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

 
 
 

MEMBER'S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: This week we welcome Fan Hui 2P back from his summer break. Fan Hui is a 2 dan professional from China, who now lives in France. He is rated as the strongest player in Europe. His commentary has been translated into English by Benoit Roturier, who is a 3d in Toulouse, France. During the second game of the 2005 Samsung Cup final [see Fan Hui's analysis of that game in the May 26, 2008 E-Journal, #23], even if Lee Changhao won in the end, all the observers remarked on the style of Luo Xihe, in particular his ability to live within his opponent's territory. In today's commentary on the third and final Samsung game, the open question was whether Lee Changho would be able to control the situation, or whether the Luo Xihe revolution could set down the Lee Changhao Empire. As Fan Hui says, "We are going to see." Non-members: join the American Go Association and get all this great content with every EJ! It's all just a click away!

September 29, 2008; Volume 9, #51

WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMES BEGIN: The first World Mind Sport Games begin later this week in Bejing, China; stay tuned on the AGA website and in the E-Journal for updates.

SWAN WINS PITTSBURGH TOURNEY: David Swan 4k took top honors in the Pittsburgh Fall Tournament on September 27 in Pittsburgh, PA. Sixteen players ranging in strength from 14 kyu to 3 dan participated. “Roberto Morrison, a Swiss 1 dan who was staying in Baltimore, decided to join a group of Baltimore players in making the trip to Pittsburgh for the tournament,” reports Kim Salamony. “This gives him the new record for farthest distance traveled to a Pittsburgh tournament.”  Nearly one third of the players were 5 kyu, enough to give them their own division, and Salamone reports that “Most of them played pretty well, so the next Pittsburgh tournament could see quite a few 3 and 4 kyus.” Winner Report: 3d-4k Section: 1st: David Swan 4k; 2nd: Lisa Scott 2k; 5k Section: 1st Dave Warzinski 5k; 2nd: Kim Salamony 5k; 6k-14k Section: 1st: Matthew Litke 10k; 2nd: Shay Jones 6k.

FENG TOPS ROCKY MOUNTAIN: Zipei Feng 8d took first place at the Rocky Mountain Go Tournament in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, September 27, topping a field of 48 players, including 26 adults and 22 kids. Nathan Park 18k – who just been playing a month -- won the handicap section, while 8-year-old Luke Zhang 16k took second place. Winner’s Report: 1st: Zipei Feng 8d; 2nd: Jim Michali 2k; 3rd: Renjie Xu 6d; 4th: Eric Chaput 2d; 5th: Cye Stoner 3k; 6th: John Runnels 6k.

CHEN WINS HOBOKEN OPEN: Zhaonian Chen (seated, in green shirt) bested a tough field to claim the top prize at the Hoboken Open on September 21. In addition to Chen – a past Ing Cup winner -- the Hoboken field of 71 players included past US Open winner Andy Liu, giant killer Jie Liang and Redmond Cup runner-up Andrew Huang. The players came from as far away as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Connecticut and upstate NY, including the traditional Empty Sky caravan from Rochester and a new contingent from Utica. “On the top boards, there was a minor upset in Round 3 when Xiliang Liu defeated ZhaoNian Chen on Board 2,” reports TD Steve Bretherick. “ZhaoNian recovered in Round 4 to beat Andy Liu in a game featuring a large-scale capturing race and a long post-mortem session, setting up a 3-way tie for the cash prize.” Action was hard-fought on the lower boards as well, and all 4-game and 3-game winners received a book from Slate & Shell. “As always, games were played in a spacious room at Stevens Institute overlooking the Hudson and the Manhattan skyline,” Bretherick adds. Winner's Report: 1st Place Open Section (tie): ZhaoNian CHEN 8d; Zhi Yuan [Andy] LIU 8D; Jack YANG 6D 4-game winners: David BYRNE 1K; Jed STROHM 9K; Andrew FRALEY 18K 3-game winners: Yi WANG 4D; Eric LIN 3D; Lie (Norton)LUO 2D; Frank XU 4K; Terence AN 4K; Andrew SHANG 6K; Brian GU 6K; Eddie XU 6K; Adam CONNELL 8K; Patrick LIN 9K; Larkin XU 10K; Elliot STERN 12K; Jesy FELICCIA 14K; Iris LIN 14K. TDs were Steve Bretherick and Larry Russ, with special AccelRat assistance from Paul Matthews.

