American Go E-Journal » 2013 » July

The Traveling Board: London, UK

Thursday July 25, 2013

The Central London Go Club took advantage of the current UK heatwave to call a go picnic on Sunday, July 21. It was held in Royal St James’s Park in the heart of the capital, adjourning later to the Captain’s Cabin pub in Piccadilly.

14 answered the call and in addition, as organizer Julia Woewodskaya told the E-Journal, “There were quite a few spectators; some were asking questions about the game; one person was explained the rules and played at least one game.”

Click here for more photos.
– Tony Collman, British Correspondent for the E-Journal. All photos by Kiyohiko Tanaka, Central London Go Club/Nippon Club Igokai, City of London Go Club

Categories: Europe,Go Photos,Traveling Go Board

SmartGo Kifu Adds GoGoD Game Collection, Streamlines Look

Wednesday July 24, 2013

The latest version of SmartGo Kifu includes the GoGoD game collection of more than 73,000 professional games. It also sports a “clean new look and icons,” reports SmartGo author Anders Kierulf. An immediate benefit of adding John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall’s GoGoD collection “is better player name translations,” says Kierulf, who promises that “there’s more to come.” Scott Jensen’s new modern look streamlines the user interface, “and there’s more to do for iOS 7,” Kierulf says, “but this takes a big step towards the future.” Kierulf plans to offer the GoGoD collection with the Windows version of SmartGo, but says that SmartGo for Windows will be temporarily unavailable until that work is complete. “The recent additions of joseki analysis and tree view have pushed SmartGo Kifu way beyond what I imagined five years ago,” Kierulf says. In other SmartGo news, Kierulf tells the E-Journal that SmartGo Books will be releasing “some very interesting books soon.” One is a book on a single 300-year old problem, “The most difficult problem ever: Igo Hatsuyôron 120” as well as John Fairbairn’s book on 466 problems from 1347, “Gateway to All Marvels: The Xuanxuan Qijing of 1347.” Kierulf expects that both books should be released before the upcoming US Go Congress.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

Your Move/Readers Write: Go Congress T-shirt Update

Wednesday July 24, 2013

The U.S. Go Congress t-shirt modeled by Congress Director Chris Kirschner in our recent report (7/20 EJ) is actually the “Early Bird T-shirt” reports Congress Handbook Editor and t-shirt/logo designer Lee Anne Bowie. “The actual T-shirt for the Congress will have the design that appears on the website,” Bowie tells the EJ. “Attendee’s t-shirts will look more like the photo at right if they selected the dark shirt.” The 2013 U.S. Go Congress is set for August 3-11 in Tacoma, WA.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,Your Move: Readers Write

Online Tourney Planned to Select U.S. SportAccord World Mind Games Team

Tuesday July 23, 2013

The United States has been invited to send five players – three men and one woman – to the 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) in Beijing, China. The team will be selected in an online tournament in August, except for the winner of the North American Master’s Tournament (NAMT), who will be automatically selected if eligible and able to participate. All eligible male players who have two or more wins in the NAMT will be seeded into the online men’s selection tournament, a 16-player, 5-round double elimination tournament taking place on KGS over two weekends in August. The remaining slots in the tournament are open to professionals and amateurs who did not participate in SAWMG, prioritized by rating. The men’s online selection will take place on the evenings of August 16, 17, 18, 24, and 25. The women’s online selection will be an 8-player 3-round single elimination. Eligibility is based on the AGA’s policy for international representatives: full or youth AGA membership for at least one year from selection, residency in the US for 6 of the last 12 months, and for this event, US citizenship is required. If you are eligible and interested in participating in this year’s SportAccord World Mind Game selection, whether you are attending NAMT or not, email karoline.burrall@usgo.org. The deadline for registrants who are not participating in NAMT is Wednesday August 14.
– Karoline Burrall, AGA Tournament Coordinator
UPDATE: this post has been updated to reflect that there will be three men and one woman selected for the team, not two women, as originally reported. The second place female finisher would be an alternate in case the selected rep has to be replaced.

