World Go News from the American Go Association
April 16, 2007
Volume 8, #32
JIE LI LOSES TO YODA IN
FUJITSU
YOUTH QUALIFIERS WRAP UP
HAN WINS CHI TOURNEY
ROCKVILLE EDGES DC CLUB
AGAIN
MINJIU JIANG &
HUIREN YANG CONFIRMED FOR CONGRESS
YODA NORIMOTO TO
CHALLENGE FOR HONINBO
WON SUNGJIN TAKES FIRST
GAME IN BC CARD CUP FINALS
YAMASHITA AVOIDS SHUT-OUT
IN JUDAN
1ST ANNUAL N.A. KGS SCHOOL
TOURNAMENT
FREE, EASY-TO-USE
PAIRING SOFTWARE NOW AVAILABLE
CAN'T STOP THE MONKEY
JUMP: A Beginner Studies Life and Death
GO CALENDAR
GO CLASSIFIED
JIE
LI LOSES TO YODA IN FUJITSU: Jie Li 9d, the North
American 
representative
to the 20th international Fujitsu Cup, lost to Japan's Yoda Norimoto 9P
by 11.5 points (taking white) in the first round, played in Tokyo on
Saturday. The European rep, Svetlana Shikshina 1P from Russia, lost to
Yokota Shigeaki 9P, while the South American rep, Fernando Aguilar 6d
of Argentina, lost to Nakamura Shinya 8P. Zhou Junxun 9P, the Taiwanese
rep who recently won the international LG Cup, lost to Cho U 9P,
leaving the contest after the first round to the representatives of the
big three: China, Japan, and Korea. Korean pros have won this Cup the
last nine times in a row. The Li-Yoda game record is attached.
YOUTH
QUALIFIERS WRAP UP: 12-year-old Ricky Zhao won the
Senior Division and 9-year old Sudhir Vel won the Junior Division at
the Philadelphia US Youth Go Championship (USYGC) Qualifier on
Saturday, April 14 at the University of Pennsylvania. Cory Rim, 17,
placed as the alternate. At the April
14-15 Boulder, CO Qualifier, 12-year-old Kellin Pelrine 3.6d defeated
Jessica Lin 3k to win the Senior
Division (playing
the final round in high championship style on a traditional floor board
in photo at top right) while 9-year-old Matthew Harwit 10k
beat his twin brother Nathan to win the Junior Division. "I'm really
jazzed to win the tournament," Pelrine told the E-Journal, "and I want
to go to the Nationals no matter what!" In the A
division of the handicap event, Yaphet Tewahade 9k, took first place,
while Katherine Lin, 4k took second. For the B Division,
Ian Tenney 20k, won 4 out of 5 games to take first place, while Amara
Sailing 19k, took second place with three wins to her credit. The
tournament itself scored the biggest prize of all, winning front-page
coverage in The Daily Camera (circulation 87,000), with a feature
story, three photos on the front page, and four more online. Read it
online
In Chicago, 13-year-old Will Zhou 6d (pictured at right)
took top honors in the Senior Division, while James Pan, also 13,
placed second (see below for full report). In the Junior Division 11
year old Daniel Pai, 29k, beat out 10 year old Arthur Li, 28k. TD Bob
Barber reports that all four of the top slot winners were students of
their local pro, Huang Liping. Thirteen kids came out to compete at the
event, which was held on April 7th at the Evanston Go Club. The USYGC
finals will be held May 26th and 27th in Seattle, WA.
- reported by Paul Barchilon, E-Journal Youth Editor, with
additional reporting by Peter Nassar (Philadelphia) and Bob Barber
(Chicago). photos:
top right by Mark Rubenstein; above right by Paul Barchilon
HAN WINS CHI TOURNEY: Changyu Han 2d took first place
in the April 7 Chicago Spring Tournament. In the Youth Qualifier, Will
Zhou 6d won the Senior Section, while Daniel Pai 29k won the Junior
Section. "As a special treat," reports TD Bob Barber, "many got to play
teaching games with Yongji Huang, father of Liping Huang, and former
Champion of China. 23 players participated.
WINNER'S REPORT:
1st (Dan): HAN, Changyu 2d; 1st (Low Kyu): KOLB, Laura 2k &
KURZ, Steffen 3k (tie); 1st (Mid Kyu): INWOOD, Matt 14k. Youth
Qualifier Senior Section (10 players): 1st: ZHOU, Will 6d, 13 years
old; 2nd: PAN, James 20k, 12 years old. Junior Section (3 players):
1st: PAI, Daniel 29k, 11 years old; 2nd: LI, Arthur 28k, 10 years old.
