World Go News from the American Go Association

March 19, 2007
Volume 8, #24

ERIC LUI TOPS UMBC TOURNEY
KU, FANG TAKE THIRD TICKET TO MAY YOUTH QUALIFIER
KITAMURA & KESSLER WIN HAWAII YOUTH QUALIE
GO INSTALLATION AT QUEENS MUSEUM
EJ READERSHIP TOPS 10,000
GO PHOTOS: Brilliancy Award & Hawaii Cherry Blossom Fest
LEE MINJIN SWEEPS 5 IN JEONGGANJANG
RUI NAIWEI WINS FIFTH WOMEN'S KUKSU
CHO CHIKUN NOTCHES 70TH TITLE WITH NHK WIN
YUN JUNSANG DEFEATS LEE CHANGHO TO TAKE KUKSU
DK KIM TOPS IRISH OPEN
YOUTH GO: USYGC Profiles: Hugh Zhang 2d
ANDY LIU AT THE NEW YORK GO CENTER: A Great Lecture From A New Champion
GO CALENDAR
GO CLASSIFIED
ATTACHED FILES: 2007.03.19 Easy Endgame Problem Yang, 2007.03.19 Hard Endgame Problem Yang

ERIC LUI TOPS UMBC TOURNEY: Eric Lui 8d took top honors at the March 18 UMBC Spring Thing tournament in Catonsville, MD. 43 players participated; TDs were Todd Blatt & Chuck Robbins. WINNER'S REPORT: HIGH DAN(6 players): 1st: LUI, Eric 8d; 2nd: ARNOLD, Keith 5d. LOW DAN: 1-2d (7 players): 1st: WANG, Haofan 2d; 2nd: BENGSTON, Matthew 1d. KYU DIVISION A: 1-5k(7 players): 1st: EUDELL, Arnold 4k; MOORE, John 1k. KYU DIVISION B: 6-8k(7 players): 1st: TUNG, Stephen 6k; SALAMONY, Kim 7k. KYU DIVISION C: 9-15k(7 players): 1st: CALDEIRA, Edward 9k; 2nd: ELLER, Eric 11k. KYU DIVISION D: 16-33k(9 players): 1st: POLAK, Judah 16k; 2nd: XU, Stephanie 18k; 3rd: BLATT, Melanie 22k.

KU, FANG TAKE THIRD TICKET TO MAY YOUTH QUALIFIER: Lawrence Ku 6d of California and Chih-yu (Daniel) Fang 2k of Oregon defeated the local go players at Saturday's US Youth Go Championship Qualifier in Seattle, WA, taking the Senior and Junior bracket first place awards, respectively. They were the third pair to qualify, after the New York and Los Angeles qualifiers. Jon Boley and Gordon Castanza directed the tournament at the Seattle Go Center and Solomon Choe 3d recorded all table 1 games. Fang (at right, playing Allen Cheng) is just 8 years old, and started learning go when he was 5. He likes to kill groups, and although he does not have a teacher, he is improving very quickly. Besides go, Fang enjoys Lego, baseball, and watching internet TV. WINNER'S REPORT: Senior Bracket: 1st: Lawrence Ku 6d; 2nd: Josephine Lin; 3rd: Jessica Lin. Junior Bracket: 1st: Daniel Fang 2k; 2nd: Kevin Burton 27k; 3rd: Tai Nguyen 29k.
- reported by West Coast EJ Correspondent Lawrence Ku and Tacoma Go Club President Gordon E. Castanza.

