News from the American Go Association
November 27, 2006
Volume 7, #101
STRINGFELLOW WINS TACOMA TOURNEY
WALDRON EDGES OUT TAN IN UMBC TOURNEY
NEW CLUB GROWS IN DETROIT BURBS
FENG YUN 9P KID'S WORKSHOP
TAIWANESE TO LECTURE AT CHI CLUB
KONO RIN RETAKES LEAD IN TENGEN
LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN KBS CUP
PENG QUAN 7P WINS 5 TO GIVE CHINESE EDGE IN NONGSHIM
POP TOPS ROMANIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
SELBY TOPS SWINDON TOURNEY, MACFADYEN EVENS BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP
YOUR MOVE: Blackberry Go; Getting Go Equipment; Getting Started; More On Tourney Pairing Software
YOUTH GO: Jackson Junior High's New Go Program.
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR
STRINGFELLOW WINS TACOMA TOURNEY: Steve Stringfellow won the November 11 Tacoma (WA) Fall Tournament. "Twenty-two players turned out on Armistice Day in Tacoma," reports Tournament Director Mike Malveaux, "which opened with a stirring remembrance of soldiers, their families and their sacrifices, given by veteran Gordon Castanza, Ph.D., President of the Tacoma Go Club and Western Region Board member of the AGA." The tournament was held in Commencement Bay Coffee's back room, and after the first round, players lunched in Commencement's cafe. After the 3-round tournament ended, prizes - provided by Slate and Shell, Samarkand, Yutopian, and Yunnan Arts -- were awarded to all 2-game winners.
Winner's Report: 4-6d: 1st: Steve STRINGFELLOW; 2nd: OH Jung-Il; 3rd: CHUNG Un-Sik. 4k-2d: 1st: Tyler SELLON; 2nd: Solomon CHOE; 3rd: Jaime KASZYNSKI. 8-12k: 1st: Dennis WHEELER; 2nd: George SCHMITTEN; 3rd: Brian ALLEN/Stephen L. JONES (tie). 17-26k: 1st: Gordon CASTANZA; 2nd: Megan SYVERSON; 3rd: Derrick HOCHSTATTER. Best Result, Youth under 12: Kevin BURTON. Fighting Spirit, Youth under 12: Tai NGUYEN. Farthest Traveler: Sebastian MORGAN (Bothell, WA). Full results will be linked at www.TacomaGoClub.org about December 1.
WALDRON EDGES OUT TAN IN UMBC TOURNEY: Scott Waldron 3d topped the November 12 University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) tournament narrowly beating out Tianren Tan on tie breaks. Forty players turned out at the first tournament ever held at UMBC, and organizers now plan to host a semi-annual event each spring and fall. "Free pizza and bagels were provided," reports Todd Blatt.
Winner's Report: Scott Waldron 3d and Tianren Tan 1d both went 3-1, tying for first in the top section, with Waldron winning on tie breaks. Kyu section winners were John Merritt 5k, Chris Chen 8k, Gennadiy Lemenev 10k, and Jon Grantham 19k. All 3-1 kyu players received books of their choice. Cash prizes were given to top finishers of top 3 sections.
NEW CLUB GROWS IN DETROIT BURBS: The South Oakland Go Club of MI, a chapter of the American Go Association, has recently formed, reports local organizer Bill Phillips. A club "primarily for the beginner in the north suburbs of Detroit,"the new group plays on Monday evenings at a local coffee shop. Check out the club online at: http://chapters.usgo.org/sogocomi/ "We have pictures of our 2006 Fourth of July Go Float," says Phillips, "Plus information on the July 1 to July 7th 2007 Go Summer Camp which we will host. There is also a link to my Go Concepts and Word of the Day ideas. Some of my favorite words -- syzygy and floccinaucinihilipilification for example -- can be used in teaching and playing go. You can also download a go font that was created to add go flavor to nametags and flyers."
