Registration for the 2011 US Go Congress launched last weekend. The Congress website — where nearly 200 have pre-registered — is now accepting registrations, and a $75 deposit will confirm registration. Pre-registrants have received advanced notification that they may now register, and all others interested in attending the Congress – which runs July 30 – August 7 in Santa Barbara, CA – may also do so as well. “Information on tournaments, events, and room and board prices has also been updated,” reports Congress Co-Director Lisa Scott. “Look for room and board registration later in February!” Information for ensuring the well-being of registered youth (children under 18) is available as well. Email questions about registration to registrar@gocongress.org. “We look forward to seeing you this summer!” adds Scott.
American Go E-Journal » 2011 » January
WORLD GO NEWS ROUND-UP January 25-31: BC Card Cup begins; Choi Cheolhan wins the Chunwon; Xie Yimin wins game 1 in Female Kisei; Cho U evens the score in Kisei; Choi Cheolhan wins game 3 in Kuksu
Monday January 31, 2011
BC Card Cup main tournament begins. The 3rd BC Card Cup main tournament began January 31 with 64 participants from Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan all competing to make it through the first round. Several first-round matches resulted in upsets for top contenders. Kong Jie 9P lost to Tan Xiao 5P, Cho Chikun 9P lost to Yan Huan 5P, Kim Hyunseob 2P lost to Korean amateur Hong Moojin and, while not an upset per se, last year’s BC Card Cup runner-up Chang Hao 9P lost to Lee Younggu 8P. Round two will begin on February 17th. Choi Cheolhan wins the Chunwon. Choi Cheolhan 9P (l in photo) won his first national title of the year on January 27, the Chunwon (Tengen). Choi defeated Lee Taehyun 3P (r) by resignation in the the third round of the 15th Chunwon, sweeping the five-game series, 3-0. With his recent international win in the Nongshim Cup, his 2-1 lead over Lee Changho 9P in the Kuksu final, and his strong showing in other ongoing tournaments, 2011 is shaping up very well for Choi. Xie Yimin wins game 1 in Female Kisei. On January 27, defending champion Xie Yimin 5P defeated Umezawa Yukari 5P by 9.5 points in the first round of the 14th Female Kisei title match. This year’s match up between Xie and Umezawa is a repeat of last year’s title match when Xie swept the series – two games to none. With Xie’s first-round win, Umezawa must now win the remaining two rounds if she hopes to take the title away from Xie. Cho U evens the score in Kisei. In the second round of the 35th Kisei, Cho U 9P evened the series to 1-1 by defeating Iyama Yuta 9P by resignation on January 26-27. The third round will be played on February 2-3. Choi Cheolhan wins game 3 in Kuksu. Choi Cheolhan 9P is only one game away from becoming the new Kuksu. He defeated Lee Changho 9P by resignation in the third round of the 54th Kuksu on January 25, and leads the series 2-1. Choi is no newcomer to the Kuksu title. He has won the Kuksu twice before, in 2004 and 2005, and participated in the title match four times including this year. Lee, on the other hand, has won the Kuksu 10 times and participated in the title match 18 times including this year. The fourth round will be played on February 14th.
– JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge
YKNOT Draws Large Online Field
Monday January 31, 2011
Over 20 players remained undefeated after first two rounds of Young Kwon National Online Tournament, held January 22-23 on KGS. Topping the all-time largest AGA online tournament in the 7d+ division are Dae Hyuk Ko, Zhanbo Sun, Jie Liang and Jing Guo. Suo and Sun are first time players in an AGA national event. In other dan and kyu sessions, AGA rookies Tommaso Mason 12k, Tengxiao Yang 6d and Travis Neil 2k have perfect scores thus far. Click here (ngol.us/Downloads) for complete results and Round 3 pairings. YKNOT resumed last weekend on KGS; watch the AGA website (www.usgo.org) for latest updates.
Tacoma Club Resumes Meetings
Monday January 31, 2011
After a year-long hiatus, the Tacoma Go Club is resuming meetings. The Washington state go club will be hosted by the Tacoma Art Museum’s Workz Cafe on the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 11a to 5p. “This new offer allows the TGC to resume meetings in one of the most sought-after venues in Tacoma,” brags local organizer Gordon Castanza. “Come and enjoy the fine art collection of this museum, which includes the world-famous Dale Chihuly glass sculptures.” Free parking is available at the Tacoma Dome Transit Center, from which you catch the fare free Tacoma Link light rail and get off at the Tacoma Art Museum.
