American Go E-Journal » 2018 » February

AGA seeking volunteers

Wednesday February 28, 2018

If you appreciate all the great go content brought to you by the American Go Association and want to help grow the go community even more, we’re looking for a few good volunteers for some key positions:

Social Media Coordinator – Experience with Facebook groups, Google Groups, Twitter. Person will manage our social media pages and work with people who have questions; help grow our platforms, gain users, and turn those into AGA members, and will provide assistance for the Streaming team when necessary.

Webmaster – Assist with updating webpages, answer emails sent to webmaster@usgo.org and respond or forward to the appropriate person, and assist with publishing events to the website calendar.

Server Admin – Assist with Server admin duties. Experience with Linux necessary. Helpful to know Apache, Drupal, WordPress, bash scripting.

To find out more and/or volunteer, email steve.colburn@usgo.org.

 

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AlphaGo Zero vs. Master; Game 6: Don’t worry, play tenuki

Sunday February 25, 2018

AG Zero is back, this time “with a big group that looks like it’s about to die, just floating around in the middle of Master’s moyo”2018.02.25_AG-Zero-Master6 says Michael Redmond 9P in his commentary. “But Zero doesn’t seem to be worried, because it plays away and does all sorts of stuff.”

“Master vs Zero with Zero on black are especially great games,” enthuses viewer Stefan Kaitschick. “Master getting beaten with the common sense moves, while Zero does what it pleases, is something of a horror show.” Adds agazmenlyfzsys, “Alphago zero is just from another dimension.”

Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and see below for the sgf commentary. To support this content, please consider joining or renewing your membership in the American Go Association; click here for details.

Video produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson. The sgf files were created by Redmond, with editing and transcription by Garlock and Myron Souris.

[link]

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Go Quiz: Running go players

Saturday February 24, 2018

E-Journal photographer Phil Straus recently found this photo in his archives. If you can name the go players and the year and location of 2018.02.24_running-go-playersthe U.S. Congress, click here.

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Registration Open for Youth Go League

Thursday February 22, 2018

aghs logo“The American Go Honor Society (AGHS) is holding its first online go league, and invites all U.S. youth players under the age of 18 to participate,” says Promotion Head Gabby Su.  “Participants will play ​3-4 games​ each month​ in a round robin ​system​. ​The league is divided into several divisions and works similarly to a ladder. At the end of ​a round​, players will get the chance to move up or down the ladder​ depending on how many points they earned​. The Youth Go League is a great opportunity to meet and play against other youth players from all over the United States. It is also a great way to practice playing more serious online games.​”

​For more details, click here. To register, click here.

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“Surrounding Game”/KGS Simul Challenge set for Saturday

Thursday February 22, 2018

A special event will be hitting the KGS Go Server this Saturday, Feb 24. Dubbed the “KGS Simul Challenge”, a slew of strong2018.02.21_kgs-challenge players will assemble to play handicapped simul games against anyone online continuously from 3-9pm EDT. Jointly sponsored by KGS and the “Surrounding Game” documentary, the field will feature many of the film’s stars, including Andy Liu 1p, Gansheng Shi 1p, Mingming Yin 1p, and Myungwan Kim 9p. 

“Do you have what it takes to bring down one of these giants?” asks organizer Michael Fodera. All winners will receive a 1-month KGS membership subscription plus a free digital copy of The Surrounding Game. 

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Hajin Lee wins 2018 Jujo Ing Cup

Wednesday February 21, 2018

Hajin Lee 4P (right) took top honors in the 26th Jiang Zhu Jiu Ing Cup, held February 18 in San Francisco, CA. A total of 76 players 2018.02.21_Hajin Leecompeted for $3,000 in prizes at the Cup, which is sponsored annually by Ing’s Goe Foundation of California. This year’s event was held at the Google Community Space in San Francisco. The event was an exhibition of Mindfulness, hosted by Mindful Schools and included lectures on 2018.02.21_JiangZhuJiuusing go as a tool for Social Emotional Learning in K-8 classrooms. Robert Thomas (Executive Director of Mindful Schools) spoke on the importance of mindfulness for young students and the use of games such as go to foster well being. He was presented with a go set by Jiang Zhu Jiu at the award ceremony.

