American Go E-Journal » 2013 » April

Shi Yue Wins Go9dan.com’s First Professional World Go League

Tuesday April 30, 2013

Chinese pro Shi Yue has won first prize in go9dan.com’s first professional World Go League. “I was really happy that I managed to top all these very strong players,” Shi said. The 3-month long World Go League featured ten of the top players in the world competing for $100,000 in prizes, five players

each from South Korea and China. From Korea, Lee Changho, Lee Sedol, Park Younghoon, Kim Jisuk and Park Junghwan participated, and from China Shi Yue, Chen Yaoye, Fan Tingyu, Xie He and Kong Jie. Go TV relayed Lee Sedol’s professional commentary on selected games. Shi Yue won with a 7-2 record and Park Junghwan and Chen Yaoye were runners up with 6-3. Ironically go9dan.com co-founder Lee Sedol finished last with a 2-7 record. Click here for complete game results.

“Unique to the World Go League, the top 10 superpowers went head to head without any preliminaries,” go9dan.com’s Michael Simon tells the E-Journal. Forty five games among the world’s strongest go players were recorded; for game records click here and look for games marked (P) for professional. All of the games were played online, “which created some very interesting issues,” Simon says. “We saw players run out of time and even place stones on unintended intersections on the board.” When Lee Sedol was doing game commentaries on BadukTV, he talked about his “mouse misses” and specifically about players who are experienced online vs. those who are not experienced.

Asked his secret to success, Shi said that “the secret is to maintain sound health and an active mind…In go, confidence is very important. Nowadays luck seems to matter a lot, too.” On his thoughts on the future of go in China, Korea, and Japan, Shi notes that “Recently, Japan is falling behind in world go championships, and the competition is strongest between China and Korea. Personally, I want to see Japan recover quickly and compete on the world’s top stage. And I also wish to see top players from Europe and other countries compete at the highest level.”

Go9dan.com is a global online go site co-founded by Lee Sedol and former US Champion John J. Lee. It is directly involved in the establishment and planning of projects to foster go. Unexpected network problems and defects in the application took longer to cure than expected so its beta period was extended. Simon says that go9dan.com anticipates launching its full-fledged service very soon.

Categories: World

Online “OWL: Resurrection” Tournament to Launch NAMT Qualifiers

Tuesday April 30, 2013

The sequel to last year’s Oscar Wilde Liberation (OWL) Tournament, “OWL: Resurrection”, will be this year’s first online NAMT qualifier, reports Karoline Burrall, who will direct, with Jasmine Yan. The 4-round tournament will take place the weekend of May 18-19, “the 19th being the 116th anniversary of the great author and playwright Oscar Wilde’s liberation from Reading Gaol Prison in 1897,” Burrall tells the E-Journal. “Participants will have the opportunity to earn points towards the North American Masters Tournament at this year’s Go Congress in August,” Burrall adds. Designed for 16 players, all games will be played on KGS in the AGA Tournament Room. Click here for tournament schedule and rules and here to register by Thursday May 16. Players must be 4D+ and eligible to compete in NAMT (citizen or permanent resident, continuous AGA membership since January 2012, and resident in the US for 6 of the last 12 months). Burrall notes that “should this tournament fall on the same weekend again next year, it will be titled ‘OWL: Apocalypse'”.

Categories: U.S./North America

Your Move/Readers Write: Keeping Hans Pietsch’s Memory Alive

Tuesday April 30, 2013

“Thank you for posting the history of the German go pro who died in Guatemala (Remembering German Go Professional Hans Pietsch 4/26 EJ),” writes Brazilian go organizer Roberto Petresco. “I knew the history and perhaps I heard about it when it happened, but I had no idea of the details nor (had I seen his) face. I am happy to know his memory is being preserved with events organized in his memory. Imagine how go would be in Germany if he had the chance to keep working.”

Categories: Your Move: Readers Write

Ye Wins Jujo Jiang Cup – Free Game Review

Tuesday April 30, 2013

Aaron Ye 5d, who has been the Jr. Division US Youth Champion for the past three years, pulled a surprise upset at the Jujo Jiang Youth Cup in Sunnyvale, CA, on March 24th. Ye, who is just 11, lost his Jr. Division title to Jeremy Chiu 5d in the US Youth Go Championships in February, and was out to settle a score. Reigning Sr. Division champion Calvin Sun 7d was also unseated by Andrew Lu 6d at the USYGC. All of these matches were held online, but Ye was determined to even the score when he got the chance to play both Chiu and Lu face to face at the Jujo Cup. Taking white against Chiu, Ye captured a large group on the lower side, and then forced Chiu to resign in just 132 moves. Ye next took on Andrew Lu, and despite falling behind in the opening, was able to regain his footing, and defeat Lu as well. As a special bonus for all E-J readers, Feng Yun’s compelling commentary on the game is being provided for free (see below). Full members of the AGA get exciting commentaries like this every week, and members can compare games like this one with last week’s commentary, where Ye lost to Chiu, and also see an exciting game between Calvin Sun and Andrew Lu from the USYGC. The game commentaries alone are worth the price of AGA membership. For youth it is an even better deal, just $10 a year! The E-J is providing this game as a freebie, full members can also see another game this week, where Guo Juan 5P reviews a game from a 1 dan player, and highlights how to find urgent points in relation to strong and weak groups on the board. To sign up for the members edition, register with the AGA here. Winner’s Report: 5-7 dan: 1st Place: Aaron Ye, 2nd place: Andrew Lu, 3rd place: Jeremy Chiu, 4th place: Tianyi Liu; 1-3dan: 1st place: Daniel Liu; 1k – 8k: 1st: Eric Liu; 17k – 29k: Mathew Cheng; 13 x 13 board: Adam Tang. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo by Abby Zhang: A triumphant Aaron Ye holds up his trophy.

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Categories: Game Commentaries,U.S./North America,Youth

The Power Report: Yuki takes Judan Title, Reducing Iyama to Quintuple Crown; Korea Wins Huading Cup After 3-Way Tie

Monday April 29, 2013

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the American Go E-Journal

Yuki takes Judan Title, Reducing Iyama to Quintuple Crown: Challenger Yuki Satoshi 9P put an end to Iyama Yuta’s reign as a sextuple titleholder on April 26 when he won the final game of the 51st Judan title match, which was played at the headquarters of the Kansai Ki-in. Taking white, Yuki won by 1.5 points after 261 moves to win his second top-seven title. Yuki took the lead in the middle game and thereafter, thanks to accurate play, managed to fend off Iyama’s attempts to catch up. Yuki is the fourth Kansai Ki-in player to win the Judan title. He has now won 11 titles, but nine of these are fast-go titles; his only previous top-seven title was the 36th Tengen title, which he won in 2010.

In March, Iyama became the first player ever to hold six of the top-seven titles simultaneously, and there was a lot of speculation about his chances of monopolizing all seven by winning the Meijin title later this year. That prospect has now been ruled out after his reign as a sextuple titleholder ended after just 43 days. To have a second crack at this goal, Iyama will have to hang on to his other titles, then regain the Judan title next year, while also picking up the Meijin title this year or next year.

As with the fourth game, all the interest of the press focused on Iyama at the end of the game, with photographers snapping him, not the winner. The report the next day in the Yomiuri newspaper, for example, featured a photo of Iyama with the headline ‘Iyama reduced to five crowns.’ Yuki probably was philosophical about this; after all, he had the title, and his career had reached a new peak at the ‘advanced’ age, for tournament go, of 41.

Korea Wins Huading Cup After 3-Way Tie: The Huading Tea Industries Cup World Women’s Team Tournament is a tournament for three-player teams from the four East Asian countries with professional go organizations. Last year, in the tournament’s first edition. it was dominated by Korea, which didn’t lose a game, but this year China, Korea, and Japan fought their way to a three-way tie, with each country winning two matches and losing one. Last place was filled by Chinese Taipei, which failed to win a match but did pick up an individual win, one more than last year. The first tie-breaker is the number of games won. Japan had five wins, compared to six each for China and Korea, so it took third place. The second tie-breaker is the results of the players on the top board, but here, too, China and Korea were tied, so the organizers had to resort to the third tie-breaker, the results on the second board. Here the Korean player had one more win, so that gave Korea the championship for the second time running. photo: Xie playing Hei (Joanne Missingham) of Chinese Taipei; photo by sina.com

Results:
Round 1 (April 26): Japan 2, Taiwan 1: Xie Yimin (Hsieh I-min) 6P (B) defeated Hei Jiajia (Joanne Missingham) 6P by half a point; Okuda Aya 3P (W) lost to Su Shengfang 2P by resignation; Mukai Chiaki 5P (B) d. Zhang Zhengping 3P by resig.; China 2, Korea 1: Li He 5P (W) d. Pak Chi-eun 9P by 3.5 points; Tang Yi 2P (B) lost to Kim Mi-li 2P by resig; Wang Chenxing 5P (W) d. Kim Ch’ae-yeong 1P by resig.

Round 2 (April 27): Korea 2, Japan 1: Pak (B) d. Xie by resig.; Kim Mi-li (W) d. Okuda by resig.; Kim (B) lost to Mukai by resig.; China 3, Chinese Taipei 0: Li (B) d. Hei by resig.; Tang (W) d. Su by resig.; Wang (B) d. Zhang by resig.

Round 3 (April 28): Japan 2, China 1: Xie (B) d. Li by resig.; Okuda (W) lost to Tang by resig.; Mukai (B) d. Wang by half a point.; Korea 3, Chinese Taipei 0: Pak (W) d. Hei by resig.; Kim Mi-li (B) d. Su by resig.; Kim (W) d. Zhang by resig.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report,Korea,World

Karl-Ernst Paech, Influential European Go Leader, Dies at 90

Monday April 29, 2013

Karl-Ernst Paech, former president of the European Go Federation (EGF) and the German Go Federation (DGoB) — and one of the most influential leaders of European go in the last century — died on April 16 at the age of 90.

