AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL
World Go News from The American Go Association

 
 
 

MEMBER'S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: Zou Junjie 5P explains the best way of “Choosing Your Own Style” in today’s commentary, translated by Dave Wong of Richmond, VA, from Weiqi World #2008.10 (May 15, 2008). Our bonus file is Yilun Yang 7P latest “easy” endgame problem.
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September 1, 2008: Volume 9, #46

YU GO HOSTS YOUTH TOURNEY IN C.A.: The Yu Go club hosted a go tournament at the Teen Center of the Pasadena (CA) Public Library on Saturday, August 23. Fifteen young players – ranging in strength from 5-30 kyu -- participated in the first-ever event, organized by Alf Mikula, Joe Walters, and Nick Smith. “We broke down to three bands, 5 - 10kyu; 18-23 kyu; and 28 - 30 kyu,” reports Walters. “The ranks of course were artificial since this was their first time to play in a tournament.” Click here to check out photos. photo by Joe Walters.

LATEST MASTERGO AVAILABLE: A new version of MasterGo is now available; click here to download. The collection contains 45,220 games, with 877 games from 2008, the newest from May 2008.

YOUTH TEACHERS GET MORE RESOURCES: This fall, more students will learn go at school than ever before," says American Go Foundation (AGF) VP Paul Barchilon, "and their teachers will have access to more resources than ever." Barchilon, who coordinates the AGF's teacher mentoring program and runs the Tigersmouth go website for kids, tells the EJ that the AGA and AGF have been working together to make sure anyone who wants to teach go to kids can get the tools they need.  The AGF has recently imported a large shipment of high quality equipment from China at very reasonable prices.  The new materials are available only to teachers with an approved AGF program, and may be purchased at the new online store.  Any teaching program serving youth 18 and under can qualify for a free classroom starter set, as well as matching funds from the AGF. The AGA has posted several new downloads for teachers on its Teacher's Page, including "STE@M", an approach that integrates go into the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math; Gordon Castanza's extensive curriculum, which aligns with state educational requirements in Alaska and Washington; and an expanded Power Point presentation, developed by Roy Laird for a variety of uses.  There is also a new page describing how AGF teacher of the Year Vincent Eisman made his own demo board using everyday items that are readily available.  "If you've been thinking about teaching go in a school, library, or community center, there's never been a better time," Barchilon says. "With support from our donors, the AGF provided supplies to 80 new teaching programs in the last school year, and we hope to double that this year," adds Barchilon. Photo: Kids play one-color go in the Youth Room at the 2008 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Paul Barchilon

GOING TOGETHER: The Journey to the N.A. Pair Go Championship
By Edward Zhang
With just seconds left to play, stones fly quickly from four hands, yet land on the board precisely as the two pairs of players battle for the last few points. “We all made some mistakes at the crunching final minutes,” said my partner Yinli Wang, “it was a very hard game, and (our opponents) played very well.” We managed to come up a few points ahead in the end, and won this year’s North American Pair Go Championship at the U.S. Go Congress in early August, which attracted 50 pairs. For thousands of years, go has been a one-on-one contest of courage, intelligence and persistence. And while there are so many great stories about legendary go players, almost all of them were male. Pair Go brings the game to a completely different level of mind sports, as each pair seeks to understand each other’s moves, and works as a team to improve and achieve together. Pair Go provides a chance to become your kids’ teammate, an opportunity to get involved in your grandchildren’s sport, adds breathtaking moments between partners and can bring out even more of the game’s natural beauty. In this year’s Pair Go semi-finals, a strong American couple, Joanne (4d) and Ned Phipps (7d), defeated the top-seeded youth pair, and Yinli and I, a Chinese pair, prevailed over Tatsuko Okunaga 4d from Japan and her grandson Christopher Kiguchi 6d. Both games featured exciting large-scale “chasing-dragon” battles, which were much appreciated by the fans who watched live on KGS. The final was completely the opposite, with both pairs showing extraordinary ability in balancing territory and moyo. There was not even a single invasion by either side, and Yinli and I were able to build a small lead after consolidating the bottom moyo. The Phippses then tried to enclose our center dragon, and while the attack was not effective, they found a way to substantially reduce the bottom territory after we got greedy in the right-bottom corner. As both pairs entered their final minutes in a very close game, the Phippses missed a rotation and were penalized 3 big points. Yinli and I seemed just one step from the trophy, but a moment later we also missed a rotation and gave the “bonus” right back, though we did eke out a 4.5-point win in the end to take the championship. A lot of couples have already shown strong interest in go when I tell them about my fun experience in Portland and we hope more people in America will “go together” in the future.
Photo of Zhang & Wang by Brian Allen