Categories: SportAccord World Mind Games,World

The Power Report (Bonus Edition): Kono Extends Lead In Gosei; Kisei League Update

Monday July 22, 2013

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

Kono Extends Lead In Gosei: Iyama Yuta 9P didn’t have much time to enjoy his Honinbo triumph: just four days later, he was fighting yet another title-match game. The second game of the 38th Gosei title match was played in the Nagaoka Grand Hotel in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture on July 22. The challenger, Kono Rin 9P (left), had got off to a good start in the series, reversing the disastrous trend of his previous record against Iyama. His good form continued in the second game. Taking white, Kono forced a resignation after 194 moves and now has a chance to take the title in the third game, scheduled for July 26.

Kisei League Update: Three games have been played in the 38th Kisei leagues so far in July. They have not altered the lead in either league, but one favorite has suffered a setback. On July 11, Kiyonari Tetsuya 9P of the Kansai Ki-in, playing white, defeated Yoda Norimoto 9P (right) by resignation in the A League. Kiyonari went to 2-1 and is doing well in his comeback to the league. Yoda is now 1-2 and will have to focus on keeping his place rather than on winning the league. On July 18, Kobayashi Satoru 9P (W) defeated Cho U 9P by resignation in the A League. Kobayashi is now 2-1 and Cho 1-2. The latter was regarded as one of the early favorites, but his prospects don’t look good now. In the B League on the same day, Hane Naoki 9P (W) defeated Kono Rin 9P by 1.5 points. Both players are now on 1-2. In the A League, Yamashita Keigo Meijin has the sole lead on 2-0. In the B League, both 25th Honinbo Cho Chikun and Murakawa Daisuke 7P of the Kansai Ki-in are on 2-0.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

Tennis (or Soccer) Anyone? Bring Your Racquet (and Cleats) to the US Go Congress

Monday July 22, 2013

Fitness can be key to both mental and physical endurance on the go board, which is why many attendees at the annual US Go Congress pull themselves away from the go board for a few hours each day to play soccer or tennis. “Bring your cleats and shorts,” Terry Benson urges soccer players, while former tennis club organizer Lisa Schrag says “Bring your racquet!” Benson is organizing soccer games every afternoon at 4:30 except for Saturday and Wednesday, while Schrag and Chris Garlock will be organizing round robin doubles in the afternoons. “All ages come and play,” says Benson. “Let your body loose and your mind run free!” Listen to morning announcements and watch for signs posted at the main players room to get the details once you arrive.
– photo by Lisa Schrag

Categories: U.S. Go Congress

EuroGoTV Updates: Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic

Monday July 22, 2013

Germany: At the Stuttgarter Turnier in Stuttgart on July 14, Thomas Kettenring 3d (right) bested Jonas Fincke 4d and Jochen Tappe 1d placed third. Netherlands: Sjoerd Koolen 2d took the District Groningen tournament on July 13 with Heike de Rijk 1k in second and Frenk Arnold 1k in third. Czech Republic: The Moyo Open finished July 14 in Pardubice with Pavol Lisy 6d in first, Ondrej Silt 6d in second, and Jan Prokop 5d in third.
— Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news

Categories: Europe,Events/Tournaments,Go News

The Power Report: Kobayashi Satoru Wins His First Igo Masters Cup; Yuki Reaches Third Round of Mlily Championship

Sunday July 21, 2013

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

Kobayashi Satoru Wins His First Igo Masters Cup: The final of the 3rd Igo Masters Cup, which is open to players 50 years and older who have won a top-seven title or who are doing well in the prize-money rankings, featured a clash between former Kisei Kobayashi Satoru 9P and Ishii Kunio 9P, who was hoping to win his first official title. These days Ishii is best known as the nurturer of the extraordinary talent of Iyama Yuta. Kobayashi, taking black, won by 1.5 points.

