Christine Ames reports that in the Korean historical drama Jewel in the Crown, Palace Lady Jang keeps a go board in her room. The first time we see her there, in Episode 5, she is studying with a beautiful go set.
–Image/editing by Derek McGuire
American Go E-Journal » 2022 » February
Go Spotting: Jewel in the Crown
Wednesday February 16, 2022
Third Time’s a Charm: Jeff Zhang Crowned 2021 Virginia Champion After Consecutive Runner-ups
Monday February 14, 2022
The 3rd Virginia State Go Championship final featured a best-of-three series, with Game 1 at the National Go Center in Washington, DC, and Games 2 and 3 in Vienna, VA.
Qingbo ‘Jeff’ Zhang 5d took comeback wins in games 1 and 3 vs Yaming Wang 5d, who used to be a key go organizer in Richmond, VA. Both good at fighting, Zhang and Wang had plenty of ko fights and exchanges, but Zhang was sharp to seize opportunities in the endgame.
Growing up in Luoyang, China, Zhang was a classmate of Shi Yue 9P. He loves reading books of a variety of subjects, including over 100 WeiQi TianDi magazines. He graduated from George Washington University with a Master’s degree. Prior to the pandemic, Zhang was on the top of AGA’s list for both tournaments played and rated games played. Zhang is a passionate go lover who has even taken multiple trips by bus and train to west coast and midwest tournaments.
Despite having lost, Wang always remained calm and reviewed every move after each match, demonstrating sportsmanship: friendship trumps competition.
The VA State Championship utilizes 5 periods of 1 minute byo-yomi to provide ample thinking time to the players, and the three games totaled over 10 hours of deliberation.
CAFA-DC, a financial safety and technology company, sponsored the past three Virginia Open and VA State Championship tournaments. Both prizes are $200 / $70 for the champion/runner-up.
The semifinal was held at Korean American Baduk Association in Annandale, VA on Nov. 6, 2021. Yaming Wang 5d defeated Edward Zhang 5d, and Qingbo Zhang 5d defeated Ruoshi Sun 4d (who defeated Irvin Pajarillo previously to earn the spot). James Lee was the director.
Previous VA State Championship winners:
1st (2019): Joshua Lee, Qingbo Zhang (runner-up),
2nd (2020): Edward Zhang, Qingbo Zhang (runner-up).
– Story and photo by Edward Zhang
San Diego Go Club celebrates Setsubun
Thursday February 10, 2022
Setsubun is the day before spring in the old Japanese calendar. On February 2, the San Diego Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park celebrated Setsubun, with hundreds of adults and children gathered outdoors in masks as evil was banished and spring welcomed with good fortune. The San Diego Go Club was invited to staff a booth at the event to teach Go to passersby. “Many were interested in learning Go,” reports Ted Terpstra, who says copies of “The Way to Go,” supplied by the American Go Foundation were given out to those interested.
Roasted soybeans were thrown by children at players wearing demon masks and bearing frightening clubs and hammers as drums beat in the background. Children shouted “”Devils out! Fortune in.” This symbolically purified the place by driving away evil spirits that bring misfortune.
“Over the years, the Japanese Friendship Garden has proven to be a fertile place to find new players and sometimes a 6-dan for the SDGC, which now has over 80 AGA members,” says Terpstra. The club is once again meeting in person with over 25-players (25-kyus to four 6-dans) attending last Thursday.
Korea Go Report: Wild Card Wins Crown Haitai Cup; 1st Hoban Title Winner
Monday February 7, 2022
By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal.
Wild Card Wins 5th Crown Haitai Cup
The Crown Haitai Cup is a Korean U25 tournament which has been held since 2017. Previous winners include Park Jeong-hwan 9p, Park Ha-min 9p, Song Ji-hoon 7p, and Lee Chang-seok 8p. In November 2021, 97 players participated in the preliminaries, and 28 made it to the main event of the 5th Crown Haitai Cup. The previous year’s winner Lee Chang-seok 8p and runner-up Seol Hyun-joon 7p were seeded, while the sponsor gave two wild cards to Byun Sang-il 9p and Cho Seung-ah 5p. The tournament employed a knock-out format and had a relatively short thinking time limit of 20 minutes plus 20 seconds per move (Fisher time). The final was held from January 24th to 27th between Han Seung-joon 9p (Korean rank #9) and Byun Sang-il 9p (rank #3). Han (26) had won the Korean President’s Cup in 2021, and he demonstrated his strength by winning the first game. However, the younger Byun (25) has more experience when it comes to title games, having already won four titles including the recent international 2021 Kuksu Mountain title. He relied on this experience to edge out a 2:1 victory and take home the title. Interestingly, Byun Sang-il has played in this tournament since its inception in 2017 without any success; he eventually prevailed on this his fifth attempt and walked away with $25,000. Runner-up Han Seung-joon received $10,000.
