News from the American Go Association
October 6, 2006
Volume 7, #85 (Member's Edition)
HSIANG BEATS LI IN NAMT
PLAYOFFS
WILL ZHOU TOPS CHI
TOURNEY
CHINESE GIANTS BATTLE
IN CHUNLAN
CHO U FIGHTS BACK IN
MEIJIN
THREE YOUTH
CHAMPIONSHIP VENUES ANNOUNCED
QUIZMASTER
WANTED
WEEKEND ACTION: Round Top
NY, Somerville MA & Princeton NJ
CLARK
WINS QUIZ
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ
GAME COMMENTARY: The Power of
Threat
GO REVIEW: The Go
Master
ATTACHED FILES: 2006.10.06 Zhou-Cho, World Oza, Dinerchtein;
2006.10.06 Single-digit kyus, Yang; 2006.10.06 Yang October Puzzle
HSIANG BEATS LI IN NAMT PLAYOFFS: Thomas Hsiang 8d narrowly defeated defending champion Jie Li 9d Thursday night in a 3-point game in this year's North American Master's Tournament (NAMT). A full weekend of NAMT A League playoffs kicks off tonight when Zhaonian Chen plays Yang Yilun 7P beginning at 5P PST (8P EST) on IGS. Huiren Yang plays Jie Li at 10A Saturday and on Sunday, Mingjiu Jiang plays Jie Li at 12:30P, Thomas Hsiang plays Zhaonian Chen at 1P and Huiren Yang plays Yilun Yang at 1P (all times PST). The schedule is subject to change and is posted online at http://www.seattlegocenter.org/namt/ The NAMT A League kicked off with two games last weekend. Yilun Yang 7P defeated Hsiang, who was last year's runner-up, and Mingjiu Jiang 7P defeated Lin Xuefen 1P. Both games were won by resignation. Tournament Director Jon Boley is assisted thi s year by Dennis Wheeler, scheduler and game referee, and John Hogan, game referee.
WILL ZHOU TOPS CHI TOURNEY: Will Zhou 6d won top honors in the September 30 "In Cold Blood" tournament in Chicago, IL. Full report in Monday's E-Journal.
CHINESE GIANTS BATTLE IN
CHUNLAN: It's Chang Hao 9P against Gu Li 9P in the finals of the
6th international Chunlan Cup. Details on Monday.
CHO U FIGHTS BACK IN MEIJIN:
Down 0-2, Cho U 9P won the third game in his defense of the Japanese Meijin
title against challenger Takao Shinji 9P. Details on Monday.
THREE YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP VENUES ANNOUNCED: Three of the 2007 US Youth Go Championship Qualifier venues have been set for Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. More details in Monday's edition.
QUIZMASTER WANTED: Will Shortz-wannabe wanted to help run the E-Journal's popular Go Quiz. Encyclopedic go knowledge not necessary but enthusiasm, reliability and sense of humor a must. Interested? Drop us a line at journal@usgo.org
WEEKEND ACTION: Round Top NY,
Somerville MA & Princeton NJ
- October 6-8: Round Top,
NY
Guo Juan woodlands workshop
http://brooklyngoclub.org/gc/cgi-bin/disp_topic.iphtml?topic_id=308
Jean-Claude
Chetrit jc@brooklyngoclub.org 718.638.2266
- October 8: Somerville,
MA
MGA Fall Handicap Tournament
http://www.massgo.org/tournaments.html
Zack
Grossbart zack@massgo.org 617.497.1232
- October 8: Princeton,
NJ
Princeton Fall Self-Paired
(come anytime 9A-6P, full
handicap)
Rick Mott rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu 609.466.1602
CLARK WINS QUIZ: Calvin Clark of Menlo Park, California, is this week's Go Quiz Winner. His name was selected at random from those who knew that Shimamura Toshihiro's game was described as 'oxidized silver'. Shimamura (1912-1991) won 15 titles and challenged for the Honinbo twice, before suffering a stroke during a Meijin League game in 1982. He was a leader of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Kiin, his leading disciples were Hane Yasunaga 9 dan (father of Hane Naoki 9 dan) and Yamashiro Hiroshi 9 dan). He won the Tengen at age 65, a record for oldest title holder, until broken by Fujisawa Shuko, Hon. Kisei. "Ibushi-gin" -- or oxidized silver -- is the name for Shimamura's much admired style - calm, steady and tenacious in the endgame. (Go World 64). Clark wins a go vendor gift certificate.