FENG YUN 9P KID'S WORKSHOP: Feng Yun 9P's go workshop for kids will be held at The Woodlands in Round Top, New York, between Xmas and New Years. Registration begins at 11:30A on Tuesday December 26 and the workshop ends Friday, December 29 at noon. The schedule included go lectures, rated tournament games, playing and go-related events. Teaching games and a variety of intensive training will be provided during the camp period. Click here for more details:
http://brooklyngoclub.org/gc/cgi-bin/disp_topic.iphtml?topic_id=323
TAIWANESE TO LECTURE AT CHI CLUB: Two Taiwanese players studying in Chicago will begin a lecture series in January, reports Jason Allen of the Lakeview Go Club. "Chien-Wei Chang and Dennis Liang, both 5d in their home country, will be presenting the lessons," says Allen. The twice a month series "may become a long term thing if they are well attended/appreciated,"Allen adds. The lectures will include two 'classes', one for more basic concepts, and one for more advanced studies. Details will be posted on the club's website at www.lakeviewgoclub.org
KONO RIN RETAKES LEAD IN TENGEN: Kono Rin 9P won Game Three to go ahead 2-1 in the defense of his Tengen title in Japan against Yamashita Keigo 9P. So far all three games have been won by Black by resignation. Kono, who is in his middle twenties, took this title from Yamashita last year, for his first and only title win so far. In a related story, Michael Redmond 9P won his first game in the initial preliminaries for next year's Tengen. He defeated Kataoka Satoshi 9P back in September and is matched against Ko Iso 7P for his second game.
LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN KBS CUP: Lee Sedol 9P beat Choi Cheolhan 9P to take the KBS Cup 2-0. Lee Sedol got into the finals from the losers' bracket, where he wound up after losing to Lee Changho 9P in the fourth round. Lee Changho then lost to Choi and was again paired against Lee Sedol in the losers' finals, which Lee Sedol won to reach the finals against Choi. Neither Lee Sedol nor Choi has won this title before, although Lee Changho has held it eight times, including the last two years.
PENG QUAN 7P WINS 5 TO GIVE CHINESE EDGE IN NONGSHIM: Peng Quan 7P's 5-game winning streak has put the Chinese in the driver's seat in the second stage of the Nongshim. The 8th international team tournament sponsored by the Korean Spicy Noodles Company is famous for the fact that an undefeated Lee Changho anchored the winning Korean team for the Nongshim's first six editions. Yoda Norimoto 9P of Japan finally defeated Lee last year and went on to win the tournament for the Japanese team. Japan's chances to repeat looked good after the Nongshim's first stage in September in Beijing, China, when Hane Naoki 9P - who's had a less-than-spectacular record on the international scene -- defeated Wang Lei 8P of China and Cho Hunhyun 9P of Korea, coming from behind in both games, and winning by a total of two points. But Hane fell to Peng, who then went on to rack up five straight wins, defeating Choi Cheolhan 9P of Korea and, when the second stage began in Pusan, South Korea in late November, Imamura Toshiya 9P of Japan (look for this game commentary in Friday's Games Edition), Won Sungjin 7P of Korea, and Yamada Kimio 9P of Japan, before he was finally beaten by Park Yeonghun 9P of Korea. Peng hails from Guizhou Province in China, an inland province in western China not generally regarded as a center for go. Just 21, Peng is already renowned as a master of the endgame, which, combined with his steady, territory-oriented style, has earned him the nickname "the Chinese Lee Changho." One of Japan's last remaining players, Takao Shinji 9P, was immediately beaten by Park Yeonghun, leaving Japanese hopes once again resting on the shoulders of Yoda Norimoto 9P, their last man. The Koreans still have Lee Changho 9P and Won Sungjin 7P, in addition to Park, while the Chinese also have three players left: the young phenom Chen Yaoye 5P, Gu Li 9P, and Kong Jie 7P. The Nongshim's ne xt match is Park against Chen.
POP TOPS ROMANIAN CHAMPIONSHIP: Cristian Pop 7d has won this year's Romanian Championship, held November 17-19 in Bucharest. This is Pop's 5th Romanian championship, first winning in 1996 and then enjoying a 3-year run from 2000 to 2002. This was the 20th edition of a tournament first organized in 1987, and won that year by Sergiu Irimie, at that time an 18-year-old student from Brasov. Now an engineer in Germany for Airbus, Irimie says "I remember the feeling I had when I started to play go: the whole universe collapsed in front of the goban, time slowed and each stone on the board created a new world." 1989 and 1991 winner Sorin Gherman and 1993 winner Robert Mateescu both now live in the US, while 2004 winner Cornel Burzo has been a regular at the US Go Congress in recent years.