1st Hoban Title Winner
The Hoban Strongest Female Player’s Cup is a new tournament which began in August 2021. The sponsor is the Korean conglomerate Hoban Construction whose CEO Kang Sang-yeol has shown his interest in Go by supporting a female Go league team since 2016. In the qualifiers of this new competition 41 players competed out of which four qualified to join the three top ranked players (Choi Jeong 9p, Oh Yoo-jin 9p and Kim Chae-young 7p) and Cho Hye-yoon 9p who received the sponsor’s wild card. The main event, a round robin tournament, had a thinking time of 2 hours and a byoyomi of 1 minute three times. Choi Jeong and Oh Yoo-jin recorded the most wins, 6:1 and 5:2, respectively, and met in the finals from January 17th to 28th. In an interview before the best-of-five title match, both players were confident of winning 3:0 whereas Go experts anticipated a 3:2 result. The two rivals’ overall head-to-head score was 29:7 in favor of Choi. Last year, however, Oh Yoo-jin defeated Choi Jeong to win two major titles. As expected, the clash was very exciting and unpredictable, for instance the 3rd and 4th games took more than 5 hours to complete. In the end, Choi Jeong prevailed 3:1 to win the 1st Hoban title and her 22nd career title. She took home 30 million KRW ($25,000), while Oh Yoo-jin received 10 million KRW ($8,000).
Choi Jeong (left) and Oh Yoo-jin competed in the Hoban title match. Photo courtesy of KBaduk.
Choi Jeong had probably one of the busiest schedules amongst the pros; besides the Hoban Cup, she also competed in the Nongshim Classic Super Match, the Korean League, the Wooseul-Bongjo Cup, and the Maxim Cup. In total, she played 15 games in January 2021 alone. Impressively, she had a winning rate of 66.7%.
Obituary: KBF President Lee Jae-yoon
The president of the Korean Baduk Federation, Lee Jae-yoon passed away at the age of 73 on 21st January 2022. The Korean Baduk community mourned his sudden demise profoundly. He made great contributions to the development of amateur Go throughout his life. Just over a year ago, he was elected the 7th president of the Korean amateur Go association (KBF), and dedicated his time, energy, and financial resources to revitalize the organization which had faced many difficulties over the years. He also took leadership of the Korean Society for Baduk Studies (2008-2010) and the Daegu City Baduk Association (2020). He had a great passion for Go and sponsored the Amateur Deokyoung Cup for 39 years, as well as Daegu’s team in the Korean Amateur National Go League.
Korean Go Professional Association Elects 35th President
The Korean Go Professional Association elected Han Jong-jin 9p (43) as their new president. Han Jong-jin 9p received 168 votes (57%), 44 more votes than the current president Cha Min-soo 6p (a.k.a. Jimmy Cha). The presidency term runs for two years. Han Jong-jin will represent 392 Korean professionals, and promised to “expand the size of professional competitions, attract sponsors to launch new competitions, actively support Go promotion projects, introduce a professional referee system, and solve the problem of pro’s retirement compensation.”
Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.
Korea Go Report: LG Cup set for Feb 7-10; Best-Paid Go Pros; Nongshim Korea-China Classic Super Match
Sunday February 6, 2022
By Daniela Trinks, Korea correspondent for the E-Journal. Trinks is an associate professor in the Department of Baduk (Go) Studies College of Arts & Physical Education at Myongji University in South Korea.
Upcoming LG Cup Title Match February 7-10
The highly anticipated title match of the 26th LG Cup will take place online at 10 a.m. (KST) on February 7th, 9th and 10th. Yang Dingxin 9p (23) from China will face Shin Jin-seo 9p (21) from Korea in the best-of-three matches. They have met ten times so far, with both winning five games each. Interestingly, both players’ first major international title was the LG Cup: Yang won the 23rd, and Shin the 24th LG Cup. Last year’s 25th Cup was won by Shin Min-joon 9p who defeated Ke Jie 9p 2:1 in the final. Who will be the next title holder? Besides fame, a high prize money is at stake: the first prize is about $250,000 and the second is $84,000.
