April 14, 2008; Volume 9, #17

U.S. FUJITSU REP OUT IN FIRST ROUND: Mingjiu Jiang (l) 7P, the US representative to the 21st Fujitsu Cup, was defeated by Japan's Kono Rin 9P in the first round of the oldest of the current international professional tournaments. The other representatives from outside Asia were also eliminated in the first round. Europe's Alexandre Dinerchtein 3P lost to Kong Jie 7P of China, and South American's Edualdo Lopez 6d was beaten by Japan's O Rissei 9P. The Taiwanese rep, Zhou Junxun 9P, who won the international LG Cup last year, lost to Iyama Yuta 9P of Japan by 1.5 points. The sixteen players in the second round include six Japanese representatives, four for China, and six representing Korea. The Korean team includes Lee Sedol 9P, Lee Changho 9P, and Park Yeonghun 9P, who won the Fujitsu last year. The strong group of well-known Japanese reps include Takao Shinjj 9P, Yamashita Keigo 9P, O Rissei 9P, Kono Rin 9P, Yoda Norimoto 9P, and Iyama Yuta 7P. Best known among the Chinese are Gu Li 9P, Chang Hao 9P, and Kong Jie 7P. The second round takes place in Tokyo on Monday, April 14th.

ERIC LUI CONTINUES EAST COAST SWEEP: Eric Lui (r) 8d, who's been on a streak of East Coast tournament wins lately, racked up another victory with a 4-0 sweep of the UMBC Tournament ON April 12. Lui topped a field of thirty, winning $400, plus "a t-shirt and some pizza" reports organizer Todd Blatt. Tied for second were Jie Liang, and Yuan Zhou, with 3-1 records. Patrick Allen and Andrew Hubbard tied at 3-1 to top the 3 dan - 2 kyu section, and Khalsa Gurujeet took first in the bottom section with a 4-0 record, while Jim Pickett (3-1) took second.

AGA BOARD SELECTS ABRAMSON AS NEW PREZ, OKAYS CONGRESS POLICY: Allan Abramson was selected to be President of the American Go Association (AGA) by the Board of Directors at their April 6 meeting. Abramson will succeed current President Michael Lash when his term ends in August. A long-time organizer in the Washington DC area, Abramson served as Chair of the AGA Board from 2003-2005 and is the current AGA Pair Go Coordinator. "Abramson brings to the job a wealth of experience and an ambitious vision," Chair Roy Laird told the EJ, adding that "the Board passed a unanimous resolution supporting Allan as incoming President." Abramson thanked the Board for its confidence in him and told the EJ that "The AGA's continued growth, and the creativity of our many volunteers, offers us great opportunities." One such opportunity could be a goal to reach 10,000 members "as soon as possible," Abramson added, "Not so impossible, if every member recruited one new member each year for two years." In other business, the Board approved a brief memorandum of understanding (MOU) for that addresses basic U.S. Go Congress management issues. "The scale and demands of the AGA's Go Congress has grown tremendously in terms of financial management, tournament coordination and membership satisfaction," President Michael Lash told the EJ. "Naturally, the complexity of managing this amazing event has grown as well. This new policy will greatly improve prospective Congress Directors understanding of the essential and common issues so they can plan accordingly." Photo: Allan Abramson (r) playing with old friend Horst Sudhoff from Germany at the 2006 U.S. Go Congress, photo by Chris Garlock.

WMSG FUND NEARS $10K: The AGA's fundraising effort to send a team to the First World Mind Sport Games in Beijing this October is nearing the five-figure level, reports coordinator Roy Laird, "with sixteen generous go lovers giving a total of $9,500 so far." The AGA plans to send a full team of 22 players and two coaches to the historic event, two weeks of mental competition as a new part of the Olympic movement. Eligible players win points according to a formula; to see the current standings of players who are competing to join the team, click here. "Be on the lookout for our letter requesting support," Laird told the EJ, "we hope you will be kind! It's tax-deductible and all funds will be used to support our team. Room and board for the entire event are provided by the hosts, so all we have to do our team to the site, at an estimated cost of $35,000. With your help we will achieve this goal!"

KALAMAZOO HOSTS ING-FUNDED PRO WORKSHOP: An upcoming pro workshop hosted by the Kalamazoo Go Club is made possible by a grant from the ING Foundation, reports AGA President Michael Lash. "As part of its annual effort to support the AGA, the ING Foundation provided a generous grant of $6,000 for improving the quality of go and go teaching for American players," Lash says. The AGA's focus of the "Ing Foundation Professional Teaching Program" is to bring US professionals to U.S. players directly to advance the sharing of their knowledge. The first workshop of the year, hosted by the Kalamazoo Go Club in Portage, Michigan, is limited to 16 participants and is expected to fill up quickly. Contact Jason Preuss at preuss@upjohninstitute.org for details.

CORRECTIONS & UPDATES
- NEWTON NOT NEWPORT: The April 19-20 USYGC Qualifier will be held in Newton, MA, not Newport, MA, as previously reported. We apologize for the error.
- SMART JOGGLING: SmartGo creator Anders Kierulf (l) turns out to also be a joggler, which is exactly what it sounds like: someone who juggles while jogging. Click here for a December 2007 profile on KUTV Channel 2 in Salt Lake City, UT. Thanks to Phil Straus for the tip.
- MORE ON MOGO WIN: For another report on the recent MoGo 9x9 win over Catalin Taranu 5d check out Supercomputer Beats Go Master in HPC Wire. Thanks to Jean DeMaiffe for the tip.

