American Go E-Journal » World

Competition has begun for the second Bailing Cup, a biennial event backed by the Guizhou Bailing Group, a Chinese pharmaceutical company, and held under the auspices of the International Go Federation, the People’s Government of Guizhou Province, the Guizhou Sports Bureau, and the professional go associations of China, Japan, and Korea.

Four preliminary rounds were held March 15-16 in Beijing, and the 48 survivors then joined 16 seeded players from China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Korea in the main tournament, with the first round held on March 18. Click here for Round 1 results and games, along with some of the preliminary games.

One of the winners in the prelims was a young Chinese pro who had recently won the Shanghai Jianqiao Xinren Wang tournament. This event is known as the Rookie King tournament, but this year’s king was Wu Zhibao 5P (Yu Zhiying, at left), a female player. It’s extremely rare for a go tournament that is open to both men and women to be won by a woman; in the entire history of professional go it has happened perhaps five times. Three of those victories were by Rui Naiwei 9P (right), who Wu faced in the first round of the Bailing Cup, losing by resignation.

The second round has yet to be scheduled; the ultimate winner of the second Bailing Cup is due to be decided next year.
– based on James Davies’ detailed report on the IGF website; game records from www.go4go.net/

A team of researchers at the University of Brightloch have announced that 9×9 go has been solved. Inspired by recent improvements in computer play by Montecarlo algorithms, they hypothesized that “If a computer can play at random andplay good games, what prevents a more powerful device (like a brain) to do something similar?”

So the researchers picked a team of 100,000 chickens and taught them to play go. “It was hard in the beginning, but once a few knew how to play they started teaching others,” they report. “After a couple months all were playing as 30k players and we set them loose in a field filled with 9×9 go boards and bowls with stones. Also some grain and water.”

A month later the chickens were gone, and the same position was repeated on every 9×9 board: perfect play, with white winning by 0.5 points with 7.5 komi. The chickens had also left a note. It said “So long, and thanks for all the grain.”
– based on a report on Nordic Go Academy by RBERENGUEL; thanks to Go Game Guru, which posted it on their Facebook page. 

Gu Li 9p (right) chalked up his first win in the MLily Gu vs Lee jubango, forcing Lee Sedol 9p to resign in game 3 on Sunday, March 30. Lee and Gu faced one another in Chengdu – the capital city of Sichuan, China – having traveled straight there after their game at the 10th Chunlan Cup two days earlier.

After Lee won game 2 of this historic jubango in February, he led the 10 game match 2-0. Since Gu lost game 2 in regrettable circumstances, many go fans reasonably surmised that Lee would have the psychological advantage going into the third game, but over the last week, Gu defeated Lee in the 4th Zhaoshang Cup (a China vs Korea team tournament) on March 23, and followed it up with another win at the 10th Chunlan Cup on the 28th, which may have helped to restore Gu’s confidence. The win is heartening not only for Gu, of course, but for go fans worldwide who are doubtless hoping the jubango will go the full 10 games.
– Based on Go Game Guru’s report, which includes the game record and An Younggil 8p’s brief analysis. 

Myungwan Kim 9P will do live audio commentary on this weekend’s Lee Sedol – Gu Li Jubango on KGS.

His commentary, with James Kim 1d, will start at 8p PST (11p EST) on Saturday, March 29. As previously reported (Gu Li & Lee Sedol Face Off in Jubango Game 3 This Weekend 3/27 EJ), Go Game Guru’s An Younggil 8p will also be commenting the game on Baduk TV Live.

“This third game will be very important for Gu Li,” Kim tells the E-Journal. “If he loses it will be very difficult for him to catch up. “With Lee leading 2-0, Gu should have a lot pressure on this game and needs to overcome it. I hope Gu Li can win and make the series more exciting.” Kim notes that the two are playing a game at Chunlan Cup on Friday, March 28, which may affect the jubango game.

Gu Li will be looking to begin erasing his 2-game deficit Game 3 of the Lee Sedol – Gu Li Jubango this weekend. Gu beat Lee in Round 2 of the just-concluded Zhaoshang Cup on March 21 (Korea wins 4th Zhaoshang Cup by a whisker GGG 3/24/2014), and is playing him again in Round 2 of the Chunlan Cup but Lee leads 2-0 in the jubango. Live coverage with commentary of the match will start on Baduk TV three hours after the first move is played. The commentators will replay and analyze the game from the beginning and Go Game Guru’s An Younggil 8p will translate and discuss the game in English with Baduk TV Live viewers. The coverage starts at 1:00 pm Korea time on Sunday, March 30 (Midnight Sunday morning EST). You can watch the game on Baduk TV for as little as $2.70 with a Baduk TV Day Pass.
– Go Game Guru; photo: Gu draws Lee in the Chunlan Cup

Go Game Guru has just published an excellent detailed game commentary by Younggil An 8P on the second game of the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango, which was played on February 23 on the outskirts of Shanghai. “Many people expected that Gu Li (right) would have something of an advantage in this match,” says An, “because most of the games will be played in China. However, it doesn’t seem like Lee Sedol is affected by that so far…Actually, it looks like Gu Li is under quite a bit of pressure from his fans and the Chinese media.”