January « 2014 « American Go E-Journal

Ari Saito 2014 San Diego Champ

Tuesday January 21, 2014

Ari Saito 7D (right front) topped a field of more than 30 go players gathered on the UC San Diego campus January 18 “on a beautiful 70+ degree southern California day” to contend for the 2014 San Diego Go Championship, reports San Diego Go Club President Ted Terpstra. “The ultimate game pitted Saito against Yixian Zhou 6D (left front),” said Terpstra. Saito’s win win gave him a 3-0 record, the $100 first prize and the title. Jenna Jansen 3k not only won the kyu championship with a 3-0 record but took the dual title of San Diego Women’s Champion. In the title game, she edged long-time AGA stalwart Les Lanphear by 3.5 points. David SU, 26-kyu won the youth prize for his 3-0 finish. The third annual tournament was a combined effort of the UCSD Go Club and the San Diego Go Club. photo by Ted Terpstra

Categories: U.S./North America

In Memoriam: David Relson

Monday January 20, 2014

David Relson, a “mainstay of the AGA” from the mid-1970’s to the mid-’80’s, died on September 21, 2013 at 65. An active cyclist, “he was

almost home after riding 73 miles on a beautiful fall day when he collapsed,” reported his family in their annual letter. “Dave was a key member of the group which took the hand-off of a recreated AGA from a small group in New York (John Stephenson, Matthias Thim, and Masao Takabe) and moved it to the next level with broader national support,” former AGA president Terry Benson tells the E-Journal. “His

enthusiasm was infectious. He was smart and sharp and reliable and an early computer person with both skills and personality. A great guy.” Relson was president of the Ann Arbor Go Club when in January 1977 Ann Arbor was the first club to insist on AGA membership by all its members. He served in a succession of leadership roles at the AGA for a dozen years beginning in 1976, serving as Membership Secretary, AGA rating coordinator, and on the Executive Committee, as well as assisting in running Easterns, the AGA’s major tournament at the time. “Dave was also the second AGAer to go to the European Go Congress (1977 in the Netherlands), report back, and encourage others to go and for us to have a Congress,” Benson adds. “He was a generous and thoughtful teacher,” remembers Dewey Cornell, who met Relson in 1978, when Relson ran the Ann Arbor club which met at the University of Michigan. “He started out each meeting by distributing a printout with our latest ratings. For a new player, that was a nice incentive.”

– includes reporting — and photo (top right) by T. Benson — from the American Go Journal, Vol. 15 #4 (July-August-Sept 1980), page 37

Categories: U.S./North America

Cuban Delegation Invited to US Go Congress

Monday January 20, 2014

A delegation of Cuban go players has been invited to attend this year’s U.S. Go Congress for the first time and AGA board member Robert Gilman is coordinating fundraising efforts to support the visit. “The Cubans have greeted our invitation with ‘immense joy’,” Gilman — who organized the 2013 visit by US players to Cuba (Traveling Board: U.S.-Cuba Friendship Match “A Rare Opportunity”) — reports, “but the key question is money. Cuba is a poor country, the Cuban internal currency is worthless in the U.S. and the AGA does not have the budget to sponsor the delegation, so we’re asking the go community to step up. Cubans have made strong efforts to develop go there, but isolation from the international go community and limited internet have handicapped them. This visit will help them develop and extend bonds with our neighbors to the South.” The invitees are Cuba’s top two players and the president of the Academia Cubana de Go. The video here describes this effort.

Contributions can be made through either the AGA or the American Go Foundation (AGF); contributions to the AGF are tax deductible. In either case, put “CC2014” in the memo field, and mail the check to Gilman at P.O. Box 40020 in Albuquerque, NM 87196-0020. Checks will be acknowledged as they are received but not cashed until its clear the project is a go. If you are contributing, please complete the form here.

Categories: Events/Tournaments,U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Pandanet AGA City League Season 2 Begins on January 25th

Monday January 20, 2014

The second season of the Pandanet AGA City League is set to begin shortly. “We have 18 teams of players ranging from professionals to 12-kyu players,” reports TD Steve Colburn. The first round will start on January 25 at 3p EST on Pandanet.