LEE YONG-HEE WORLD STUDENT CHAMP: Lee Yong-Hee of Korea won the World Student Oza Championships, held February 29-March 3 in Tokyo. U.S. rep Eric Lui finished 12th out of sixteen representatives in the sixth annual event. Another Korean, a Chinese and two of the Japanese took the other top places. Lui lost to Murakami Fukashi (Japan) in the first round, defeated Martin Jurek (Czech) in the 2nd and then lost to Cui Chao (China) and An Hang (China) in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Best of the three European players was Martin Jurek from Czechia in 11th place, Manuela Marz from Germany (16th) and Joan Alemany from Spain (13th).
- Reported by the British Go News and NeoNemesis who tracked down the results with the help of xyh1969 and posted the full tourney results on GoDiscussions.com

GU LI WINS 7TH CHINESE TIANYUAN: Gu Li (r) 9P defeated Zhou Heyang 9P on April 8th to win the Tianyuan (Japanese: Tengen) title match 2-1 and extend his hold on this title to a seventh straight year. At the top of his game these days, Gu holds two international titles, the Chunlan and the China-Korea Tengen. He also currently holds four national titles: Mingren (which he has held for four years now), Tianyuan, Chang-ki Cup, and the NEC Cup. Zhou has won several titles also, most recently the Chang-ki Cup in 2006.

KOVALEVA/SURIN WIN EURO PAIR GO TOURNEY: The Russian team of N. Kovaleva and D. Surin have won the European Pair Go Championship, played April 11-13 in Cracow, Poland. Thirty pairs from 15 European countries participated at the 11th annual competition. Click here for complete results.

FOREIGN PLAYERS DOMINATE NEW IRISH TOURNAMENT: Lukasz Blek 1k won the first Galway Go Tournament on April 5th in Ireland. There is now a tournament in each of the country's provinces, evidence of a growing go scene in Ireland. Blek, originally from Poland, topped eighteen players at the inaugural event, while second place was taken by local Romanian Daniel Paraschiv 1k and third place went to Julien Renauld 2k of France. Click here available at for full results.
- reported by Ian Davis

T MARK HALL TOPS BRITISH GO CONGRESS: T Mark Hall 4d of Bristol took first place at the British Go Congress with a 5-1 record. Fifty players took part in the six-round tournament in Hastings on April 5th and 6th. No one went undefeated, and there were only two other five-game winners, Paul William Smith 8k of Hastings and Milos Podpera 11k from Prague. Hall also won the British Lightning on the Friday night before the main event.

CALENDAR: West Newton, Ann Arbor, Somerville & Pittsburgh
- April 19-20: West Newton, MA: The Second GBCCA Youth Go Tournament
(Second US Youth Go Championship Qualifier) Ke Lu go.boston@yahoo.com 617.969.1959
- April 19: Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Spring Tournament
Jonathan Hop hopj@umich.edu 248.508.7973
- April 20: Somerville, MA: Massachusetts Go Association Handicap Tournament Su Co Marjorie E. Hey sucoplaysgo@yahoo.com 781.475.6603
- April 20: Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh Spring Tournament Kim Salamony gophantom@gmail.com 412.653.7736

GO QUIZ: NJO & The Big 5-0
     Last week's question was which tournament is the oldest in the U.S. and those of you who said the New Jersey Open were correct: the venerable tournament is about to celebrate its 50th next year. A couple of you gave the nod to San Francisco, certainly one of the country's oldest clubs, but I am unaware of any consistent AGA tournament that stretches back into the past from that wonderful club. A more interesting choice by a few of you was the U.S. Open, given that the first New Jersey Open was in 1960, while the great Matsuda became U.S. Champion -- for the first of many times -- in 1959. However, Matsuda's '59 championship was by appointment, and for several years the US Champion was determined in a variety of ways, including challenge match, or by appointment of the effective Eastern Champion. In 1968 a play-off between East and West was organized, and it wasn't until 1978 that there a unified Labor Day dual Eastern and Western Championship system developed to choose the candidates. The U.S. Open is a national tournament held every year now at the annual U.S. Congress, which draws one of the biggest fields of the year. Congrats to Reinhold Burger, this week's winner, drawn at random from those answering correctly. THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: The U.S. Open as we know it today is not even as old as the U.S. Go Congress, which will be held for the 24th time this summer in Portland, OR.
     Originally, the Congress held a "Congress Championship" during the week, followed by a weekend Eastern or Western Championship depending on where the Congress was held. What year was the first U.S. Open held at a Go Congress: 1990, 1991, 1992 or 1993? Click here to vote. Photo: At the 2008 New Jersey Open, photo by Rick Mott

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Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
Professionals: Yilun Yang 7P; Alexandr Dinerchtein 3P; Fan Hui 2P
Contributors: Paul Barchilon (Youth Editor); Lawrence Ku (U.S. West Coast Reporter); Brian Allen (U.S. West Coast Photo Editor); Peter Dijekma (Dutch/European Correspondent); Marilena Bara (Romania/European Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Ziejst; Roy Laird
Translations: Chris Donner (Japan); Bob McGuigan (Japan); Matt Luce (China)

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