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

MEMBER'S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: By winning today's commented game, Lee Sedol secured the Korean Myeongin title for the first time in 2007. This title had been held by either Lee Changho or Cho Hunhyun for more than twenty years. The commentary is by Wang Lei 8P, translated by Yuan Zhou 8d from Weiqi World. Zou Junjie 5P takes a look at "Changing Styles" in our first bonus file, translated by Dave Wong from Weiqi World. Yilun Yang's easy endgame problem for December shows the biggest move. Non-members: join the American Go Association and get all this great content with every EJ! It's all just a click away!

December 8, 2008; Volume 9, #61

CHO HOLDS ONTO TENGEN, RECAPTURES OZA: This has been a good week for Cho U (left) 9P, who not only recaptured the Oza, but held onto the Tengen, defeating challenger Kono Rin 9P 3-0. Cho took the last game in the Tengen on December 4th and won the fourth and final Oza game on December 8, claiming two titles in just five days. Cho now holds four of the top seven Japanese titles, including the Meijin, Tengen, Gosei, and Oza. Cho held the Oza from 2003 to 2005, but lost it in 2006 to Yamashita who held it for two years. Yamashita is left with only the Kisei title, which he has held for four years altogether, including the last three. Kono held the Tengen title for three years until Cho took it last year. Kono's only current title now is the NEC Cup. Cho had an impressive run-up to challenging for this event, winning the final with Ko Iso 7P by 1.5 points, his semi-final game against Cho Chikun 9P by 1.5 points, and his third round game against Takao Shinji 9P by a mere half point. Cho won this title for the first time last year, taking it from Kono Rin, who had held it for three years.

REZ JOHNSON MISSISSIPPI STATE CHAMP: Rez Johnson is the 2008 Mississippi State Go Champion, topping Saturday's State Go Championships McLeod Johnson won the Junior State Go Championship, while Caleb Lewis won the Youth State Go Championship. The event - sponsored by the Mississippi Go Society -- was held at Jumbos Chinese Restaurant in Brandon, MS on December 6th. "A good time was had by all and everyone left excited about playing more go," reports the Society. WINNER'S REPORT: Mississippi State Go Championship (12 and up): 1st: Rez Johnson; 2nd: McLeod Johnson; 3rd: Robert Pridgen. Mississippi State Junior Go Championship (12 - 17): 1st: McLeod Johnson; 2nd: Nathanael Lewis; 3rd: Joseph Lewis. Mississippi State Youth Go Championship (7 - 11): 1st: Caleb Lewis; 2nd: Sara Beth Alderman; 3rd: Jacob Lewis.

MINIERI TOPS IN ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS REPORT: Davide Minieri 3D took 1st place at the 29th annual Italian Open Championships (right), held at the 11th Italian Go Congress, which ran November 28-30 in Milan, Italy. The field of 87 included a large group of participants from Kiev in the Western Ukraine. Four players finished on top with 4 wins each: Minieri (Padova), Vasyl Skochko 4D (Kiev), Giordano D'Obici 1D (Rome) and local strongman Francesco Marigo 4D. Dmytro Korolov 7k and Mykola Antonov 20k from Kiev were the only other undefeated players. Roman Korolov 2k of Kiev topped the 9x9 Tournament, Borys Baydenko 4k took 2nd and Carlo Metta 2k was the 9x9 Italian Champ, finishing 3rd (the highest-placing Italian player wins the championship title). Vasyl Skochko of Kiev took first place in the Lightning Championships, ahead of his countryman Roman Ruzhanskyy 1k, while Davide Minieri placed 3rd to win the Italian title, ahead of Gionata Soletti 2k, the main organizer of the 1996 and 2006 European Go Congresses in Italy. Click here for more photos. - reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent

LEE SEDOL TAKES 2-1 LEAD IN MYEONGIN: Lee Sedol (left) 9P is ahead 2-1 in the best-of-five-game finals of the Korean Myeongin (J: Meijin) against challenger Kang Dongyun 9P. Kang became the challenger by defeating Won Sungjin 9P who had just defeated Lee Changho 9P in the play-off after the Challenger League left the three players tied. Kang is an up-and-coming teen. He won the gold medal in the male individual section of the recent World Mind Sports Games and recently won five consecutive games in the Nongshim Cup international team tournament. Last year he won the King of Kings title by defeating Lee Changho. Lee Sedol took this title last year from Lee Changho, who had held it for twelve of the previous thirteen years.

GU LI MEETS HU YAOYU IN FINALS OF CHINESE NEC CUP: Gu Li (right) 9P has held the fast play Chinese NEC Cup three times and was runner-up once in the last five years. This year he faces Hu Yaoyu 8P in the finals. Hu has done well in a number of top events, but has won few titles--most recently the Liguang Cup in 2007. Gu is the top title holder in China currently, holding two international titles (Fujitsu and Chunlan Cup) and five national titles.

YOUTH CHAMP QUALIFIER HOSTS WANTED: US Youth Go Championship (USYGC) organizers are looking for chapters interested in hosting one of next year's regional qualifying events. "This is a great opportunity to encourage many children and youth players to become stronger," says Coordinator Daniel Short. "It's also a way to give local players a chance to compete for a national championship." Eight qualifiers will be held across the country, with regional winners being flown to the national championship tournament in San Francisco, where the final champions -- junior and senior - will be selected as the AGA's representatives to the World Youth Goe Championship in August. To find out more about how your chapter can host a USYGC qualifier, email usygc@usgo.org  

FENG YUN WINTER WORKSHOP: Feng Yun (left) 9P will hold a go workshop from December 26 through 31 at the Madison Suites Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey. Visiting Chinese professional Yin Kuo 3p, second place finisher in the U.S. Open, will also teach, and Rob Muldowney 2d will assist in teaching beginners. Players of all ages are invited to attend. Click here for more details.