Players competed for four rounds in five sections with Hajin Lee winning the top “pro” section. Prizes in each section were given to 4th place. Section winners were Shia Zu (High Dan); Brian Yang (Expert); Ryan Lear (Intermediate); Xuan Wu (Novice). Click here for results.

Players in attendance came from China, the Netherlands, Alabama and southern California in addition to local San Francisco Bay Area contestants.

The day prior was the birthday of Jiang Zhu Jiu (above left) and the contestants gave a heart-pounding rendition of Happy Birthday at the award ceremony.

– report/photos by Ernest Brown

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The Power Report (3): Meijin League; Marriage between go players; Kido Prizes; Iyama wins Shusai Prize; Promotions

Wednesday February 21, 2018

by John Power, special Japan correspondent for the E-Journal

Meijin League: 
The first game in the third round of the 43rd Meijin League was played on February 1. Yo Seiki 7P (W) beat Takao Shinji 9P. Astonishingly, Yo has beaten Takao ten times to just one loss. With the third round almost completed, the only undefeated players are Cho U 9P and Shibano Toramaru; both of them have already had a bye, so their scores are 2-0. Recent results follow.
(Jan. 25) Cho U 9P (B) beat Yamashita Keigo by resig.
(Feb. 1) Yo Seiki (W) beat Takao Shinji by resig.
(Feb. 8) Hane Naoki 9P (B) beat Kono Rin 9P by resig.
(Feb. 15) Shibano Toramaru (W) beat Yamashita by 2.5 points.

Marriage between go players: Go Weekly reported that Mannami Nao 3P (age 32) married Ida Atsushi 8P (age 23) on February 12. Ida is a member of the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-in; Mannami is going to move to Nagoya. Mannami said: “I want to support Ida 8-dan and look after our household.” It seems she plans to follow the lead of Kobayashi Izumi in subordinating her own career to her husband’s. In her case, it may involve some financial loss, as in recent years she has been the most popular woman professional for commentating jobs etc. at go events.

Kido Prizes: The 51st Kido Prizes were announced in the latest issue of Go Weekly. Winners were as follows:
Most Outstanding Player: Iyama Yuta
Outstanding Player: Ichiriki Ryo
New Stars: Mutsuura Yuta (for winning the Agon Kiriyama Cup), Shibano Toramaru (for winning the Ryusei title)
Woman’s Prize: Fujisawa Rina
International Prize: Iyama Yuta
Most wins: Shibano Toramaru (53)
Best winning percentage: Kyo Kagen 7P (80.3%)
Most successive wins: Iyama Yuta, Shibano Toramaru: 16
Most games played: Shibano Toramaru
The most interesting point here is the appearance of three women in the top ten (five in the top 20, 11 in the top 52). In part, this reflects the fact that players like Xie Yimin and Fujisawa Rina do fairly well against male players, but another factor is the increase in the number of women’s titles. This has also led to a big increase in the prize money available (see list below): the two newest women’s tournaments, the Hollyhock Cup, previously known as the Aizu Central Hospital Cup, and the Senko Cup actually having the most prize money. The former, which has completed four terms, is worth 7,000,000 yen to the winner, and the latter, held twice so far, is worth 8,000,000 yen.

