American Go E-Journal » 2011 » February

Many of you caught the go joke Robert Cordingley spotted in the Go Daddy First Impressions ad, when CEO Bob Parsons (l)catches the flying shirt button and says “Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” (One reader also suggested that the sound of Parson catching the button “sounds like a stone hitting a goban pretty hard” which seems like even more of a stretch) While this is a common expression among go players referring to the need for eyes to live, Richard Moseson points out that “if you do a search on this phrase in Google, there are over 100,000 non-go-related hits, some claiming that the expression comes from wrestling matches in Ancient Rome,” leading him to wonder “Is this truly a go-related expression?” Terry Benson says no, sending along a cite that claims it’s an old American proverb and also noting the verse in Don Freed’s 1992  song “You Can’t Be a Pirate”: “Being a pirate is all fun and games/Till somebody loses an eye. btw, no word on whether Parsons is a go player.

Nearly 300 watched 2010 NAIM champion Huiren Yang 1P and newcomer Zhanbo Sun 2P (see our profile elsewhere in this edition) battle it out February 5 in the Young Kwon National Online Tournament February 5 final on KGS. After several complicated battles and unfathomable trades, Sun managed to squeeze a 5.5-point victory to sweep the tournament, while Calvin Sun took second place in the tie-breaker. The tournament’s prize purse was donated by Young Kwon, with dan certificates generously supplied by the Korean Baduk Association, through coordination by Myungwan Kim 9P. KGS-AGA liaison is Akane Negishi; Assistant tournament directors were Binquan Wang, Hua Lin, Xingshuo Liu, Zhenying Gu and Jon Boley. Tournament directors were Chris Kirschner, Yixian Zhou and Zhiyuan ‘Edward’ Zhang.  Winners are pictured at right:
UPPER ROW (l-r): Bryan Tan (19-23k), Tengxiao Yang (6d), Gordon Castanza (8-10k), Calvin Sun (6d), Martin Field (5-7k), Tom Xu (4-5d), Dan Bensky (19-23k), Henry Zhang (1-2k)
LOWER ROW (l-r): Ze-Li Dou (1-3d), Zhanbo Sun 7d+), Tommaso Mason (11-13k), Young Kwon, Yunxuan Li (1-3d), Dazhi Xu (4-5d)
COMPLETE WINNER’S LIST: 7d+: Zhanbo Sun, Calvin Sun; 6d: Hugh Zhang (awarded Korean Baduk Association, KBA 6d), Tengxiao Yang; 4-5d: Dazhi Xu, Tom Xu; 1-3d: Ze-Li Dou (awarded KBA 4d), Yunxuan Li; 1-2k: Donald Allison (awarded KBA 1d); Henry Zhang; 3-4k: Larry Qu, Sile Chen; 5-7k: Martin Field, Stephen Allen; 8-10k: Thomas Giles, Gordon Castanza; 11-13k: Julian Erville, Tommaso Mason; 14-18k: Jerry Lu, Tristin Tran; 19-23k: Bryan Tan, Dan Bensky; 23-35k: Jonathon Hu.

This year’s U.S. Go Congress organizers are – for the first time – accepting contributions to support the attendance of professional go players. “Show your appreciation for the professionals who attend Congress by donating to support their attendance and hard work!” urge 2011 Congress Directors Andrew Jackson and Lisa Scott. Those who donate $2500 or more will receive two tickets to attend the Pro Dinner, as well as a complimentary lesson with an attending professional. Donations may also be made by a group of people; anyone who donates at least $200 will receive a mention in the 2011 US Go Congress Handbook. Targeted donations can also be made towards the support of specific attending professionals. For complete details, email andrew.jackson@gocongress.org
photo: Japanese pro Ryo Maeda 6P at the 2010 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Jake Edge

Feijun (Frank) Luo 5d (r) topped a record field of 38 players who turned out for the February 5 Year of the Rabbit Go Tournament in Atlanta, GA. Players aged seven to over sixty competed over four round in three divisions. The tournament was held in the new office building of the Atlanta Contemporary Chinese Academy (ACCA), with Zhiqiang Liu, Board Chairman of the ACCA welcoming all go players to the event. Liu praised go as “the most interesting and intellectually challenging board game” and encouraged further collaboration among the Atlanta Go Club, Atlanta Chinese Go Association and ACCA. The one-day, four-round tournament generated a number of intense games, including the championship game in Division I (4d-5d) between Feijun (Frank) Luo 5d and Geng (Eric) Wang 5d, who each won a go tournament championship in Atlanta in 2010.  Luo managed to defeat Wang by just 2.5 points after playing catch-up for most of the game.  Yongming (Michael) Zhuang secured the Division II (3d-4d) championship after winning all 4 rounds.  Jicheng (Kevin) Tang, Likang Xu, Xiaodong Sun, and Fengli Cao tied in the second place.  In Division III (1d and below), Kun Chen and Alex Hartsell both captured a championship title, and Brandon Zhou and Kyle Cavin had a tie for second place. Notably, four youth players — Kun Chen 14, Zhangzheng Xu 14, Peiyu Tang 13, and Brandon Zhou 7 – performed well at the tournament, and Zhou, the youngest player, is now a 4k player after learning go just 7 months ago. Local organizers plan to host more tournaments in Atlanta in the future, and welcome all players, “regardless of their levels.”

Young Kwon National Online Tournament winner Zhanbo Sun 2P (l) is something of a mystery man to the North American go community, never having appeared previously in an AGA tournament. The 24-year-old Sun hails from Daqing in Heilongjiang Province, which borders Jilin in the south, Inner Mongolia to the west, and Russia to the north and east. Sun began playing go when he was six years old and became a professional in 2000. He has trained with Wenyao Piao 9P, who’s currently ranked 12th in China, and Jiaxi Tuo 6P, who’s ranked 7th. He captained Tsinghua University’s go team from 2005 to 2009 and is now a Ph.D. candidate in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, majoring in Transportation Engineering. Sun’s hobbies include music and snooker. His favorite thing about go is “Its complexity,” and his advice to amateurs who want to get stronger is simple: “Respect your opponents.” To the relief – or disappointment — of other top North American players, Sun tells the EJ that due to time conflicts he’s unlikely to enter more North American tourneys at this point.

The American Go Association has issued it’s annual call for self-nominations to be guest officials abroad for the AGA, President Allan Abramson announced today. “Each year a few opportunities arise to send people overseas as guest officials,” said Abramson. “An open call for people to nominate themselves is the fair way to go.” Nominations should be sent to president@usgo.org, with a short statement of the contributions to U.S go that would merit selection as a guest official. The deadline this year is Sunday, February 27.