TDs: Bob Barber, Bob Schattke
ROCKVILLE
EDGES DC CLUB AGAIN: Rockville notched a second
consecutive win over the Greater Washington Go Club (GWGC) Friday night
in their ongoing team match. "Perhaps Friday the 13th affected us, but
we nevertheless went down 4 to 3," reports GWGC organizer Haskell
Small, who relinquished possession of the match's ceremonial fan. "It
was a tightly contested match," said Small. "Next month I am determined
that GWGC will regain possession of the title and the grand trophy or I
will shave the top of my head…well, that's already
accomplished."
Match Report: Juan
Pablo (RV) defeated Hal Small; Ken Koester (GWGC) defeated Todd
Heidenreich; Gao (RV) defeated Max Peterson; Chen (RV) defeated Gene
Fellner; Craig Anderson (RV) defeated Ben Ontiveros; Marian Edy (GWGC)
defeated Craig Anderson; Max Peterson (GWGC) defeated Chen.
MINJIU
JIANG & HUIREN YANG CONFIRMED FOR CONGRESS: More
than half 
of
the professional go players now living in the US will be attending the
2007 Congress in Lancaster, PA. "We've received confirmation that two
more American pros - Mingjiu Jiang 7P and Huiren Yang 1P - will be
attending the Congress," reports Congress Co-Director Peter Nassar,
"bringing the attendance of the US pros up to five." Mingjiu Jiang is
the co-author of "Punishing & Correcting Joseki Mistakes" (with
Adam Miller) and "All About Joseki" (with Guo Juan). He is also the
chief instructor for the 2007 AGA Summer Go Camp - West. Huiren Yang is
the club professional for the Massachusetts Go Club, and author of the
books "Cosmic Go" and "Galactic Go," with Sangit Chatterjee. "Both are
highly-experienced teachers and experts at game analyses, so register
today for the 2007 Congress to secure your spot!" Nassar urges. "Register
before June 1 and save $100 off the registration."
YODA
NORIMOTO TO CHALLENGE FOR HONINBO: Yoda N
orimoto 9P
(below) has won the right to challenge Takao Shinji 9P for the latter's
Honinbo title. Norimoto's 34 career titles put him in the top ranks of
Japanese pros; he's been Meijin, Gosei, Judan, and more, and challenged
for the Honinbo in 2004. He became a professional in 1980, and reached
9 dan in 1993. Yoda holds no titles at the moment, losing the Gosei,
which he had held for three consecutive years, to Cho U 9P last year.
Takao now holds both the Honinbo and the Meijin titles; he's hoping for
a threepeat in the Honinbo, which he took from Cho U 9P in 2005.
WON
SUNGJIN TAKES FIRST GAME IN BC CARD CUP FINALS: In the
best-of-three-game finals of the Korean young pros' BC Card Cup, Won
Sungjin 7P has defeated Paek Hongsuk 5P in the first game. Won is in
his early twenties. As a teenager he twice made it into the
international LG Cup, reaching the semifinals in 2002 and the quarter
finals in 2003. He was also the runner-up in the Korean Chunwon in
2003, losing the finals to Choi Cheolhan 9P. In 2006, Paek, who is just
twenty, won the Korean SK Gas Cup and reached the quarter finals of the
international Samsung Cup.
YAMASHITA
AVOIDS SHUT-OUT IN JUDAN: Yamashita Keigo 9P won the
third game in his challenge for Cho Chikun's Judan title to make the
score 2-1 in favor of Cho. Yamashita was the challenger last year as
well, and won the third game in that match, too, only to go down to
defeat in the end 1-3. Cho, who also won the recent fast play NHK Cup,
is going for a threepeat in the defense of this title that he took from
O Rissei 9P in 2005. If he wins, this will be the 71st title win for
Cho, who is in his fifties and has won more titles than any other pro
in history.
1ST
ANNUAL N.A. KGS SCHOOL TOURNAMENT: Students from
elementary school through college will be able to compete in a
Hikaru-style team tournament this fall on KGS, reports Tournament
Director Dave Weiss.Three players from a school can form a team and
compete in the appropriate division. Home schooled kids can also form
teams with other home schooled kids. "Registration will be in
September," Weiss tells the EJ, "so now is a good time to teach your
schoolmates how to play if you do not have three go players at your
school." Click
here for more information
FREE,
EASY-TO-USE PAIRING SOFTWARE NOW AVAILABLE: Tournament 
Directors
looking easy-to-use pairing software have a new option, reports Chris
Sira. His PyTD pairing program "doesn't require much TD'ing know-how to
get an event up and running," says Sira, "and has just about everything
the average TD needs." PyTD allows users to pair rounds automatically
or by hand, tie-break by whichever fields the TD prefers -- and in any
order - as well as "generating several different reports and forms with
just a few clicks, registering new players and updating old membership
information, searching the TD list, etc." And, adds Sira, "It's free!"