Here are some statistics for 2017.
Most wins

  1. Shibano Toramaru: 53 wins, 13 losses
  2. Kyo Kagen: 45-11
  3. Ichiriki Ryo: 44-20
  4. Iyama Yuta: 42-12
  5. (Ms) Fujisawa Rina: 40-23
  6. Shida Tatsuya 7P: 38-11; Mutsuura Yuta 7P: 38-12
  7. Motoki Katsuya 8P: 36-14
  8. (Ms) Xie Yimin: 34-22
  9. (Ms) Mukai Chiaki 5P: 33-18
  10. Cho U: 30-14; (Ms) Ueno Asami 1P: 30-15; Yamashita Keigo: 30-22
  11. (Ms) Nyu Eiko: 27-23

Best winning percentage

  1. Kyo Kagen: 80.36%
  2. Shibano Toramaru: 80.3%
  3. Iyama Yuta: 77.78%

Most successive wins

  1. Iyama Yuta, Shibano Toramaru: 16
  2. Takei Takashi 7P, Mutsuura Yuta: 13

Most prize money won

  1. Iyama Yuta: \159,814,000 (about $1,480,000)
  2. Ichiriki Ryo: \25,237,300
  3. Takao Shinji: \24,595,000
  4. Fujisawa Rina: \24,049,700
  5. Yamashita Keigo: \21,807,300
  6. Kono Rin: \21,713,400
  7. Motoki Katsuya: \20,977,400
  8. Xie Yimin: \20,472,400
  9. Shiba Toramaru: \18,908,700
  10. Mutsuura Yuta: \16,996,200

Iyama wins Shusai Prize: The 55th Shusai Prize, which honors the outstanding player of the previous year, was awarded to Iyama Yuta. This prize usually goes to the player who wins the top Kido prize; Iyama has received it six times in a row (matching the record of Kobayashi Koichi) and seven times overall (behind Cho Chikun’s nine).

Promotions
The automatic promotions based on prize money won in 2017 were announced recently in Go Weekly. Details follow.
To 2-dan: Ueno Asami Torii Yuta
To 3-dan: Koike Yoshihiro, Yokotsuka Riki
To 4-dan: Tanaka Nobuyuki, Koyama Kuya
To 5-dan: Tsuruta Kazushi, Adachi Toshimasa
To 6-dan: Son Makoto, Numadate Sakiya
To 7-dan: Shiraishi Yuichi
There has also been one promotion by the cumulative-wins system.
To 8-dan: Ri Ishu (150 wins, as of Jan 19)

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Feb. 28 deadline for early-bird savings on Japan Go Congress/Osaka Go Camp

Wednesday February 21, 2018

Early-bird deadline for the third Japan Go Congress and sixth Osaka Go camp is February 28. Click here for details and to save2018.02.20_osaka-camp-300x300 5000 JPY or email osaka.go.2018@gmail.com

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Categories: Japan,Main Page
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In Memoriam: Roger P. Hjulstrom

Tuesday February 20, 2018

Roger P. Hjulstrom passed away on February 13 after a brief illness. He was 62. A self-taught go player and early AGA member,2018.02.19_Roger P. Hjulstrom Hjulstrom (right) enjoyed sharing his love of the game, and taught hundreds of people how to play over the course of decades. He kept the score sheets of tournaments that he organized on a shelf next to the dining table, along with many go books. He also kept a stash of extra chairs to provide additional seating for go gatherings at his house.

In the early days of computer go, Hjulstrom wrote his own go-playing program, and his interest in go was only heightened by the AlphaGo phenomenon. He continued to play in person weekly, and online against computers, improving his playing strength.

He once told a story about how he had invited several Chinese go players from nearby Virginia Tech, for one of the many go get-togethers in his home in Blacksburg, Virginia. The players were from different parts of China, and at one point began discussing the correct way to make dumplings. Soon, Roger’s kitchen was filled with flying flour and excited people sharing their own methods for the ancient arts, translated to a distinctly human, and warm meeting of minds and hearts.

The family will have a service in Massachusetts near his childhood home.