KITAMURA & KESSLER WIN HAWAII YOUTH QUALIE: Kevin Kitamura 1d won the Senior Section and Chase Kessler won the Junior Section of the March 16-17 US Youth Go Championship Qualifier in Honolulu, HI at the Hongwanji Mission School Tournament. There were 13 players and the TD was Frank H. Alejandro. Though there was low turnout for the first-ever AGA rated tournament in Hawaii, Alejandro reports that "We currently have two rated AGA events already scheduled for the next two weeks so Hawaii is serious about playing go. We also hope to have a couple of players at the next U.S. Go Congress." Since January local organizers have added over 40 new players to the AGA ranks "and we want to continue this trend and attract some of our non-rated go players in Hawaii." Alejandro thanked the Hongwanji Mission School for providing the playing venue. NOTE to TDs: be sure your tournament gets covered in the EJ: report your results online! Winner's Report: SENIOR SECTION (4 players): 1st: KITAMURA, Kevin 1d; 2nd: HA, xiao Feng, 1k; 3rd: KANESHIRO, Aja 11k JUNIOR DIVISION: (3 players): 1st: KESSLER, Chase 12k OPEN GAMES SECTION: (5 players): 1st: ROSS, Nicholas 7k.

GO INSTALLATION AT QUEENS MUSEUM: GO ECO, an interactive video installation, is now at the Queens Museum of Art through May 27. Lillian Ball's installation "illuminates the different perspectives of several participants involved in a wetland preservation project," metaphorically based on go "which uses strategies to capture territory through balancing tactics. GO ECO also functions as an informational 'serious game' installation of video vignettes." Digitally manipulated images with sound are projected in quadrants on the screen to lead players through to the next move, the final outcome of the game is determined by the teamwork of players making their way toward a solution that enables all sides to win or to lose together. "GO ECO allows players of many ages to be empowered and to learn about the issues through an art experience that maps paths of action. Click here for details. If you go and want to review this for the EJ, email us at journal@usgo.org

EJ READERSHIP TOPS 10,000: The American Go E-Journal has just achieved a major milestone, with over 10,000 readers worldwide. Coming up on its 7th anniversary, the EJ readership continues to grow steadily as the publication expands in both content and style, recently moving to an all-HTML format. This week regular EJ contributor Yilun Yang 7P begins a brand-new problem series, this one focusing on the endgame (sample at right; see attached files). We hope you enjoy these elegant problems; click here to get the weekly game commentaries in Friday's Member's Edition. Last but not least, a very special welcome this week to our new readers in Turkey, members of the Turkey Go Association, led by President Aylin Demir.

GO PHOTOS: Brilliancy Award & Hawaii Cherry Blossom Fest

High school junior Hoan Ngo (left) receives a luxurious go set as the prize for the "brilliancy award" at the March 11 Bay Area Math Olympiad Awards Ceremony at UC Berkeley.
- Lawrence Ku, West Coast EJ Correspondent
At the go booth run by the Hawaii Go Club at the March 10 Cherry Blossom Festival at the Japanese Cultural Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Photo at right by Xiao Feng

Got go photos? Email them to us at journal@usgo.org! Be sure to include the event, date and any other relevant info, including the photographers name.

LEE MINJIN SWEEPS 5 IN JEONGGANJANG: Lee Minjin 5P of Korea defeated five opponents in a row to save the day for the Koreans in the women's Jeongganjang team tournament. When Lee (right) defeated Japan's Kato Keiko 5P to end the second stage, she was the last member of the Korean team, while both the Japanese and the Chinese teams had two players left, so it seemed unlikely that Korea would win the title this year. In a performance reminiscent of Lee Changho 9P's "iron door" defenses in the men's international team event, the Nongshim Cup, Lee defeated Li Chunhua 4P of China by 1.5 points, Konishi Kazuko 8P of Japan by resignation, Ye Gui 5P of China by 9.5 points, and finally Yashiro Kumiko 5P of Japan by 6.5. It was Korean's third win of this event. The Chinese have won it twice.

RUI NAIWEI WINS FIFTH WOMEN'S KUKSU: Rui Naiwei 9P (left) defeated Cho Hyeyeon 7P 2-0 to win the Korean Women's Kuksu for the fifth time. Rui and Cho have met in the Women's Kuksu title match five times, with Cho winning only once, although Cho has taken the title twice. Rui continues to hold all three women's titles in Korea.

