Friday June 27, 2014
Yutopian is offering a half-price sale on dozens of go books. Through July 31, the Go Books Summer Sale offers the second book half off 
of the original price when you buy one at the original price. You must call or email to get the deal, though: 1-800-988-6463 or info@yutopian.com
Thursday June 26, 2014
The June 21 Davis/Sacramento Summer Quarterly Tournament at the Arcade Library in Sacramento drew a field of nine players from the Bay Area to the Sierra foothills. Charles Su 1k (left) won the upper division and Tai-An Cha 5k, won the lower division.
– report/photo by Willard Haynes
Thursday June 26, 2014
Slate & Shell is having a half-price sale on all four of John Fairbairn’s books on Go Seigen to commemorate the master’s 100th birthday.
There are four of them: Kamakura, 9 Dan Showdown, Final Summit, and Old Fuseki vs New Fuseki. “They make for a rather complete biography of Go and contain commentaries on many of his most famous games,” says S&S’ Bill Cobb. Get all four (the Go Seigen Birthday Pack) for $45.00, and they can also be bought individually.
Thursday June 26, 2014
Second in a series of profiles of players in the 35th World Amateur Go Championships, which will be held July 4-11 in Gyeongju, Korea. Fifty-seven players from a like number of countries and territories are scheduled to make the trip to Korea to compete in the four-day, eight-round Swiss system. Many will be veterans of previous tournaments held in Japan and China, some drawn back to WAGC competition after a long absence, perhaps by the chance to be part of the first WAGC held in Korea. As usual, the largest contingent will come from Europe (30 players) and the youngest from the Far East (15 players, including an 11-year-old from 
Indonesia). Click here for Ranka’s June 24 WAGC preview.
Austria: Matthias Frisch 1D, 21 (right), is a student and works in a hotel in Vienna. He first started playing five years ago “but I quit very fast and then I got interested in it again about three years ago.” His favorite thing about go is “not the game itself, but rather the people you meet.” Hobbies include soccer and snowboarding; “I like to do many things if there is 
enough time besides my studies.”
Belarus: Aliaksandr Suponeu 1D (left) is a 64-year-old engineer who’s been playing go for 30 years. Winner of the Belarusian Championship, this will be his eighth World Go Championship.
Belgium: Dominique Versyck 2D (right) is a 31-year-old accountant in Lennik. He’s been playing for 9 years and says that “Each game is different, there is no luck involved, go is simply perfect!” His hobbies include chess and quizzes. He’s married, 
with a 2-year old son, and a daughter due at the end of October.
Bulgaria: Teodor Nedev 3k (left) is a 44-year-old teacher in Ruse. He’s been playing 10 years and won the 2013 Open Championship in Bulgaria (Pomorie). Go is “a representation of the Universe,” he says. Hobbies include reading books and extreme sports: he’s a master in martial arts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Philippines), chess (International, Chinese, Japanese), healing arts and yoga.
Croatia: Zoran Mutabžija 5D (right) is a 69-year-old retiree. He’s been playing go for 49 years, winning the 1967 European Championship, 1st place in the 1971 European Championship, and was a first-place winner in the Croatian Championship many times. Hobbies include programming and his favorite thing about go is “Seeing places and people at tournaments.” He’s 
married and his children now run his web hosting company.
Czech Republic: Lukas Podpera 6D (left) is a 19-year-old student in Prague who’s been playing since he was 7 years old. His favorite thing about go is its “huge number of variations and creativity” and his hobbies include soccer, cycling and music.
Denmark: Arne Ohlenbusch 4D (right) is a 23-year-old postman in Oldenburg. He’s been playing for 10 years and his favorite thing about go is that there’s “basically no luck involved and you can use unlimited much time getting better.” Hobbies include soccer and pc games.
Finland: Juuso Nyyssönen 5D (left) is a 21-year-old student from Helsinki. He won the 2013 Finnish Championship. 
“Every game brings new surprises,” he says, “even though I’ve played thousands of games by now.”
France: Antoine Fenech 5D (right) is a 28-year-old mathematics teacher in Strasbourg. Titles include the 1996 and 1997 Under 12 European Youth Championship, the 2003 Under 18 European Youth Championship under 18 and the 2013 French Pair Go Championship. His favorite thing about go is “Travelling around the world and meeting people 
from different cultures.” Hobbies include soccer.
Ireland: John Gibson 4k (left) is a 65-year-old interior designer who lives in Dublin. He’s been playing since his early 20’s, won the 1992 Irish Handicap Championship and says that go is “Such a satisfying game. Great also for travelling and meeting new people wherever one goes.” He’s married and has three daughters, including one, Naomi, who won the Irish Ladies Go Championship in 1992 “but has not been active recently.” Hobbies include chess, Jamble, Pits, and tennis.
