Thursday December 26, 2013
The Winter BIBA (Blackie’s International Baduk Academy) Baduk Camp in Hawaii has a few slots open, reports Diana Koszegi
1P. Koszegi and Kim Seung-jun 9P are hosting the 6-day event February 7-12 on Kauai Island. The daily schedule includes golf and sightseeing during the days and go in the evenings. The $1,500 cost covers accommodation, meals, on-island transportation and the go study fee; participants must cover their own travel costs to Kauai. Email blackies.academy@gmail.com for details.
Wednesday December 25, 2013
The British Go Association will host the 2014 European Youth Go Championship in conjunction with the British Go Congress from February 28 through March 3 in Bognor Regis, a resort town on England’s south coast. The EYGC will be split into three age groups: under 12, under 16, and under 20. The British Go Congress will include a lightning tournament, the British Open, a teaching event, and pair go. British Go Association (BGA) members can enjoy discounts for all British Go Congress events. Discounted rates on accommodations are available for all players who make reservations through the official EYGC website. To register for either tournament or for more information including a full schedule, prizes, and the latest news, please visit the official European Youth Go Championship home page.
—Annalia Linnan; for complete listings, check out the European Tournament Calendar; photo courtesy of British Go Association
Wednesday December 25, 2013
Austria: The Austrian Women’s Championship finished on December 21 in Go7 with Katrin Unger 5k in first, Lisa Mayer 6k (left) in second, and Chuandi Zhou 6k in third. Hungary: Pal Balogh 6d took the Hungarian Championship Final on December 15 in Budapest. Behind him were Dominik Boviz 4d and Peter Marko 4d. Serbia: Also on December 15, Nikola Mitic 5d bested Dusan Mitic 6d at the 39th Serbian Championship in Kragujevac while Dejan Krstic 4d placed third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV
Monday December 23, 2013
The fifth season of the British Online League was won by Edinburgh’s first team for the second year running with fellow Scots, Glasgow, winning the second division, and earning promotion to the first next year. Their place in the second division will be taken by the demoted Central London Go Club’s B-team, where they will be joined by third division winners Milton Keynes, while Edinburgh’s second team move down into the third division.
The league was organised on behalf of the British Go Association (BGA) by John Collins, who also captained the St Albans Kyus, winners of the Wooden Spoon, and was played in the British Room on KGS. Registrations are now being taken for the sixth season, expected to start at the beginning of March 2014. Click here for full league standings.
Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal. Photo: Martha McGill, Edinburgh first team captain, courtesy of BGA website.
Friday December 20, 2013
The US team has advanced from the preliminary tournament in first Zhu Gang Cup World Team Go Championship, which runs December 19-26 in Guangzhou, China. “Mingjiu Jiang 7P led the effort with a perfect 3-0 performance on Board 1,” reports fellow team-mate Zhaonian (Michael) Chen 8D. The sixteen teams in the final tournament have been finalized and includes many of the best players in the world, including Gu Li, Chen Yaoye, Lee Changho, and Park Jungwan.
Friday December 20, 2013
Just in time for the holidays, SmartGo Books has released half a dozen new titles, including two exclusives. The two volumes 
of “Lee Chang-Ho’s Endgame Techniques” are published by Yutopian, “but they never made it into print,” says SmartGo’s Anders Kierulf. In Volume 1, Lee, known for his extremely strong endgame play, takes a systematic look at many common patterns, while Volume 2 contains endgame tesuji problems. Also included in this release are “Cross-Cut Workshop” by Richard Hunter and “200 Endgame Problems” by Shirae Haruhiko (both Slate & Shell), as well as “The Basics of Go Strategy” by Richard Bozulich (Kiseido, also includes the German text by Brett & Stein), an extended and revised version of the classic “Strategic Concepts of Go”. Click here for a list of all 86 SmartGo books now available, or check out the free SmartGo Books app for iPad and iPhone.
