American Go E-Journal » 2012 » November

Lee Hobum Stops Tan Xiao’s Repeat Run in Nongshim Cup

Saturday November 3, 2012

Korea’s Lee Hobum 3P stopped the run by China’s Tan Xiao 7P to repeat his 4-win streak in this year’s Nongshim Cup. Tan racked up three wins before falling to the talented young Korean, who will face the next player in line for Japan when the tournament resumes in November. For the first time, Lee Changho, who won the first six Nongshim tournaments with 19 wins and 3 losses, won’t participate. Lee said he felt he wasn’t in top form and recommended that Park Junghwan 9P take his spot on the team. The Nonshim is a team event between China, Japan and Korea, which uses a win-and-continue format between 5-member teams. The first players of each team play each other and continue playing until defeated, when the second player then takes over and so on, until a team is out of players. Korea has dominated this event, winning it 10 times, while China has won twice and Japan just once.
Adapted from a report on Go Game Guru; click here for game records and more information.
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Quadruple Ko: Gu Li vs Lee Sedol in the 17th Samsung Cup

Saturday November 3, 2012

An Younggil 8P takes a look at the most recent game between Lee Sedol 9P and Gu Li 9P in this game commentary from

[link]

Go Game Guru.  This game – which features a quadruple ko — is from the round of 32 of the 17th Samsung Cup, which took place during October in Korea. The semi finals will be in November and the finals in December. This is the 29th game between Lee and Gu, and so far, their record is the tied at 14-14. “Their games are always exciting and interesting to watch,” says Younggil.

– Adapted from a report on Go Game Guru
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New AGA Board Has a Lot on Its Plate

Thursday November 1, 2012

The AGA Board of Directors on Oct. 21 approved President Andy Okun’s proposal to restore the College Club Funding Program; the program, which provides $50-$100 per college club annually to assist with organizing go activities, had been suspended in 2008. The Board also asked President Okun to develop formal policies regarding offshore chapters, waiving membership requirements for foreign nationals playing in AGA tournaments, and compensation and invitation practices for pros attending the Go Congress. President Okun reported that work continues to fix the AGAGD, which has been offline recently due to security issues. He also reported on efforts to sign up teams for the Pandanet City League. A committee of Edward Zhang and Gurujeet Khalsa was formed to research a policy for optimal management of AGA reserve funds. President Okun will draft a policy for dealing with long-unused funds that had been allocated to some past Congresses for use by local clubs. The Board, favoring rapid development of a new rank certification program to officially recognize members’ rank achievements, instructed the President to identify and test possible criteria for granting the ranks. The Board also appropriated up to $1,000 for legal advice to determine what, if any, organizational changes might be necessary to accommodate the AGA’s new pro system.

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Categories: U.S./North America
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How to Become an Insei

Thursday November 1, 2012

“When I was webmaster I was often asked how to become an insei, or go student in training to be a professional,” writes Steve Colburn (What’s The Best School for Inseis? 10/22 EJ). “I never had a good answer, but recently I found some information on the Nihon Kiin’s site about how to become an insei in Japan for those not of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Taiwanese descent. Hajin Lee 3P from the Korean Baduk Association (KBA) also told me that the custom in Korea is that foreign students need to find a private academy first, and become an insei later. Hajin Lee said that the KBA is usually very accommodating to foreign students in order to encourage them to study in Korea longer. For example the age limit is higher so that foreign students can stay several years longer than their Korean counterparts. Foreign students are also permitted a more relaxed schedule than Korean students, who train in the academies every weekday and then play the insei on the weekends, while foreign students are often interested in traveling or exploring Korea on their weekends.” Edward Zhang reports that in mainland China, there are no official “insei” but there are a lot training schools — mostly in Beijing– where the strongest amateur players train 14+ hours a day, 365 days a year for just one reason: taking the annual pro test in the summer, at which only 20 will make it through to turn pro.
Photo: former Japanese B class insei Antti Törmänen of Finland 

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