Saturday May 13, 2017
The 2017 Cotsen Open dates have been confirmed for October 21-22 at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Registration will open soon,
says Tournament Organizer Christopher Saenz. As usual registration fees will be refunded for all players who show up both days, free lunch is provided by tournament sponsor Eric Cotsen (right), and of course free shoulder massages.
Thursday May 11, 2017
After a series of festival screenings in California, Texas, and Iowa, the go documentary “The Surrounding Game” will screen on June 10-11 at
SFDocFest in San Francisco and on June 10 at the Canadian Sport Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. Each screening will be followed by a Q/A with one of the directors/producers, as well as special guest Gansheng Shi 1p in Toronto. “We’ve gotten great audience response at all the festivals we’ve attended. In a few weeks we’ll be rolling out our distribution and screening plans, which includes go clubs worldwide”, reports co-director/producer Cole D. Pruitt.
You can watch the trailer here.
Tickets are now available for the San Francisco and Toronto screenings.
photo: The Roxie SFDocFest venue
Thursday May 11, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Mi wins Japan-China Ryusei, DeepZenGo beats Fujisawa: The 3rd Japan-China Ryusei play-off was held in the Belle Salle hall in front of Iidabashi Station in Tokyo on April 29. Mi Yuting 9P, the winner of the 3rd Chinese Ryusei title, took white against Ichiriki Ryo 7P, winner of the 25th Japanese Ryusei title, and forced a 
resignation after 175 moves. The game started at 4 p.m. and was telecast live on the Igo Shogi Channel (left). The play-off was preceded by an exhibition game between Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Honinbo, and the program DeepZenGo (right). Fujisawa had 30 minutes followed by 30 seconds per move plus 15 minutes to be used in one-minute units. The program had just 45 minutes. The game started at 1 p.m. Taking black, DeepZenGo won by resig. after 159 moves.
Kisei S League starts: The top league in the 42nd Kisei tournament, the S League, has finally got off to a start, some weeks behind the lower A, B, and C Leagues. The members, in order of ranking are: Kono Rin 9P, Yamashita Keigo 9P, Murakawa Daisuke 8P, Ichiriki Ryo 7P, Cho U 9P, and So Yokoku 9P. The first two games were played on April 27. Yamashita (W) beat So by resig., and Ichiriki (B) beat Cho by resig.
Iyama leads Meijin League: The first two games in the sixth round of the 42nd Meijin League were played recently, and the result is that the gap at the top has widened. On 4-0, Iyama Yuta was the only undefeated player in the league, and his nearest rival was Yamashita Keigo on 4-1. However, Yamashita suffered a loss to Hane Naoki on May 4, and is now two points behind Iyama, though the latter has played two fewer games. This was Hane’s first win in the league.
(April 24) Yo Seiki 7P (W) beat Hane Naoki 7P by resig.
(April 27) Murakawa Daisuke 8P (B) beat Sakai Hideyuki 8P by resig.
(May 4) Hane Naoki 9P (W) beat Yamashita Keigo 9P by resig.; Kono Rin 9P (B) beat Yo Seiki 7P by resig.
Wednesday May 10, 2017
A very unusual online world championship is now accepting registrations. Pandanet — in cooperation with the Kansai Kiin — is holding the 
Internet 13×13 Amateur World Go Championship. The winner in the Main class will earn the right to play a game with Hirofumi Ohashi 6-dan (13×13 Net game). Registration is free, deadline is May 22, 2017.
Wednesday May 10, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Cao wins World Go Legends: The Japan-China-Korea World Go Legends Tournament is a special tournament (a one-off?) held in Zhejiang Province to commemorate the start of the City A League, which seems to be the most popular tournament in China. The sponsors invited a number of players who starred in international go in the late 20th century to participate. The results are given below. Long-term go fans will recognize the names, though there are some notable absentees (presumably not available). In the final, held on April 27, Cao Dayuan 9P of China (W) beat Kobayashi Koichi 9P of Japan by half a point (both these players were at their peak in the 90s). Results listed on the Nihon Ki-in homepage are given below, but are incomplete.