Sira has worked closely with WinTD creator Chuck Robbins, who has
already used it several times to run events. "It shares a lot of
features with WinTD," notes Sira, "registration, pairing, and reporting
resources, for example. But it isn't built on Access, so the user
interface isn't held back by Microsoft widgets." Click
here to check out screenshots and download. Questions or
comments can be emailed to Sira at cbsira@gmail.com.
CAN'T
STOP THE MONKEY JUMP: A Beginner Studies Life and Death
by Motoko Arai
When a complete beginner studies go,
"study masters' games" is tough advice - I've said this many times
already. Similarly, when a complete beginner studies go, "study life
and death" is just as tough. That's what I plan to write about next.
But... I don't want to write it. Which
is to say... where I am now, having played go for three years, I have
fallen in love with life and death problems. At first it was tough, and
our relationship began with a lot of harsh words. You might even say we
did nothing but quarrel.
But gradually, little by little, we grew
to like each other. Now, if I say all those bad things from the early
days again, I'll feel pretty small.
Ah, this is like some twisted love
story. You know the type: the lovers don't like each other at all at
first, right? Then, gradually that first intense dislike fades. As they
get to know each other, a slight attraction develops. It's a common
pattern, right? Okay, so I don't really want to make life and death
problems into some kind of love story. Not really. But still...
If I think back to when I really was an
absolute beginner, I just didn't understand the reason for studying
life and death. At that time, I only knew the very basic rules of Go:
whoever has more territory wins; if you don't have two eyes you die. If
you don't know anymore than these basic rules, unraveling life and
death problems is really tough.
The first life and death book I bought
was the Nihon Kiin's /180 Easy Life and Death Problems/. Yes, that's
the same Nihon Kiin that publishes the "Go Weekly" newspaper that I'm
writing this column for, so I'd better write something nice.
When I look back on it now, that book
was a terrible choice. Without a doubt, this was not a book for
beginners. (But, it wasn't the book's fault, was it? If you read to the
end of this column, you'll see that I don't think that was a bad book.
It just definitely wasn't suited for a beginner.)
Okay, so about this book. In the
beginning, there were articles like "The way of life and death" and
"The four-four points in the corner." I mean, at the time these didn't
seem like articles for a beginner. So, I thought, what if I skip these
articles. The next part was, life and death problems.
Problem #1: "Black's turn. First, a
warm-up. In the corner, perhaps there's a shape that if it allows
itself to be captured, can then kill." This was the first problem! What
kind of problem was it? I couldn't even get that far! (to be continued)
Motoko Arai is an award-winning science fiction author in
Japan. Translated by Chris Donner for the E-Journal from the 12/11/06
Nihon Kiin's Go Weekly.
GO
CALENDAR
Click
here for complete listing
April 22: Menlo Park, CA
4th
California High School Goe Team Tournament
Mingjiu Jiang mingjiu7p@hotmail.com 650.969.2857
April 22: Somerville, MA
MGA
Spring Handicap Tournament
Zack Grossbart zack@massgo.org 617.497.1232
April 24: Rosh HaAyin, IL
Mind
- Independence Day Tournament
Youth oriented, 4 rounds
Shavit Fragman info@go-mind.com +972.54.4500.453
GO
CLASSIFIED
Locate
go clubs worldwide
PLAYERS WANTED: Anyone in the southern Salt Lake, Utah area that wants
to set up a club, middle-schoolers wanted most. Email
thewriteheart@gmail.com (4/16)
PLAYERS WANTED: Ft. Myers, FL area. Seeking players to form go club for
regular play and/or starting school go clubs with regular classes and
tournaments. If interested call Kent at 239-222-3625. email address
kent1956_go@yahoo.com. I presently play with the Sarasota Go club, but
would like to advance the game in my own area. (4/2)
WANTED: Copy of "Beyond Forcing Moves" by Takagi Shoichi. Prefer mint or
clean but will consider all offers. Email chiyodad@gmail.com (4/2)
PLAYERS WANTED: Chicago, IL: Looking for go players in West Chicago.
Email mrnda@peoplepc.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)
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 10,000 go-players worldwide!
Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at
journal@usgo.org
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