Monday June 18, 2018
Sixteen kids participated the first Boston Youth Go Tournament at the Neo Millennium Go Club on May 28th.
The top three players of the senior division were Chase (Bin) Fu, Andrew (Hancheng) Xu and Hanchi Ou. Top four players of junior division were Hantong Li, Yuheng Xue, Jin Greene and Jate Greene.
– Ke Lu
Monday June 18, 2018
In a recent game review session for Albuquerque players, Janice Kim 3P emphasized ideas about judging big moves and big areas, 
and, looking at that from the reverse side, not making small moves to respond to your opponent’s last play. “Why should you have to know where your opponent’s last move was?” she asked. ” You should be looking at the whole board to find the best place to play.”
– report/photo by Bob Gilman
Sunday June 17, 2018
Sunday June 17, 2018
Kim Yeo-won, a commentator for baduk, also known as go, is living a double life as a fitness queen, reports the Korea JoongAng
Daily.
The 31-year-old commentator, best known for reporting on the 2016 match between Korean grandmaster Lee Se-dol and computer program AlphaGo, has begun competing on the bodybuilding stage. Last month, she won second place in the bikini competition at the Olympia Amateur Asia Grand Prix, one of the world’s biggest bodybuilding competitions.
“Baduk and exercising are similar in that they both make you push yourself beyond your limits,” Kim said during an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo, where she spoke about fitness and baduk. Click here for her interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Sunday June 17, 2018
Sunday June 17, 2018
Mark Rubenstein and Bob Barber gave their second presentation about go at PechaKucha last week at Martyr’s in Chicago. Their first presentation in 2011 was about go in general; this one focused on AlphaGo. “It had been 7 years since we did our first one,
and we thought the time was right for version 2.0” said Rubenstein.
Sunday June 17, 2018
The organizers of this event are inviting participants to this tournament, which will be held from August 8th to 14th, 2018, in the city of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. There are six round of Open Team and Open Individual events and 6 round of Women’s Individual event. Minimum AGA rank is 5D for men and 3D for women. Up to three players may participate and, if necessary, selection criteria will be added should more people express interest. International travel will the responsibility of the participants, but food, accommodations, and local transportation will be provided by the organizers. AGA President Andrew Okun will be in attendance. Please send your interest to attend to president@usgo.org as soon as possible.
Thursday June 14, 2018
The 23rd Pandanet Cup, an internet world amateur go tournament, is now accepting registration. Players will be divided into five classes, depending on their strengths. In the preliminary round of the tournament, players play self-paired games with 
others in the same class from anywhere in the world. For advancement into the final round, the players’ scores are compared with others in the same geographic regions: Asia and Oceania, the Americas, or Europe and Africa. The scoring in based on the number of wins and the winning percentage. Regional winners advance to the final round where single eliminations are held until each class produces a champion. Generous prizes are provided to winners in all classes.
Free registration for the tournament starts immediately and ends on July 17. Click here for details.
Wednesday June 13, 2018
by John Power, special Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Korea wins Tiantai Mountain Cup: The 7th Tiantai Mountain Shenran Yangfan Cup World Women’s Team Tournament was held in Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province in China from May 10 to 12. The venue and the dates are the same as last year, as is “Tiantai Mountain” in the name, but the sponsor seems to have changed. To be honest, I have no idea what “Shenran Yangfan” means, and the Net didn’t help. Three-women teams from China, Korea, and Chinese Taipei compete in a three-round Swiss. For the second year in a row and the fourth time overall, Korea won the tournament, but the difference from last year is that it lost a match, so the margin of victory was just one win. Japan started badly, losing to Chinese Taipei and Korea, but then it managed to beat China. Two players, Yu Zhiying of China and Kim Chaeyeong of Korea, won all their games. Results and points table are given below.
Round 1 (May 10). Chinese Taipei beat Japan 2-1; China beat Korea 2-1.
Round 2 (May 11) Korea beat Japan 3-0; China beat Chinese Taipei 3-0.
Round 3 (May 12) Japan beat China 2-1; Korea beat Chinese Taipei 3-0.
