The San Diego Go Club sponsored its first face-to-face go tournament in over a year on March 31, when the 2021 California Over-70 Go Championship was contested at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park in San Diego.
Players (l-r): Dr. George Spellman, David Saponara, Arunas Rudvalis, Ted Terpstra
Players had to be AGA members, over 70 years old, and vaccinated against Covid19. The games took place outside in 83-degree temperatures under the blooming purple wisteria flowers, with all players and spectators masked and socially distanced. There were no entry fees, as usual, for SDGC tournaments.
Ted Terpstra, SDGC president, bested a field of four to become the first O70 champion. Arunas Rudvalis finished second and Dr. George Spellman and David Saponara, president of the San Diego Chess Club, tied for third.
Custom embroidered mask for playing
Having hosted four major online tournaments, totaling almost 200 AGA players, since the pandemic began in early 2020, the SDGC was happy to sponsor live competition again. All participants were awarded a redesigned SDGC T-shirt.
I was thinking about Dogen, the 13th century Japanese Zen Master who founded the Soto Zen tradition, the other day. In his essay “Spring and Autumn”, written in 1244, he says that “you play go by yourself”. This seems so clearly false that it takes an effort to try to understand what he could be talking about.
He was trying to explain what it is like to be enlightened and playing go was apparently the best illustration he could think of. His point is that in playing go “properly” you lose any sense of separation from the activity of playing and the other player. It is not just a “shared” activity, it is a single, integrated activity. The focus is on the game, not its potential results and especially not on beating the other player. That last concern will definitely eliminate anything like an experience of enlightenment.
I see a lot of “unenlightened” playing, especially at tournaments. For many players, I think there is an overwhelming interest in beating the other player in order to improve your own rating. It is hard to get “lost” in the game under those circumstances. The whole point of ratings in go is to enable players to have games where they can get lost in the playing and enjoy not being in a situation where you feel like you are isolated, lonely, and being ignored or attacked by others. In playing go, you can experience an immersion in an enjoyable, exciting, invigorating activity that is very freeing. Happily, this can and does happen a lot in club play. I think that having experienced it, a lot of players are reluctant to play in tournaments, where it is hard to ignore the pressure of so much attention being given to winning and losing, that is, to the results of a game rather than to the experience of playing.
That’s why Dogen says enlightenment is like playing a game, not like winning one. (He does says it is not like playing a high handicap game—an issue to be explored another time.) It is unfortunate that modern life doesn’t seem to offer many other examples of an experience like playing go, though there are some. A good conversation can be this type of experience, or a walk in the woods, or reading a good book, or listening to Beethoven’s piano-violin sonatas. But activities involving another person that are like this are rare, unfortunately.
by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Korea wins Nong Shim Cup: Other players took part in the final round of the 22nd Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, played on the net in late February, but they were like extras in attendance just to enhance a dominating star performance by Shin Jinseo 9P of Korea. For the first time in quite a while, the three countries participating, China, Korea, and Japan, entered the final round on equal terms, with each having lost three games and each having two players left. However, Shin showed why he is the world’s top-rated player by slicing through the opposition. He also won the final game of the second round, so that gave him a winning streak of five against the top players from China and Japan. Korea’s final player, Park Junghwan, remained a spectator. This was the 13th team victory for Korea to eight for China and just one for Japan. The prize for first place is 500,000,000 won (about $441,000, at $1 = 1134 won). Results follow: Game 10 (Feb. 22). Shin (W) beat Iyama Yuta 9P (Japan) by resig. Game 11 (Feb. 23). Shin (B) beat Yang Dingxin 9P (China) by resig. (In the previous Nong Shim Cup, Yang won seven games in a row, the last of them being against Shin.) Game 12 (Feb. 24). Shin (B) beat Ichiriki 8P (Japan) by resig. Game 13 (Feb. 25) Shin (B) beat Ke Jie 9P (China) by resig.
Here is some background on Shin. Born on March 17, 2000, he was the youngest player taking part. He became a pro in 2012 and reached 9-dan in 2018. His first international victory was in a junior tournament, the 4th Globis Cup. In 2019, he won the 31st TV Asia tournament. Last year, his record was 76 wins to ten losses, a winning rate of an astonishing 88.37%. This just pipped the previous Korean record of 88.24% (75 wins, ten losses), set by Lee Changho in 1988. From October to December, he played a seven-game match, called the Super Match, with Park Junghwan and beat him 7-0. So far, he has not won a major international title, but he has reached the finals of the current 9th Ing Cup and 13th Chunlan Cup.
Iyama Yuta
Iyama defends Kisei title, sets new record: Kono Rin 9P scored his first win in the 4th game of the 45th Kisei title match, but there his resistance ended. The 5th game was played at the Ryugon inn in Minami Uonuma City, Niigata Prefecture, on March 4 and 5. Halfway through the middle game, Kono (B) played a very aggressive move that took the players following the game by surprise. His attack worked, in that he was able to cut off and capture a white group, but he had to take gote to avoid the threat of a ko. That let Iyama set up a large moyo in the center and at the top, and Kono was unable to reduce it. He resigned after White 152. Ironically, his dramatic attacking move became the losing move. This win secured the series for Iyama and gave him his ninth successive Kisei title, surpassing Kobayashi Koichi’s record of eight. It was also his 50th top-seven title, extending his record. Overall, it is his 67th title.
Shibano
Shibano evens score in Judan title match: This year’s Judan match—the Daiwa House Cup 59th Judan Title Best-of-Five Match, to give it its full title—is being fought between two of the top players of the younger generation: Shibano Toramaru, aged 21, who won this title last year, and Kyo Kagen (Xu Jiayuan) 8P, who turned 24 on March 17. Kyo set a record by winning the 43rd Gosei title at the age of 20 years seven months, but since then he has been a little overshadowed by the emergence of Ichiriki Ryo and Shibano as the standard-bearers of the post-Iyama generation, so he must be keen to win his second top-even title. The first game in the title match was played at its customary venue, the Osaka University of Commerce, on March 2. Taking black, Kyo won by resignation after 205 moves. The second game was played at the Hotel & Resorts Nagahama, which is actually a facility belonging to the Daiwa House Group, in Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture, on March 24. Kyo made an oversight, and Shibano (B) also surprised him with a couple of moves that could easily be blind spots, so Shibano dominated the game, forcing Kyo to resign after 157 moves. The third game will be played on April 8.
Tomorrow: Ueno to challenge for Women’s Meijin; Ichiriki wins NHK Cup; Yu Zhiying wins Senko Cup; Nakamura Sumire wins Teenagers Tournament