DUTCH SUMMER CAMP DRAWS 60: Sixty players of all levels participated in the 3rd Dutch Summer Go Camp August 16-21. The camp takes place less than a mile from the beach at the holiday isle of Texel and the daily schedule is a morning round followed by afternoon lectures, with free play later on. The unique didactical formula at the Summer Camps is the round-table teaching by Robert Rehm 5D (pointing, in photo), who says that "It's the  best fit for kyu's - both single and double digit - and an odd number of players. I prefer to teach 8 or 10 each time. Everyone gets a turn in proposing the next move. We discuss alternatives and decide on the best idea. Players of all levels get feedback on their ideas and can learn from others." The other main teacher at the Dutch Go Camps is Willem-Koen Pomstra 5D, who picked up the idea in Sweden. "The Leksand Go Camp in Sweden started as a holiday party organized by Martin Stiassny for his German friends. He has a summer house nearby (and) was the main man running the European Go Congresses (EGC) of 1979, 1988 and also 2000 in Germany. Soon the Summer School grew large and more serious, while still being great fun. I attended many times. The candidacy of Leksand (Sweden) for hosting the EGC this year grew from those  camps...Nowadays, in Holland we have Go Camps as well - lasting five days - each Summer and Winter." The 2009 EGC will be in Groningen, in the North of the Netherlands."
- report/photo by Peter Dijkema, Special European Correspondent for the E-Journal.
     
GO QUIZ: Lucky Save
The Nihon Kiin’s "News and Topics" inspired last week's quiz with a remark that Kobayashi Satoru (in the 30th Meijin) was the only player to come back from 0-3, even a series, but lose the final game.  Half of you – 5/10 -- got this right. Just by happenstance, I included Yamashita Keigo as one of my "wrong" choices.  But when Quiz vet Phil Waldron chose Yamashita, with details from the 28th Kisei, I did some research and discovered he was right, along with Gabriel Friesen, so 7 of 10 got it right this week, congrats to Austin Robinson, this week's winner, chosen at random from those answering correctly.
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: A final fightback question. As stated last week, Cho Chikun (l) is famous for his fightbacks in Top Three titles: how many times has he been involved in a "miraculous fight back"?  Is it twice, three, four or five times?  Click here to send in your answer (hopefully the one I am expecting) along with any comments.
- Keith Arnold

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
EDWARD LASKER GOOD BUT NOT GRAND: “In your recent issue, you mention the Edward Lasker award (Kirschner Wins Lasker Award 8/25 EJ), and present Edward Lasker as a Chess GrandMaster,” writes Noam Taich. “However, while Edward Lasker was indeed an International Master and a fairly good player, he was never a Grandmaster, neither in title, nor anywhere near that in playing strength (he never was a serious "threat" to other grandmasters). This mistake is made often, sometimes with people who are being confused with a different Lasker: Emanuel Lasker, who was not only a GrandMaster, but also the second official world champion.”

DICAPRIO STILL MAY PLAY GO: “Ah, but you obviously don't know why Nolan Bushnell (r) named his company Atari.” writes Matthew Lecin (Leonardo DiCaprio A Go Player?  7/14 EJ), “his favorite game is go. So we may see Leo play some go in the movie!” Click here to see Bushnell talk about go.

GO CLASSIFIED
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 13,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

HELP WANTED: Help create a tradition of public, in-person games in the United States. Users, testers, designers, and developers are needed for a new open-source web site dedicated to promoting Go in the United States.  Click here http://promotego.org/about for details. (9/1)
GO players wanted: Dallas, TX: Any rank welcome; will meet in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas Area. If interested, email b1ackjack_one@yahoo.com or opipe73@yahoo.com (9/1)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Wellington, OH: Starting a go club, all players, all levels welcome. Want to save on gas? We can meet online as well. Anyone interested please e-mail Joe at wellington_go@mail.com (9/1)
PLAYERS WANTED: Reno / Lake Tahoe area. Contact Fred Hopkins 916-548-8068 or cfredhop@msn.com (8/18)
PLAYERS WANTED: Dallas/Fort Worth area: Finding interest level for a regular get-together or Go club that meets Tuesday nights in Bedford. Beginners welcome. Please contact Jeremy at jergarmar@hotmail.com for more information. (8/18)
FOR SALE: Japanese 1.5cm folding board, $40. Two Japanese 1.8cm folding boards, $50. Pair of Japanese medium-size chestnut bowls, $50. Set of very old, Japanese, 4.5mm shell & slate stones in chestnut bowls, $85. Buyer pays shipping. The boards and bowls are all in very good, gently used condition. Some of the antique shell stones are chipped, as should be expected for their age, but they are quite usable and very unique. You just can't buy new stones like these anymore. Contact Anton at antonninno@yahoo.com (8/18)

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 Photographer); Keith Arnold (Go Quiz); Peter Dijkema (Dutch/European Correspondent); Marilena Bara (Romania/European Correspondent); Ian Davis (Ireland Correspondent); Jens Henker (Korea Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Zeijst; Roy Laird; Peter Shotwell
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.

 
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