Top Winners: 1st: Cristian Pop 7d; 2nd: Dragos Bajenaru 6d; 3: Cornel Burzo 6d; 4th: Lucian Corlan 5d; 5th: Daniel Cioata 5d; 6th: Liviu Oprisan 4d; 7th: Dan Iugulescu 2d; 8th: Mihai Lita 1d.
SELBY TOPS SWINDON TOURNEY, MACFADYEN EVENS BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP: Alex Selby 3d edged out William Brooks 3d on tie breaks to top the 10th Swindon tournament in Great Britain. There were 55 players in the three-round tournament, and a number of players won all three of their games, including Matthew Crosby 2d of Bristol, Alan Thornton 2d of St. Albans, Paul Tabor 1d of Epsom, Peter Collins 3k of Bristol, and Brian Dackombe 3k of Farnborough. Meanwhile, at the same time and place, Matthew Macfadyen and Bei Ge were playing the fourth game in their match for the British Championship. Macfadyen won to even the score in the match at 2-2.
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
BLACKBERRY GO? "Does anyone have information on software to record games on a Blackberry device?" wonders Richard Solberg. Email journal@usgo.org
GETTING GO EQUIPMENT: "Can you tell me some good websites for purchasing go sets for Christmas," asks Robet Shin. Click here for links to distributors of go books, equipment and software:
http://www.usgo.org/resources/distributors.html
GETTING STARTED: "I was given a year's membership last Christmas," writes Pete Heinlein of Parsippany NJ. "I've been saving the various E-journals and started organizing them today. What is an .sgf file, and what application do I use to open it? And where can I go to learn how to play properly?"
Click here for links to a wide range of go software, much of it free: http://www.usgo.org/resources/computer.html
There are a number of excellent go resources and clubs in The Garden State: find them online at http://www.usgo.org/cgi-bin/chapters.cgi?state=NJ#listing
MORE ON TOURNEY PAIRING SOFTWARE: "If I understand that report about Peter Gousios working on tournament pairing software ("Gousios Steps Up on Tourney Software Project," 11/17 EJ), it makes the third project along this line that is going on currently with AGA support," writes a reader.
"With more and more rated tournaments, there's a growing need for software that can pair tournaments using various standard methods and interact with the AGA database and rating systems," says AGA Board Chairman Roy Laird. "Currently, TDs have two options. AccelRat -- http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/AccelRat/ -- uses the AGA rating algorithm to pair players based on game results in the tournament. WinTD -- download at http://www.usgo.org/resources/computer.html#pairing -- offers various options, but is somewhat user-hostile, or perhaps user-prankish. We're trying to develop an easy-to-use program with the functionality of WinTD that would operate across various platforms. Geoff Kaniuk's GoDraw and Christoph Gerlach's McMahon -- also at http://www.usgo.org/resources/computer.html#pairing
-- are widely used in Europe, but they can't talk directly with the AGA database. We're working on those problems as well."
YOUTH GO: Jackson Junior High's New Go Program.
by Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor
Down in the wilds of rural west Virginia, a new teen go club has been started by an industrious teacher. Though Ryan Full was new to the game himself, he didn1t let that stop him from starting a program at the school where he teaches, Jackson Junior High. He wanted to combat the increasing amount of television, video games, and passive forms of entertainment that students were spending time on, and he figured go might be just the antidote.
Full launched his program at the beginning of October and has had kids lining up ever since. "It almost brought tears to my eyes to see these kids get excited over simple games of 9x9 capture go," Full tells the EJ. "On their own, the kids discovered how two eyes would create a group that couldn't be captured and even ran into a ko situation within the first 30 minutes of play."
The week after launching the club, Full introduced go in his classroom as well. These students too were enthusiastic, but something else happened as well. One of Full's more difficult students made a breakthrough. "This student has all kinds of problems in school and is considered one of the troublemakers. He soundly thumped me with a 5-stone handicap. After the game he asked if anyone else had beaten me and I had the honor of telling him he was the only one all day. You would have thought I had given him a $20 bill. His face lit up, he challenged me to a game the next day, askded about when the game club was meeting and whether it was too late to join."