Friday December 20, 2013
Maeda Ryo 6P, the popular Japanese professional who’s a regular attendee at the annual U.S.Go Congress, is organizing a 3-
week intensive go camp in Osaka again next year, running from June 29 through July 19. “We had 32 attendees from 11 countries all over the world this year, including Iraq and Bahrain, and it was a blast,” Maeda (right) says. “After the long day of 
training and lectures, they were still playing till midnight! There was lots of laughter and great spirit; we had such a great time.” Osaka Go Camp activities include intensive training by Kansai Kiin professionals, the opportunity to play go at the Kiin with professionals, play against top amateurs and former inseis, as well as sightseeing, cultural trips and making new go friends. Register by the end of February for a 5,000-yen discount. The camp is sponsored by Kansai Kiin and the Osaka University of Commerce. Email osaka.go.2014@gmail.com for more info or to reserve your space. Maeda photo by Peter Mooyman
Thursday December 19, 2013
The Tournaments Ratings Status page, formerly available at the American Go Association Go Database (AGAGD), is now available here. Game results are submitted to the AGA by the tournament director. Results must be cross checked for
new and duplicate members, payments must be received and processed for new and renewing members, the membership database must be updated, and only then can tournaments be rated. If your event is not listed, it is waiting for submission or weekly processing, and if it’s listed as not rated, the status page now explains why. Thanks to Jonathan Bresler and Greg Smith for their work in creating the new Tournaments Ratings Status page.
Wednesday December 18, 2013
Hwang In-seong 8d, currently the number-one rated player in Europe, has introduced American hours to his Yunguseng 
internet go school, previously only conveniently available to Europeans. The fully-online format comprises three elements: live, interactive video lectures, student-student games played on KGS in graded leagues and reviews of all these games. It runs in three-month seasons, during which students can interact by text with nine live video lectures which start at 9p Central Time (CT) . They will also play five league games per month on prearranged dates, starting at 8p CT. Students may move up and down between leagues each month, depending on their game results. The games are then reviewed at 10p the same evening. In addition, students can view recordings of all lectures and game reviews, past and present, including those of their European counterparts. The new season starts on January 6, 2014 and is enrolling students now. The cost is $130 per month, or $330 for the full season, $570 for two. There are special rates for spectator-only membership and scholarships are available for under-26s with no regular income. Click here for full details and the chance to view three sample videos free of charge.
Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal.
Wednesday December 18, 2013
China’s Chenxing Wang 5P and Ruiyang Zhou 9P (left) defeated Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham 6P and Yuan-Jyun Wang 6P on Wednesday to win gold in the SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) Pair Go competition. The 3-round event capped the third annual SAWMG competition, which included men’s team and women’s individual events in go, as well as competitions in chess, bridge, draughts and Chinese Chess, and ran December 12-18 in Beijing, China. The bronze medal was won by Park Jieun and Kim Jiseok, the pair from Korea. Click here for full go coverage on Ranka Online, complete event coverage on the SportAccord World Mind Games website — including video commentaries by Michael Redmond 9P on the SAWMG YouTube channel — and of course on the usgo.org website. Coverage this year included audio commentaries by Redmond on KGS; check KGS Plus under Recent Lectures.
Days 5&6 (Tuesday, 12/16 & Wednesday, 12/17) Summary: (winners denoted with links; click on links for game records, uncommented unless otherwise noted)
Round 1 (12/16): Europe (Kovaleva-Fan)-China; Korea-North America; Europe (Shikshin-Shikshina)-Japan; Chinese Taipei-Europe (Burdakova-Lisi).
Round 2 (12/16): Europe (Burdakova-Lisi)- North America; China-Japan (Redmond commentary); Europe (Shikshin-Shikshina)- Europe (Burdakova-Lisi); Chinese Taipei-Korea.
Round 3 (12/17): China-Chinese Taipei (Redmond commentary); Japan-Korea; Europe (Burdakova-Lisi)-Europe (Shikshina-Shikshin).
Meeting the Masters: Students at the Huajiadi Experimental Primary School in Beijing got a chance to meet some of the SportAccord World Mind Games’ top go players and officials on Tuesday. The school is known for its cutting-edge approach to teaching and boasts nearly a thousand junior grade go players. The guests were greeted by two rooms of children buzzing with excitement. In the first classroom, a hands-on lesson on nakade grabbed the children’s attention, and in the second the pupils quickly settled down and answered questions about the history and rules of the game. The guests were then taken downstairs to the gymnasium, where boards had been set out for the 40 kids who would take on top professionals in nine-stone handicap games….click here for complete report.
Do Bridge Players Have All The Fun? “Let’s have dinner! We drink vodka!” Not the first words you would expect to hear after the tense final of an international go final. But this is how bridge superstar Fulvio Fantoni greeted the rival Polish team at the conclusion of the Pairs Open at the 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games. “We’re all good friends – we’ve known each other for many years,” Fantoni says… click here for full report
