News from the American Go Association
November 3, 2006
Volume 7, #94 (Member's Edition)
NOVEMBER OFF TO FAST
START
US INVITED TO WORLD
STUDENT CONTEST
YUAN ZHOU 7D IN
DC
AGA MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
2007 CHALLENGERS SET
WORLD GO NEWS
WEEKEND
ACTION: 5 Events!
WON WINS
QUIZ
THIS WEEK'S GO
QUIZ: Go Mum
AGA
HAPPENINGS: Dennis Wheeler & Andrew Okun
GAME COMMENTARY: Tang Defeats World Youth
Champ
GO REVIEW: Games of Go on
Disk (GoGoD)
ATTACHED FILE(S): 2006.11.03 CTang-PYao
NOVEMBER OFF TO FAST START: US go players have five events to choose from this weekend, from monthly ratings tournaments in Seattle WA, Piscataway NJ and New York City NY (could first-weekend rating tourneys be a growing national trend?) to a self-paired tourney in Sarasota FL and the final two days of the Yang Workshop in Lancaster PA. AGA Board Chair Roy Laird, recently appointed to the New York Go Center Board, says this Sunday's tourney in New York - sponsored by Toyota -- marks the re-emergence of the Center as an active player in the local go scene. See WEEKEND ACTION below for complete details.
US INVITED TO WORLD STUDENT CONTEST: The United States has been invited again to send a representative to the 5th World Student Go Championship (WSGC), which will be held in Tokyo February 26-28 2007. The Championship features college students under 30 from around the world. AGA President Mike Lash expects to announce WSGC selection criteria soon; those interested should email him at president@usgo.org
YUAN ZHOU 7D IN DC: Yuan Zhou 7d's monthly lessons at the Greater Washington Go Club continue tonight at 8:30P in the basement (room 15) of the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda. Cost is $12 per game ($6 per player). Bring game records to participate, or observe for free. "Don't have a game?" says organizer Haskell Small, "Come early -- official opening time 7P -- to play and record a game."
AGA MEMBERSHIP UPDATE: While overall membership in the American Go Association dropped again in October, full and youth memberships increased. Current total membership stands at 2,073, with 1,696 full members (up from 1,684), 225 Limited members, 52 Life Members, 60 sustainers, 35 sponsors and 509 youth members (up from 489). The 2,126 average membership for the year surpasses 2005's average membership of 2,037. The AGA is currently engaged in a Chapter Membership Drive Campaign designed to reward AGA Chapter reps for recruiting members; see www.usgo.org (under Highlights at right) for details.
2007 CHALLENGERS SET: The 2007 Shodan Challengers are off and running, report Challenger coordinators Lee Huynh 3k and Laura Kolb 3k. The deadline for applications was November 1, and the 2007 roster will be announced soon. Meanwhile, the first official event has been set for Sunday, November 12, when Jon Boley 6d and Norman Tsai 6d will play in 3-on-1 simuls on KGS at 4P PST. Stay tuned for more updates.
WORLD GO NEWS: Watch for the latest world go news in Monday's E-Journal.
WEEKEND ACTION: 5 Events!