EURO WINTER GO SCHOOL: Over the upcoming holidays, go players in Northwest Europe will get together for the Winter-Go event on the border of Germany and Holland. Lecturers include Frank Janssen and Geert Groenen, both 6-dan, as well as Willem-Koen Pomstra 5D, who has attended all winter and summer Dutch Teaching Schools. Manuela Marz 4D will also give lectures on go, including "The seven dwarfs and other fairy tales" and "Why basketballs have bad shape and bicycles are dangerous." German families participating include the "First Family" of German Go, Deutscher Go-Bund President Michael Marz 3D, his wife Manuela 4D, and their young child. With students from all over Western Europe, the Summer and Winter Classes have become one of the major seasonal schooling opportunities in this part of Europe. Click here for more info.
- reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent

THE TRAVELING BOARD: Hyodo Offers Another Bite in the Big Apple
If you're anywhere in the metro New York City area, run, don't walk, to the New York Go Center: visiting Nihon Kiin instructor Shunichi Hyodo (right) 7d has extended his stay through the end of January. An old friend and one of the best go teachers I know, Hyodo was my guide on an unforgettable tour of Japan's go clubs and historic go sites in 2003. On the train between stops, no matter how exhausted we were, Hyodo would give me problems to study and then quiz me closely, exhorting me to work ever harder to improve my game. His strength as a teacher lies not just in his encyclopedic knowledge of the game - he spent 90 minutes reviewing nakade (dead shapes) with me last Sunday - but in his passionate commitment to teaching. Hyodo's many American friends look forward to seeing him - and his tour group of dedicated Japanese go players -- each year at the Go Congress, and he's been in residence at the New York Go Club since October. He's there every day except Monday, when the club is closed.
- Chris Garlock; photo by Steve Colburn

GO QUIZ: Waldron & Salamony Share Top Quiz Honors
For a change, all of the folks who thought last week's Quiz was too easy got it right, correctly identifying the Judan as the one title that no player has yet won five times in a row. Congratulations to Grant Kerr, this week's winner, selected at random from those answering correctly, and thanks to the most recent Go World for inspiring the question.
After leading all year, Phil Waldron was caught in the last three weeks by Kim Salamony, resulting in a jigo in which they share the two top honors of Most Correct and Most Attempts this year. Both finished with 28 right and 3 wrong. Honors for highest percentage -- with 50% participation -- goes once again to Grant Kerr who was an impressive 18 for 18. Honorable mention goes to Steve Fawthrop for a very respectable 18/20 and to Reinhold Burger, who finished the year with a streak of 5 straight correct answers to finish at 15/15. The rest of the honor roll follows: Terry Fung 11/13, Peter Schumer 11/15, Brian Kirby 8/10, Jonathan Huber 7/7, Andrew Huang 7/12, Trevor Morris 7/13, Deborah McGlothin 6/10, Ramon Mercado 5/5, and Oliver Nava 5/5. My thanks to all 160 of you who participated in the Go Quiz this year, as well as the many others who responded to our polls. See you in January!
- Keith Arnold

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
BLACKBERRY GO? "Is there software for recording games on a Blackberry?" wonders Bill. Let us know at journal@usgo.org

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': "Can you give me and name and contact for the Palo Alto and Menlo Park go clubs," writes Joy, "We live nearby and my son is playing go online and is interested in a club." Click here to quickly locate go clubs across the country.

GO IN THE NEWS: Mazda's Fall '08 Zoom Zoom magazine features go in an article entitled "Play Time" on page 10, reports Robert Cordingley of the Houston Go Club. "Play this," the article says, "Legend has it that the board game of Go was born around 2300 BC. Today it is hugely popular in China and Japan." The article is illustrated with "a modern version packaged in a rugged go-anywhere case" from Yellow Mountain Imports.

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  

PLAYERS WANTED: Abilene, TX: Starting a go club at Abilene Christian University & invite anyone attending any of the area colleges or who is living in Abilene or nearby to come and join us. We meet every Sunday at 2P in front of the Brown Library, where we then go to the location. Contact: Dustin Janssen, dkj07a@acu.edu (11/24)

FOR SALE: Volumes 1-11 of the Hikaru no Go manga (English version), in excellent condition: $40 plus shipping. Email Anderson Mills at nodog@konfuzo.net (11/17)

PLAYERS WANTED. Baltimore, MD: Lake Walker Go Club in north Baltimore area; we meet on Mondays at 8P. Contact Jim Pickett djpick@verizon.net 410-433-5257 (11/17)

PLAYERS WANTED: Murfreesboro TN: We meet every other weekend & might change location soon due to winter (our club is at a park); possible candidates should call first: 615-977-4528 (11/17)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Independence, MO: Open every Tuesday from 5-7P at the game cafe in Independence Square, 107 Lexington, MO 64050; cost is free, $2 for drinks (unlimited refils); the_emo_kyd@yahoo.com (11/3)

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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