Monday December 8, 2008
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.
Monday December 8, 2008
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.
Monday December 8, 2008
This has been a good week for Cho U (pictured) 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.
Monday December 8, 2008
Lee Sedol (pictured) 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.
Monday December 8, 2008
Gu Li (pictured) 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.
Monday December 8, 2008
Feng Yun (pictured) 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.
Monday December 8, 2008
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
Monday December 8, 2008
Davide Minieri 3D took 1st place at the 29th annual Italian Open Championships (pictured), 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 9×9 Tournament, Borys Baydenko 4K took 2nd and Carlo Metta 2K was the 9×9 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. – reported by Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent
Monday December 8, 2008
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 (pictured) 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
Monday December 1, 2008
There’s still space in Jennie Shen (right) 2P’s December 12-14 workshop in Philadelphia, reports organizer Matt Bengtson. “We have players registered from 20k to 5d,” he adds. The workshop includes 
lectures and game reviews and costs $100, or $50 for youth or Penn Go Society members. Check out the Penn Go Society website for details; contact Matt Bengtson (matt@mattbengtson.com, 215-704-4600) or Peter Nassar (pnassar@vet.upenn.edu, 215-898-6271) for more info. Photo by Flickr user Smudge_47