Round 1 (April 25). Cao Dayuan 9P (China) beat Kim Soojang 9P (Korea); Takemiya Masaki 9P (Japan) beat Liu Xiaoguang 9P (China); Ma Xiaochun 9P (China) beat Pak Seongho 9P (Korea); Yoda Norimoto 9P beat Yang Jaeho 9P (Korea); Nie Weiping (China) beat Suh Bongsoo 9P (Korea); Kobayashi Koichi 9P (Japan) (W) beat Hua Yigang 9P (China); Yu Bin 9P (China) beat Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P (Japan); Ko
bayashi Satoru 9P (Japan) beat Suh Neunguk 9P (Korea).
Quarterfinals (April 25). Yoda (B) beat Ma; Yu Bin beat (B) Kobayashi Satoru; Kobayashi Koichi (B) beat Nie; Cao (B) beat Takemiya.
Semifinals (April 26) Cao (W) beat Yoda; Kobayashi Koichi (W) beat Yu Bin.
Cho Chikun first to 1500 wins: On April 27, a win by Cho Chikun (right) against Kataoka Satoshi 9P in the second round of the 7th Masters Cup was his 1500th official win. He is the first player in Japan to reach this mark. His record is 1500 wins, 821 losses, 3 jigos, and 4 no-results, for a winning percentage of 64.6. Rin Kaiho is in second place with 1409 wins. Cho was surprised when a large of reporters came into the room, as he had had no idea he was approaching a landmark. As usual, this record generated a lot of trivia, so here goes. Cho’s age is 60 years ten months, and it took him 49 years to rack up 1500 wins. He has played games against 307 different opponents. His most frequent opponent is Kobayashi Koichi: they have played 129 games, of which Cho has won 66. He has scored most wins against the late Kato Masao, his record being 71-42-1 no result. Against Iyama Yuta, his record is a quite respectable 5-7. His top year just for wins was 2001, when he won 47 games. He has never had a minus record, the closest he came being 21-21 in 2009.
Monday May 8, 2017
The Houston Go Club is hosting a pro teaching workshop with Janice Kim June 3-4 in Houston Texas. The weekend event 
will go from 9:00 to 5:00 both days, with lunch included. Ms. Kim (professional 3 Dan) will lead the workshop. The event will be held at the Houston City Club, One City Club Drive, Houston, Texas 77046. This event is offered with the financial help of the AGA, for just $20 per participant. There is limited seating, so you must pre-register. Preregistration can be done on the Houston Go club Facebook page under Events. Fees will be collected thru Eventbrite. Contact Paul Howard of the Houston Go club for more details. paulrhowardtx@gmail.com
Monday May 8, 2017
A new club in Dothan, Alabama, founded in March, has seen a high level of participation in its opening weeks, with a total of 
18 players at their first meeting. The club meets at the Fanatix game shop (2970 Ross Clark Cir #2, Dothan, AL 36301), Sundays at 3p. The club features more experienced players teaching beginners, so anyone is welcome. “I have been playing go on and off for a few years and could never find someone in my area to play against,” club founder Matt Clark told the E-Journal. “So I started this club to try and increase the interest in the game and help to better everyone involved.” Clark adds that “We are all so excited to be part of the go world and we look forward to many good times together.” Reach him at mclark@bondysford.com.
Monday May 8, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama defends Judan title: The fourth game of the 55th Judan title match was played at the Kansai Headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in in Kita Ward, Osaka on April. 21. This is the home ground of the defending champion, Iyama Yuta. After some fierce 
middle-game fighting, the game was expected by observers to be decided in the endgame, but the challenger, Yo Seiki (right), made an oversight, so he had to resign after 196 moves. With move 99, Yo plunged into a capturing race that he couldn’t win. He pulled out of it when he realized his mistake, but the damage was already done. He played on, but his efforts to stage an upset were unavailing. That gave Iyama a lead of 3-1, so he won the match. He defended the Judan title that had earned him his grand slam last year and also maintained his sextuple crown. This is his fourth Judan title overall and his 43rd title. The Judan prize is 7,000,000 yen. Incidentally, there was no party on the eve of the fourth game, which is a little unusual. The idea was to help the players concentrate on the contest.
