American Go E-Journal » 2010 » October

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR THE N.A. BC CARD CUP

Sunday October 31, 2010

Sunday October 31st is the last day to register the N.A. BC Card Cup. The Cup winner will be fully sponsored to go to Korea and represent the U.S. in the main qualifier event in January 2011. The qualifier tournament will be on KGS during the weekend of Nov. 13-14. BC Card is one of the largest credit card companies in Korea. Click here for more about BC Card Cup World Baduk Champhionship. Thus far a strong group of 17 players has registered, including several former U.S. champions. Click hereto register. The AGA Tournament Coordinator Team has openings for online tournament assistance and tournaments reporting, a great
opportunity to serve the AGA and learn how to run tournaments. If interested, contact National Tournament Coordinator Zhiyuan Zhang at zhiyuanz@gmail.com

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

CONFERENCE EXPLORES EFFECTS OF GO

Sunday October 31, 2010

Exciting new research on the effect of go in the social sciences were among the presentations at the 7th International Conference on Baduk (ICOB) in South Korea on October 24. “Although there have been numerous academic studies involving baduk in the mathematics, artificial intelligence and computer science fields,” Dr. Ernest Brown (l) told the E-Journal, “this conference presented exciting research in social science, psychological and cognitive areas of study.” The conference is sponsored by the Myong-ji University Department of Baduk Studies and took place concurrently with the 5th Korea Prime Minister’s Cup (below). In recent years, Brown – clinical director of a day treatment program for adolescents in San Francisco, who presented a paper at the conference — reports, “American psychotherapists that play baduk have reported anecdotal data to suggest that baduk is useful in working with therapy clients, particularly troubled/dis-enfranchised adolescents.  However, the research being conducted in Korea and Japan is very promising for American go players who are interested in similar fields and provides an opportunity for research in America.” Brown also reports that “I also heard of a German study that demonstrated improvement in reading ability (text) as a result of playing go. The researchers in that study were looking for improvement in mathematics, but found instead that the students’ reading scores improved.” Cognitive behavioral treatments of aggressive adolescents is currently the most promising and evidence-based treatment of successful rehabilitation, Brown adds. “However, treatments of this sort are also related to the motivation of the client to practice the activities that are suggested.  This study suggests that using activities such as baduk, which students may be easily attracted to and willing to pursue, can be an aide to enhancing their cognitive processes.  Additionally, there is evidence that there is frontal lobe deficiency in aggressive adolescents.  This study is promising in pointing to the use of baduk in improving frontal lobe activity.” During his visit to Korea, Dr. Brown also visited a baduk school for children. “They have developed a sensational curriculum with many materials for teachers, including workbooks, powerpoint and cartoon/interactive video, and a huge data-base of problems and technique instruction that levels up systematically.  Some of this information is already available in English.  The information, in addition to providing a very proficient baduk curriculum, also creates a professional presentation that is would be extremely persuasive for parents.” Click here for more information. photos by Allan Abramson

Share

STRAIN TOPS IN AUSTIN

Sunday October 31, 2010

Roger Strain topped the field of 16 players, going undefeated 4-0 at the 4th annual Cicadas Sing tournament Saturday, October 30 in Austin, Texas.  Four players tied for 2nd place at 3-1: John Zhang, Tracey Su, John Ruder, Peter Enyeart. Click here for a photo album.
– Andy Olsen; photo by Rob Smith

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

JHIRAD TOPS PORTLAND TOURNEY

Tuesday October 26, 2010

Nicholas Jhirad took top honors in the Portland Tournament, held October 23-24 at Lewis & Clark College. 29 players participated in the 5-round tournament, directed by Peter Drake. Winner’s Report: Dan: 1st: Nicholas Jhirad; 2nd: Vincent Zhang; 3rd: Ben Hakala. Single-digit kyu: 1st: Dylan Wiggins (only undefeated player); 2nd: Mike Malveaux; 3rd: R.Q. Yang. Double-digit kyu: 1st: Nick Sylvester; 2nd: Gordon Castanza; 3rd: April Hersey. Youth: Vincent Zhuang; Female: April Hersey.