Italy: Niccolò Sgaravatti 2k (right) is a 24-year-old IT Developer in Padova. “This game is a constant challenge to see the 
reality of things,” he says. He enjoys “walking the hills, reading sages about anthropology, bronze age, biology and so on.”
Lithuania: Andrius Petrauskas 3D (left) is 39-year-old manager in Vilnius. He’s been playing since the age of 12 and has been Lithuanian champion several times. His favorite thing about go is that it’s an “Interesting, deep game.”
Tomorrow: Europe, Part 2.
Thursday June 26, 2014
Nauseating Profiles: “Reading the journal is part of my morning routine,” writes Chris Uzal. “Most of the time it is interesting, sometimes it’s not. Can’t win them all, of course. One of your articles today crossed over into the nauseous zone. This morning’s article about “player profiles” (2014 WAGC Player Profiles: Asia 6/24 EJ) is easily among the dumbest stories I’ve ever read. You want to inspire kids to play go? Articles like this is certainly not how you do it.”
Sorry you didn’t like the profiles; our intention is simply to introduce EJ readers to the players who will be competing at the upcoming WAGC, which we’ll be covering in greater depth starting at the end of next week. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
Clarifying Calculated Mistakes: “Just a quick reply to Michael Redmond’s comments on the Chess Life article!” (Michael Redmond 9P on “Calculated Errors” 6/24 EJ) writes Ed Scimia of About Chess. “I’m a lifelong chess player, and I can clarify a couple things that Michael brought up in his commentary. His concept of ‘calculated mistakes’ does exist in chess endgames as well: it is, of course, much easier for humans to play simplifying moves to reach an endgame situation they are certain is a win than to play the ‘perfect’ line according to a computer or deep human analysis (which may be much more complex and therefore tactically dangerous). In chess, nobody would consider those “sub-optimal” moves to be errors either, as long as they clearly lead to a win. In these situations, though, a player would be said to be winning by much more than a half-pawn. That advantage is enough to say that one player’s position is slightly better, but not enough to be certain they can actually win with best play from both sides (remember that in chess, a draw is a common and natural outcome for many games). I hope that helps!”
Tuesday June 24, 2014
“The Chess Life article (Your Move/Readers Write: ‘Catching Chess Cheaters’ 6/23 EJ) says that ‘One interesting statistic is that 
players make 60 percent to 90 percent more errors when half a pawn ahead or behind compared to when the game is even,’” writes Michael Redmond 9P.
“How would you compare half a pawn in chess to a point advantage in go? I don’t know how big an advantage that is for chess masters, but I think that Regan’s observation that the players’ assessment of a game position — and the assumed emotional value — is affecting their ability to think is also true of go players, but to a lesser extent, depending on how big a half pawn is.”
“The article seems to imply that while the player at a disadvantage might have reason to play a high-risk/high-reward move, the winning player must try to play the correct move always. He uses this reasoning to conclude that the players are actually making errors. I suppose that chess, being a race to kill, does not allow for calculated mistakes, but this seems to be less true of go, and could indicate a difference in the endgame stage of the two games.”
“In go, there can be calculated ‘errors’ by the player with an advantage. As a go game nears its end, the leading player can often calculate a win without playing the optimum moves. My opinion is that top go players will sometimes choose technically incorrect moves when 2.5 points ahead, a calculated choice to simplify the game. Such calculated ‘mistakes’ by the winning player are usually minor, and two to three mistakes can add up to a one point loss in actual play when compared to the correct endgame sequence. Anything more than that is probably a ‘real’ mistake.”
photo: Redmond at the 2010 WAGC; photo by John Pinkerton
Tuesday June 24, 2014
First in a series of profiles of players in the 35th World Amateur Go Championships, which will be held July 4-11 in Gyeongju, Korea. The American Go E-Journal will once again be teaming up with Ranka to provide comprehensive daily coverage of this major amateur tournament featuring top players from 74 countries and territories around the world. These are the players from Asia; missing are China, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Mongolia, Vietnam; we hope to have their profiles in a future post. 
Brunei: Ho Soon Ang 2k (right) is a 24-year-old student who’s been playing for three years. His favorite thing about go is “Meeting new play style” and hobbies include badminton and PC games.
Hong Kong: Nai San Chan 6D (left) is a 21-year-old student at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. He’s been playing go since he was 6 and won the HK Go Open (2005-2010, 2013) was WAGC 2nd runner up (2009) and WAGC 3rd runner up (2008,2010). His favorite thing about go is “Fighting.” Hobbies include ball games.
