American Go E-Journal » Go News

The New Jersey Open, to be held at Princeton University in New Jersey March 2-3, will be the second of 2013’s NAMT points qualifiers after January’s Jujo Jiang Ing Goe tournament in San Francisco. A large tournament with a great history of more than half a century, the New Jersey Open is often a draw for strong players “and will be a fantastic opportunity for them to earn points,” notes AGA Tournament Coordinator Karoline Burrall. As the first qualifier for the Eastern region, participating strong players will be eligible to earn points towards the North American Masters Tournament at this year’s US Go Congress in Tacoma, Washington. Registration is 9-10A Saturday, March 3. Email co-director Mott for full details at rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu.

Don Wiener was the fourth person I ever met who played go, but he was my first go player, the first person who truly inhabited the game – he played, he studied, he taught and he organized.

I had learned the game from a professor at college, and I knew of two other students who played. One January, back in 1980, the professor taught a month long course on the game. While I did not take the class, I showed up for Don’s visit. After only experiencing the very laid back style of the prof, Don was a seismic shift. His energy was amazing and his laughter infectious. I recall he played the entire class 9×9 games with handicaps. I lacked 9×9 experience, so I was not one of the few winners, but I recall him complimenting my willingness to try to kill him. I failed, but he did not kill me either – I recall the final score was 5 to 2.

Later I would learn that he was one of the strongest players on the East Coast. He was a mainstay of the American Go Journal staff back in those days. I know he was extremely proud of his work on the “Keshi and Uchikomi” series in the Journal, which was later published by Slate and Shell. Like Sam Zimmerman and Chris Kirschner, he was one of those guys who simply showed up at the Go Congress and went to work setting up and helping out wherever he could.

You could call Don the “father of the AGA 7dan”. The US Open — until the second Denver Congress in 2000, I believe — had always had a 5 dan section, and an open section above that, therefore, the AGA’s highest rank was 6 dan. Don argued for years that he was a 6 dan, but that he could not compete with those other 6 dans, and that we should have a 6 dan section, implicitly recognizing a 7 dan rank. My recollection is he got his wish, promptly won the first-ever 6 dan section, and had to play in the Open section the next year anyway.

But my fondest, and given his death from cancer, bittersweet, memories of him were playing games, usually on picnic tables outside at the Go Congresses. Unlike many strong players, Don would play absolutely anyone just so long as they were willing to share his smoker’s exile and put up with his running commentary on the game. Laughing with him in the summer sun are truly some of my brightest Congress memories.

august afternoons
heavy eyebrows laugh and smoke
joyful go exile

– by Keith Arnold; photo by Phil Straus 

U.S. pro Andy Liu 1P will play Lee Sedol 9P this Sunday, Feb. 24 (10a EST) in the latest round of the 10-game series between the AGA-Europe pro team and Lee, sponsored by go9dan.com.
– photo: Andy Liu (right) receives his 1-dan professional certificate from Myung-wan Kim 9P at the 2012 AGA-Tygem Pro Tournament; photo by Steve Colburn

Long-time go organizer and mentor Don Wiener passed away on February 21 after a struggle with lung cancer. “We will miss one of American go’s true spirits,” said American Go Association President Andy Okun. Wiener (left), a 6-dan player, was one of the stalwarts of the Massachusetts Go Association, and an organizer of countless tournaments over a span of more than 30 years. At the beginning of each tournament, he always announced – with a straight face – the “special MGA rule” that “if you touch a stone you must play that stone.” Wiener taught so many players with so many high-handicap games that he often said “I don’t know how to play an even game.” He was also an important member of the New York group which powered the growth of the AGA in the late 70s and 80s. Beside his speed go and quick wit, Wiener’s speed typing was a huge asset as an Assistant Editor of the American Go Journal from 1977 to 1987 when all of the text was done on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Wiener is survived by his mother and a sister in California. No memorial service is planned, but donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.
– Bill Saltman; photo: Wiener at the 1987 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Phil Straus

At Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), Stan Aungst is employing the ancient Chinese game of go to help students gain new insight and new methods for countering attacks — cyber and physical, both foreign and domestic — and to hone new cognitive skills for the 21st century.

“We’re using the game as a training ground to think strategically and tactically,” said Aungst, a senior lecturer for security and risk analysis (SRA) and senior research associate for the Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion Center in a Penn State press release February 7.

The course that Aungst is teaching, “Using Serious Games to Promote Strategic Thinking and Analysis,” introduces students to thinking visually about attacks, attack patterns, spatial analysis with individual performance evaluation via interactive virtual scenarios/missions and gaming. Paul Wright, president of the State College Go Club, recently demonstrated the game for the students in the class.

John Hill, a lecturer at the College of IST who is assisting Aungst with the course, said that the class is a “significant departure” from any other courses that the college has offered. “During the course, go is used as the means for analyzing widely divergent problems, and for developing effective tactics and strategies to address those problems by means of conversion rather than elimination,” Hill said.

Joe Cho, a sophomore SRA major who is also in the class, said the objective of the Go game is “more about efficiency” than other board games such as chess, since the goal is to capture territory using as few “stones” as possible. “The lessons are more applicable to today’s military situation,” he said.

A test will be used to measure individuals’ ability to predict cyber and physical attacks. About 100 intelligence analysts have taken the test, Aungst said. After the students in the “Go” class take the test, he added, their scores will be compared to the students who took the test last year.
– photo by John Pinkerton; effects by Chris Garlock