-
November 2-5, 2006: Lancaster, PA
10TH LANCASTER YANG
WORKSHOP
Sam Zimmerman szimmerman@ctipc.com 717.892.1249
Chuck Robbins
crobbins@ctipc.com 717.682.2667
- November 4, 2006: Piscataway,
NJ
FENG YUN GO SCHOOL MONTHLY RATED GAMES (open to everyone)
Feng Yun
Golesson@yahoo.com 973.992.5675
- November 5, 2006: Seattle,
WA
RATINGS TOURNAMENT
Jon Boley jon@airsltd.com 206.545.1424
-
November 5, 2006: Sarasota, FL
SARASOTA SELF-PAIRED FALL
TOURNAMENT
(come anytime between 10am-7pm)
Larry Rabinowitz
rabitz@verizon.net 941.922.1000
Dan Moise dan_moise@yahoo.com
941.284.6987
- November 5, 2006: New York, NY
RATINGS TOURNAMENT
AT NY GO CENTER
Sponsored by TOYOTA
Hiroto Suzuki suzuki.hiroto@gmail.com
212.223.0342
WON WINS QUIZ: Jason Won of Oakland, CA is this week's Go Quiz winner. Won was selected at random from those who knew that it was Rui Nawei 9P who won a Korean open title. Specifically, Rui Nawei, born in China and now a U.S. citizen, won the oldest of Korean titles, the 43rd Kuksu in 1999. Of course, this event is best known as the only time a woman has won an Asian professional open title. No one came up with any other open title winners, although David Saunders and Yiyu Wang both mentioned Rui's win in the 2003 Maxim and her husband, Zhujiu "Jujo" Jiang's win in 2004; however, the Maxim is not an open title, as it's open only to 9 dans. Similarly, thanks to Valerie Smith for giving us a chance to give some props to Janice Kim 3P, who has won the Fuji Woman's Championship, although it was a women's title, not an open one. Got Quiz? Send us your ideas for future Go Quiz questions at journal@usgo.org
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Go
Mum
Who's known as the "Mother of
the Go World"? Kita Fumiko, Kitani Miharu, Honda Kazuko or Janice Kim? 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: Dennis Wheeler
& Andrew Okun
The influx of
volunteers over the last month has been great. We'd like to thank them all at
once, but just don't have the space. One of the first members to step up during
the Congress was Dennis Wheeler. Working behind the scenes, Dennis started
knocking out website improvements faster than webmaster Roy Laird could hand
them to him (including the now-searchable E-Journal archives)! Dennis has also
done some great legwork on the North American Masters
Tournament.
Andrew Okun also joined us at
the beginning of the Congress. Andy has been an integral part of the Rank
Certification committee and is currently leading the update of the already
well-designed Tournament Directors Handbook. Andy's motivation helped move the
Rank Certification from concept to an actual program. With help from our new
volunteers, the AGA is moving ahead on many fronts; if you'd like to be an
active part of the AGA, email us at volunteer@usgo.org.
- Kevin Purvis,
Volunteer Coordinator
GAME COMMENTARY: Tang Defeats World Youth
Champ
Youngster Curtis Tang of the
US handed World Youth Goe Championship Peng Li Yao his only lost in today's
game, played September 1 in Shenzen, China. Thanks to Peter Schumer, who
recorded the game and sent it in. "Though Peng Li Yao eventually won the
tournament, this was his sole loss," says Schumer. "Curtis played especially
well and was justifiably proud of this game. Though I should add that even
Curtis admitted that he probably got very lucky to win even once against Peng Li
Yao."
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: Games of Go on Disk
(GoGoD)
Reviewed by Philip.Waldron
7d
Of the commercial go game
collections, one of the oldest is the Games of Go on Disk (GoGoD). Initially
began as a hobby and informal collaboration between British collaborators T Mark
Hall and John Fairbairn, it has grown into an impressive collection of games,
articles and programs about
go.
GoGoD's largest feature is its
game collection. Originally containing only a few hundred games from great
masters, it now numbers over 40,000 games, all verified from original sources.
Unlike other game databases, GoGoD is distributed as a set of standard SGF games
files, making it accessible to Windows, Mac and Linux users. The GoGoD CD also
comes with the Kombilo database program, with the game collection pre-indexed
for convenience.
Beyond the
game collection, GoGoD also has a fantastic encyclopedia of go-related material
culled from far and wide. Essays on tournaments and famous (and not yet famous)
go players and a potpourri of other articles combine to make the encyclopedia
every bit as interesting and valuable as the game collection. The electronic
publication format allows for storage of a lot of data; I counted over a hundred
articles on various topics. Several accessory programs round the collection off,
my favourite being the Names Dictionary, which gives English translations for
Asian go players and
places.
Although GoGoD's
content is superb, its presentation is a little rough around the edges. The
encyclopedia, for example, contained uneven formatting and some links to missing
articles, while the user interface of some of the accessory programs felt a
little clunky. These problems were largely cosmetic, however, a consequence of
its authors being primarily go players rather than professional software
developers.
I am happy to
recommend GoGoD. The game collection alone would justify the purchase price, but
combined with the encyclopedia it becomes a great resource for players of all
strengths.
The GoGoD
collection can be purchased from the authors at http://www.gogod.demon.co.uk/
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
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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