1st) Korea: 2-1 (individual tally 7-2)
2nd) China: 2-1 (6-3)
3rd) Japan: 1-2 (3-6)
4th) Chinese Taipei: 1-2 (2-7)
Kyo wins Gratitude Cup: The 9th Gratitude Cup was held in Ise City on May 14 and 15. This is an unofficial tournament open to players 30 or under. It consists of fast games played by the NHK format. In the final, Kyo Kagen 7P (B, at right) beat Yo Seiki 7P by 2.5 points to win this tournament for the first time. First prize is 3,000,000 yen. In the play-off for 3rd place, Ichiriki Ryo 8P (B) beat Xie Yimin, Women’s Honinbo, by 13.5 points.
Kyo to challenge for Gosei: The play-off to decide the challenger for the 43rd Gosei title was held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on May 17. Kyo Kagen 7-dan (W, left) beat Motoki Katsuya 8-dan (left, in photo at right) by resignation and so will make his first challenge for a top-seven title. At 20 years five month, he is the youngest-ever Gosei challenger. Motoki lost the 
Gosei play-off for the second year in a row. Kyo won’t find challenging Iyama Yuta easy, but he could well be in the best form of his career: his record so far this year is an impressive 17 wins 1 loss. The single loss was to Xie Ke 5P in the Chunlan Cup in China, so in Japan he is undefeated (he also scored 7-0 in the Gratitude Cup, reported on above, but it is an unofficial tournament, so these wins are not included in his tally). Kyo commented that he would like to relieve Iyama of some of the burden of his septuple crown. The best-of-five begins on June 23.
Xie to challenge for Hollyhock Cup: The semifinals and final of the 5thAizu Central Hospital Women’s Hollyhock Cup were held at the Konjakutei inn in Aizu Wakamatsu City in Fukushima Prefecture on May 19 and 20. In the semifinals on May 19, Xie Yimin, Women’s Honinbo, (B) beat Hoshiai Shiho 2P by resig. and Yoshida Mika 8P (W) beat Tamura Chiaki 3P, also by resig. In the final, played the next day, Xie (B) beat Yoshida by resig. Xie will meet the titleholder, Fujisawa Rina, in the best-of-three title match and will try to regain the title she lost to Fujisawa last year. So far, the two have met in six title matches, and Fujisawa has won four of them. The first two games of the title match will be played at the Konjakutei on June 15 and 17. The third game, if needed, will be played at the Nihon Ki-in on June 22.
Promotions: To 4-dan: Fujisawa Rina (50 wins; as of April 22); To 8-dan: Matsumoto Takehisa (150 wins; as of May 11).
Retirements: Takamizawa Tadao retired as of May 31. Born in Nagano Prefecture on July 20, 1938, Takamizawa became a professional in 1955 and reached 6-dan in 1976. After retiring, he was promoted to 7-dan.
Kitani Yoshimi 2-dan retired as of May 31. Born on July 23, 1952, she became a disciple of Ozaki Harumi 8-dan. She qualified as a professional in 1975 and was promoted to 2-dan in 2013. After retiring, she was promoted to 3-dan.
Obituary: Yasuda Yasutoshi 9-dan died on May 2. Cause of death was not given. Born on March 1, 1964, in Fukuoka Prefecture, he became a disciple of Oeda Yusuke 9P. became 1-dan in 1980 and reached 9-dan in 1998. He was well known as a teacher and developed new teaching methods, including using go as a therapeutic tool with the senile and the handicapped.
AlphaGo Zero vs. AlphaGo Lee: Game 2
Wednesday June 13, 2018
Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, reviews the second game of the new AlphaGo Zero vs.
AlphaGo Lee series. “In this game, AG Zero has black,” Redmond notes. “This is the 20-block version of Zero, and it’s pretty unique, especially in the way it plays with black: it really likes to play the 3-3 points. Zero likes to take territory up front and then reduce its opponent’s moyo, but it does so in a different way. In fact, the opening techniques used by Zero have become quite popular among some young professionals, showing AG’s effect on the game, which I’ll be talking about.”
Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, 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.
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