Monday February 22, 2021
The AGA is looking for someone to help with our Drupal upgrade. We are looking to take our install to Drupal 9 and make it more efficient. You can help drive the look of the AGA’s web presence to the world. The AGA Website is visited by over 20,000 visitors per month. Knowledge of Drupal needed, will need PHP knowledge for site theming. We integrate with WordPress and other custom code. If interested contact Steve Colburn to find out more.
Monday February 22, 2021
The Spanish translation of the Multilingual Go Book Project’s book joins the already existing English, French and Greek translations and is now available. This is yet another step in the project’s goal of making Go content more accessible to new players in their native language. Like with the previous versions, the book can be downloaded for free from the project’s webpage and the addition of the Spanish language is accompanied by a full re-upload of the latest corrections of the English version.
The Multilingual Go Book Project was started by H. Kapolos in order to provide instructional material to new players for free in their native languages. There are currently 20 printed copies of the book in English, which are available to be distributed for free. Anyone interested in receiving a copy can contact the project via the contact form on its website or through its Facebook page.
Sunday February 21, 2021
by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
This reports focuses on the players with the best performances in various categories last year.
Most wins
Because of a multiple tie for 9th place, the top ten is actually the top eleven. Some other results of interest have been added. Note that three women players make the top eleven. The increase in tournaments for women gives them more playing opportunities and more prize money. It could be argued that this is a golden age for professional women’s go in Japan.
1. Ichiriki Ryo Tengen: 53-13
2. Iyama Yuta Kisei: 38-14
3. Kyo Kagen 8P: 36-23
4. Fujisawa Rina, Women’s Honinbo: 35-15; Shibano Toramaru Oza: 35-21
6. Ueno Asami, Senko Cup-holder: 34-23
7. Onishi Ryuhei 7P: 32-15
8. Yamashita Keigo 9P: 30-20
9. Seki Kotaro 3P: 29-8; Mutsuura Yuta 7P: 29-13; Nyu Eiko 3P: 29-16
15. Xie Yimin 6P: 26-19
17. Kono Rin 9P: 25-22
19. Mukai Chiaki 5P: 24-13
22. Suzuki Ayumi, Women’s Kisei: 23-14
27. Nakamura Sumire 1P: 21-17 (7th among women players)
Most consecutive wins
1. Chotoku Tesshi 3P: 14
2. Ichiriki: 11
3. Mutsuura: 10
4. Iyama, Ichiriki, Kyo Kagen, Kanazawa Hideo 8P, Motoki Katsuya 8P: 9
Best winning percentage (over a minimum of 24 games)
1. Ichiriki: 80.3
2. Seki: 78.38
3. Kanazawa: 76
4. Anzai Nobuaki 7P: 73.68 (28-10)
5. Hirata Tomoya 7P: 73.53 (25-9)
6. Iyama: 73.08
7. Onishi: 72.73
8. Mizokami Tomochika 9P, Takei Takashi 7P: 72.41 (both 21-8)
10. Ida Atsushi 8P: 71.05 (27-11)
Prize-money promotions
The following players from 1- to 6-dan earned promotions based on prize money earned during the year. The top two from 1-dan to 5-dan are promoted a rank, but only one 6-dan is promoted. Players who earned promotions by other means during the year, that is, by cumulative wins or challenging for a title or winning a seat in a league, are excluded, so the players below are the “top” among the rest. Promotions are dated to January 1.
To 7-dan: Numadate Sakiya
To 6-dan: Koike Yoshihiro, Yanagisawa Satoshi
To 5-dan: Hirose Yuichi, Otake Yu
To 4-dan: Cho Zuiketsu, Ueno Asami
To 3-dan: Muramoto Wataru, Chotoku Tesshi
To 2-dan: Terada Shuta, Fukuoka Kotaro
Most prize money won
For the 10th year in a row, Iyama topped the list of prize-money winners and once again reached the enviable bench mark of 100,000,000 yen (approx. $961,000 at $1 = 104 yen). Actually, the first time he came first was the only time he fell short of this mark, but, with 91,000,000, not very short. The most he has made is 172,000,000 in 2015 and the least is 106,000,000 (these figures are rounded off). Just for the record, only three other players have reached seven figures: Kobayashi Koichi (three times), Cho Chikun (four times), and Cho U (four times). Note the figures below include tournament prize money and game fees but not other income, such as for doing public commentaries or lectures, appearance money, teaching, book royalties, etc.