Yuki Reaches Third Round of Mlily Championship: The Mlily World Weiqi Open Championship is yet another Chinese-sponsored international tournament. We reported earlier on the results in the first round (Mlily Cup Preliminaries 5/25/2013 EJ). Yuki Satoshi 9P was the only Japanese representative to survive that round. He also did well in the second round, defeating Li 1-dan of China. In the round of 16, Yuki will be matched against Wang Xi 9-dan of China. We don’t have full details, but the second round was yet another triumph for China, which won 13 games to two wins for Korea and one for Japan. Among the 13 Chinese players going on to the next round are such prominent players as Gu Li, Kong Jie, Hu Yaoyu, and Zhou Ruiyang. The two Korean players are Ch’oe Ch’eol-han and Cho Han-sung. Yi Se-tol was eliminated in this round. There are rumors of a best-of-ten match between Yi and Gu Li, but, if true, the timing is not good for Yi, as he seems to have passed his peak.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

Google Adwords Boosts AGF Traffic 500%

Sunday July 21, 2013

The American Go Foundation has seen a 500% increase in website traffic since setting up a Google AdWords account in May, reports project manager Roy Laird. “We were doing okay, with roughly 500 unique visitors per month, but then we learned that as a 501c3, we qualified for Google Nonprofit status, allowing us to run up to $330 worth of AdWords messages per day. Now fewer than 100 visitors per day is a slow day. More than 2,600 people visited in the month of June alone.” Laird says that the goal for now is to generate “click-thrus” – people clicking the ad and coming to the AGF website. When the entire $330/day budget is fully utilized, he says the goal will be to reduce the “bounce rate” – targeting more carefully so fewer people visit and then leave immediately. “In a typical pre-AdWords month, 200 or so of our visitors would indicate interest by looking at more than one page. In June – our first complete month with the campaign – more than 650 people liked what they saw enough to explore further.” The ads, which appear as text blurbs on the right of Google searches, are triggered by searching for “key words” that relate to the topic one is searching for. The ads can link to any page on the site, but the primary goal is to teach people to play through the Learn to Play page,” said Laird, “we’re not selling the AGF, we’re selling go.” Finding key words that will lead to people actually clicking on the link can be challenging, and Laird says he was surprised at the effectiveness of some unusual approaches. “Someone suggested the puzzle angle, so we created an ad about ‘The Ultimate Puzzle’, which has attracted more than 450 hits in the past month, more than any other ad. Surely there are some other killer out-of-the-box ideas out there. Send them to mail@agfgo.org, and help us grow American go!” Laird thanked Steve Colburn for letting the AGF know they were eligible for Google Non-Profit status. – Paul Barchilon

Categories: U.S./North America

Brits “Members-Only” Website Move Sparks Debate

Sunday July 21, 2013

A plan to move previously public material into a “members only” section of the British Go Association’s (BGA) website has sparked controversy. BGA president Jon Diamond recently announced that the the Association’s policies, minutes, and ratings would be moved to the new Members-Only section of the site, which would also include material not previously available on the site, including online versions of recent editions of the quarterly British Go Journal (BGJ) and annual accounts. The announcement of the plan to increase the value of BGA membership was made in an article in the BGJ’s latest issue, sparking a heated discussion on Gotalk, with the ratings move clearly the most hotly-debated. One poster characterized making the ratings list accessible only to members as “counter-productive,” another appealed for the Organisers’ Handbook to remain public, while another pointed out that much of the data about British players is already readily available on the European Go Database. Others, however, thought the move didn’t go far enough, suggesting that full tournament results should be available only to members. The “explosion of correspondence” prompted BGA Treasurer Toby Manning to appeal to participants in the debate to send him a brief summary of their views so that he can prepare a condensed report for the BGA Council’s consideration. Diamond tells the E-Journal that he expects to have a final determination this week about what will be moved to the Members-Only section. While American Go Association currently has no similar plans, AGA President Andy Okun says that the question of how to maximize membership value has been discussed previously, noting that, for example, game commentaries are distributed only in the E-Journal’s Member’s Edition.
– Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal

Categories: Europe,Go News

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »