Go was just featured again on xkcd, a popular web comic among 
mathematicians and physicists. Thanks to everyone who passed this along.
American Go E-Journal » 2013 » September
Go Spotting: New xkcd Comic
Wednesday September 11, 2013
China Calls For Return of Ancient Go Manuscript
Monday September 9, 2013
Wang Runan 8P, the President of the Chinese Weiqi Association, last week asked the British to return the Weiqi Classic, also known as the Dunhuang Go 
Manual, to China. The manuscript, which dates back to the ninth century, is a copy of the earliest known manual of go, known as weiqi (or weichi) in China, where the game originated; the original manual is thought to have originated in the sixth century. It was taken from the “Library Cave” in Dunhuang, China in 1907 by Aurel Stein and is now in the collection of the British Library in London.
Wang was speaking at a press conference at the British Museum on September 5 to publicize British-Chinese Weiqi Cultural Exchange Event held on September 7 at the museum, hosted by the UK Research and Development Centre for Chinese Traditional Culture and the East Midland Youth Chinese Organisation, in cooperation with the British Go Association (BGA).
A partial English translation of the fascinating text of the Weiqi Classic, with notes, can be found in the Library’s database entry for the item.
Report by Tony Collman, British Correspondent for the E-Journal. Photos: BOTTOM LEFT: Wang Runan, by Tony Collman, displaying fan with calligraphy spelling out 10 principles of weiqi; TOP RIGHT: The Weiqi Classic (beginning), courtesy of the International Dunhuang Project, British Library. NOTE: this report has been updated to reflect that Wang Runan is President (not Vice Chairman) of the Chinese Weiqi Association.
Streaming Online Games
Monday September 9, 2013
Popular streaming site twitch.tv is pulling in 38 million viewers a month, by streaming video gamers playing and commenting on their games. The site’s goal is to “connect gamers around the world by allowing them to broadcast, watch, and chat from everywhere they play,” according to their website. Why not stream online go games as well, asks AGA member Royce Chen? “Streaming go games, with entertaining and informative comments made by the streamers, could potentially attract the interest of young players, especially those who are already familiar with streams of conventional games,” says Chen. “The idea is to make videos like those by TheOddOne, a popular League of Legends player, who is known for providing entertaining commentary.”
The AGA would like to recruit volunteers of any playing strength, who would stream some of their online go games. All that’s needed is a webcam and a twitch.tv account. Live streams would be promoted on the AGA Facebook page, and archived recordings can also be submitted for uploading to the new Go AGA YouTube channel, which is being managed by Shawn Ray (AKA Clossius on Youtube). Anyone interested in streaming can email Royce Chen for more details. Ray also plans to promote lessons from several popular online go teachers on the new Youtube channel, with archived videos from both twitch and youtube available. Subscribe to the new channel to get updates on this content. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
EuroGoTV Update: Germany, Croatia, England
Sunday September 8, 2013
Germany: The Koelner Go-Turnier 2013 finished September 1 in Koeln with Lukas Kraemer 5d (left) in first, Benjamin Teuber 6d in second, and Jonas Welticke 4d in third. Croatia: Also on September 1, Zoran Mutabzija 5d won the Croatian Championship 2013 – Final 6 in Zagreb. Sead Bacevina 2d came in second and Lavro Furjanic 1k in third. England: Isle of Man hosted two tournaments on August 18, a main tournament and an afternoon tournament. The main tournament wrapped up on August 23 with Matthew Macfayden 6d in first followed by Matthew Cocke 5d in second and Shigehiko Uno 4d in third. However, Uno dominated the afternoon tournament while James Hutchinson 1d took second and Toby Manning 2d placed third.
— Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news
London Club Issues Appeal for International Teams
Saturday September 7, 2013
The Central London Go Club is appealing for American — and other foreign — nationals living in the UK to help put the “International” back into the London 
International Teams Tournament on October 6.
The twice-yearly event has in recent times barely lived up to its billing, with the Nippon Club — the event’s host — the only non-British team in the Spring 2013 tournament. The trophy (pictured) that time was taken by a team from the land of “Cambridge” (see 4/19 EJ) to the amusement of team captain and British Championship 2013 challenger Andrew Simons.
Click here to download flyer with full details and entry form.