Another morning, on Full's way into school "One of my students met me at the door telling me he looked online for free places to play go and spent an hour or so last night playing capture go against some computer program. He was so happy he won every game against the computer." Full reports that putting up problems each week has been very popular. Students "rush to the bulletin board to try see the problem first. I take the pool of correct answers and draw one to win three Jolly Ranchers for the week."
Full started his club by applying for a free classroom starter set from the American Go Foundation, available online at: http://www.usgo.org/agf/schools.html If you are interested in learning more about his club, check out his regular updates on Godiscussions.com at:
http://www.godiscussions.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1073
Next week: Barchilon teams up with 11-year-old Vivian Chen to play and report direct from the second annual Denver Pair Go tournament, an event that has been dominated by youth.
GO CLASSIFIED
Locate go clubs worldwide at http://www.usgo.org/cgi-bin/chapters.cgi
FOR SALE: 7mm Japanese glass go stones in original box, $40 plus $10 shipping. Send a U.S. postal money order to Anton Ninno, 867 Livingston Ave., Syracuse, NY 13210. Or pick them up at a Syracuse Go club meeting any Monday evening at Dewitt Wegmans. Send email to confirm.
FOR SALE: Complete go set; board 2 1/8 inch Agathis, shin-kayabowls, 8mm glass stones. Lightly used for ~10 games. Contact John atjmarti71@uiuc.edu if interested. (11/27)
BOARDS AVAILABLE: Custom-made go boards from master craftsman with 30 years experience. 9x9, 13x13, 19x19, single or double sided. You pick the species of wood, thickness and finish. Quotes from b1saltman@charter.net (11/27)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Piscataway, NJ: looking for players to start a club asap. email jaybling@optonline.net , or call 732-925-8890 (11/20)
WANTED TO BUY: Killer of Go by Sakata Eio in any reasonably decent condition. Please respond to jaimekaszynski@gmail.com (11/13)
CLUB HOME WANTED: Imperial Beach, CA: Looking for a location to start a community club around the South Bay San Diego Area. Looking for people around same area to play. E-mail Josh Moore at goapprentice007@yahoo.com (11/6)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: In NC, around the Thomasville area. We currently hold a small meeting every Tuesday night at the Thomasville Library, 5-8 PM. About six members so far. Call (336) 474-7633 for more info, or email flaresolther@hotmail.com (11/6)
PLAYERS WANTED: Montgomery,AL looking for players in Montgomery, and Wetumpka, Alabama so I can start a Montgomery/Wetumpka go. e-mail kooler_2006@yahoo.com (11/6)
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 9,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org
December 2, 2006: Denver, CO
Te wo Tsunaide '06
Pair Go Tournament
http://cyberpsychos.netonecom.net/PairGo
Jasmine Sailing jsailing@netonecom.net 303.388.4666
December 2, 2006: Hartford, CT
CCC Winter Go Tournament
Bill Fung cccgoclub@yahoo.com 860.906.7398
December 2, 2006: Piscataway, NJ
Feng Yun Go School monthly rated games (open to everyone)
Feng Yun Golesson@yahoo.com 973.992.5675
December 3, 2006: New York City, NY
Toyota Holiday Cup at Iwamoto Hall
http://chapters.usgo.org/nygc/toyotaholiday06.htm
New York Go Center nygc@usgo.org 212.223.0342
December 3, 2006: Seattle, WA
Ratings Tournament
Jon Boley jon@airsltd.com 206.545.1424
December 9, 2006: Sacramento, CA
D/SGC Winter Tournament
Willard Haynes willard@saclink.csus.edu 916.929.6112
December 9, 2006: Chicago , IL
Brer Foxx Memorial
Bob Barber komoku@earthlink.net 773.467.0423
December 9, 2006: Middlebury, VT
Suberi in Vermont
Peter Schumer schumer@middlebury.edu 802.388.3934
December 10, 2006: Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Fall Open
http://chapters.usgo.org/penngo/tournaments.html
Peter Nassar pnassar@vet.upenn.edu 215.898.6271
Matthew Bengtson mattbengtson@earthlink.net 215.704.4600
December 16, 2006: Arlington, VA
Holiday Helper
Allan Abramson allango@igc.org 703.684.7676
Published by the American Go Association
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Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
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