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

 
 
 

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October 20, 2008; Volume 9, #54

CHINA TOPS 1ST WORLD MIND SPORTS GAMES: China earned the go championship trophy in the first annual World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, winning three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The Republic of Korea came in second with two golds, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals, while DPR Korea was in 3rd place with one gold medal, Chinese Taipei took 4th with a silver and Japan was 5th with two bronze medals. Check Ranka Online for the full final report and standings.

WMSG U.S. TEAM UPDATE: "Overall, the U.S. team did very well considering the number of professionals and pro equivalent players," U.S Team Leader Chris Kirscher tells the E-Journal. "24 of 186 in the Individuals were pros, including Michael Redmond 9P and Huiren Yang 1P. Our overall score was 58 - 37." Results: Men's Individuals: All scored 4-2 except Michael Redmond 9P with 5-1; Overall score 25 - 15. Section B Lionel Zhang 7D placed 7th; Section C: Huiren Yang 1P placed 6th; Section D Xinyu (Carson) Tu 7D placed 3rd; Section E Michael Redmond 9P placed 3rd; Section F Matthew Burrall 6D placed 6th. Women's Individual: Overall score 11-10; Each section had 22 players; Section A: Tina Zhang, 7th with a 4-3 score; Section B: Cherry Shen, 8th with a 4-3 score; Section C: Kristen Burrall, 13th with a 3-4 score. Amateur "Open": Overall score 9 - 4: In the Amateur event Jie Li 7D (9.5) scored 5-2 and placed 2nd in section A of the preliminary, thus qualifying for the final, but was knocked out in the first round of the finals. Joey Hung 7D (7.8) scored 4-3 in section B and placed 6th the top place for a 4-3 score. The sections had 26 and 24 players respectively. Men's Team: Calvin Sun 7D, Trevor Morris 6D, Daniel Chou 6D, Hugh Zhang 6D, and Nick Jhirad 6D; The team scored 4-3 and placed 6th of 20 in section B; only Canada, who beat the U.S., placed higher with a 4-3 score. Women's Team: Yinli Wang 6D, Wan Yu Chen 4D, Joanne Phipps 3D, and Judith Debel 1D; The team scored 4-3 and tied with Romania for 5th of 12 in section A1; only Germany, who beat the U.S. placed higher with a 4-3 score. Pair Go: The US team (Jasmine Yan 5D and Xiongxia Zhang 6D) scored 5-2 placing 3rd in section A. Click here for more photos. Photo: U.S. Team Manager Feng Yun (l) and some members of the team, photo by Chris Kirschner.

WESTERN AMATEURS DECIDE FATE OF FINAL WMSG PRO MATCH: In the waning minutes of the WMSG Men's Teams competition -- with the gold medal at stake -- an apparent clock malfunction caused organizers to appeal to two Western amateurs to rule on how to proceed. With the WMSG winding down, the final few games were being played Friday afternoon to determine medal winners in the Men's Teams and Pair Go. The Chief Deputy Referee role bestowed on IGF Australia Director Neville Smythe and the AGA's Chris Kirschner (l in photo) had been largely ceremonial as the Chinese referees handled the few minor issues that arose, but as Kirschner was on his way out to his hotel, Chinese Chief Deputy Referee Zhu Baoxun came running down the hall and said "Referee decision needed - clock - overtime." Kirschner and Smythe followed Zhu to a small room where TV operators from several different stations were all focused on the Board 1 men's team finals game between Chang Hao 9P of China and Won Sung Jin 9P of Korea. Although Won's Ing clock indicated a loss on time, it was suggested that the clock might have malfunctioned. "Mr. Zhu tells us that he cannot participate because one of the players is Chinese and all eyes - and cameras -- turn toward Neville and myself," Kirschner tells the EJ. "Neville and I exchanged subvocal ‘Oh my gods' and began asking questions, working through an excellent translator." While Chang indicated he would accept any decision the two amateurs rendered, "this added pressure to be sure we got it right, both in process and decision," says Kirschner. "After some consultation, Neville and I decided that a new clock should be set with one period of 30 seconds each, and the game resumed." They then left the room. "Twenty minutes later we learned that Chang had lost, and that Korea had won the match 4-1, so we did not have to bear the weight of having determined the fate of the whole match."

CRAM WINS YU GO TOURNEY: Don Cram took first place in the October 12 Yu Go Club's first monthly Intra-Club Tournament. Twelve players turned out in Pasadena, CA to vie for prizes that included go-related wood block prints and folding fans. Three rounds were held in the one-day tournament which was directed by Joe Walters. Don Cram, Mateo Tarbet, and Alf Mikula placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the upper kyu division. Corey Young, Jingbo Lou, and Kyle Young placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the middle kyu division. Cameron Mitchell, Johnathon Luc, and Travis Mitchell placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the lower kyu division. The prizes were provided by Reiyukai America, a lay Buddhist association and sponsor of the Yu Go Club, which meets on Wednesday nights (661-356-8055 for more information).