Tony Collman, British Correspondent for the E-J. Photo courtesy of the British Go Association’s website
Samsung Cup Down to Final 16
Friday September 6, 2013
When the smoke cleared on September 5 from the 32-player group stage of the 2013 Samsung Cup, just 16 players were left, including 11 from China and five 
from Korea. Japan’s players had all been eliminated, as had Eric Lui of the U.S. Lui lost to Komatsu Hideki and Lee Sedol. “Sedol was too strong for Eric,” says Myung-wan Kim 9P. “But he played very well against Hideki and almost won. I was very surprised how well Eric played.” (see below for Kim’s commentary on Lui’s game against Hideki; his commentary on the Lui-Sedol game will be in next week’s Member’s
Edition of the E-Journal; click here for details on how to join the AGA and receive the Member’s Edition) The next round will take place on October 8 and 10 with the following draw: Lee Sedol 9p vs Chen Yaoye 9p; Gu Li 9p vs Ahn Seongjun 5p; Qiu Jun 9p vs Gu Lingyi 5p; Park Junghwan 9p vs Zhou Ruiyang 9p; Shi Yue 9p vs Ke Jie 3p; Wu Guangya 6p vs Li Xuanhao 3p; Kim Jiseok 9p vs Fan Yunruo 4p, and Park Younghun 9p vs Tang Weixing 3p.
– includes reporting by Go Game Guru; click here for the full report, photos and game records.
2013 World Amateur Go Championship at a Glance: Reports & Game Commentaries
Friday September 6, 2013
From the first arrival in Japan of top amateur go players from 62 countries through eight rounds of competition — topped by Korea’s Hyunjae Choi 6D –
– and ending with a visit to the tsunami-stricken South Sanriku, the American Go E-Journal — in cooperation with Ranka Online — provided comprehensive coverage of the 34th annual World Amateur Go Championship, held September 1-5 in Sendai. Click here for full final results; here for selected game records and here for the player roster. See below for a handy clickable index to our daily reports and 19 game commentaries, as well as a Ranka/EJ team photo.
Photos by John Pinkerton except as noted.
Reports
WAGC Daily Recap (Final): Wednesday, September 4
Ranka Online WAGC Highlights: Wednesday, September 4
WAGC Daily Recap: Tuesday, September 3
Ranka Online WAGC Highlights: Tuesday, September 3
WAGC Daily Recap: Monday, September 2
Ranka Online WAGC Highlights: Monday, September 2
WAGC Daily Recap: Sunday, September 1
Ranka Online WAGC Highlights: Sunday, September 1
WAGC Round 1 Games & An Interview with Alexandr Bukh of Kazakhstan
The Traveling Go Board: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Two Years Later
WAGC Venue Exposes Go to Public Eye
Advice from Top Amateurs on How to Get Stronger
International Go Federation Celebrates Successful Year
Players Arrive at 34th World Amateur Go Championship
EJ & Ranka Coverage of 34th WAGC To Start 9/1
Game Commentaries (by Michael Redmond 9P)
Round 1: Canada-Kazakhstan
Round 1: US-Phillipines
In these first-round games, very strong players make short work of their weaker opponents.
Round 2: Finland-Colombia
Round 2: Israel-Argentina
Round 2: US-Korea
Curtis Tang was one of the brilliant young Redmond Cup participants, winning five times to become one of only two players to earn the title of Redmond Meijin…
Round 3: Brazil-Belgium
In this game, though Black makes no major errors, by move 72, White has established a clear lead; here’s how…
Round 3: Hungary-China
Hungary’s Csaba Mero handles a challenge well and gets a fairly severe attack going on Yuging Hu of China, but…
Round 3: Indonesia-Austria
This game features an unorthodox opening by Black that actually works fairly well up to a point.
Round 4: Korea-Netherlands
Round 4: Russia-China
A fast but thin move early on by White sets off a cascading series of fierce battles in which the attack changes hands several times.
Round 5: Japan-China
Black wins every ko fight in this game, but the cost is too high…
Round 5: Korea-Canada
Black doesn’t make any major mistakes in this undramatic game, yet White slowly but surely pulls ahead, building up an insurmountable lead…
Round 5: US-Singapore
Round 6: China-Korea
This game is all about yose. The game is very close at move 101, when the endgame begins, and goes on for the next 150 moves…
Round 6: Japan-Russia
Kikou punishes an early overplay by Shikshin, but then slowly loses his advantage with slack moves and then falters in the endgame…
Round 7: Korea-Russia
Black trades a large side for a center moyo but when White skillfully erases most of the moyo, Black’s position turns out to be too thin and things get steadily worse…
Round 7: China-Canada
After an even opening, White misses two chances to maintain the balance of territory and allows Black to get an unassailable lead…
Round 8: Taipei-China
An unnecessary peep that turns out not to be sente gives Yuqing Hu 8D (China) a chance attack and suddenly Shin-Wei Lin 7D (Taipei) is in deep trouble…
Round 8: Ukraine-Korea
When White tries for a bigger territory, his move is just a bit too greedy, and Black immediately punishes it…
The Ranka-E-Journal Team (l-r): James Davies, Toshiko Ito, Ivan Vigano, John Richardson, Chris Garlock, Michael Redmond 9P, John Pinkerton, Yuki Shigeno. photo by Thomas Hsiang
Your Move/Readers Write: Thanks & Kudos; Gripping Stuff; Bol, Not Vonk
Friday September 6, 2013
Thanks & Kudos: “Thank you, thank you, thank you to Roger Schrag, (Go Spotting: Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland 9/1 EJ)” writes Jean de Maiffe. 
