News from the American Go Association
August 27, 2005
Volume 5, #74
In This Issue:
LATEST GO NEWS: U.S. Kids Finish In Top 10 At World Youth; Pre-Registration Required For Moon Cha Tourney; 52nd NHK Cup Underway In Japan; Review Of Current Top Players In Korea; Marti
nez Wins Alert Reader; BGA Discount Available
GO REVIEW: How to Play Handicap Go
GAME COMMENTARY: Pro-Pro & US Open Round 5
GO CLASSIFIED
ATTACHED FILES: 2005.08.26 Piao-Hong, Dinerchtein Commentary.sgf; 2005.08.26 Kaz Lesson #39.pdf; 2005.08.26 Kaz Lesson #39.pdf
LATEST GO NEWS
U.S. KIDS FINISH IN TOP 10 AT WORLD YOUTH: Eight-year-old Calvin Sun 3d finished an impressive fourth place in the Junior Division of the just-completed Ing World Youth Championships. Sichen Zhong 5d placed 10th in the Senior Division. No results were av
ailable for Zhang Hao 5d, the Canadian player in the Senior Division. The 22nd Ing World Youth Goe Championship, organized by the Spanish Go Association, was held in Barcelona, Spain on August 21-26. Song Sang-Min of Korea won the Senior division, defeati
ng Tang Wei-Xing of China. Liao Xing-Wen of China won the Junior division, defeating Na Hyun of Korea. For a picture and bio of Calvin Sun 3d go to http://aego.biz/wp/the-championship/players/calvin-s
un/ See Sichen Zhong 5d at http://aego.biz/wp/the-championship/players/sichen-zhong/
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR MOON CHA TOURNEY: Pre-registration is required for the upcoming first annual Moon Cha Memorial Go Tournament in Germantown, MD on September 24. Space is limited to 40 players at the one-day 4-round AGA-rated tournament named
in honor of long-time AGA member Moon Cha, who died of lung cancer in September 2003 (20 have already signed up; deadline is 9/17). Yuan Zhou 7d, a top amateur player and local go teacher, is organizing the tournament. Check out the playing site at http://www.kvhoa.org Email yuan.zhou@zhouyuan.com for a registration form.
52ND NHK CUP UNDERWAY IN JAPAN: Some familiar names are rising to the top as the 52nd edition of this fast-play tournament gets underway in Japan. The players have 30 seconds per move, plus ten minutes thinking time, and the games are broadcast every Sun
day on TV. Latest details on Monday.
REVIEW OF CURRENT TOP PLAYERS IN KOREA: In Monday's edition, look for a review of the Korean pros who are currently at the top, including the well-known Lee Changho 9P, a "senior" player, having just turned 30, and Lee Sedol 9P, who is 22, as well as the
rising star Choi Cheolhan 9P, an accomplished champion at 20.
BGA DISCOUNT AVAILABLE: British Go Association overseas membership fees were raised recently but are now available to AGA members at a slight discount. The new overseas membership is UKP24, or about $43US, but AGA members can join for just $40. For more
info, email Simon Goss at simon@gosoft.demon.co.uk
MARTINEZ WINS ALERT READER: Kirk Martinez of Hayward, CA is this week's Alert Reader winner, winning a $10 go vendor gift certificates for spotting our most recent Alert hidden in a game commentary. Winners are drawn at random from those who correctly re
port the Alerts. Keep a sharp eye out in all our game attachments; you could be a winner too!
UPDATING ONLINE: Changing your email address? Got a new spam filter? Don't miss an issue of the E-Journal! Update your contact information online now! Just click on http://www.listlynx.com/MailUser1.
asp and you'll not only be able to update your email address, but your mailing address and other contact info as well.
GO REVIEW: How to Play Handicap Go
By Yuan Zhou 7d
Slate & Shell: http://www.slateandshell.com/
182 pages, $18
Reviewed by Lawrence Ku 2d
How to play Handicap Go is one of a series written by Yuan Zhou 7d, one of America's top amateurs. Here, Zhou uses eight of his own tournament games to demonstrate how to play handicap games. All the games a
re from 3 to 7 stones games with dan players and each game uses up to 60 diagrams to explain the game in detail. Most of the time, only a few moves are shown, which makes it easier to follow; the size of each diagram is about half of the page, and the qua
lity of the book is excellent.
I like this book very much because I can view the whole-board variations just by reading the book, unlike many others that use one diagram to cover more than 20 moves with various variations, requiring a go
board or computer software to replay the game. When reading a typical go book, many readers may share my experience of not being able to find next move because there are too many moves in one diagram, but in this book, with as little as one move per diagr
am, readers can really enjoy reading the game analysis.
Although all the games are dan-level games, I think this book is useful for high kyu level and stronger. I first read this book when I was 7k and still sometimes use it as a reference, crediting it with cont
ributing much to my improvement.
GAME COMMENTARY: Pro v. Pro, Over-concentration & Mt Rainier
Today's game commentary is from the 7th Chinese City A League, held earlier this month, featuring Piao Wenyao 4P (N. Korea-China) playing Hong Minpyo 5P (S. Korea). Hong is twenty, but Piao is still a teenag
er; the commentary is by Alexandre Dinerchtein 1P, whose commentaries on pro and amateur games are available by subscription on the go4go.net web site.
We have two bonus files today: the first is the latest lesson from Kaz Furuyama, in which he demonstrates how to over-concentrate your opponent, and the second is the solution to the Yilun Yang Mt Rain
ier Go Congress problem we ran in our June 8 issue: find out if the snowy peak can escape or live after the mountain descends!
GO CLASSIFIED
PLAYERS WANTED, Las Vegas, NV: New chapter, the Las Vegas Go Club, looking
for any strength players to join us. Contact Aaron Thomas at avontron@gmail.com
Classified ads are FREE for members! Send them to journal@usgo.org
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Published by the American Go Association
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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.
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or clarity and space, and should be directed to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
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American Go Association P.O. Box 397 Old Chelsea Station New York, NY 10113-0397