CHO CHIKUN NOTCHES 70TH TITLE WITH NHK WIN: Cho Chikun 9P (right) won his 70th title by defeating Yuki Satoshi 9P to win the fast play NHK Cup, extending his record for the most titles won by a Japanese pro.

YUN JUNSANG DEFEATS LEE CHANGHO TO TAKE KUKSU: Yun Junsang 4P (below left) defeated Lee Changho 9P 3-1 to win the 50th Kuksu title in Korea. Not yet twenty, this is Yun's first title, and another sign of the increasing power of the next generation of Korean pros. Lee has held this title nine times, starting in 1990, and he still holds three Korean titles as well as the international Chunlan Cup.

DK KIM TOPS IRISH OPEN: DK Kim 2d of Korea took first place on tie breaks in the Irish Open. Roman Pszonka 3d of Poland was second, and Milan Jadron 1d of Slovakia third. All three won four of their five games. Noel Mitchell 2d of Dublin took fourth place. Only two players won five games: Julio Martinez 5k of Spain and Patrik Macek 8k of Slovakia. The 18th edition of this event, held in Dublin, set an attendance record with 47 participants from 15 countries.

YOUTH GO: USYGC Profiles: Hugh Zhang 2d
Latest in the E-Journal's ongoing profiles of top contenders in the US Youth Go Championships.
    Last week we profiled the senior division players in the upcoming USYGC qualifier in San Francisco. This week we have a bio from Palo Alto's own Hugh Zhang (right), who will be turning 10 in April. At 2 Dan and rising he has a good shot in the junior division, but young Christopher Kiguchi is coming up from San Diego for another try after placing second in Orange County to Calvin Sun. One can't help but be inspired by the fighting spirit of these youngsters.
    "I learned how to play go at age 5 when I went to my friend Jenny's house," Zhang tells the E-Journal. "She had many trophies and I liked them so I soon started playing go. After the first few months, I didn't like go anymore because all I got to learn was life and death problems and josekis. I still went to tournaments, but I lost all of them. Then, I met Yeejay, a student of Joey Hung 8d. His father recommended me to Joey and I decided to try go one more time. I studied with Joey until I was about 2k. Then I started to take lessons from Mingjiu Jiang 7P again. About a year ago Joey's school closed down. I had just lost the Redmond Cup and was about to quit again when I remembered that when I quit piano, I was sorry to do so in order to keep my go on track. If I quit now, my piano quitting efforts were wasted. So, I studied with Mingjiu until now which I'm still doing. Other than violin, my favorite other hobbies are almost all sports. I take basketball at the YMCA and play it every day at school, I sometimes swim at the YMCA and I used to take soccer classes from SoccerMania."
- reported by Paul Barchilon, E-Journal Youth Editor

ANDY LIU AT THE NEW YORK GO CENTER: A Great Lecture From A New Champion
By Roy Laird
    Andy Liu, who will represent the US at the World Amateur Go Championship in Tokyo in May, is a gentle, soft-spoken sophomore at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Here at The New York Go Center we were thrilled when he appeared yesterday in our "Master Player" lecture series. Only those who braved New York's biggest snowstorm this season know what the others missed -- the first public lecture by a new champion who is also a great teacher.
    Andy (at right in photo) arrived early with his parents, Linda Tan and Daniel Liu, who looked on proudly while he gave his first-ever public lecture to twenty or so members and guests. I chatted with Ms. Tan and Mr. Liu before the event. ("In China, the woman keeps her family name," Ms. Tan explained.) The family moved to the US in 1992 when Andy was three years old. He began learning the game at age eight, studying with Chen-dao Lin and Tao Jin-tay at the Chia Weiqi Society in Queens. By age eleven he was able to win the junior division of the Redmond Cup, but was not yet a citizen and so could not yet represent the US in international play at the World Youth Championship. Citizenship came in 2004, and last year he finally came into his own, winning the US Open and coming second in the Fujitsu Qualifying Tournament. Although only rated #5 at present (at 8.7), his recent results have included wins against top-rated Mingjiu Jiang, a 7D Chinese professional.
    A true home-grown champion, Andy has never studied go abroad, although he does take two-hour online lessons from a Chinese pro twice each month. He credits the recent jump in his strength largely to playing online at eweiqi.com, a Chinese site where he has earned a 9D rank and often plays professionals.
    Andy had prepared two of his biggest games in the past year for the lecture; his loss to Jie Li (AGA 9.3) in the final round of the North American Fujitsu Championship, and his victory over Zhaonian (Michael) Chen, winning the right to play for the US in the World Amateur Championship in May. (The games will be broadcast live from Tokyo on KGS -- don't miss them!) Knowing that the audience was mostly kyu level, Andy paid close attention to questions. He had planned out a few "whither next move" break points in each game, where he asked for suggestions; after concluding analysis of that game, he then reviewed those positions again. The result was a clear, simple bite that a kyu player could digest, along with sequences that left dan players dazed with astonishment. He said he'd come back, and we hope he will.
    The original version of this report ran in the New York Go Center's email newsletter; subscribe free at nygc@usgo.org Photo by Roy Laird

