April 21, 2008; Volume 9, #18

ZHAO & LIN WIN BOSTON YOUTH QUALIFIER: Zhongxia (Ricky) Zhao (r) 6d and Maverick Lin 4d won their divisions in the Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association (GBCCA) Youth Go Tournament, held April 18-19 in Newton, MA. Zhao, 13, topped a Senior Division of five participants by beating Lionel Zhang 6d, while 11-year-old Lin easily won the Junior Division, which had four participants. In the senior bracket, 13-year-old 6-dan Lionel Zhang put up a stiff fight, losing only to Zhao. Andrew Wang took third place and spirited newcomer Tom Bahun placed fourth. "It was a lot of fun," Bahun told the E-Journal, "I made three great new friends, and we will be studying and playing together online until we see each other at the US Go Congress." Seven-year-old Barbara Huang came in second in the Junior Division, defeating both her older sister and the higher-ranked 11-year-old, Ben Zheng, who placed third while Joanne Huang, 8, was fourth. The second annual GBCCA event was also a U.S. Youth Go Championship (USYGC) Qualifier. Daren Huang won the 13x13 6-player division. The tournament was directed by Boston area organizer Ke Lu. Click here for Senior Division results, here for Junior Division results and here for photos. Next week the USYGC swings south to Fort Myer's, Florida, where Lexington Middle School math teacher Joshua Frye will host the tournament at his school.
- Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor; photo: Zhao (l) plays Andrew Wang, photo by Ke Leu

GUAN TOPS PITTSBURGH TOURNEY: Qi Guan 4d was the top winner at the Pittsburgh Spring Tournament on April 20, which drew 15 players ranging in strength from 16 kyu to 4 dan. Tournament Director Dave Warzinski, and Tournament Organizer Kim Salamony ran all four rounds with their new web-based tournament program, WebTD. Guan and Colburn won their divisions with 4-0 records, while Clark won his division with a record of 3-1, losing only to Colburn. "Special thanks goes to Clark who donated his winnings back to the club," says Salamony. Winners: Dan Division: 1st: Qi Guan 4d, 2nd: John Moore 1d; 2k-5k Section: 1st: Steve Colburn 5k, 2nd: Jonathan Gross 2k; 8k-16k Section: 1st: Clark 13k, 2nd: George Rosenberg 8k.

CHANG WINS UT WILDFLOWER CLASSIC: Kevin Chang 4k won the UT Wildflower Classic, held April 14 in Austin, TX. Seventeen players "braved the navigation hazards - parking was closed -- to enjoy a day playing go," reports Tournament Director Michael Heinich. Burton Pierson organized this first University of Texas tournament. Chang won with the only perfect score of 4-0 and was also the top single-digit kyu player. Nick Sibicky 2d was the top dan player at 3-1 and newcomer Chris Hamons 15k bested the other double-digit kyus with his 3-1 result. Photo by Tracy Su; click here for an album of Su's tourney photos.

SHORT TOPS ROCHESTER TOURNEY: Dan Short and Justin Kramer upset established strong players Greg Rosenblatt and Phil Waldron to top a 34-player field in the April 5 Rochester tournament. Results: Dan section (10 players, 1d-6d): 1st: Daniel Short; 2nd: Justin Kramer; 3rd: Kei Kawabata. High Kyu Section (13 players, 4k-7k): 1st: Mike Rudnick; 2nd: Andrew McGowan; 3rd: John Dew. Low Kyu Section (11 players, 9k-20k): 1st: Peter Day; 2nd: Jed Strohm; 3rd: Molly Saweikis
- report/photo by Steve Colburn; click here for an album of tourney photos.