I-HAN LUI WINS UMBC TOURNAMENT: I-Han Lui 7d won the 50-player tournament at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Tournament on Sunday, October 12th. "Everyone got free pizza, bagels, and soda," reports organizer Todd Blatt. "We played in the Skylight Lounge in the Commons Building at UMBC." UMBC has a tournament every spring and fall. "We gave away about $600 in cash and prizes and free pizza and soda and bagels and orange juice," Blatt added. Local adult players came, as well as students from Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Maryland College Park, Virginia Tech, University of Virginia and Carnegie Mellon University.

ANDY LIU WINS NY TOURNEY: Andy Liu swept the October 11 NY Go Club tournament, topping the 42 players. Top Results: Open Division: 1st: Andy Liu (5-0); 2nd: Xiliang Liu (4-1); 3rd: Young Kwon (3-2); 4th: Oh Tae Hwan (3-2); 5th: Liang Jie (2-3). A Division: 1st: Ke Lu (5-0); 2nd: Kim, Joung June (4-1); 3rd: Teng, Yu Jen (4-1). Division B: 1st: Afa Zhou; 2nd: Robin Xu; 3rd: Howard Wong. Division C: 1st: Jesy Feliccia; 2nd (tie): Frederic Smadja & Elizabeth Small; 3rd: Barbara Huang. Click here for tourney photos. Photo: outside the NYGC tourney, photo by Ke Lu.

CHO TAKES LEAD IN MEIJIN: Cho U (left) 9P took a 3-2 lead in his Meijin title match against challenger Iyama Yuta 8P, winning the fifth game by just half a point. This is Cho's third straight win after dropping the first two games, so now it's Iyama who has his back to the wall. Cho also holds the Gosei title among the top seven and he is the challenger against Kono Rin 9P for the Tengen and the challenger against Yamashita Keigo 9P for the Oza. He's in the Honinbo League as well and has reached the finals in the winner's bracket in the Judan. Iyama has a playoff game against Yoda Norimoto 9P to decide the challenger for the Kisei, and he is still alive in the loser's bracket in the Judan. While Cho is clearly outperforming the teen at this point, Iyama can take some satisfaction from still being the leader on the list of pros who have won the most games, with 41 victories. Cho is second with 39. Game 6 of the Meijin title match can be seen live on IGS on October 29th and 30th, starting at 7PM EST each night.

BROUWERS WINS DUTCH QUALIFIERS: Peter Brouwers 4D of Amsterdam swept the Dutch Qualifiers, 8-0. Thirty-two players participated in the Qualifiers over two weekends in October at the European Go Center in Amsterdam. Andreas Drost 4D of Leyden, Rudi Verhagen 5D of Enschede and Andre Engels 3D of Eindhoven also qualified for next January's Dutch Championships. Earlier in October, Brouwer also had been victorious in all five rounds of the Wim Maljaars Memorial Handicap Blitz at the Amsterdam Club. Maljaars -- a keen lightning player who won several blitz tourneys -- had died unexpectedly in early September. Maljaars once said that his idea of heaven was "Red wine, crackers and playing go for ever," so his student and friend Harald Zellerer provided bottles of red wine and crackers during the blitz tourney. In other Dutch go news, the main Dutch hopes for an honorable score at the just-concluded WMSG was the team tourney in the second week after national Dutch champ Merlijn Kuin 6D and E-Journal contributor Rob van Zeijst 7D - who's won several European titles last century and defeated some pros -- didn't make the knock-out in the amateur tourney. Photo: Wim Maljaars at the 2008 PandaNet Amsterdam tourney, photo by Judith van Dam.
- reported by Peter Dijkema, Dutch EJ Correspondent

BOULDER YOUTH SCORE FREE YANG WORKSHOP: Over 20 kids and teens took advantage of a free weekend workshop with Yilun Yang 7P this past weekend in Boulder, CO. "Mr. Yang was terrific," said 14-year-old Ryan Bernstein, "it was like he knew exactly what I needed to know to get better. I think everyone that attended would agree that it was an incredibly valuable and interesting experience." Yang was brought to Colorado with a combination of resources. The Ing Foundation paid for half of the workshop on a matching basis, and the City of Boulder put up the other half. The event was held at the Public Library, which expressly forbids charging admission to any event. Boulder's Youth Opportunities Advisory Board, who have provided funding for the Boulder Go Club for the past four years, paid the other half so that the event could be free for Boulder youth. Bernstein helped apply for the funds, which are meant to encourage youth leadership in the City of Boulder. As part of the grant, youth are required to do some volunteer work in exchange for the funds. To meet this requirement Bernstein has launched his own go club at Boulder High School, and other club members have volunteered their time at Go demonstrations in Denver as well. Critical to obtaining funding was the club's ability to demonstrate that it fostered multi-cultural learning and interaction. With Chinese, Korean, Japanese, African-American, Latino and Anglo club members, this was an easy requirement for the Boulder Go Club to meet. "Boulder is an amazing city," said Mr. Yang, "It is wonderful that they understand the value of go - I have never heard of this before." AGA chapters can still apply for the matching funds through Chapter Services , which the Ing Foundation has made available so that more clubs can have access to professional instruction. Many cities and states provide funding for youth opportunities, and the AGA has sample grant documents available online to assist chapters in applying for funds locally. Download the Cultural Diversity Funding Request for an example. Photo: Yilun Yang 7P at the Boulder Kids and Teens Go Club, which meets at the public library.
- report/photo by Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor

CALENDAR: 7 Events This Weekend
- October 25-26: Rochester, NY: 4th Annual Greg Lefler Memorial Tournament
Steve Colburn 585.703.3977 tournament@emptysky.org

- October 25-26: Toronto, ON, Canada: 2008 Toronto Open
Frank Monks 416.591.6414 pmonks@look.ca

- October 25-26: Portland, OR: Portland Go Tournament
Peter Drake 503.245.1239 drake@lclark.edu

- October 25: Tempe, AZ: Arizona Go Rating Tournament
ASU MU @ 1PM Saturday
Bill Gundberg 480.429.0300 bill@AzGoClub.org

- October 25: Palo Alto, CA: Bay Area Go Players Association Monthly AGA Ratings Tournament
Steve Burrall 916.688.2858 sburrall@comcast.net

- October 25: Arlington, VA: Pumpkin Classic
Allan Abramson 703.684.7676 allango@igc.org

- October 26: Sunnyvale, CA: 11th Ing's Cup Youth Goe Tournament
Mingjiu Jiang 650.969.2857 mingjiu7p@hotmail.com
Photo: Calvin Sun at the World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, China last week, photo by Chris Kirschner.

UPDATES & CORRECTIONS
WAGC SELECTION CHANGE: Tournaments Coordinator Philip Waldron reports that "there has been a small procedural change for selecting the WAGC representative." Click here for details.

SANTA MONICA, NOT BARBARA: The recent pro-am session organized by the Santa Monica Go club was held in Santa Monica; not Santa Barbara as reported in the last E-Journal.

3-WAY TIE IN HOBOKEN: There was a 3-way tie in the September 21 Hoboken Open between ZhaoNian CHEN 8d; Zhi Yuan [Andy] LIU 8D and Jack YANG 6D, not a win for Chen, as previously reported (Chen Wins Hoboken Open 9/29 EJ).

ZHANG PLAYED 2 PROS: Tina Zhang played two pros in the WMSG Women's Individual, not one as reported in last week's EJ.

GTA A 3RD-PERSON SANDBOX: "Grand Theft Auto is actually a ‘third person game'" not a "first person game," as reported in the October 6 EJ, writes Tyson Williams. "Also, no genre was given for GTA either, probably because it is so hard to do so. Other people had this problem too, so they made up a new genre called sandbox."

GO QUIZ: Sensing A Trick
Faced with a question asking for the strongest-ranked player to win a long-standing tournament - the Shinjin - O, which is limited to 7 dan and below - only one of you chose the natural answer - 7 dan. Several said 6 dan, but 8 of you said 8 dan, the correct answer. Players must be 7 dan at the start of the tournament, but several have been promoted before the end. Yoda Norimoto won his 5th Shinjin - O as an 8 dan in 1990, Komatsu Hideki defeated Michael Redmond in the final as an 8 dan in 1992, and Yuki Satoshi won as an 8 dan the following year. Congrats to Grant Kerr, this week's winner, selected at random from those answering correctly. THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: Next year's 53rd European Go Congress will be held in Groningen, Netherlands from July 25 to August 8. The European event, which dwarfs our version in longevity, length and attendance, should be the place to be (at least for the first week, which does not overlap the US Congress) for go players next summer. This is not the Netherlands' first time as host; how many times - including 2009 - will the European Congress been held by the Dutch, 5, 6, 7 or 8? Click here to vote.
- 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: Lexington, KY: New Go club forming at the Lexington Public Library downtown First meetings are November 5th and 19th from 6-9pm, and players of all levels are welcome! Email dantenen@lexpublib.org for more information. (10/20)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Flint, MI: Go players wanted to either start a club or to get together casually to play some live games. UM-Flint students highly welcome and encouraged! Please contact Dustin at dspluta@gmail.com (10/13)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Online: 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 facility/membership information, contact Mike Dobbins mike1003@hotmail.com for go class/club specifics. (9/15)

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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