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

 
 
 

MEMBER'S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: Lots of great bonus material this week! First up is Zou Junjie 5P’s look at The Mini-Chinese Opening, originally published in Weiqi World and translated by Dave Wong 2d. Next is Yuan Zhou’s commentary on a 5-kyu game and finally, we have not one but two endgame problems from Yilun Yang 7P. Enjoy! Non-members: join the American Go Association and get all this great content with every EJ! It's all just a click away!

October 6, 2008; Volume 9, #52

WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMES UNDERWAY: Early rounds are underway in the first-ever World Mind Sports Games, which kicked off October 3 in Beijing, China. Watch the E-Journal and the AGA website for updates from our on-site reporters; the International Go Federation is also publishing an excellent Ranka Online WMSG Edition  with regular updates and photos. Click here for a nice online album of photos posted by makov. Click here  for tournament results; we will also publish selected results online as we receive them each day. U.S. individual men's and women's results through Round 4 are posted now, as are some of the British results (email news, results, photos and games to us at journal@usgo.org!). The WMSG tournament is run in two parts, a 6-round preliminary run in 8 sections with each section being a Swiss system run with random pairings in each score group. The top two players in each section will play in the finals. Pros were seeded randomly (except for a rule that no section would have two players from the same country) into the sections first, ensuring that each section would have a similar number of pros. After that, the rest of the field was distributed by rank into the sections, ensuring that each section -- 22 or 24 players each -- has a similar profile of strength, beginning with three pros at the top. Photos: (left) Michael Redmond (U.S., left) plays Sergii Rydzel (Ukraine); photo by Chris Kirschner. (right): U.S. team manager and WMSG referee Chris Kirschner draws for the U.S. team.

SPENCER WINS TACOMA BACK-TO-SCHOOL TOURNAMENT: An undefeated Joseph Spencer 7k topped Saturday's Tacoma Go Club's Back-To-School tournament held at the Commencement Bay Coffee Company in Tacoma, WA. Second place went to John Howard 1k who came up from Portland to participate. Chris Crow 2k, who came down from Bellingham, WA, won third place, while fourth and fifth places went to Robert Tobias and Mike Malveaux 4k respectively, both from the Tacoma Go Club. Winners split over $400 in cash and prizes. Tournament Director Dr. Gordon Castanza said, "it is becoming evident that the state of the economy is beginning to filter down to local go tournaments as participation has fallen off from previous years." The next Tacoma Go Club tournament, the 2nd Annual Veteran's Day Tournament will be November 8th on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University. Click here for details.

BAKER TOPS NORCAL MONTHLY RATINGS TOURNEY: Lucas Baker 2d went 3-1 to lead the Dan division at the Bay Area Go Players Association monthly ratings tournament September 27 in Menlo Park, CA. There were 23 players, ranging from 6d to 20k, with seven players entering at 2d or above. In the kyu division four players won four games apiece: Sammy Zhang 2k, Isaiah Bird 2k, Kevin Fang 6k, and Austen Liao 18k. Longtime AGA volunteer Mike Bull directed the tournament and Roger Schrag acted as tournament organizer. The next monthly ratings tournament is scheduled for October 25 in Palo Alto. Click here for details and to register. Photo by Ming Liao.

MEOZ WINS VT AUTUMN FOLIAGE TOURNAMENT: A "small, but determined group of go players" participated in the Vermont Go Club's "Vermont Autumn Foliage Tournament," reports organizer Pete Schumer. "To accommodate an odd number of players, we used self-pairing which worked quite well." First place went to Ben Meoz 8k with a record of 3-1, second place was a tie between Quentin Dombro 1k and David Spitz 4k, each with 3-1 records. Fourth place was held by Lihu Ben-Ezri Ravin 4k also with a 3-1 record. "Interestingly, the only game that Ben Meoz lost was to Lihu Ben-Ezri Ravin," notes Schumer, "but Ben held on to first place due to SOS points." There were prizes for nearly everyone who participated including a shin kaya floor board for the first-place finisher.