SUN & SHEN WIN IN ORANGE COUNTY: Calvin Sun 6d and Cherry Shen 6d defeated some of the nation's top youth to win their divisions in the Orange County U.S. Youth Go Championship (USYGC) qualifier, held April 12-13 in Irvine, CA. In the junior division, Eleven-year-old Christopher Kiguchi 5d defeated Andrew Lu 3d in a knockout round on April 12 and went on to face Calvin Sun 6d, also 11 years old, in a best-of-three final. Sun won the first round that afternoon, taking black in a territory-oriented game, and sealed his division win with a victory on white the next morning in a game with difficult problems in positional judgment. In the senior division, 15-year-old Cherry Shen 6d also swept 17-year-old Matthew Burrall 7d in a best-of-three match. The first match on the 12th featured lots of mid-game fighting in which "Several groups died," a wry Burrall told the E-Journal, "and unfortunately all of them were mine." Shen commented that "the first game was interesting, with time pressure shaking the outcome back and forth. We also played a stress reliever game afterwards, in which my group died in under 5 minutes." Shen took black in the second match the next morning, once again prevailing in a game with difficult center fighting. Kevin Chao directed the tournament. Shen would appear to be making her move this year, after very nearly taking the Redmond Cup last year, coming in second only to Landon Brownell. Earlier this month Shen defeated 5-dan Calvin Lee in the Ing School Team tournament, in which the Orange County Go Club is fronting a team that also includes Calvin Sun. With a ticket to the finals in New Jersey slated for Memorial Day weekend, Shen will be one to keep an eye on.
- reported by Steve Burrall, with Youth Editor Paul Barchilon; Photos: (above left) Christopher Kiguchi, left; Andrew Lu, right. Photo by Christine Yuan; (above right) Matthew Burrall 7d, left; Cherry Shen 6d, right. Photo by Mr. Sun.

GO PHOTOS: DC Sakura Matsuri
At the Washington, DC Sakura Matsuri festival (l) on April 12. In foreground: Yi Weng 18k (left) and Kaname Yunokawa 3d (right) teaching go to beginners. Photo by John Goon

ING DOUBLES THE FIELD: The field has been doubled at the North American Ing Championship, the invitational tournament played at the U.S. Go Congress. Thirty two players will be invited based on points received in any of 8 qualifying tournaments. Qualifying tournaments receive $500 to sweeten the prize pot. "We want these tournaments to be spread around the country, and we currently have bids for two in the East, and one in the West," reports Chris Kirschner AGA Executive Operations VP. "We also plan to have two Internet tournaments, limited to players rated 5.0 and above," Kirschner adds. Anyone wishing to direct either a regional or Internet event should email tournaments@usgo.org. Ing Championship qualifiers must be advertised at least 3 weeks ahead of time, and reported no later than July 15. If played and reported by June 1, these tournaments can be be qualifiers for both the U.S. WMSG team and the Ing Championship, though Kirschner notes "the points for each are calculated separately because the eligibility requirements are different."

ONLINE TOURNEY TO SELECT U.S. PAIR GO TEAM FOR WMSG: A knock-out tournament will be held online next month to select the American Go Association's team for the Pair Go competition at the World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) in Beijing in October. "We will select up to 16 pairs to compete in the tournament, based on AGA ratings," Pair Go Coordinator Allan Abramson says. The first two rounds will be on May 3 and 4, with the third round scheduled for May 11. If necessary, a fourth round will be held on May 18. Deadline for applications is midnight, April 29. Details are on the NOVA Go Club website or Email Abramson at allango@igc.org for complete eligibility requirements, tournament details and to apply. Photo: Pair Go at the '07 U.S. Open; photo by John Pinkerton

SUK B CHOI SPONSORS AMATEUR INVITATIONAL ON KGS: The KGS Suk B Choi Amateur Invitational 2008 will feature 16 of the strongest amateur players on KGS in a new tournament to be held in May, reports Tournament Director Akane Negishi. "The format is knockout and the players will review their games in public for all to enjoy," Negishi tells the EJ. The final will be a best-of-3 match. The event's big prizes are sponsored by Mr. Suk B. Choi (l). "I sponsored the tournament mainly to thank Bill Shubert, the creator of KGS, the most wonderful online Baduk site, and all administrators who volunteer to help the place in order," says Choi. "I also want to thank all people who have been my friends over the years," Choi adds. "I was crazy about Baduk at age 15, almost flunked school because of that, was banned from it by mother, then forgot about Baduk for over 38 years until I found KGS through the AGA E-Journal by accident" Choi says. Players from around the world - including 5 AGA members -- will participate in the tournament, which will take place over 2 months. The first round begins the week of May 5th.

JANICE KIM MAKES WPT LADIES FINAL: "I've been competing the past few days in Vegas and am now at the final table at the World Poker Tour Ladies Championship," reports Janice Kim 3P (left in photo), the American go pro, author and teacher. The Championship final table contest - which Kim entered fifth in chips with $32,900 - will be filmed on April 25th and will be broadcast August 18, Kim - who wrote the popular "Life in B-League" column for the EJ -- tells the E-Journal. "They will do an interview during part of the broadcast and I plan to talk up go. I think they have several million viewers so I just hope they don't edit out the go stuff. Wish me luck for the bracelet." Meanwhile, check out last Monday's WorldPokerTour.com interview with Kim online.