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

XU WINS IN NY; “STEPHANIE” MING-MING YIN IS GO CENTER’S NEW “CLUB PRO”

Sunday October 24, 2010

Dahzi Xu 5D won The NY Go Center’s “Falling Leaves” tournament last Saturday, October 23, directed by Boris Bernadsky. Runners-up were David Shainok 1D and Mohammed Saqif Noor, a 10-year-old 10K with pro aspirations. During a break between rounds, Bernadsky introduced “Stephanie” Ming-Ming Yin (l), a Chinese 1P who is also an Adelphi University freshman business major. Yin, who studied go with Nie -Wei-Ping, is the New York Go Center’s new “club pro,” and says she intends to stay in the New York area at least until finishing her studies and will devote some of her time to teaching at the Center.  For her first event, she will play up to ten simultaneous games there on Saturday, November 13. Write to manager@nygocenter.org to register. Another highlight of the event was a go book sale during the lunch break. About twenty titles were available from a book stand operated by Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore featuring the largest selection of English-language go books in North America. No go player should pass through New York without paying a visit; but first, stop by the Go Center and get a special 10% discount coupon. Kinokuniya plans to continue selling books at future NY Go center events.
– Roy Laird; photos by Joshua Guarino

Share
Categories: U.S./North America
Share

GOGRINDER FOR IPHONE RELEASED

Sunday October 24, 2010

“As we all know, practicing your reading is one of the best ways to get stronger,” writes programmer Tim Kington. “To that end, the popular program GoGrinder has just been released for iPhone and iPod Touch. Now you can have thousands of go problems in your pocket and fit a little practice in whenever you have a few minutes to kill. GoGrinder uses problems in SGF format, and is the only app that lets you add your own problem sets.” The iPhone and iPod Touch versions of GoGrinder are available in the iTunes store.

Share

MANY FACES RELEASES IPAD APP

Sunday October 24, 2010

The Many Faces of Go iPad app, “Igowin HD” is now available in the iTunes app store.  The app plays with an adjustable AI strength ranging from 18 kyu to the full-strength Many Faces of Go engine of “about 1 dan on 9×9 and about 3 kyu on 19×19,” says author David Fotland. Users can set their strength, or have it adjusted automatically by the app, which plays on 9×9, 13×13, or 19×19 boards.  Handicap and opponent strength can be adjusted or chosen automatically. “It includes an sgf editor that supports variations, comments, and marks, so you can analyze your games when they are finished,” Fotland adds. You can try out a variation and continue the game against the AI from a new position.  Games can be saved and restored, or emailed as attachments.  At any time you can ask for a score estimate or a hint.  This is the seventh mobile app from Smart Games, all under the Igowin brand.  Igowin Tutor is a free introduction to the game.  Igowin 9×9, Igowin 13×13, and Igowin Pro let you play go against the AI.  Igowin life is for practicing solving life and death problems, and Igowin Joseki is for learning Joseki.

Share

GO IN THE NEWS: Go Kinect, TechCrunching Go, Go Q&A, Augmented Reality Go, Zatoichi & The Two Blind Go Players

Sunday October 24, 2010

Go Kinect: A mini go board and stones appears in the very first scene of the October 19 TV ad launching Kinect for Xbox 360  (Paul Barchilon) TechCrunching Go: The major tech blog TechCrunch recently featured a website called Go vs Go in an article about RoR development; CLICK HERE to check it out. (Jonathan Tien) Go Q&A: A new Go Q&A stack exchange site is looking for critical mass to get started.  (Nicholas Roussos) Augmented Reality Go: An MIT conference featured two go systems similar to that reported on at the recent Digital Contents Expo 2010 in Tokyo (GO IN THE NEWS: Playing Lightly 10/14 EJ): Augmented Reality Go game version 2 for TEI’10 demo and ARGO: Go augmentation for beginner’s training support (Ramon Mercado) Zatoichi & The Two Blind Go Players: “Last night we were watching the pulp samurai flick, Zatoichi and the Festival of Fire (1970, directed by Kenji Misumi), and there was a short but amusing go scene towards the end between two blind contestants.” reports Mark Gilston

Share

GET THE LATEST GO NEWS!