2021 Best-Paid Go Pros in Japan and Korea in Comparison
Every year, the official incomes of Go professionals who earned the most are published in Japan and Korea, while those in China are not. The table below gives the annual prize money of the top ten earners in Japan and South Korea. In both countries, the current #1 ranked players are also the top earners – Iyama Yuta 9p (from Japan) earned $1.16 million and Shin Jin-seo 9p (from Korea) earned $890,000. Iyama Yuta 9p has been at the top of the list for eleven years in a row, while Shin Jin-seo 9p only surpassed Park Jeong-hwan 9p as annual top earner in 2020. In both countries, only two female players (*) made it into the top 10, surprisingly, both are ranked #5: Fujisawa Rina 5p (from Japan) earned $278,000 and Choi Jeong 9p (from Korea) earned $202,000. Choi’s best results came in 2019 when she earned about $380,000 which put her in the #3 spot in Korea. The #2 ranked female player in Korea, Oh Yoo-jin 9p, earned about $115,000 in 2021, which put her in the top-ten list for the first time. In Japan, Ueno Asami 4p, earned $204,000, which put her on the 6th spot. Remarkably, the youngest top earners were similar in age in both countries – Japan’s Ueno and Seki (21) and Korea’s Shin Jin-seo (22). Meanwhile, the oldest top earners in Japan are in their 40s – Kono Rin (41) and Hane Naoki (46), in contrast to Korea’s Kim Ji-seok and Kang Dong-yoon who are in their 30s.
Table: Top 10 Earners 2021 in Japan and South Korea. Female Players are marked with an asterix sign (*). Annual prize money converted at $1 = ¥115.1 and $1 = 1,189 KRW.
The table lists the official prize money, before tax and other deductions. Furthermore, game earnings from for example the LG Cup and Ing Cup (finals are yet to be played), and Iyama’s winning streak money from the Nongshim Cup are not included.
Nongshim Special Match: Korea vs. China
The Nongshim Korea-China Classic Super Match was held January 10th-12th as a side event of the on-going current 23rd Nongshim Cup. It is a binational team competition, similar to the legendary NEC Japan-China Super Go matches in the 80s and 90s. Each team consisted of one player each in their 60s, 40s, and 20s, out of which two were male and one female. Team Korea was represented by the legendary Cho Hoon-hyun 9p (69) and Lee Changho 9p (47), supported by #1 female player Choi Jeong 9p (26), while team China was represented by Liu Xiaoguang 9p (62), Chang Hao 9p (46) and Yu Zhiying 7p (25). They played three rounds so that each player would meet the other team’s player once. The Chinese team started off well with a 2:1 lead, but team Korea came back strongly and won the subsequent rounds of games 4:2. For their prize, team Korean took home $50,000; additionally, Choi Jeong 9p received a bonus of $4,200 for winning all her games.
Meanwhile, the main 23rd edition of the Nongshim Cup will resume this year. The highly anticipated 3rd round will begin on February 21st, with three Japanese players, two Chinese players, and one Korean player left to battle it out. Will Iyama Yuta 9p extend his four-game winning streak, and lead team Japan to their first victory in 16 years? We have to wait and see – and cheer for our favorite team.
2022 Zheng Cup postponed indefinitely
Sunday February 6, 2022
The 2022 Zheng Cup, originally scheduled to be played February 5th-6th in Irvine, California, has been postponed indefinitely due to the current COVID-19 situation. As previously reported, the AGA is asking chapters to delay tournaments and to consider pausing club meetings until the latest wave of the Omicron variant has passed.
-Kyle Fenimore
Online go school continues to offer chance to learn and improve during pandemic
Friday February 4, 2022
When the COVID pandemic forced the closure of the popular Osaka Go Camp, the Kansai-Kiin’s Ryo Maeda 6P — like many — went online. The result was the International Osaka Go School. In operation since September 2020, the school provides students with online lectures and the opportunity for professionally reviewed games. The teaching staff includes Ryo Maeda 6P, Ting Li 1P, and Francis Meyer 1P, and Michael Redmond 9P is also available for game reviews.
The school welcomes players ranging from 15kyu to 6d, and there are multiple membership tiers available. For example, the two-month membership plan ($200USD) provides students with eight games played between the school’s league members, two teaching games with an instructor, and four lectures. Each game is personally reviewed by one of the teaching staff, and all the games and lectures are made available as video links, which are archived and accessible to members. A cheaper Observation plan allows students to access the lecture and game review videos. The wealth of learning opportunities is immense. Players can even request reviews of games played outside of the Osaka School.
The school’s mission, along with conveying the charm of the game of go and providing accessible learning for go fans of all levels, is to ensure that learning during the pandemic remains fun. “It is still a severe time,” says Ryo Maeda 6P, “but we hope as many people [as possible] can have a joyful go experience.”