GO YOUNGSTERS PLAY FOR CANCER CURE: "When some of my kids heard about Relay for Life, a major fundraiser for cancer research, they asked if we could have a Go Club Relay for Life team," reports Oakdale elementary school teacher Vincent Eisman. "Our team will be teaching and playing go at the event for 24 hours on April 26-27. Our booth will be taking donations for go lessons, and selling raffle tickets for Japanese maples, and possibly a go set." Click here for details on supporting the Oakdale team. Despite a late start, the OGO team has already raised $745, well on the way to their goal of $1,200. The team will be mostly made up of kids from FOGO (l) - Fair Oaks Go Club - and OGO, a community go club made up of families who get together twice a month to play.
- Paul Barchilon; photo by Vincent Eisman.

TOP PLAYERS SET FOR WORLD AMATEURS: Players from 70 countries and territories will compete in the 29th annual World Amateur Go Championship, scheduled this year for May 29-31 in Tokyo, Japan. The American Go E-Journal will once provide full coverage of the 8-round tournament, posting daily updates on the web and in the EJ, including news, features, photos and game records live from the playing venue at the Nihon Ki-in. A new feature this year will be profiles of the WAGC players. This week we're pleased to introduce the players from Uruguay, Portugal and South Africa:

- URUGUAY: Martín Benenati Michelena 2d hails from Montevideo. The 23-year-old math professor has been playing for four years and won the Campeonato Uruguayo de GO in 2005 and 2007 and placed 2nd in the Torneo H.F. Long in 2008. Michelena's hobbies include programming, gardening, fishing and reading. His favorite thing about go is that "What I like best is to create, maybe that is why I am not so good."

- PORTUGAL: Cristovão Neto (r) 1d lives in Porto. The 31-year-old visual artist and teacher has been playing for 5 years and took first place in the Portuguese National Championship in October 2007. He became the President of the Portuguese Go Association in 2008. Hobbies include philosophy, physics, mathematics and cinema. Neto holds a Master of Fine Arts in Middlesex University, London and has exhibited in England, the United States, China and Portugal. His favorite thing about go is "Its phenomenology in respect to concepts of space and time. It easily evocates different and non-linear time experiences."

- SOUTH AFRICA: Konrad Scheffler (l) 2d lives in Cape Town. The 35-year-old computer scientist has been playing for 16 years, winning several local titles in the Cape Town area from 2003 to 2007. His hobbies include chess, bridge and backgammon and his favorite thing about go is that "it requires an ideal mixture of intuitive and analytical thinking."

YODA JAPAN'S LAST MAN STANDING: Yoda Norimoto (r) 9P is Japan's last hope for a Japanese victory in an international event.. Yoda is the only Japanese out of six to survive the second round of the 20th Fujitsu Cup, joining three Chinese representatives (Gu Li 9P, Chang Hao 9P, and Liu Xing 7P), and four Koreans (Lee Changho 9P, Lee Sedol 9P, Cho Hanseung 9P, and Park Yeonghun 9P--Park won last year) in the third round, which is scheduled for June 7th in Baejing, China. It was Yoda's stalwart play in 2006 that enabled the Japanese team to win the international Nongshim team match. The Koreans have won this event for the last ten years. The Japanese dominated the Fujitsu Cup in its initial editions, winning it the first five years, 1988-1992. The Chinese won once, in 1995, and Kobayashi Koichi 9P took it for the Japanese in 1997. At this point, the odds seem to favor another Korean triumph.

QIU JUN UPSETS GU LI IN RICOH CUP: Qiu Jun (l) 8P won the Chinese RICOH (Liguang) Cup last Saturday, pulling off an upset against Gu Li 9P. Gu is one of the top Chinese pros, having won many titles, including three so far in 2008: the NEC Cup, the Chang-Ki Cup, and the Tianyuan, the latter for the sixth consecutive time. He also won the international Chunlan Cup last year, and tops the current list of Chinese pros who have won the most games in 2008 with 16 wins and only 5 losses for a 76% winning rate. He also defeated last year's RICOH Cup winner, Hu Yaoyu 9P in the semifinals of this event. Qiu, who is in his twenties, has won several titles, including the Mingren in 2004 and the NEC Cup in 2007.