“When I was in the Portland Chinese Garden in July, the board displayed appeared to have nothing whatever to do with the modern game of go. I almost wish I had taken a picture for the ‘then and now’ comparison. Kudos to whichever go player suggested the changes to the artist who had placed the stones attractively perhaps, but without knowledge of the game.”
Gripping Stuff: “Great coverage of the WAGC,” writes EJ British correspondent Tony Collman. “Gripping stuff. Thanks to Michael Redmond for the lucid commentaries.”
Bol, Not Vonk: “The photograph accompanying the 9/1 news item ‘EuroGoTV Update’ is of Jan Bol, not Bert Vonk,” writes Jaap K. Blom.
We apologize for the error, which has been corrected.
The Traveling Go Board: The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Two Years Later
Thursday September 5, 2013
The agony of defeat and ecstasy of victory on the go board were put into perspective Thursday when the WAGC participants took a somber tour of South Sanriku in Miyagi prefecture, less than an hour from the tournament site in downtown Sendai, and one of the areas hardest-hit by the 2011 tsunami.
Although the region — a spectacular landscape of misty mountains, gently-waving rice fields, stands of bamboo, wide rivers and coastal views — has largely recovered since the disaster, the go players were uncharacteristically subdued as they took in the scope of destruction, with whole towns swept away. The three-story South Sanriku emergency center’s rusted skeleton bore mute witness to the towering wall of water that took the lives of so many; the few workers there who survived did so only by climbing the radio tower atop the building.
Most affecting was a visit to the Okawa primary school where almost every student and teacher perished. The once-thriving community is gone, the houses destroyed, completely erased from the earth, leaving only the gutted school as a sad memorial to the young lives lost here. As the buses rolled through under grey and drizzling skies, guides explained how this empty patch used to be a community center, that one was a hospital, another was a neighborhood. Roads once lined with houses are now vistas of weeds and the occasional flash of a wild sunflower or glimpse of a white crane standing on a solitary leg. The rubble is gone and new houses and buildings are slowly rising. The rivers flow past quietly. Life goes on.
– Chris Garlock; photo by John Pinkerton
WAGC Daily Recap (Final): Wednesday, September 4
Wednesday September 4, 2013
As expected, Korea’s Hyunjae Choi 6D wrapped up his sweep of this year’s 
World Amateur Go Championships on Wednesday with solid wins over Ukraine’s Artem Kachanovskyi, who came in an impressive third — the first time Ukraine has been a top finalist — and Ilya Shikshin of Russia, who took a very respectable 4th place. In addition to a significant haul of trophies (left), Choi’s win gives him more than enough points to now become a professional go player (click here for Ranka’s interview). China’s Yuqing Hu took second place, Slovakia’s Pavol Lisy was fifth, King Man Kwan of Hong Kong was sixth, Serbia’s Nicola Mitic was seventh and Kikou Emura of Japan was eighth. Canada’s Bill Lin finished in 10th place and Curtis Tang of the U.S. placed 14th. Nepal’s Suresh Bhakta Kayastha gamely brought up the rear of the 62-player field, failing to notch a single victory. Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bukh won the Asada Fighting Spirit Prize and Suzanne D’Bel of Malaysia won a special prize from Takemiya Masaki “for showing originality and good sense”; Takemiya singled D’Bel out for playing her first move on the tengen, calling it “true Cosmic Style.”
Canada’s Bill Lin told the E-Journal that he was “a bit disappointed” in his 
results. “I had expected to do better, but it was a tough draw and I came up short.” Tang (right, in checked shirt) was philosophical about his performance, saying that “After losing to strong players I still got strong players but I guess that’s just how they paired it up. I tried my best. I had chances against Korea and then I had a good chance to win my seventh-round game against Romania and get a shot at a top-eight finish, but I messed it up.” Both players noted the grueling 2-rounds-per-day pace. “I made sure to get to the sauna every day to ease the pressure,” Tang said. Click here for full final results; here for selected game records and here for the player roster.
– Chris Garlock; photos by John Pinkerton