MANY FACES OF GO WINS WORLD COMPUTER GO CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Many Faces of Go (Version 12) has taken first place in both the 9x9 and 19x19 contests at the International Computer Game Association's annual world championship, recently completed in Beijing, China. In the 19x19 contest, Many Faces won all of its games. Mogo, which only lost to Many Faces, took second, and Leela finished third. Thirteen programs entered the 19x19 competition and were given one hour to complete all moves. The 18 programs in 9x9 played two games each round, with 30 minutes per program. Many Faces was running on a 32 core cluster provided by Microsoft, and Mogo was running on up to several hundred cores provided by the Dutch Huygens supercomputer. "This contest was a triumph for Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)," Many Faces creator David Fotland tells the E-Journal, "with programs using MCTS beating all of the traditional knowledge-based programs." MCTS was developed over the last several years by the Mogo team and Remi Coulom, author of Crazystone. Crazystone finished first in the 2007 competition, but chose not to compete this year. Click here for further details on the Tournament.

YANG AVAILABLE IN FINNISH: Yilun Yang's Fundamental Principles of Go (cover left) has just been published in Finland, where it was translated into Finnish by Olli Markkanen and published by Mantykustannus Oy, a Finnish publishing company. Click here to order, or just to brush up on your Finnish.

NEW INSTRUCTOR AT N.Y. GO CENTER: Shunichi Hyodo 7d (r), the New York Go Center's new guest instructor from Japan, arrived on October 3. "Those of you who remember Hyodo Susumu, one of our previous instructors, might be amused to know that he refers to the current sensei as strong Hyodo," says club organizer Boris Bernadsky. Hyodo has participated in many US Go Congresses, and won the 5d, 6d divisions as well as the 9x9, and 13x13 tournaments. "Hyodo-san speaks English well, and has much experience teaching," and says Bernadsky, who encourages New York-area players to take advantage of the opportunity to learn. photo by Steve Colburn

MANY FACES OF GO V12 NOW AVAILABLE: Delayed this year while creator David Fotland rewrote his engine to use a combination of Monte Carlo Tree Search and its existing go knowledge, a prerelease of The Many Faces of Go version 12 -- which just won the International Computer Game Association's annual world championship; see story above - is now available. The MFOG version 12's engine "combines the new Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithm with Many Faces' go knowledge, to give something stronger than either," Fotland tells the E-Journal. "It plays a more natural style than other MCTS programs, which seem to try to win by exactly 0.5 points, and is approximately five stones stronger than Version 11." The computer playing levels are now calibrated, from 19 kyu to 2 kyu, adds Fotland, "so the program can evaluate your rank, and give you the player appropriate to your declared rank." The new version includes many other minor enhancements and changes; click here for details. Version 12 is available by free download only, with limited functionality, including the 19 kyu go player and an sgf reader. The current download http:/smart-games.com is prerelease, and has some bugs, says Fotland. The prerelease version is on sale now for $79.95 until the full version is available later this month; the price will then be $89.95, or $49.95 for upgrades to owners of version 11 ($44.95 prerelease). Anyone who bought version 11 after August 1st of this year is entitled to a free upgrade to version 12.

GO CALENDAR: Beijing, NYC, Davis, Seattle & Baltimore
October 3-17: Beijing, China: WORLD MIND SPORT GAMES
Click here for the latest report & photos.
(left): Matthew Burrall (left, middle) of the United States, at the 2008 World Mind Sport Games in Beijing.

October 11-12: New York, NY: New York Open
Pre-registration required! First Prize in the open section is currently over $500
Boris Bernadsky 646.438.1338 ny.go.open@gmail.com

October 11: Davis, CA: Davis/Sacramento Go Club Fall Quarterly
Yolo County Library, 315 E 14th Street, Davis, CA.
Registration begins at 9A; First round at 10A; 4 rounds
Willard Haynes 916.929.6112 willard@saclink.csus.edu

October 11: Seattle, WA: Anniversary Tournament
Seattle Go Center; Register at 10:30A; 3 rounds
Brian Allen 206.547.7099 brian@seattlegocenter.org

October 12: Baltimore, MD: UMBC's Fall Tournament
Free Pizza - Pre-registration Required
Todd Blatt 443.392.6822 umbcgo@gmail.com

PIAO WENYAO TO CHALLENGE FOR MINGREN: Piao Menyao (right) 5P defeated Chang Hao 9P 2-1 to gain the right to challenge Gu Li 9P for his Mingren (Japanese Meijin) title. This is something of a David and Goliath battle, as Piao is twenty and has won only one title, the CCTV Cup in 2007 and Gu -- who is only five years older -- has won many more titles and currently holds five national titles and two international ones. Piao did reach the third round of the international LG Cup in 2005 and defeating Chang Hao, who just won the international Ing Cup, is no mean achievement. This will be an interesting one to watch. Perhaps we are about to see the emergence of another young lion in the go world.

NONGSHIM CUP TEAMS READY: The Nongshim (Spicy Noodles) Cup is a popular international team event run as a win-and-continue tournament. Each of the big three countries, China, Japan, and Korea, field a team of five players and the event is staged in three sections, with the winning team receiving about $125,000 US. The first stage this year will be in Beijing October 21st to 24th. China won this Nongshim last year for the first time, and the Japanese won in 2006. The Korean team won the other seven times. The teams are: China: Chang Hao 9P, Gu Li 9P, Qiu Jun 8P, Piao Wenyao 5P, and Tuo Jiaxi 3P. The first three have won many titles, Piao has won one, and seventeen-year-old Tuo none. It seems likely that Tuo will lead off for the Chinese. Chang Hao was the last man standing last year. Korea: Lee Changho 9P, Lee Sedol 9P, Kang Dongyun 8P, Yun Junsang 7P, and Heo Yeongho 6P. Lee Changho has been the Koreans "iron gate" in this event and has proven unbeatable every year the Koreans have won. Kang is a teen, but beat Lee Changho last year to win his only title. Yun also took a title from Lee Changho last year. Heo, like Kang, has won only one title so far. Japan: Yamada Kimio 9P, Hane Naoki 9P, Takao Shiji 9P, Yamashita Keigo 9P, and Kono Rin 9P. The Japanese are clearly serious about this event; all of their players are major title winners. Theirs is also the oldest team; only Kono is under thirty and he is twenty-seven. Missing from their list is Yoda Norimoto 9P, who was the last man standing the year the Japanese won. This is a very popular event.

IYAMA TO FACE YODA IN KISEI PLAYOFF: Iyama Yuta 8P won League A of the Kisei tournament earlier with a perfect 5-0 record and now Yoda Norimoto (left) 9P has emerged as the winner of League B to join him in the playoff to determine who will challenge title holder Yamashita Keigo 9P. If Iyama wins it will be the second of the top three titles that he will challenge for as a teenager. He is presently contesting the Meijin title with Cho U 9P and is ahead 2-1 in the best-of-seven-game match. Yoda was the challenger against Cho Chikun 9P for the Kisei back in 1998; this was his only appearance in this title match so far. Yamashita has held the title for the last three years, as well as in 2003. The longest consecutive run was Kobayashi Koichi 9P who held this title from 1986 through 1993. He also won in 1995, and has held this title more often than anyone else.

GO QUIZ: Seeing Through The Myst
Most of you correctly spotted Myst as the game that did not belong on Sims creator Will Wright's favorite game list, though some lamented the failure of this single-player first person fantasy computer game to make the cut. Blame Wikipedia if any of my descriptions of these games are inaccurate, but Wright loves Civilization, the popular turn based strategy game; Grand Theft Auto - the controversial first person game; Battlefield 1942 - a first person shooter game set in World War II; and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - turn based tactical game for the GameBoy Advance system. Congrats to this week's winner, Mark Penner, selected at random from those answering correctly. THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: The Shinjin-O title is open to all players in Japan 7 dan and below. What was the lowest dan rank to ever win the title, 2,3,4 or 5 dan? Click here to send us your answer.
- Keith Arnold

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 for information or 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)

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
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