The A League teams include Boston (Ke Lu, Huiren Yang, Jie Liang, Yunzhe Zhang and Chun Sun), Greater Washington (I-Han Lui, Eric Lui, Jie Li, Yuian Zhou and Daniel Chou), Toronto (Colin Zheng, Xiaofei Deng, Tiger Gong, Sarah Yu and Hank Xie), Vancouver 1 (Cathy Li, Tianyu Lin, Juyong Koh, Leo Tian and Michael Ma), and Seattle 1 (Michael Cho, Dong Baek Kim, Edward Kim, Ho Son and Sung-Chui Cho).

B League teams include Washington DC 1 (Edward Zhang, Lin Lu, Liang Yu and Yangan Li), Chicaho (Laura Scott, Bill Chen, Albert Yen and Kevin Zhou), Raleigh (Owen Chen, Liqun Liu, Changlong Wu, Feng Ye and Bradley Jones), Washington DC 2 (Zhenging Gu, Justin teng, Kevin Wang, Zhixiong Shi and Zhenying Gu), San Francisco 1 (Steven Burrall, Matthew Burrall, Aaron Ye, Jeremy Chiu and Hugh Zhang) and New York City (William Lockhart, Stephanie Yin, Zhaonian Chen and Yingzhi Qian).

The C League teams include West Tennessee/Memphis (Daniel Miller, Wangqian Li, Liang Zhao, Xue Li and Yixian Chen), Seattle 2 (Oren Laskin, Bert Hallonquist, Andrew Jackson, Nick Sibicky and Steve Stringfellow), Katy TX 1 (Pete Henninger, Shijiang Lu, Jurn Kwan, Ji Lian and Yuanbiao Li), Katy TX 2 (Pete Henninger, Yue Wu, Bao Doan, Katherine Zhang and Chris Clark), Vancouver 2 (Cathy Li, Jack Yang, Qi Zheng, David Lu and Harrison Dow), Lincoln (Joshua Edmonds, Grant Brownyard, Chris Rodgers and Mitchell Allen), Brentwood/Nashville (Anthony Long, Anna Liu, Shawn Ray, Seth Cardew & Michael Miceli) and Syracuse (Richard Moseson, Xinde Ji, Chang Kim, Jared Beck and Richard Sollish).

The captains of each teams are listed first. Leagues A and B will have five rounds and League C will have seven. Click here for the 2014 schedule.
photo of the 2013 Pandanet-AGA City League finals by Steve Colburn

Categories: Pandanet-AGA City League

Lee Sedol-Gu Li Jubango to be Broadcast Live on KGS

Monday January 20, 2014

The first game in the upcoming jubango between Lee Sedol 9P and Gu Li 9p will be broadcast live on KGS with live game commentary by Myungwan Kim 9P. The first game in the series (Big Jubango Between Lee Sedol & Gu Li Set To Start In January 11/29/2013 EJ) is scheduled for January 26 (1/25 in the US) and the 10-game match will run monthly throughout 2014. Whoever wins six games wins the match. “We’re very excited to bring this series to the global go community,” said Kim. “This is really great for western go fans,” agreed American Go Association president Andy Okun. The KGS broadcast commentary will begin at 4p EST on January 25 and Kim will be joined by James Kim 1D, along with Matthew Burrall 7d and Andrew Lu 7d. The team intends to broadcast and comment on the entire game, which could run over 8 hours. “We may need to take some breaks from time to time,” says Myungwan Kim. “But basically we’ll stay up until the game finishes giving our best explanations and entertainment.”

