News from the American Go Association

September 17, 2005
Volume 5, #81

In This Issue:
LATEST GO NEWS: Zhou Finds Truth In Chi; Iyama Games Available; Jujo Out Of The Maxim Cup; New Noriyuki; PA & TX Lead In Life Members; Challenge Aids Quest To Improve; 2nd Chance For Tourney Reports; Huber Wins Alert Reader
GAME COMMENTARY: Slow, Passive & More Questions from Actual Play
GO CLASSIFIED
GO REVIEW: All About Joseki
ATTACHED FILES: 2005.09.17 Challenge, nbrower-Solovay, Yang Commentary.sgf; 2005.09.17 McGuigan Series #2.pdf

LATEST GO NEWS

ZHOU FINDS TRUTH IN CHI: Will Zhou 3d topped Chicago's "The Truth Is Out There" tournament on September 10, which drew 34 players. "This was the first time we had visitors from Cincinnati," reports organizer and TD Bob Barber. "We hope they return. Will Zhou, who is too young to shave, showed that he was just passing through 3d. His record at the Congress was 4-2. Laura Kolb, playing as 7k at the Congress racked up a 5-0 record; who knows what her real rank is? Lee Huynh was 4-2 at the Congress as 9k, and 4-0 one month later as 7K. Yipes. Jesse and Ryan (and Will) are students of Huang Liping. I think this clearly shows that attendance at Go Congresses improves your game. So, y'all come on down to the beautiful hills of North Carolina in 2006!"
     Complete Winner's Report: 1st Place Dan: ZHOU, Will 3d; 2nd Place Dan: URSO, Chris 1d; 1st Place Low Kyu (tie): KOLB, Laura 6k, HUYNH, Lee 7k; 1st Place Mid Kyu: WANG, Ryan 11k; 1st Place High Kyu: CHEN, Jesse 24k.

IYAMA GAMES AVAILABLE: Eight games of the rapidly rising Japanese 16 year old sensation Iyama Yuta 4P are available for downloading on the go4go.net site. Details on Monday.
  
JUJO OUT OF THE MAXIM CUP: Jiang Zhujiu (Jujo) 9P lost his first round game in the 7th Maxim Cup to Yun Seunghyeon 9P on September 6th. Details on Monday.

NEW NORIYUKI: Slate & Shell has arranged with Nakayama Noriyuki 6P to bring out a second edition of his popular collection of insider stories and more, Treasure Chest Enigma, reports S&S's Bill Cobb. "Treasure Chest has been difficult to acquire for some time, and quite expensive when available," says Bills. "Nakayama sensei has prepared a host of new examples of his famous ladder problems for the new edition, which will be out in November." Look for it at www.slateandshell.com

PA & TX LEAD IN LIFE MEMBERS: Pennsylvania and Texas are tied at 6 Life Members each, reports Chuck Robbins, a LM whose Lancaster (PA) Go club has 4 life members alone. The AGA now has 32 Life Members, who pay a one-time $1,000 fee, which grants Full Membership for the life of the member, plus recognition in Yearbook as Life Member. "California and Virginia are tied at 3 life members each.
The Houston Go Club has 3 life members. 15 life members are dan level players. The youngest life member is Peter Straus. I am not sure I want to research who is oldest." Life Members by region: East 16; Central 10; West 5; Foreign 1. Adds Robbins, in what sounds like a challenge from the Pennsylvanian: "Everything is supposed to be bigger and better in Texas."

CHALLENGE AIDS QUEST TO IMPROVE: "Watching truly strong players find powerful and compelling moves is one of the game's greatest thrills," writes Dan Jaqua 3k. "I want to create that kind of go. I believe that the Challenge will offer extra help in my quest to improve my go." Want to get stronger too? Join the 2006 Shodan Challenge! Open to players of all strengths, the Challenge now has five Divisions: the 20-kyu Challenge, for beginners; the 10-kyu Challenge for 11-20k players; the 5-kyu Challenge for 6-10k players, the Shodan Challenge for 5-1k players and the 5d Challenge for 1-4d players. Challengers publicly accept the challenge of trying to achieve a specific goal by next year's U.S. Go Congress August 12-20 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. The E-Journal will track the progress of each Challenger and will provide special incentives and assistance, including free game analyses (like today's comprehensive Yilun Yang review of Challenger Robert Solovay 18k's game), boo ks, software and more. Make a move to improve! For details on how to qualify for the Challenge, email us today at journal@usgo.org