WALLSTEDT TOPS SALT LAKE TOURNEY: Mike Wallstedt took top honors in the tournament held in Salt Lake on September 20th. WINNER’S REPORT: Top Band: 1st Place: Mike Wallstedt, 2nd Place: Kim Kilyoung, 3rd Place: Erik Lakis. Middle Band: 1st Place: Fernando Freitas, 2nd Place: Erik Stika, 3rd Place: Kevin Wu. Lower Band: 1st Place: Charles Laser, 2nd Place: Kjarsten Christensen, 3rd Place: Ron Price.

WU FOUR-PEATS AT TRIANGLE: Changlong Wu 7d (below) won the Memorial Go Tournament in Cary, NC for the fourth time on September 20. The eighth annual event was sponsored by the Triangle Go Group in Umstead State Park in Cary, where 36 players "were treated to typical Southern hospitality as they enjoyed a day of play and picnic lunch under a mildly shaded late summer sky," reports Charles Alden. Players in four sections vied for a generous prize fund of over $1,100, with all entry fees being returned as prizes and augmented by a donation from the Triangle Go Group. In addition, book prizes were donated by Slate and Shell who also presented a book of Yilun Yang's Go Puzzles to every entrant. All players scoring at least two wins in the four rounds received either cash or book prizes. Wu dominated the Open Section for the fourth time, sweeping all four rounds. Tied for second were Jeff Kuang 5D and Eric Zhang 5D, at 3-1. Section A (1D-2k) was topped by Dima Arinkin at 4-0, with Xiaoping Wu and Paul Celmer second at 3-1. Section B (5k-9k) was won by William Ray at 4-0 and Bob Bacon was second at 3-1. And section C (12k and up) was won by Jeff Martyn at 4-0 with Tom Carlson and Sicheng Zeng scoring 3-1. The tournament also featured snacks and full lunch prepared by Arlene Bridges, and was directed by Charles Alden, assisted by Paul Celmer. Photo courtesy Triangle Go Group

COTSEN GRID NOW ONLINE: The tournament grid from the recent Cotsen Open – showing complete player results -- has now been posted online.

SIMS’ CREATOR LOVES GO: Go made the shortlist of Spore creator Will Wright’s (right) favorite games – first on a list of 5 -- according to a report in the September 5 Wall Street Journal. Wright – who also created the hugely popular Sims series – told the Journal that his mother bought him a go set when he was 7 “and he’s been a dedicated fan of the game’s ‘simple rules but deep strategies’ ever since.” Thanks to interesting? Email us at journal@usgo.org!

NEGEI & PARASCHIV WIN IN BELFAST: Yohei Negi 1k (St Andrews, Scotland) and Daniel Paraschiv 1k (Galway, Ireland) emerged as joint winners of the Belfast Open, held in Belfast on September 27-28. “On Saturday night, we left the equipment in the venue's bar for safekeeping,” reports EJ Irish Correspondent Ian Davis, “There was some degree of panic when we arrived on Sunday morning to find that our equipment was locked behind the bar and that none of the staff had a key. However the walls of the bar proved no obstacle to seasoned Irish Go players, who managed to successfully rescue the imprisoned Ing timers.”

5TH YEAR FOR GERMAN LEAGUES: A record 72 teams are slated to take part in the German leagues, now starting their fifth year, reports Martin Stiassny. Teams of four players compete in the leagues, including defending champion Karlsruhe, which won eight matches last season and drew one, and runners-up -- with five wins each -- Hamburg Hebsacker (named after Steffi Hebsacker’s go-publishing house), Berlin Blunder (no sponsor) and Leipzig Löwe (Lions). The leagues are organized by the German Go Federation.

CHO U FIGHTS BACK IN MEIJIN: Down 0-2 in his Meijin title match with challenger Iyama Yuta 8P, Cho U (right) 9P captured a large group and forced a resignation in their third game in the best-of-seven-game match to make the score 1-2. With four games left, Cho must win three of them to hold on to the title he has held for three of the last four years. If Yuta can win two of the remaining four, he will be the first teenager ever to hold one of the top three titles in Japan.

KONO RIN WINS RYUSEI: Kono Rin (left) 9P defeated Cho U 9P on September 26th to win the 17th Japanese Ryusei tournament. The Ryusei is a fast-play tournament that starts with eight groups of pros playing a win-and-continue match. The two who do the best in each group then join in a single-elimination tournament. Women pros are included in the early matches but none made it into the final event this year. Kono won the NEC Cup last year and is in the semifinals of that event this year as well. In November he will defend his Tengen title -- which he has held for the last three years -- against Cho U.

JAPANESE TEEN WINS DAIWA WOMEN'S CUP: Xie Yimin 4P, who is already the Women's Honinbo-Meijin, added another title to her current holdings by defeating Kobayashi Izumi 6P on September 27th to win the Daiwa Women's Cup, which is an Internet tournament. Kobayashi, who was Honinbo-Meijin in 2003, won this relatively new, fast-play event last year. This means that both a male and a female pro teen have recently won titles in Japan; both are now nineteen and both have won more than one title (Iyama Yuta 8P won the Daiwa Cup Grand Champion event back in July).

ANOTHER TEEN TITLE WINNER IN JAPAN: Uchida Shuhei (right) 2P, who just turned nineteen, won the best-of-three-game finals match in the 33rd Japanese Shinjin O by scoring 2-0 against Ha Yeong-il 4P. This is Uchida's first title and adds another to the list of titles won by teenagers. The Shinjin O (King of the New Stars) tournament is limited to younger pros below 7P and younger than 26.

WELL-KNOWN PROS TOP MOST-WINS LIST: There are no unfamiliar faces at the top of the lists of pros who have won the most games so far in 2008. Teen Iyama Yuta 8P is number one on the Japanese list with 40 wins and 14 losses for an impressive 74% winning rate. Cho U 9P is second with 35 victories and a 76% winning rate. In Korea Lee Changho 9P is at the top with 52 wins and 14 losses for a 79% rate, followed closely by Lee Sedol 9P with 50 wins and a 76% rate. At the top of the Chinese list is Gu Li 9P with 42 victories and a rate of 78%. Second place in China is perhaps the least well known in the West of this group, Xie He 7P with 40 wins and a 69% rate. Xie has won fewer titles than any of the others at the top of the lists except Iyama and at 24 years old is the second youngest behind Iyama who is nineteen. all the others are in their twenties.

GO CALENDAR: Beijing, Middlebury & Tacoma
October 3-17: Beijing, China: WORLD MIND SPORT GAMES
Olympic level go, chess, draughts and bridge sponsored by GAISF

October 4: Middlebury, VT: Autumn Foliage Tournament
Peter Schumer 802.388.3934 schumer@middlebury.edu

October 4: Tacoma, WA: 2nd Annual Back-to-School Tournament
Gordon Castanza 253.853.4831 gcastanza@comcast.net

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GETTING YOUR FREE EJ: "Please subscribe my son to your AGA Journal," writes an EJ reader. "He enjoys go and would like to receive the Journal on his own email" Click here to get the free E-Journal weekly, or here to get the Member's Edition with attached game records.

LIBRARY GAME DAY AN OPPORTUNITY: “I think it's great that the American Go Association wants to include go in the November 15th (American Library Association’s National Game Day) event (AGA PUSHES GO FOR NAT’L GAMES DAY 9/22 EJ), but the AGA needs to be aware of  obstacles involving time-lines and planning,” warns Nick Smith of the Pasadena (CA) Public Library. “Our library, which will be sponsoring a go tournament for teens and kids on November 15th, had to make that decision weeks ago in order to plan publicity and work out projected costs.So, any club or library starting now will be way behind the curve, and you may run into opposition from libraries purely on that basis. Please do not be discouraged if this happens, but instead use it as an opportunity to plan for next year, or for other opportunities to introduce the game at your local library. We hope that the ALA gaming initiative will be an ongoing thing, a springboard for various forms of gaming in the library. Go is a relatively inexpensive game for libraries, and encourages the circulation of related materials, including instruction books, manga and anime. The cooperation between our library and the local go club, on a year-round basis, has led to a growing number of kids and teens who are learning the game, coming to the library every Saturday to play go. That can happen in your area, too, if you can get a dedicated  volunteer pool from your go club to help make it happen.”

GO QUIZ: Wins, Not Titles
I’m afraid last week's question unintentionally tricked a few folks; I asked “Which player holds the Nihon Kiin record for most wins?” as in games, not titles. Once again, the correct answer is Rin Kaiho, with 1325 wins as of July (according to Go World), with Cho Chikun at 1,306. Seven of you chose Cho, while 6 - the usual suspects - Waldron, Salamony, Kerr, Fung, Fawthrop and Colin Ward - gave the correct answer.  Phil Waldron commented - "All the Nihon Kiin players are well behind Cho Hun-hyeon of Korea who was at 1, 765 at the same time.  Congrats to Colin Grant, this week's winner, chosen at random from those answering correctly.
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: As reported in the E-Journal this week (GO SPOTTING), go made the shortlist of Spore creator Will Wright’s favorite games – first on a list of 5 -- according to a report in the September 5 Wall Street Journal. Wright – who also created the hugely popular Sims series -- has been a dedicated fan of the game’s "simple rules but deep strategies" since his mother bought him a go set when he was 7. Which of these DID NOT make Wright's top-5 list? Civilization; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; Myst; Battlefield 1942 or Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. Click here to vote.
- Keith Arnold

WHY WE PLAY: Inner Peace and Friends
by Oliver Nava
I encountered go at random. Go was near me but I was not near go until one day I encountered it by accident. From that day I was fascinated by the game and was drawn into its vast universe of moves and complexities. A multifaceted tool, go has become much more than just a game. Through it I meet new people, interesting individuals with their own takes on life and the game itself, united by a common link and the never-ending quest for improvement. Most importantly go has opened the door to many new friendships across the world. Go players are a welcoming community based on trust, without which the game could not exist. The game has also brought me inner peace. After a hard day, I sit down and all my problems seem to fade off into the air as I play, my only concern the moves on the board. So when people ask if I play go, I’m happy to say "Yes! I am a go player" because being one is so much more than just playing a game. It’s also being part of a great community and part of a quest with so many others. As I continue on my journey of life, I now find that go has not only brought me a useful tool, but friends as well.
Oliver Nava (right) lives in Houston, Texas, where he’s helped found a small club in the Houston Galleria Area called "Notsuoh's Go Club." It meets in various locations, including the Starbucks at 1655 S Voss Rd. Email the club at notsuoh-go-club@googlegroups.com  

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

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Looking for go players of all ranks to join Online Go Club. We will be meeting every Saturday around 1pm EST on the KGS. My KGS name is KangningMa if you want to contact me there, or you can email me at: kenntheconverse@gmail.com (9/29)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Montgomery County, PA:  We meet Sunday's at Borders in Airport Square, Routes 309 and 202, North Wales, PA. Neil Zod nlzod@comcast.net (9/29)

GO CLASS IN VA: Go Class/Club at The Boys and Girls Club in Manassas, VA every Wed at 6:30P during the school year starting on Sept 17, 2008. Open to kids age 6-18, no experience needed. Click here information, contact Mike Dobbins mike1003@hotmail.com for go class/club specifics. (9/15)

FOR SALE: One set of 6.0 mm shell & slate stones circa 1940-50s in very good condition, $80. Two 1.6 cm Japanese katsura folding boards in like-new condition in original boxes, $45 each.Pair of medium-size Japanese chestnut bowls in excellent condition, $50. Buyer pays UPS shipping. Contact Anton at: antonninno@yahoo.com (9/8)

FOR SALE: EVA foam go sets; include EVA foam go board (reversible 19 x 19 in one side and 9x9 in backside). Also included are 180 + 180 EVA foam go stones.Total cost of the set is US 9.40 + freight (from Brazil); good discounts for more than 5 sets. Contact Roberto Petresco at rpetresco@yahoo.com (9/8)

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 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)
 
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.

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.

 
American Go Association
P.O. Box 397
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-0397