Gosei Play-off: Motoki Katsuya 8P (left) will begin his challenge to Iyama Yuta for the Honinbo title on May 9. In the meantime, he has reached the play-off to decide the challenger to Iyama for the Gosei title, which shows that his Honinbo success is no fluke. This is the first time Motoki has reached
the final, but his opponent is Yamashita Keigo 9P, who has played in seven Gosei play-offs and won four of them (he has won the title once, back in 2000). Results of the semifinals:
(April 17) Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) beat Ichiriki Ryo by resig.
(April 20) Motoki Katsuya 8P (B) beat O Rissei 9P by resig.
Incidentally, Motoki and Yamashita will also run into each other in the quarterfinals of the Tengen tournament.
Shin wins 4th Globis Cup: The 4th Globis Cup was held on the Tokyo campus of the main sponsor, the Globis Graduate School of Management, from April 21 to 23. It featured an all-Korean final, so it was certain that Korea would pick up its first win in this international tournament for teenaged players. The full name is the 4th Globis Cup World Go U-20 (players need to be under 20 as of 1 January). In the final, held on April 23, Shin Jinseo 7P (W) beat Byeon Sangil 5P by resignation after 250 moves. First prize is 3,000,000 yen. This result was another disappointment for the home team, which had got two players to the final in the inaugural tournament (Ichiriki Ryo beat Kyo Kagen), but it was some consolation to see Ichiriki take third place and the new young star Shibano Toramaru come fourth. The first stage of this tournament is four mini-leagues, in which two wins take you to the quarterfinals and two losses eliminate you. Full results are given below.
Group League Round 1 (April 21). Xie Erhao 4P (China) (W) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P by resig.; Byeon Sangil 5P (Korea) (W) beat Kyo Kagen 4P (Japan) by resig.; Gu Jihao 5P (China) (B) beat Yo Chito 4P (Japan); Shin Jinseo (W) beat Mutsuura Yuta 3P (Japan) by resig.; Shibano Toramaru 3P (Japan) (W) beat Jian Jingting 2P (Chinese Taipei) by resig.; Zhang Ruijie 2P (Cho Zuiketsu, Japan) (B) beat Willis Huang 7D (USA) by resig.; Huang Yunsong 6P (China) beat Jie Hui Kwa 7D (Singapore); Shin Minjun 5P (Korea) (W) beat Viacheslav Kaymin 7D (Russia) by resig.
Group League Round 2 (April 21). Ichiriki (W) beat Huang by resig.; Jian (B) beat Kyo by resig.; Yo (B) beat Kaymin by resig.; Mutsuura (W) beat Kwa by resig.; Byeon (B) beat Shibano by resig.; Xie (B) beat Zhang by resig.; Huang (W)
beat Shin Jinseo by resig.; Gu (B) beat Shin Minjun by resig.
Group League (Round 3) (April 22) Ichiriki (W) beat Zhang by resig.; Yo (B) beat Shin Minjun by resig.; Shibano (B) beat Jian by resig.; Shin Jinseo (W) beat Mutsuura by resig.
Quarterfinals (April 22). Ichiriki (B) beat Huang by resig.; Shibano (B) beat Gu Jihao by 3.5 points; Byeon (B) beat Yo by resig.; Shin (W) beat Xie on time.
Semifinals (April 23). Byeon (B) beat Ichiriki by resig.; Shin (B) beat Shibano by resig.
Play-off for 3rd (April 23) Ichiriki (W) beat Shibano by resig.
The second and third tournaments were won by Chinese players. Ironically, the three Chinese representatives this year all qualified immediately for the quarterfinals with two straight wins, but were all eliminated in this round. This
was the first time that Japan got three players into the quarterfinals.
Tomorrow: Cao wins World Go Legends; Cho Chikun first to 1500 wins
Sunday May 7, 2017
AGA Master Review Series, Game 31: Li Qincheng 9p [W] vs. Master 9p [B]
Wednesday May 10, 2017
“Li Qincheng is a Chinese player who won the Asian TV Cup in 2016 at the age of 18, and was promoted to 9P after that,” says Michael Redmond 9p in this video commentary, hosted by Chris Garlock of the AGA E-Journal, of the thirty-first game of Master (AlphaGo). “In this game Master plays a powerful fighting game, taking control early and chasing White’s weak group around the board.”
[link]