Sunday October 24, 2010

Are you just finding out that ‘Killer Of Go” Sakata Eio died last Thursday? Or that there’s still time to sign up for the upcoming workshops with Tadashi Sasaki 8P? Switch your E-Journal subscription to get the EJ whenever news is posted! Just click on “Update your profile” at the bottom of the E-Journal and you can choose either the daily (much shorter updates several times a week) or weekly editions, as well as your preferred format. That way you’ll be the first to know when U.S. REP JIE LIANG 7D TAKES FOURTH IN KOREAN P.M. CUP or XIE HE 7P GIVES CHINA 1ST STAGE IN NONGSHIM CUP (both reported in yesterday’s EJ). PLUS: Member’s Edition content is often published several days ahead of the weekly EJ, and you’ll get that early as well.

Share

UK TOURNEY REPORTS, August 22-October 2

Sunday October 24, 2010

Click here for details of forthcoming UK tournaments.

SHREWSBURY, 2 October.  Charles Fisher and his brother Freddie won half of the prizes at Shrewsbury.  Charles, 1 dan London, was the event winner, beating the organiser, Gerry Mills, in the final. Freddie, 10 kyu Shropshire, was one of two players on 2.5. The other was Pat Ridley, 11 kyu Chester. Pauline Bailey won a special prize for being Pauline. 32 players took part.
SWINDON
, 19 September.  Alistair Wall (3 dan Wanstead) won Swindon Tournament. The only other of the 28 players to win all three was Xinyi Lu (4 kyu Maidenhead). Two Swindon players, Aidan Putman (14 kyu) and Michael Fotheringham (30 kyu), got special prizes for their jigo.
CORNWALL
, Penzance, 11 – 12 September.  The two BGA teachers from the Saturday morning teaching session were the winners in the Cornish Go weekend’s two tournaments. In the 16-player Cornish Lightning Handicap on the Saturday afternoon, Tony Atkins (2 dan Reading) was the winner in the final against John Culmer (1 kyu, West Cornwall) despite having to give a four-stone start. On the Sunday, Toby Manning (2 dan Leicester) won the 20-player Cornish Open. Again, John Culmer was the player beaten in the last round. Toby collected the Devon and Cornwall Go Stone trophy, whilst Tony collected a new similar trophy (but serpentine and not wood) given in memory of a local player, Dominic Taylor, who had died recently.
NORTHERN
, Stockport, 5 September.  Ivan Wong, a Chinese 1 dan research student at Manchester University, won the Northern Tournament. Unusually Ivan was the only player of the 24 there to win all three games and so was the only prize winner.
MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD
, London, 21 – 30 August.  The MSO was held at the Soho Theatre in the centre of London and had restricted space, meaning fewer events than normal. Six players played the 13×13 on the Friday afternoon, with Gold going to Spain’s Paco Garcia de la Banda (3 dan). Silver went to Xinyi Lu (4 kyu) and silver to Vincent Frochot (8 kyu) from France. In the 12-player Open on the final Sunday, the Gold was won by Turkish 1 dan, Bulent Tuncel. Silver went to Paco and Bronze on tie-break to Alistair Wall (3 dan).  Go players took part in other games too, throughout the event, with some awards, such as Natasha Regan’s Silver at Hare and Tortoise and Matthew Hathrell’s Golds at Lost Cities, Continuo and Poker.
ISLE OF MAN
, Port Erin, 22 August – 26 August  Oscar Selby, aged 7, became the youngest winner of a Manx Go event at the recent Isle of Man Go Week. He won the 13×13 and also the Rengo (doubles) with Matthew Cocke. Not much older was the winner of the Lightning Tournament, Barney Shiu.  Matthew Cocke just missed out on a top spot, losing the Open on tie-break to Alex Selby. Winning 4 out of 5 was another young player, Danielle Ward. Toby Manning won the Afternoon tournament, in which Peter Collins, Elinor Brooks and Kathleen Timmins also won 3 out of 3. In the Handicap, the winner by tie-break was Peter Collins; also on 4 out of 5 were Luke Humphreys, Barney Shiu and Roella Smith (also a junior).  The Sandcastle competition was won jointly by the Bexfield Castle and Selby-Regan Castle. Special awards went to Elinor Brooks and Francis Roads for attending all 10 Isle of Man weeks.
– as reported in the October edition of the BGA Newsletter; click here for more on the British Go Association

Share
Categories: Europe
Share