Indonesia: Rafif Shidqi Fitrah 4D (right) is an 11-year-old elementary school student in Bandung. He started playing at age 7and says his favorite thing about go is “Attacking each other.” He was the runner up at the 2013 Japan Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science Cup Elementary School Team Competition as part of a team consisting of Rafif 
and Rafif’s two little brothers, Faishal Umar and Faiz Utsman. His hobbies include reading books.
Japan: Kikou Emura 7D (left) is a 34-year-old graduate school student in Hyogo. He’s been playing since the age of four, and has won the 2006 sekaigakuseiouzasen, and the the 2012 and 2013 sekaiamaigosenshuken. He likes that “go is deep” and hobbies include mah-jongg and karaoke.
Malaysia: Suzanne D’Bel 3D (right) is a 24-year-old programmer living in Itabashi, Japan. She’s been playing since the age of 14 and says that “The broadness of the game means that go can be mixed with many interesting fields such as art and design, technologies, music, medical etc.” She also says the game is great for “Making new friends and partners!” Hobbies include 
traveling around to play go, crafting with electronics, mixture of art and technology, anime.
Nepal: Narendra Sowal 1D (left) is a 28-year-old small businessman in Bhaktapur. He’s been playing for 16 years and won the Nepal Go Championship in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2014. Long term thinking is his favorite thing about go. He’s married with one son.
Singapore: Jia Cheng Tan 6D (right) is a 29-year-old engineer who’s been playing since he was 6. His favorite thing about go 
is “The calculation involved and requirement to play with an open mind to adapt to changes.”
Taipei: Yi-Tien Chan 7D (left) is a 21-year-old student from Changhua. He’s been playing since the age of 7 and loves the “Self challenge” of the game.
Thailand: Thanapol Tiawattananont 4D (right) is a 23-year-old student. He’s been playing since the age of 10 and says that go is “an art of life and a way of life. It’s a philosophy of life. And it makes friends all over the world!” Hobbies include soccer, table-tennis, travelling and bird-watching.
Tuesday June 24, 2014
“I read about the Go Camp in Japan (Nihon Kiin Organizing Special Go Camp to Celebrate 90th Birthday 3/22 EJ) this summer,” writes Bob Barber. “I will be in Japan for a wedding, so I couldn’t actually join the Camp, but if I can fit it into my schedule, it would be interesting to hang on the sidelines and at least see some of my buddies whom I no longer see at Congress.” Anyone planning to attend can reach Barber at komoku@clear.net. The EJ is also interested in reports from the Camp; email journal@usgo.org
Tuesday June 24, 2014
With personal inscription by author Noriyuki Nakayama on flyleaf. Near new condition, 191 pages, with colorful book 
cover. Many remember Mr Nakayama, because of his great love for spreading understanding and communications with others around the world, about the value and beauty in go. For sale, $95 or best offer by July 15. Free shipping via priority mail within two days of payment by paypal or other agreed-upon means. Contact Ken Schatten at kschatten AT Alum DOT MIT DOT edu , or by phone at 301- 949-7855.
Monday June 23, 2014
Israeli go champion Ali Jabarin 6d (right) has won the final knockout rounds of the European Pro Qualification Tournament at Vienna in Austria to become the second pro qualifying under the new European Go Federation (EGF) /CEGO pro system (see Pavol Lisy First European Pro – EJ, 6/1). He beat Mateusz Surma 6d of Poland then Lukáš Podpera 6d of Czechia in the two closely-fought knockout rounds comprising this third and final stage of the competition to select two pros from sixteen of Europe’s strongest amateur players. Israel, though not geographically part of Europe, is usually treated as European in international sporting contests and is an EGF member-state. The games were played at the Freie Waldorfschule Wien West on Friday June 20 as a preliminary to the Vienna International Go Tournament, which Jabarin also won, in a field of almost 100. The pro qualification tournament was overseen by Wang Runan, the President of the Chinese Weiqi Association.
The two new pros, Pavol Lisy and Ali Jabarin, will receive their certificates – at which point they officially gain professional status – at the upcoming 58th MLily-WeiqiTV European Go Congress in Sibiu, Romania next month (July 26 – August 9), where they will still be entitled to compete as amateurs. After that they will go to Beijing for another six months’ intensive training. Next year will see the first Bonus Point and Grand Slam Tournaments as well as another Pro Qualification Tournament to select a further two pros. These special tournaments are all part of a complete professional system which is detailed in the EGF/CEGO Agreement (pdf, 6.85Mb).
Click here for full details of the 2014 Pro Qualification Tournament, including results, game records and more.
Report by Tony Collman; photos: (right) Ali Jabarin in Round 5 v Mateusz Surma, courtesy of Vienna 2014 pairings/results page, (left) Chinese Weiqi Association President Wang Runan (at right) congratulates Jabarin, EGF President Martin Stiassny seen at far left, by Lorenz Trippel.