It’s been a busy couple of weeks for The Surrounding Game documentary 
team. They launched an online “collaborative game,” premiered an extended preview of the film at last weekend’s well-attended Spring Go Expo in Boston and kicked off a campaign to raise $30,000 to finish their film. Director Will Lockhart is especially excited about the collaborative game, saying that “You can go to the game and vote for your move, and at the end of the day the votes are tallied and one move is played per day! I think it should lead to a very interesting game.” An interesting thing to consider, says Lockhart, is “what level of play is reached when each move is decided by democratic vote?” The fundraiser aims to raise the caliber and potential impact of the The Surrounding Game “by hiring a professional editor and paying for legitimate distribution,” Lockhart explains. With less than a month to go, they’ve raised almost $6,000 thus far; click here to see who’s contributed.
On March 17th a group of Bay Area Go Players Association volunteers gathered and gave free go lessons to beginners in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood (across the bay from San Francisco). More than 35 people of various ages and diverse backgrounds learned to play go at this fourth annual event. Each took home the informative Way to Go booklet and a 9×9 starter go set. Herb Doughty, a veteran go teacher in the local community, recalled his high point of the day: “I spent some time this afternoon teaching four members of one family, spanning three generations.” Event organizer and Bay Area Go board member Jay Chan reports, “It was a lot of fun. We’re planning to do it again later this year – next time in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood.” An AGA ratings tournament was held concurrently with the free lessons, and Argentinian Gabriel Benmergui 6d dominated the dan section with four wins and no losses.
“Crazy Stone” Computer Go Program Defeats Ishida at Japanese UEC Cup
Wednesday March 27, 2013
In an ironic showdown between the computer and ‘The Computer’, computer go program Crazy Stone defeated Ishida Yoshio 9P on March 20 at the sixth annual Computer Go UEC Cup in Japan. Ishida, 64, was nicknamed ‘The Computer’ in his prime, because of the accuracy of his counting and endgame skills. Rémi Coulum’s program took just four stones against the former Honinbo champion and won by 2.5 points. After the game, Ishida said he thought Crazy Stone was a “genius,” evincing special admiration for the program’s “calmness” and “flexibility.” Takao Shinji 9P also offered words of praise, calling one of the program’s moves “the kind of move a human would overlook.” UEC chairperson Takeshi Ito expressed his hope that the UEC Cup will continue to “function as a place where program developers can meet face-to-face and make technological changes,” adding that “we should never forget the human being using the programs to play the game.” Rather than seeing computer go advancement as another competition, Takeshi said he believes computer go program technology “should be useful for and able to enrich the hearts of human beings.” Coulom and Crazy Stone also won the 6th Computer Go UEC Cup a week earlier, defeating the defending champion, Zen. For game records and more information about the Ishida-Crazy Stone match, click here.
– Annalia S. Linnan, based on a longer report on Go Game Guru