Anyway, at almost 300 pages, there's a lot of information contained in this Dictionary. The Table of Contents helps guide you by using diagrams to show the opening being examined. E
ach page has 3 to 4 large diagrams with short descriptive text, and the large format makes the diagrams easier on the eyes. The Dictionary covers 59 patterns and each pattern has about 6-18 additional diagrams showing responses, variations and follow-ups.
The descriptions include an explanation of who's favored by the position. In the back, there are 36 fuseki problems to work through, though they're not listed in the Table of Contents. While at my level I can only follow th
e first few opening moves, the continuations and further analysis will benefit higher-level players.
GAME COMMENTARY: Pro-Pro & US Open Round 5
In a special post-Congress double-header, we've got two game commentaries for you today, one an August 9 Pro-Pro demonstration game and the other the August 12 5th-Round US Open match between Lu Wang 8d and
Yongfei Ge 8d. Myung-Wan Kim 7P of Korea provides the commentary for the pro game between Wendong Zhang 9P of China and Hideo Son 4P of Japan, and Maeda Ryo 6P of Japan does the comments on the Wang-Ge game.
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 p
latforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html
GO CLASSIFIED
PLAYERS WANTED: Asheville, NC: Looking for go players in the Asheville, NC area, contact Rodney Keaton at ichliebedeinunderhosen@yahoo.com.
PLAYERS WANTED: NW Lower Michigan: Two beginners in Benzie County need more players and help from a better player." Carol McAnulty; cmcanulty@hotmail.com
TEACHER WANTED: Beginning player searching for a Go teacher in Kentucky in the Georgetown/Lexington/Frankfort area. Contact: gundam_sandrock@cfaith.com
FOR SALE: A pair of beautiful, new, dark-red ash, Go Seigen style bowls - $50. Buyer pays $10 shipping. I paid $80 for them at Samarkand just last year. See a photo of the same bowls at http://ishiga
mes.com/bowls.htm Contact Anton Ninno at antonninno@yahoo.com
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