1. Iyama Yuta: 128,519,441
2. Ichiriki Ryo: 48,609,332
3. Shibano Toramaru: 47,412,860
4. Fujisawa Rina: 27,410,030
5. Kono Rin: 26,927,300
6. Yamashita Keigo: 20,993,400
7. Kyo Kagen: 20,962,681
8. Ueno Asami: 17,545,862
9. Cho U: 11,969,400
10. Hane Naoki: 11,722,000
54th Kido Prizes
The magazine Kido is defunct, but its prizes live on and were announced on February 10. They are open only to Nihon Ki-in players. This time they were dominated by Ichiriki Ryo, who won five of the seven prizes he was eligible for.
Most outstanding player: Iyama Yuta Kisei, Meijin & Honinbo.
Outstanding player: Ichiriki Ryo Tengen & Gosei
New star: Seki Kotaro, King of the New Stars
Women’s prize: Fujisawa Rina, Young Carp titleholder, Women’s Honinbo, Women’s Meijin, Women’s Hollyhock Cup holder, Hakata Kamachi Cup holder
International Prize: Ichiriki
Most wins: Ichiriki (53)
Best winning percentage: Ichiriki (80.3%)
Most consecutive wins: Chotoku Tesshi
Most games played: Ichiriki (66)
Kansai Ki-in prizes
The following prizes were announced on January 29. They were dominated by Yo Seiki, who matched Ichiriki in number of prizes won
Most outstanding player: Yo Seiki 8P (aged 25)
Most Wins: Yo (43)
Best winning percentage: Yo (86%)
Risen Prize (fighting spirit): Sada Atsushi 7P
Dogen Prize (special merit): Seto Taiki 8P
New star: Okawa Takuya 2P (aged 19)
Most successive wins: Yo (22)
Yamano Prize (for popularizing go): Tobita Saki 2P
Nagai Prize (outstanding player under 30): Nishi Takenobu 5P
Yoshida Prize (most wins against Nihon Ki-in players): Yo (24)
Taniguchi Prize (to encourage players under 26): Abe Yoshiki 3P (aged 24)
Kansai Ki-in prize-money promotions
The Kansai Ki-in has a more limited system than the Nihon Ki-in: the top three prize-money earners from 1- to 4-dan go up a rank on January 1. In order of earnings they are:
1. Hong Akiyoshi: to 4-dan
2. Nishi Takenobu: to 5-dan
3. Taniguchi Toru: to 5-dan
Sunday February 21, 2021
“‘Blitz’ Go is not appealing to me,” Michael Ryan writes in agreement with Bill Cobb (Empty Board 2/17). “I have always thought that speed chess and blitz Go are regressive activities, encouraging some of the least thoughtful aspects of playing. Now, I have, occasionally, in chess tournaments, experienced ’the dance of the pieces’, where a fairly long sequence plays itself out, unasked, before your eyes in about a second or less. Never in Go. So those who have this as a regular feature of their Go experience may find blitz Go appropriate, a form of the game done with understanding. But I expect these are players stronger that low-dan amateurs.”
Eric Osman writes that the point of blitz “is to play faster but not ‘as fast as you can’”. He notes that “There can be practical reasons for playing faster sometimes,” like limited time or impatience. “There are special skills that are acquired when playing fast go,” including building a knowledge base of efficient moves and “the ability to quickly assess the board position and choose what area of the board is most important.” Eric suggests that the question is “What is the sweet spot with respect to how fast is best? If we play too slowly, we reach diminishing returns where given more time to think doesn’t likely cause us to choose a better move. If we play too quickly, we make too many silly mistakes. Somewhere between those two is the optimal speed for our game.”
Photo: 2012 U.S. Go Congress Lightning Tournament; photos/collage by Chris Garlock
Friday February 19, 2021
The first episode of Counterpart has J. K. Simmons’ character Howard Silk playing go twice, taking black against the same opponent/friend, and losing both times. The board positions look realistic.