After growing up in different German cities Paech (left, in blue shirt) spent most of his life in Munich. He first came across go in 1937 when he discovered a telegraphically-played game between Fritz Dueball and the Japanese Farming Minister. In 1964 Paech founded the Bavarian Go Association (BGoV) and became it’s first president. In 1966 he was elected president of the German Go Federation. One year later he also became president of the European Go Federation for two years and after that served as EGF treasurer. He was a member of the EGF board and DGoB president for ove 15 years. He was appointed Honorary President by both organizations after his retirement. Even after retiring he regularly attended yearly meetings of the the Bavarian Go Association despite being more than 80 years old.

Paech’s proudest honor was the 1988 award of the Japanese Okura prize, the highest award by the Nihon Ki-in for spreading go in the world. Aside from his success in building go federations he was also a proficient player. At his first trip to Japan in 1965 he received a Ni-Dan diploma from the Nihon Ki-in and in 1982 he received a 2-dan amateur diploma from the Korean Baduk Association.

Paech had a major influence on establishing the administrative structures and tournaments that exist in Europe today and he was responsible for numerous activities fostering go in Germany and Europe, including four European Go Congresses which took place in Germany during his leadreship tenure. He also initiated the introduction of the Japanese ranking system in Germany.

– reported by Jan Engelhardt, German correspondent for the E-Journal

Categories: Europe

Your Move/Readers Write: Detective Dee Returns

Monday April 29, 2013

“At the 1:10:00 minute mark of ‘Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame’ there is a beautiful scene with an elaborate goban and stones,” writes Vincent DiMattia. I don’t know if this has been reported before but (even if so), watch the movie for it’s great production and story line. It’s filled with mystery and magic and is top quality. Fight scenes are impressive also.”
Read more about this in our October 22, 2011 post: Go Spotting: The Mystery of Detective Dee and the Go Board.

Categories: Go Spotting

Janice Kim Workshop Set for NorCal May 4-5; Registration Deadline 5/2

Sunday April 28, 2013

Professional go player and popular teacher Janice Kim 3P will teach a two-day go workshop in Berkeley, CA on May 4 and 5. The class size is being kept very small in order to maximize individual attention and give students the opportunity to ask questions. “A few seats are still available,” reports event organizer Thomas Rike, “but don’t delay.”

Janice Kim 3P is co-author of the award-winning book series Learn to Play Go, and her lectures at the San Francisco Go Club and past workshops have been very popular. One comment from a past workshop student: “Janice is able to get one to focus on those areas of the game where making a conscious effort can completely change the outcome.”

The deadline to sign up for the workshop is Thursday, May 2. More information and a registration link are available on the Bay Area Go workshop page.

Categories: U.S./North America

Yilun Yang 7P Joins Teaching Staff at Go Camp

Sunday April 28, 2013

“The AGA Go Camp is excited to announce that Yilun Yang 7P will be joining us for camp this year,” reports Camp Director Amanda Miller. Yang became a professional at the age of 14, in 1973. He has trained many notable players, including Rui Naiwei 9P, Chang Hao 9P, and Hua Zueming 7P. An experienced teacher, Yang has been teaching in the United States since 1986. He’s also the author of many popular go books, such as Fundamental Principles of Go, Life and Death by the Numbers, and Life and Death in Chinese Characters. ”If you’re a go player between the ages of 8 and 18, and would like an opportunity to study go for a week with a professional teacher, the AGA East Go Camp is for you,” says Miller. Anyone who played in the US Youth Go Championships is eligible for a $400 AGF scholarship to the camp. Kids who didn’t play, but need financial help to attend, can apply for a needs-based scholarship here. Visit the camp website for general information, pictures from past camps, and news regarding this year’s upcoming Go Camp. Questions about camp can be addressed to Miller at agagocampeast@gmail.com -Story/photo by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Yilun Yang teaching a children’s workshop in Boulder, Co.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Korean Pros to Attend Teacher’s Workshop at U.S. Go Congress

Sunday April 28, 2013

The Teachers Workshop planned for this year’s U.S. Go Congress has attracted the attention of the Korean Baduk Association, which is sending two Korean pros who are recognized experts in teaching techniques, to add to the program. “They are very enthusiastic about supporting go education in America,” says Myungwan Kim 9P, whose diplomacy made the visit possible. The Koreans are particularly interested in sharing their techniques for bringing youth players into the low single-digit kyu level within a year or two. “Our curriculum this year is aimed at those teaching absolute beginners,” says workshop coordinator Bill Camp. “The Korean expert teachers will allow us to expand the program to include those who want to teach at a higher level.” Enthusiasm for the workshop is much higher than expected, according to Congress co-director Chris Kirschner, who reports that “16% of Congress attendees thus far have registered for the workshop. We aren’t planning on turning anyone away, but we do want people to sign up early so we can plan the workshop sessions to fit the number and types of people attending.” – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

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