IYAMA YUTA HOLDS LEAD IN MEIJIN LEAGUE: Teen phenom Iyama Yuta (r) 7P is the clear leader of the Meijin League, the nine-player round robin that determines the challenger for the Japanese Meijin title. Iyama, who will turn twenty in May, has already won three titles, and - with the League half over -- has an excellent chance of being the next Meijin challenger. His 3-1 score has the significant advantage of making him the only player in the League with only one loss. So far he has defeated Takao Shinji 9P and current Honinbo (3-2), Sakai Hideyuki 7P (2-2), and Chin Kaei 9P (0-4), losing only to Yamada Kimio 9P (3-2). Tough challenges remain for Iyama, including such players as Yoda Norimoto 9P (2-3), Cho Chikun 9P (2-2), and Kobayashi Satoru 9P.

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GU LIN WINS 6, NOT 7: "'"Gu Li Wins 7th Chinese Tianyuan' (4/14 EJ) should be ‘Gu Li Wins 6th Chinese Tianyuan'" writes reader Quan Li. Thanks for the correction; we apologize for the error. Gu Li's sixth consecutive win of that title eclipses Chang Hao's record of winning it five times in a row.

GO QUIZ: Oregon Again
The year the U.S. Go Congress stopped being a two-tournament affair -- switching to a weeklong U.S. Open -- was 1992, when the Congress was held in Salem, Oregon. Make sure you are there when the Congress returns to this beautiful state this summer. Just three of you were correct this week, and the year-long race looks to be much more competitive this year; though there are some familiar names at the top, they are not as lonely: Waldron 7/7, Salamony 6/7, Kerr 5/5, Steve Fawthrop 5/7, Terry Fung 4/4, Reinhold Burger 4/4 and Peter Schumer 4/5. Congrats to Phil Waldron, this week's winner, selected at random from those answering correctly.
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Trevor Morris accidentally created this week's question (but can still participate) when he shared a memory in our Quiz comment section "This reminds me of the 1990 (Denver) Congress, where, as a 5 dan I played against the eccentric math professor from Rutgers. His name is not coming to me. He used to play late into the night with Horst (Sudhoff). Anyway, we played in the last round for the 5 dan championship. I was quite disappointed when he won, especially when I saw the lovely boards they were giving as prizes. In a strange and tragic twist, the next summer, I went up to Quebec Open. We all expected him to be there (and) I was looking forward to a rematch. On his way to the go tournament, he had a heart attack and died when his car went off the road. In the end, I was happy that he'd won the 5 dan section in what turned out to be his last Congress" Click here to name the New Jersey 5 dan Trevor's thinking of: was it Robert Ryder, Jonathan Nagy, Harry Gonshor or Ralph Fox? Please share some funny stories -- and believe me there are many -- about him in our comment section, and I would love it if anyone can email us a photo.

GO ONLINE: Teacher/Organizer Roundup
Phil Waldron's recent chapter survey covered a wide range of needs from a growing group of enthusiasts who are out there building a sustainable American go community, one chapter at a time. Along with many useful suggestions, some of which we are working to implement, I found myself wondering whether teachers and organizers are taking full advantage of the resources already available to them. For instance, chapters that need "suitable promotional/advertising material" should check out the teacher's page, with dozens of available downloads of posters, curricula, and other support. If you have any materials that other Chapters could use, please send them to webmaster@usgo.org and we'll put them here, so keep checking back! Another suggestion was for an online teachers' forum which already exists, at godiscussions.com. If you don't see what you're looking for there, start another thread, which can be viewed by everyone who uses that growing site. Teachers should also consider joining teachersweb@usgo.org, a listserv maintained by AGF Vice President Paul Barchilon shimari@comcast.net. One organizer complained that The Way To Go, the AGA's classic booklet, has been hard to get lately. That's because it was temporarily out of print, but a new, extensively revised version is in press now and should become available in a few weeks. A PDF of the new edition is available for download now. For hard copies write to agf@usgo.org. Another set of suggestions involved a wide range of web-based services, from tournament registration to financial accounting. Stay tuned -- some of these services will be implemented as part of a major website upgrade that is now underway. Some chapters have expressed a wish to use the free website hosting service, but they don't know how. Write to webmaster@usgo.org, or to go the godiscussions.com web forum for help. Lastly, most organizers enjoy and learn from the successes of others, so if you've done something that worked to build your Chapter, write it up and we'll publish it!
- Roy Laird

GO CLASSIFIED
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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); Ian Davis (Ireland Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Ziejst; Roy Laird
Translations: Chris Donner (Japan); Bob McGuigan (Japan); Matt Luce (China)

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

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.