American Go E-Journal » 2014 » November

Updates: November 26 Deadline for Australian Go Congress Early Bird Rate; Strong Player Boosts Evanston Go Club; Kiseido Releases Vol.3 of Road Map to Shodan; Kaz’ Special Offer

Sunday November 16, 2014

November 26 Deadline for Australian Go Congress Early Bird Rate: There’s limited space for international competitors at the first-ever Australian Go Congress, set for January 25-31, 2015 in Sydney (First Australian Go Congress set for 2015 in Sydney 7/13/2014 EJ). There’s an early bird rate for those who book and pay prior to November 26.

Strong Player Boosts Evanston Go Club: After many months of low attendance, things are picking up at the Evanston Go Club, reports organizer Mark Rubenstein. “We are fortunate to have attracted Bill Lin 7 dan to the club recently, and his presence has been a boost to attendance and interest. If you live in the area and have not been to the club in a while, now is a very good time to learn from the best!” photo courtesy Mark Rubenstein

Kiseido Releases Vol.3 of Road Map to Shodan: Kiseido has just released The Road Map to Shodan, Volume Three; The Basics of Life and Death by Rob van Zeijst and Richard Bozulich. The third volume of The Road Map to Shodan is a thorough introduction to the topic of life and death. It can be read by players who have just learned the rules, but it is also useful for players up to 1-dan or for any amateur player who needs to review the basics of life and death. Kiseido is also having a special 40% off clearance sale of Hyuga kaya table go boards.

Kaz’ Special Offer: “Buy 10, get 1 free plus more stuff”: Longtime EJ contributor Kazunari Furuyama is running a special teaching offer through December 23 for his Offline Lessons. Prepay for 10 lessons and you’ll get an 11th lesson free, plus you will receive 30 problems per lesson, as opposed to 25 when paying on a lesson-by-lesson basis. You’ll also receive five extra mini-lessons on countering various openings and he will give you another five extra mini-lessons on various themes of your choice.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware,U.S./North America,World

SmartGo Pro: End of the Line

Thursday November 13, 2014

SmartGo Kifu and the upgrade package are on sale for one week. For the next week, the go apps’ upgrade bundle will be $16 — if you bought Pro at $13, you can upgrade for just $3. And SmartGo Kifu (right) will be on sale for $15 (25% off). “Grab this chance before it’s gone,” says SmartGo author Anders Kierulf. “This is a rare opportunity, as SmartGo Kifu has only ever been on sale once before in its 4.5 years.” Kierulf revived the iPhone-only SmartGo Pro earlier this year to get users up-to-date, “and as soon as Apple allowed it, I added an upgrade package to give users a way to upgrade from Pro to Kifu. However, the numbers are in, and having multiple versions of essentially the same app is proving to be too confusing.” After next week, Kierulf will remove SmartGo Pro from the App Store; “SmartGo Kifu, which works on both iPad and iPhone, is the way forward,” he says. Read more about it here.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

Clossius in the Land of Baduk: Live at the Samsung Cup

Wednesday November 12, 2014

By Shawn Ray, Special Correspondent to the E-Journal

So last week the BIBA students went to watch the semi-finals of the Samsung Cup being played in Korea. It was a lot of fun and the students, including myself, got to study with the national Korean baduk team. These players are the top young professional players here in Korea, and we were able to make new friends and learn new strategies with them. Check out this photo of the national team, BIBA students and Kim Ji-Seok who joined in the review after finishing his game. We also had a lot of fun playing Ping Pong and Choku (Foot-VollyBall) with our teachers and other professional players.

It was definitely an amazing experience to be able to study with young Korean professionals and play some sports with them. It was also exciting to see the Samsung Cup semi-finals being played and explained to you by half a dozen other pros. I think the funniest thing I heard was when I asked who was winning in a certain game, and a pro friend of mine said “White, by a lot.” When I asked how much exactly she paused and replied, “3 or 4 points.” Once again goes to show how every point matters to a professional player when an amateur likely loses at least that many points in the endgame alone.

Anyway, it was a fun trip and all the students enjoyed it. To see more pictures and follow BIBA activity, you can like their page on Facebook.

Categories: Korea

Go Game Guru Buys Hinoki Press, Will Keep Titles in Print

Wednesday November 12, 2014

Go Game Guru has bought Hinoki Press from founder Chris Greene, who started the go book publishing company in 2006 and has since published 18 go books. A long-time go player, Greene started Hinoki after retiring from his career as a programmer “because he wanted to give something back to the go community,” says GGG’s David Ormerod. “Chris’ contribution to the body of English-language go books is immense… Hinoki’s efforts made a lot of thought provoking material available in English for the first time.”

Because of his health, Greene no longer wants to continue running Hinoki. “It’s important to all of us that go books stay in print wherever possible and we bought Hinoki with the express purpose of keeping all 18 of its books in print,” says Ormerod. “We’ll continue to sell these books under the Hinoki brand name for the time being and will gradually build on Chris’ work with our own books – starting with our upcoming Lee Sedol vs Gu Li Jubango book.” For go players, Ormerod says “this also means that we’ll be able to provide you with go books at even better prices than before.”

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware,World

UMBC Fall Tourney Returns This Sunday

Tuesday November 11, 2014

After a several-year hiatus the UMBC Fall tournament returns this Sunday, sponsored by the University of Maryland Baltimore County Go Club. Registration starts at 10 AM on Sunday 11/16. There will be three rounds in sections of eight players. Free pizza and cash prizes. The tournament will be in the Skylight room at the top of the Commons building on the UMBC campus, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Catonsville,MD. Free to UMBC students and faculty. Pre-register with Tournament Director, Gurujeet Khalsa, by email at gurujeet@live.com or RSVP on the Meetup event or call 703-626-0777.

Categories: U.S./North America

Go News from Amsterdam: Inter Districts Tournament; Badukmovies Goes to Japan; Oromedia Books on Sale at Het Paard

Monday November 10, 2014

Inter Districts Tournament: The preliminaries for the Dutch Championships 2015, called INDIS, were recently held in October…click here for more on this and the reports below.

Badukmovies Goes to Japan: Badukmovies.com creators Peter Brouwer 6d and Kim Ouweleen 4d recently traveled to Japan for the Nihon Ki-in’s Summer Go Camp…

Oromedia Books on Sale at Het Paard: Amsterdam-based Go Shop Het Paard http://www.goshop-keima.com/ has put all remaining Oromedia books on sale…
Continue reading…)

Categories: Europe

The Power Report: Pair Go Celebrates 25th Anniversary; Korea Takes Lead in Nong Shim Cup; Iyama Makes Good Start in Oza Title Match; Iyama Wins First Tengen Game; Iyama Yuta Defends Meijin Title; Korea Wins O-kage Cup International New Stars Tournament; Two Meijin League Places Decided; Fujisawa Wins Women’s Honinbo; Radical Reorganization of Kisei Tournament

Sunday November 9, 2014

by John Power, EJ Japan Correspondent

Pair Go Celebrates 25th Anniversary: One of the biggest developments in go in recent decades has been the rise of Pair Go to worldwide popularity. The holding of the 25th International Amateur Pair Go Championship at the end of October also marked the 25th anniversary of the birth of Pair Go…click here to read more on this and all the following reports.
Korea Takes Lead in Nong Shim Cup: In the three-way team tournament, Korea ended this round with two wins to one each for Japan and China…
Iyama Makes Good Start in Oza Title Match: The 62nd Oza best-of-five is another title match in which Iyama Yuta is facing a younger challenger. The first game was held at the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel in Yokohama City on October 21 and the game was a fierce one, which is usually the case with Iyama, and featured some novel variations…
Iyama Wins First Tengen Game: The first game of the 40th Tengen title match was held on October 24, so Iyama was engaged in three concurrent title matches. Here his challenger is Takao Shinji, holder of the only top-seven title missing from Iyama’s portfolio, the Judan…
Iyama Yuta Defends Meijin Title: In the sixth game of the 39th Meijin title match Iyama took a territorial lead early in the game, then skillfully reduced a large moyo that Kono built…
Korea Wins O-kage Cup International New Stars Tournament: The O-kage (gratitude) Cup is a regional tournament for young players sponsored by an association of tourist shops in Ise City, the site of the famous Ise Shrine. The sponsors held an international tournament for teams from Japan, China, Korea, and Chinese Taipei on November 1 and 2…
Two Meijin League Places Decided: The Meijin is a conservative league, with only three out of nine places opening up every year. Two of the vacant seats were decided on November 6…
Fujisawa Wins Women’s Honinbo: The third game of the 33rd Women’s Honinbo title was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo on November 7. Taking black, Fujisawa Rin 2P won by 5.5 points after 233 moves…
Radical Reorganization of Kisei Tournament: There will be complete overhaul of the Yomiuri Newspaper-sponsored Kisei tournament as of the 40th term (the 39th term will be completed with the best-of-seven title match starting in January 2015). The only thing that won’t change is the title match itself. Even with charts, it’s hard to understand the system, but I’ll try to explain it without them…

Continue reading…)

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

Kim Jiseok 9p to Challenge Tang Weixing 9p in Samsung Cup Finals

Sunday November 9, 2014

The 2014 Samsung Cup semifinals finished on November 7 in Daejeon, Korea with Korea’s number two player Kim Jiseok 9p (left) to face defending champion Tang Weixing 9p. Kim’s rise to the top included solid wins against the top Chinese player Shi Yue 9p. Meanwhile, Tang was forced to play three intense games as himself and Korea’s top player Park Junghwan 9p trapped each other in many complicated territory battles.
Though Kim and Tang have played four other games together (Kim in the lead at 3-1), the 2014 Samsung Cup finals will be Kim’s first appearance in an international final. The match will take place on December 9 through December 11 in Xian, China. For more information about the semifinals including photos and game records, please visit Go Game Guru.
–Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru

Categories: China,Events/Tournaments,Go News,Korea,World

EuroGoTV Update: Ukraine, Germany, Finland

Sunday November 9, 2014

Ukraine: The Kharkiv Championship 2014 finished on November 2 with Oleksandr Hiliazov 1d in first, Anton Boreiko 4k in second, and Lenid Shumakov 5k in third. Germany: Also on November 2, Jonas Welticke 5d (left) took the NRW-Meisterschaft 2004 in Duesseldorf while Barbara Knauf 3d came in second and Bernd Radmacher 5d placed third. Finland: Juri Kuronen 6d bested Jusso Nyyssonen 5d at the Finnish Championship League in Helsinki on November 2. Javier-Aleksi Savolainen 5d was third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Categories: Europe,Events/Tournaments,Go News

Out of Print Oromedia Books on Sale at Go Game Guru (And Going Fast)

Sunday November 9, 2014

Out of print go books from OroMedia are available at steep discounts but they’re going fast. Go Game Guru is currently selling out of print gobooks from OroMedia at discounts of more than 50% off. OroMedia, based in Korea, was the publisher of more than 20 go books in English, as well as other Korean language books and magazines. The company went out of business in 2013, and Go Game Guru has purchased their remaining stock. “Because we were able to buy these books at a discounted price, we can offer much lower prices to customers than usual,” says Go Game Guru’s David Ormerod. The majority of the books are priced at $10 or less, and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Seven of the books are already out of stock; click here for an up-to-date list of all the books on sale.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

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