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: What was the first English-language periodical about go: Go World, Go Review, The American Go Journal or The British Go Journal? If you think you know, click here 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.
GAME COMMENTARY: The Power of
Threat
Zhou Heyang 9P of China and
Cho U 9P of Japan gently battle in the August 26 1st round of the 3rd Toyota
& Denso Cup in today's lead game commentary by Alexander Dinerchtein 1P. The
game is an instructive example of the power of threat, with much of the game's
fighting merely implied.
Two
single-digit kyu players duke it out in a turn-based game commented by Yilun
Yang 7P, who does his usual thorough analysis of the ups and downs of the
game.
Yang also created today's bonus, the latest in his original series of
life-and-death problems based on the names of each month.
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: The Go Master
By
Roy Laird & Chris
Garlock
Popular culture
references to go are few and far between, so last weekend's New York Film
festival screening of an entire feature film about the legendary Go Seigen was
much anticipated in the U.S. go community. After all, the game's appearance in
Ron Howard's 2001 film A Beautiful Mind sparked one of the biggest-ever surges
of interest in go (and won Best Picture).
Unfortunately, director Tian
Zhuangzhuang has turned in a boring and confusing biopic that even the most
dedicated go player will be hard-pressed to sit through, much less recommend to
non-playing friends.
This turgid
film manages to transform the fascinating life of the 20th century's greatest
player into a one-dimensional portrait slapped carelessly onto celluloid. In 104
very long minutes we learn virtually nothing about either the game of go or Go
Seigen himself. After a promising beginning in which we glimpse the still-active
octogenarian himself, we plunge into 1930's Japan where the young Go Seigen is
about to take on Shusai, the last hereditary Honinbo (whose historic game
against Kitani five years later became the basis for Kawabata's classic novel
The Master of Go). But the film seems to lose interest in this titanic struggle
-- between old and new, age and youth, Japan and China -- and spins off in ever
more confusing subplots.
The
racism and exclusion from tournaments that Go faced in the 1930's, his deep
rivalry and even deeper friendship with Kitani, the co-creator of the "Shin
Fuseki" that revolutionized modern go, Go's struggle to regain the top after a
devastating accident at the peak of his career, are all simply hinted at amid
disconnected fragments of his classic jubango matches and sketchy jumbles of
other vignettes. Even film basics break down: at one point, several minutes
after we see Go felled by a motorcycle on a Tokyo street, a superimposed title
helpfully informs us that "in 1961, Go was involved in an accident . . ." While
director Tian Zhuangzhuang is shooting in Japanese, which he does not speak, and
recently came off a 9-year break during which he was barred from film-making for
years by the Chinese authorities, this hardly explains the failures of his
latest effort.
The film's strongest
theme revolves around Go's "retirement" from play to pursue involvement in Jiu,
a religious sect where, according to the film, he fell under the spell of the
sect's leader and self-styled "living goddess." In reality, Go - always a deeply
spiritual person - did belong to this sect, but his "retirement" lasted just
over a year, from March 1945 to August 1946, a period when not much professional
go was being played anywhere in Japan. It's interesting to note that the
negative portrayal of religious involvement as cult-like takes place within the
ongoing controversy over the Chinese government's actions toward the Falun Gong
movement.
Go Seigen's life had
more than his share of triumph and tragedy. The tragedy of The Go Master is that
a fascinating life has been sold terribly short. Other than a handful of
exquisite shots of Go playing, the film is virtually unwatchable. Only the
film's last shot finally gets it right - Go is playing a ceremonial retirement
game, and his opponent begins by playing on the central, or tengen point, a nice
homage to the man who revolutionized a 4,000 year-old game. Hopefully, we won't
have to wait 23 years to see another film about go but in the meantime your best
bet is to find a copy of the 1983 "The Go Masters," and settle in with your
popcorn and soda for a truly remarkable
film.
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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