Categories: World

Full House for Vegas Go Club

Saturday January 18, 2014

Last Saturday, January 11, the Las Vegas Go Club (LVGC) was at full capacity. “New membership to our club is up and we are hoping that it transfers to long-time go players.” reports Mike Wanek. “In the last month or so, we have had four new members who have started to attend the club regularly.” The seven regular members of the LVGC were very surprised when over 15 people showed up for last week’s meeting. “Currently, our main goals for the club are twofold,” says Chris Tettamanti. “First, to generate interest in the great game of go and second, to boost membership to the AGA.” As the club grows, donations are collected to buy much needed club equipment. Sean Jacobson noted that “The latest set of donations will go to purchasing new game clocks. We are very close to having enough in donations to purchase 5 or 6 of them already. This will allow us to create mini-tournaments on days that we have a large turnouts.” Weekly meetings of the Las Vegas Go Club — which welcomes players of all strengths — are on Saturdays from 4pm to 10pm at the IHOP at 7490 S. Las Vegas Blvd. photos courtesy Chris Tettamanti

Categories: U.S./North America

EuroGoTV Update: Croatia, Turkey, Ukraine

Saturday January 18, 2014

Croatia: Lovro Furjanic 1d bested Zoran Mutabzija 5d at the 2. Velika Gorcia Open on January 12 while Mladen Smud 1k placed third. Turkey: The Istanbul City Championship Finals finished on January 4 with Ozgur Degirmenci 2d in first, Mustafa Morca 2k in second, and Hayri Killic 1d in third. Ukraine: Andrii Vdovin 2d conquered the 2014 Championship of the Dnipropetrovsk region on January 5. Kostiantyn Lopatenko 2d came in second and Volodymyr Oblovantyi 1k was 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

Michael Redmond’s Kisei Bonus Tsumego (solution)

Friday January 17, 2014

[link]

Black to play. Both sides must find a clever move for optimal play. The first move is relatively easy, as White lives easily if Black plays any other move.
Published in the January 17, 2014 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

This bonus tsumego is just one example of the material, including pro game commentaries, available to Member’s Edition subscribers. Click here for more on how you can sign up today.

Michael Redmond 9P shares with the E-Journal some of his own tsumego compositions. For these more challenging problems, dan players can test their reading speed and accuracy, while kyu players can play through the solutions to learn ideas and techniques.

Michael based this problem on a very similar position that arose around move 63 of the just completed 1st game of the Kisei championship match in Spain. Click here to see the game record.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

Cho Hanseung Wins 3rd Consecutive Kuksu

Thursday January 16, 2014

Cho Hanseung 9P successfully defended his Kuksu title against Lee Sedol 9P on January 13 in Seoul, Korea. This gives him the title for a third consecutive year, as he overcame Choi Cheolhan 9P in the two previous editions. Cho (left) took the first match of the best-of-five clash and then extended his lead to 2-0. Lee fought back in the third round, narrowing the gap to 2-1, but the fourth game proved to be the decider. Cho’s play was clinical. Holding black, he established a strong position in the early game. Lee tried to reduce, but with solid play, Cho maintained his lead throughout. Professional commentators were left somewhat bemused, as it was difficult to find any mistakes in white’s play, a testament to the calm strength shown by Cho in this match. The victory extends a healthy rivalry between the two players. They know each other well, having achieved professional status in the same group in 1995. Lee remains ahead in wins (23-17), but Cho is now ahead 2-1 in finals.
– Ben Gale, Korea news correspondent for the E-Journal
Click here to download sgf files of the Kuksu game records:
2014 Kuksu Round 1
2014 Kuksu Round 2
2014 Kuksu Round 3
2014 Kuksu Round 4

Categories: World

Alex Panaccione Sweeps MGA Winter Tourney

Thursday January 16, 2014

Alex Panaccione won all four games to win the January 12 MGA Winter Tournament. Twenty eight players turned out for the event, which was directed by Eva Casey with support from Eric Tillberg, whose entry fee was waived as a result. “I hope others will begin to learn the ropes of directing this way too in upcoming tournaments,” says Casey. Tillberg took third place and Graham Higgins was second. Click here for more photos.
photo: Panaccione (right) playing Eric Osman; photo by Eva Casey

Categories: U.S./North America

American Go E-Journal » 2014 » January