– Howard A. Landman
Friday February 19, 2021
Friday February 19, 2021
Edward Zhang 6d won Virginia State Championship finals over the holidays and is now the current Virginia State Champ with Qingbo Zhang 5d runner up for the second year in a row. The four competitors in the two-round knockout final won their spots by being the top finishing Virginia residents in the Virginia Open played in December. Games were played on OGS; the tournament was organized with the help of Baduk Club. Past champion Josh Lee 6d could not participate to defend his title as he has moved out of state. “I was disappointed with my prelim performance,” says champion Zhang, “But I wanted to inspire my 7-year-old daughter, who learned Go just a few weeks before, that daddy doesn’t just ‘talk the talk.'” Click here to see the final game between Edward Zhang 6d and Qingbo Zhang 5d.
-report by Gary Smith, photo provided by Edward Zhang
Wednesday February 17, 2021
By William Cobb
Have you ever tried to do something really fast? I can think of several things I would want to do as fast as possible: spit out something that tastes really bad, get out of a house that is on fire, run in a race, get out of the shower when the hot water suddenly gives out. Of course, there are things you wouldn’t want to do as fast as possible: finish the last bite of chocolate cake, listen to your favorite songs or sing them or play them. There are some activities that you naturally savor and linger over, not wanting them to end so quickly you can’t enjoy them. Where does playing go fit here? EJ reader Joe Mihara made a comment recently that Chris Garlock passed on to me: “What fun is Go if you have no time to think? I thought that the ’thinking’ was what was fun about the game?” This seems obvious to me.
I know that some people like to play “blitz” go, slapping down the stones as fast as they can. It can be wildly exciting, but only if you are not concerned about understanding what is happening during the game. Many go players are a little unhappy about having only forty-five minutes to play their moves in a game in most tournaments as there is so much to consider—and it is interesting, even enjoyable, to consider as many of the possibilities for every move as you can. It seems odd to suggest playing a game of go under circumstances that make it impossible to know what is happening in the game. In fact, I think that taking time to think about most things you do as you do them is a good idea. Trying to get through a fascinating process as fast as you can just makes no sense. Even if the only thing you care about is winning, how can you enjoy winning if you have virtually no awareness of how it happened? The issue is whether the process or the result is what you care about. To me, one of the most attractive things about go is that the rules make you lose half the time and win half the time. All there is to enjoy is the process.
photo by Phil Straus; photo art by Chris Garlock
Tuesday February 16, 2021
The AGA today announced that the 2021 US e-Go Congress will be held online July 17-24. With the pandemic continuing, the AGA has determined this is the safest for all of its players. The Congress Coordinator is working with this year’s director “to prepare and plan another excellent year of lots of Go,” organizers report.
“Last year’s e-Go Congress was a great success,” said AGA Congress Coordinator Lisa Scott, “and we’re thrilled to be able to build on that for another year. We’re all looking forward to being back in person at a US Go Congress when it’s safe to do so, but in the meantime, it’s wonderful to be able to involve so many people, in North America and around the world, who might not be able to attend an in-person Congress. I can’t wait to see everyone online this summer, and in-person next year!”
Tournaments will include a weekend “Open” tournament, a weekday daytime “blitz” tournament, evening 9×9, Pair Go, Double-Digit Kyu tournaments, professional events, a daytime youth event and the City League Tournament Championships. Tournaments will be held on KGS, OGS, and Pandanet. “We hope to see many friends and repeat players from last year,” say organizers. Watch the E-Journal and the Go Congress website for more information.
Tuesday February 16, 2021
Cyberpunk 2077
“While playing Cyberpunk 2077, a recently released RPG videogame, I was doing a mission and came across a game of Go on some barrels in the middle of a street,” reports Liam McFadden. “Oddly enough, as you get further away from the board, the texture switches from showing a 19×19 board to a 10×10. I’m not surprised that the texture changes to the smaller board size, but I find it interesting that obviously somebody knows enough about Go and cared enough to put this in the game, but then makes the lower resolution board a 10×10 rather than 9×9.”
Hikaru no Go
There is now a Chinese drama based on Hikaru no Go, reports Dave Weimer. Here’s a review. Also, on page 59-60 of Walter Mosley, Trouble s What I Do (Little Brown, 2020) is the following: “Talking to Twill was like playing a game of Go; words were like pieces that accrued on all sides until, in the end, victory was the child of sacrifice.”