Learning from Ants
Monday January 31, 2011
Could stronger go-playing programs draw their inspiration from ants? A recent article in the Journal of Experimental Biology showed that Argentinian ants were able to solve a maze generated by the Tower of Hanoi mathematical puzzle, working together to optimally find their way to food, and researchers hope that computerized optimization algorithms can adopt the ant’s biological algorithm. Israeli go player Shavit Fragman, in turn, wonders “What can we learn from biological systems to solve the go maze?” Seeking to bridge the gap between the Towers of Hanoi and solving a life and death problem, Shavit offers a challenge to “translate a tsumego into a problem of finding the shortest path in a maze and program an algorithm mimicking the ant’s behavior to find the solution.” Click here to read more about this.
GO SPOTTING: Summer Wars
Monday January 31, 2011
Kissinger on Go and Chinese Strategic Thinking
Monday January 24, 2011
Discussing China on CNN Sunday, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that “One has to understand the Chinese intellectual game, which is what we call go (and) they call weiqi.” Explaining that “it’s a game of strategic encirclement,” Kissinger said that “our intellectual game is chess. Chess is about victory or defeat. Somebody wins.” Kissinger contrasted chess in which “all the pieces are in front of you at all times, so you can calculate your risk” with go, where the pieces “are not all on the board, and your opponent is always capable of introducing new pieces.” Historically, Kissinger said, the Chinese use strategic analysis based on “the go way.” Despite Kissinger’s cogent understanding of the game, CNN mistakenly used video of Chinese Chess to illustrate the segment. Click here to see the interview; the comments about go begin at 7m32s.
Thanks to the many readers who alerted us to this interview.
UPDATE: Noting that “The goal is less victory than persistent strategic progress,” Kissinger made similar comments in a 2004 Newsweek column. (Thanks to Roy Laird for finding this)
School Teams Delayed for NJ Open
Monday January 24, 2011
The AGHS School Teams Tourney has been pushed back one week, to avoid the New Jersey Open. The event will now be held on March 5 and 12. Full information, including registration, can be found on the AGHS website.
WORLD GO NEWS ROUND-UP January 18-24: Kim Yunyoung vs. Rui Naiwei in Female Kuksu final; Lee Sedol falls to Mok Jinseok in Maxim Cup; Korea wins the Nongshim again
Monday January 24, 2011
Kim Yunyoung vs. Rui Naiwei in Female Kuksu final. Rui Naiwei 9P defeated Kim Hyeoilim 1P by resignation in the 16th Female Kuksu semifinals, which was held on January 20. Rui, the defending Female Kuksu title holder, will face Kim Yunyoung 1P in the title match. This should be an interesting three-game series. Kim has defeated Rui in the past, most recently in the first round of the 4th Female Gisung where Kim went on to capture the title. Lee Sedol falls to Mok Jinseok in Maxim Cup. On January 20, in the third round of the 12th Maxim Cup, Mok Jinseok 9P defeated Lee Sedol 9P by resignation after 163 moves. Mok will play the winner of the third-round match between Lee Changho 9P and Cho Hunhyun 9P, which will be played on February 2nd. Korea wins the Nongshim again. For a third straight year in a row Korea has won the Nongshim Cup. On January 20, Korea’s Choi Cheolhan 9P (l in match photo) defeated China’s Kong Jie 9P (r) by resignation in the final stage of the 12th Nongshim Cup. Choi has been playing very well as of late and gave Team Korea their 10th Nongshim Cup title. On January 19, Japan was eliminated when Choi defeated Yuki Satoshi 9P by resignation in the second round of stage three.
– JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge
Canadian Cities Face Off Online
Monday January 24, 2011
Hanxi Zhang has organized a Canadian online super go competition on KGS between top players in Ottawa/Gatineau and Montreal/Quebec City. The next game — round 3 — will be this Wednesday, January 26 at 9p EST, when Yingzhi Chen (Yingzhi) will play Pascal Tremblay (Pasukaru). You can follow the games online on KGS and on Twitter.