2ND CHANCE FOR TOURNEY REPORTS: If you missed reporting tournament results in the EJ this year, you can still make it into the 2005 American Go Yearbook! Send your report - include date(s) of tournament, name of tournament, city and state where tournament was held, and names, ranks and places of winners - to us at journal@usgo.org
       Here's what we have now: December 11, 2004; Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Fall Tournament; January 8, 2005; Piscataway, NJ: Feng Yun Tournament; January 15; Seattle, WA: Mid-Winter Tournament; January 16; Boston, MA: MGA Winter Tourney; January 16; Boulder, CO: Boulder Library Kids' Go Tournament; January 22; Richmond, VA: Slate & Shell Open; January 29; Denver, CO: Winter Tournament; February 4; Arlington, VA: NoVa May Madness; February 26-27; Princeton, NJ: NJ Open; March 6; Chicago, IL: Remember The Alamo!; April 2; Washington, DC: NoVa Cherry Blossom; April 2-3; San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament; April 2; Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Spring Ratings Tournament; April 16-17; Houston, TX: Houston Spring Tournament; April 30-May 1; Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Open; April 30; Middlebury, VT: Vermont Spring Go Tournament; May 28; Colorado: Colorado Open; June 4; Chicago, IL: Summer Tournament; June 5; Boulder, CO: Boulder Kid's Tournament; June 8-11; Ottawa, Canada: Friendship Go Open Tournament; June 12; Minneapolis, MN: Twin Cities Tournament; June 18; Richmond, VA: Virginia Open; June 18; Feng Yun Youth Tournament: Piscataway, NJ; July 16; Arlington, VA: NOVA Congress Tune-Up; July 23; Austin, TX: Austin Tournament; August 2-9; Tacoma, WA:2005 US GO CONGRESS TOURNAMENT REPORTS
HUBER WINS ALERT READER: Jonathan Huber of Manheim, PA 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. Honorable Mention to Steve Mount, who writes "Yeah, People really do look at the games." Winners are drawn at random from those who correctly report the Alerts. Keep a sharp eye out in all our game attachments; you could be a winner too!

GAME COMMENTARY: Slow, Passive & More Questions from Actual Play
        Bonus points this week to the reader who can tell us how many times Yilun Yang 7P uses the words "slow" or "passive" to describe moves in today's game commentary featuring 2006 Shodan Challenger Robert Solovay AGA 18k, who's in the 10k Division of the Challenge. Find out how to spot -- and avoid -- such moves in the first of many commented games from participants in the 2006 E-Journal Challenges that we will publish in the year ahead. Thorough game review by a pro or top amateur is one of the best ways to improve and is a benefit of joining the Challenge (see CHALLENGE AIDS QUEST TO IMPROVE above).
        Our bonus file this week is the second of a new series of studies brought to us by Robert McGuigan in translation from "Jissen ni tsuyoku naru 80 dai (80 questions for getting strong at real play)" by Haruyama Isamu 9P. McGuigan translated another series earlier, based on writings of Nakayama Noriyuki 6P, called "What's Wrong with that Move?" This material is used by permission of the Nihon Kiin which published the original text in 1979. Haruyama says that his primary audience is players who are aiming for shodan.

GO REVIEW: All About Joseki
By Mingjiu Jiang 7P and Guo Juan 5P
Published by Slate & Shell, 114 pp.
Reviewed by Lawrence Ku 2d
        Ever been confused when your opponent doesn't play joseki? Or had someone clearly play the wrong move, but since you didn't know how to punish them, the result was good for your opponent? "All About Joseki" will teach you how to take advantage of your opponent's mistakes.
        This book uses 30 amateur games to illustrate common joseki mistakes, how to handle them, and how to play the correct joseki instead of playing bad moves. It discusses mainly star point openings and 3-4 point openings up to the first 50 moves. Some josekis aren't very popular, but others are very common mistakes. Your best bet is to read the whole book, because sooner or later, these joseki mistakes will appear in your game.
        This book seems to be for the mid kyu player to the low dan player, and should help players better understand joseki problems.

GO CLASSIFIED

PLAYERS WANTED: Central IA. Starting a club in Des Moines. Contact Brigid Strait at veggie1@gmail.com if interested.

STUDENTS WANTED: Cornell Burzo 8d AGA (6d EGF) is offering go lessons
both on IGS and KGS using skype (internet telephony) Payment using PayPal accepted at cornelburzo@yahoo.com For more information check www.golessons.com

STUDENTS WANTED: 5d offers one free lesson on a server of your choice for potential students. Contact Josh at icarii@zoominternet.net for more details.

FOR SALE: Dark-red ash Go Seigen style bowls from Samarkand, $50. Buyer pays UPS Ground shipping, $10. Go Seigen style bowls are shorter and wider than the more common, round, Kitani style bowls. Contact Anton Ninno at antonninno@yahoo.com

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