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The Power Report (2): Ida keeps lead in Honinbo League despite loss

Tuesday February 20, 2018

by John Power, special Japan correspondent for the E-Journal

Xie wins LG Cup: The best-of-three final of the 22nd LG Cup was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo in early February. This is a Korean-sponsored tournament, but the finalists were Iyama Yuta of Japan and Xier Erhao of China, so the sponsors were probably happy to see the game staged overseas. The Nihon Ki-in stepped forward because a Japanese representative had made an international final for the first time since Cho U in 2005 (the 9th LG Cup, which Cho won). Japanese fans are keen to see international success, so staging the tournament made sense for the Nihon Ki-in. Letting Iyama play on home ground might also help him. Xie Erhao, who is just 19, was virtually unknown here, so expectations were high that Iyama would score his first success in a major international tournament. However, Xie is a member of the top group of young players in China, where he is best known for reaching the semifinals of an international tournament, the Bailing Cup, when he was 14. In fighting ability, he turned out to be more than a match for Iyama. In the first game, played on February 5, Xie (W) scored a convincing win, securing a resignation after 180 moves. In the second game, played on February 7, Iyama was doing badly, but he managed to pull off an upset win by half a point. However, in the third game, played on February 8, Xie displayed precise reading and excellent positional judgment and won by resignation after 226 moves. This is Xie’s first international title. First prize is 300,000,000 won (about $280,000).

Park wins New Year’s Cup: The sixth CCTV New Year’s Cup, a tournament held by a Chinese TV station to celebrate the Chinese New Year, was held in Beijing on February 5 to 7 (actually a little before the Chinese New Year, which came on February 16 this year, but CCTV wanted to telecast the games before the winter Olympics started). This is an irregular knockout tournament for the top players from China, Korea, and Japan. Ke Jie represented China, Park Junghwan Korea, and Ichiriki Ryo Japan. The Japanese representative should have been Iyama Yuta, but he was busy with the LG final. The selection of the player challenging Iyama in the Kisei title match to take his place could be taken as de facto recognition of Ichiriki’s standing as Japan’s current number two. In these three-player knockout tournaments, the players draw lots for the initial pairing, in which two of them play each other; the winner then plays the third player; the winner of that game then meets the winner of the first game in the final.
In the first game, Park (white) beat Ichiriki by resignation after 196 moves. The latter then played Ke; taking black, Ichiriki had a good game, but Ke managed to pull off an upset, winning by 2.5 points. In the final, Park (white) beat Ke by resignation after 184 moves. Park’s victory came after four successive wins by China. I also read on the Net that this win enable Park to displace Ke as the world’s number one in a popular ranking system.
Btw, the report in Go Weekly mentioned that, thanks to his match with AlphaGo at the Future of Go summit last year, Ke Jie became well known to the Chinese public. As a result, he received an award as the top sportsman of the year, beating our world champions in sports like table tennis. Ke commented that his followers on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, increased nearly one hundredfold, to just under four million.

Ida keeps lead in Honinbo League despite loss: After five rounds in the 73rd Honinbo League, Ida Atsushi 8P, the unsuccessful challenger from four years ago, seems to have a good chance of getting another crack at Iyama Yuta, also known as Honinbo Monyu. Ironically, he has held on to the sole lead despite losing his latest game. In the final game of the fourth round, Ida beat Kobayashi Satoru 9P by 2.5 points; this took his score to 4-0, and he was the only undefeated player. In the fifth round, Ida lost to Yo Seiki, but his nearest rival, Ko Iso 8P, also lost his fifth-round game, so Ida remained one point clear of the field. In another interesting game in the same round, league newcomer Shibano Toramaru 7P beat Kobayashi Satoru 9P; this improved his score to 3-2, so he now has a good chance of keeping his place in the league despite his bad start (two losses in the opening three rounds). Results since my last report are given below.
(Jan. 25) Ida (B) beat Kobayashi Satoru by 2.5 points.
(Feb. 1) Shibano Toramaru (B) bear Kobayashi Satoru by resig.
(Feb. 8) Yo Seiki 7P (B) beat Ida by resig.
(Feb. 15) Hane Naoki 9P (B) beat Ko Iso by resig.

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Categories: Japan,Main Page
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