– Edited by Hailey Renner
The Power Report: 2021 in statistics
Wednesday February 2, 2022
By John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Here is a statistical overview of Japanese go in 2021
Most prize money won
The Nihon Ki-in published the list of top prize-money winners on January 24. There were few surprises. Iyama Yuta took first place for the 11th year in a row and topped 100,000,000 (called “ichi-oku”) yen for the 10th year in a row. Only four players have reached this impressive figure, the others being Kobayashi Koichi (three times), Cho Chikun (four times), and Cho U (also four times).
1. Iyama Yuta: ¥133,849,290 ($1,160,073 at $1 = ¥115.38)
2. Ichiriki Ryo: ¥44,285,702
3. Shibano Toramaru: ¥41,139,960
4. Kyo Kagen: ¥37,422,211
5.Fujisawa Rina: ¥31,993,482
6. Ueno Asami: ¥23,509,352
7. Kono Rin: ¥20,784,000
8. Seki Kotaro: ¥17,824,300
9. Hane Naoki: ¥13,609,000
10. Motoki Katsuya: ¥11,285,600
Most wins
Ueno Asami, Women’s Kisei, had the lead in the list of most wins for most of the year, helped, of course, by the boom in women’s go tournaments but also by her good results against male players. Sumire, boosted by her astonishing winning streak of 13 at the beginning of the year, kept her company. Even so, other players were in the running until the end of the year, when Ueno suddenly built a big lead. She is the first woman player to top this list. Below are the top ten.
1. Ueno Asami: 54 wins, 25 losses
2. Kyo Kagen Judan: 45-21
3. Nakamura Sumire 2-dan: 43-18
4. Fukuoka Kotaro 3-dan: 39-12; Ichiriki Ryo 9-dan: 39-20; Shibano Toramaru 9-dan: 39-24
7. Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Honinbo: 38-15
8. Seki Kotaro Tengen: 37-14; Iyama Yuta Kisei: 37-16
10. Nyu Eiko 4-dan: 34-17
Most successive wins
14: Ichiriki Ryo
13: Fukuoka Kotaro, Nakamura Sumire
12: Ichiriki
11: Kyo Kagen, Fujisawa Rina, Tsuneishi Takashi
10: Seki Kotaro, Ogata Masaki 9-dan, Horimoto Mitsunari, Nakamura Sumire
Best winning percentage
Restricted to players with 24+ wins.
1. Tsuneishi Takashi: 76.92% (30-9)
2. Fukuoka Kotaro: 76.47% (39-12)
3. Shida Tatsuya 8-dan: 75% (30-10)
4. Ogata Masaki: 74.36% (29-10)
5. Yamamori Tadanao 7-dan: 73.08% (19-7)
6. Komatsu Hideki 9-dan: 72.73% (24-9)
7. Seki Kotaro: 72.55% (37-14)
8. Son Makoto 7-dan, Sakai Yuki 3-dan: 72.22% (26-10),
10. Matsumoto Takehisa 8-dan, Horimoto Mitsunari 5P: 71.88% (23-9)
Prizemoney promotions
Every January there are eleven automatic promotions based on prizemoney won in the top-seven titles. To be specific, the top two 1-dans to 5-dans and the top 6-dan are promoted. Players who earned promotion in other ways are excluded. The 2021 promotions were announced early in January and are given below.
To 7-dan: Koike Yoshihiro
To 6-dan: Hirose Yuichi, Otake Yu
To 5-dan: Tsuneishi Takashi, Cho Zuiketsu
To 4-dan: (Ms.) Nyu Eiko, Muramoto Wataru
To 3-dan: Fukuoka Kotaro, Nishioka Masao
To 2-dan: (Ms.) Tsuji Hana, Chan Fukan (from Malaysia)
It’s Just a Game. Or Is It?
Tuesday February 1, 2022
“As an adolescent, I fancied myself a devotee of the ancient Chinese board game Go. I had never actually played it, but in one of my favorite novels — “Shibumi,” by Trevanian — the super-assassin hero praised Go as a fitting pastime for the kind of warrior/poet/lover he was and that I hoped to become. “Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting,” he says, probably before killing someone with a toothpick. Sadly, when I actually tried to play Go, it turned out be … a board game, and a difficult one at that. I gave it up when I realized that in return for the labor of truly learning Go, I would become not an enlightened international assassin, but just a guy who could play a game.” Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” reviews Oliver Roeder’s “SEVEN GAMES A Human History” in The New York Times; read more here.