American Go E-Journal » 2016 » October

Hurricane Cancels Space Coast Tourney; Go Congress Water Bottle Mystery Solved

Thursday October 6, 2016

Hurricane Cancels Space Coast Tourney: The Space Coast Go Tournament scheduled for October 8 in Rockledge, FL is cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew. “We’ll try to reschedule,” says TD Bart Lipofsky. “We had 24 signed up including four 4 Dan players.”

Go Congress Water Bottle Mystery Solved: Thanks to the many EJ readers who wrote in to solve the mystery of 2016.10.06_2010-posterthe water bottle reading “My God! It’s full of water” at the 2010 Go Congress.  “I assumed that it was a reference to a line in the film ‘2010: The Year We Make Contact’ (since it was the 2010 Go Congress),” wrote Ken Crumpler. “I believe the line was ‘Oh my god. It’s full of stars!’ But since this was a water bottle rather than a monolith, the quote was changed from ‘stars’ to ‘water.’ I have not been to a Go Congress in awhile,” Crumpler continues, “but of the myriad of things I used to enjoy about Congresses was the clever ‘themes,’ such as the James Bond theme at the 2007 Congress.” Zaid Alawi at the Chicago Go Club notes that “Originally a line from Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ novel, it later appeared in the sequel film ‘2010’ and subsequently became a minor Internet meme.” Marcel suggests “Maybe it’s a pun on someone’s reaction to a nine-stone handicap game, where are all the star points are occupied by Black stones.” And Bram Vandenbon says that “the only time that I ever heard somebody refer to water in the context of Go” was Janice Kim in a proverb in one of her books about “The river runs out” which he says “refers to a situation where you have tried to defend your territory by creating a wall. Unfortunately the shape is too weak and the opponent is able to push through your wall. Janice Kim compares this situation to a dam that is breaking, “and then the river runs out.'”

 

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Go Spotting: Kubo and the Two Strings; NYPD Red 2 Redux

Wednesday October 5, 2016

Kubo and the Two Strings: “At the beginning of the new stop-motion animation movie “Kubo and the Two Strings,” 2016.10.05_Kubo and the Two Strings two villagers are seen playing go briefly,” writes Marc Hedlund. “My go-pl2016.10.05_NYPD Red 2aying daughter was very excited about this (as was I)!”

NYPD Red 2 Redux: “A dozen Chinese men from twenty-something to eighty-something were grouped in a semicircle, chain-smoking and watching two men hunched over a makeshift table. They were playing Go, the two-thousand-year-old Chinese board game.” From “NYPD Red 2” by James Patterson & Marshall Karp, sent in by EJ reader Gene Halverson. See also Go Spotting: Patterson’s NYPD Red 2 (7/24/2015).

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Your Move/Readers Write: Mysterious Water Bottle

Wednesday October 5, 2016

“My God! It’s full of water.” “Do you know what this quote is referencing?” asks Austin Harris. “It is written on our 26th Go Congress water bottle from Colorado Springs in 2010. We assume it’s referencing something funny that happened at the previous Go Congress. We’ve been dying to know. Any clues? Or anybody else that might know?”
Email journal@usgo.org with your answers/guesses.

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Go Updates: Peters Talks Go on Podcast; Go on “No Such Thing as a Fish”; Shawn Ray’s “How to Play Go” Series; Kiseido’s Go Book Sale

Tuesday October 4, 2016

Catching up on a bunch of go reports and updates; here goes…

Peters Talks Go on Podcast: Glenn Peters appeared on the “Giving The Mic to the Wrong Person” podcast recently, discussing go, its history, appearances in American pop culture and significant games.

Go on “No Such Thing as a Fish”: The podcast No Such Thing as a Fish run by the QI elves is a general trivia podcast, reports Steve Colburn. “QI may resonate more with our British friends who love panel shows, but some of us in the US love 2016.10.04_How to Play Gothem too. Their 128th episode’s last fact is about go. They mention a few famous games from the past and a bit of AlphaGo. Skip forward to 27m 55sec to hear the facts about go.”

Shawn Ray’s “How to Play Go” Series: Shawn Ray’s free “How to Play Go” series  is now available. The 14 brief videos cover all the basics, from liberties to false eyes, ko and how to count the game. Ray says the videos can be shared widely “since these videos are aimed at helping spread Go. However, I must state that these videos cannot be sold or profited from. They are free and should remain free.”

Kiseido’s Go Book Sale: Kiseido is having a sale of all English-language go books; order 1 or 2 books and get free shipping, 3 to 9 books gets you 10% off with free shipping and 10 books or more are 15% off with free shipping. The sale runs through December 1, 2016.

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College Students Dominate 16th North Carolina Memorial Go Tournament

Monday October 3, 2016

The 16th annual North Carolina Memorial Go Tournament was held on September 25 at Umstead State Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The tournament attracted 40 players, with some of the go fans driving all the way from Tennessee, Virginia and Charlotte, NC. “The competition was fierce and everyone enjoyed the fun of playing,” freports TD Jeff Kuang.

One of the highlights was the participation of ten college students from North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Their performances were outstanding,” says Kuang. Brian Wu 2D from NCSU won the top prize in the open section by sweeping all 4 games. Andrew Zalesak 3D from UNC at Chapel Hill earned second place along with Yiyu Wang 5D from VA and local strong player Owen Chen 5D. Alex Parrott 4K won 1st place and Justin Blank 4K came in 2nd place in the 1K-6K section. Alvin Chen 7K won 1st place, Kerianne Squitire 7K and Alex Kuang 8K tied for 2nd place in the 7K-9K section. Ralph Abbey 10K came in 1st place and Ben Parrott 12K and Don Nonini 15K tied for 2nd place in the 10K-15K section. Ganning Xu 17K won 1st place with a perfect 4-0 score and Russell Herman 16K was 2nd place in the 16K-17K section. Joshua Mu 20K and Justin Su 21K swept all 4 games and tied for 1st place and Bhaskar Bharath 18K and Daniel Lee 19K shared 2nd place in the 18K and up section.

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New York Institute of Go’s Flushing Team 1 Wins NY Youth Team Go Championship

Monday October 3, 2016

New York Institute of Go’s Flushing Team 1 swept the first New York Youth Team Go Championship on September 24. The 2016.09.29_ny-youth-team1champions topped a field of ten teams facing off in the five-round event organized by the New York Go Association and held at Queens Library in Flushing, NY. The teams, with three players on each team, represented different regions competing in the tournament.

2016.09.29_ny-youth-team2“It was a great start for the youth go community in New York,” reports organizer Stephanie Yin 1P. “The main purpose of the event was to stimulate and motivate more young players to participate. Some of the parents mentioned after the tournament that ‘the kids seem to like playing go more and they want to win the prize next time.'”

Yin promises “There will be more tournaments coming up,” including similar youth tournaments and others oriented for a wider audience. “It makes me happy to see more people getting inspired and become passionate about go.”

photos courtesy New York Institute of Go coach Stephanie Yin 1p (at right in photo, above left)

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