GO CALENDAR
Click here for complete listing

This weekend:
March 23-25: Ann Arbor, MI
James Kerwin Workshop
Eric Jankowski erjank@umich.edu 734.417.5547

March 24-25: San Francisco, CA
SF Go Club Spring tournament and World Youth Go Championship qualifier
Steve Burrall sburrall@comcast.net 916.688.2858

March 24: Raleigh, NC
Spring Fuseki
Owen Chen Owen.Chen@sas.com 919.531.9234

March 24: Syracuse, NY
6th Semi-Annual Syracuse Go Tournament
Richard Moseson mosesons@earthlink.net 315.682.7720

March 25: Sunnyvale, CA
11th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament
Mingjiu Jiang mingjiu7p@hotmail.com 650.969.2857
Joe Lee 408.255.5117

Coming up: March 31: Arlington, VA; April 1: Ames, IA; April 1: College Park, MD; April 1: New York, NY; April 7: Chicago, IL; April 7: Baltimore, MD; April 14-15: Philadelphia, PA

GO CLASSIFIED
Locate go clubs worldwide

PLAYERS WANTED: Chicago, IL: Looking for go players in West Chicago. Email mrnda@peoplepc.com (3/19)

BOOK SWAP: Looking to trade my mint condition copy of "The Breakthrough to Shodan" by Naoki Miyamoto, 9-Dan, translated by James Davies, The Ishi Press for a copy of "Strategic Principles of Go" by Yoshiaki Nagahara. Contact Richard at flateyjarbok1066@gmail.com (3/19)

PLAYERS WANTED: Bemidji, MN. Seeking go players in this area; I have been playing go for a little less than one year, and am tired of only playing online. If there is anyone interested (new or experienced), please contact me at aboatman26@yahoo.com (3/13)

FOR SALE: "The Breakthrough to Shodan" by Naoki Miyamoto, 9-Dan, translated by James Davies, The Ishi Press, 1976. Hard-to-find work is based on a series of 10 articles on 3- and 4-stone handicap play that Miyamoto wrote for the Igo Shincho in 1973 and 1974. $95 or best offer plus postage. Contact Andy at abc@glowwormpub.com (3/12)

PLAYERS WANTED: Monument, CO: Anyone in the area of Monument, Colorado willing to start a go club, or just someone to play against. Also anyone who has any ideas on where to host a go club. Please contact go_player_137@yahoo.com (2/26)

WANTED: Go-playing Chinese-speaking English-speaking China Guide. I am looking for one person who will travel through China with me, exploring China and playing go. I will pay expenses but no salary. Please email peterchristopher@yahoo.com (2/26)

FOR SALE: 6 go books, all in great condition. Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go,Volumes 1-5, and Elementary Go Series Vol.2, 38 Basic Joseki. Retails ~$90, sellingfor $50. Email at jmarti71@uiuc.edu (2/26)

SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 10,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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