American Go E-Journal

Cho Chikun 9p defeats AI DeepZen 2-1; Michael Redmond’s Commentary

Saturday December 3, 2016

“Zen plays well in the opening and in open areas that are difficult even for top pros to judge,” says Michael Redmond 9P in his commentary on Game 3 in the recent Cho-DeepZen match, in which Cho bested the AI program. “It makes local mistakes, a problem that seems to be a characteristic weakness of the neural network system. It is playing at a pro level, and is approaching the strength of AlphaGo that we saw in March 2016. In Game 2 I saw some patterns that Zen has been playing for years, so it has not turned into a copy of AlphaGo, but has kept it’s original ‘style’.”

Michael’s game 3 commentary:

[link]

Categories: Japan

Nihon Kiin Announces New World Championship Will Include AI Program DeepZenGo

Wednesday November 30, 2016

The Nihon Kiin on Tuesday announced a new World Championship tournament that will include top professional players and a strong AI program, to be held in Osaka in March 2017. The tournament is sponsored by NTT Docomo, Mitsui Sumimoto, Daiwa Securities, Hankyu Inc. and Nikkei Inc., and is organized by the Nihon Kiin. With a top prize of \30M (about $270K) and runner-up prize of \10M, the tournament has one of the highest prize structures among go championships.

From March 20-24, three top players from Japan, China, and Korea will join DeepZenGo in a four-round round-robin tournament at Nihon Kiin’s Kansai branch office. Additional playoff will be held in case of ties.

Iyama Yuta (right) has been chosen as the Japanese representative. The ‘seven-crown champion’ who holds all the major Japanese pro titles, Iyama said that he was honored to be chosen and this would be the first time in a long while that he could play in an international tournament without conflicts with the tight domestic competition schedule. He promised to do his best to get good results for Japan. Chinese and Korean representatives will be determined soon.

DeepZenGo was chosen to represent AI. Hideki Kato, DeepZen’s author, expressed gratitude to the great effort and support of the organizers and promised that DeepZenGo would work hard to improve in the next few month to achieve a good result in the tournament.
– Thomas Hsiang

Categories: Computer Go/AI,Japan

The Traveling Board: Go and the Family Robot

Tuesday November 29, 2016

By Lisa Schrag

We got a glimpse of the future when our good friend Matsumoto Mamoru recently had us as guests in his home near Osaka, Japan. His family robot, Pepper, entertained us with conversation and song. Then Pepper politely looked on while Matsumoto and Roger played a few games of go.

Matsumoto — who attends the U.S. Go Congress most years — also took Roger to play at the Kansai office of the Nihon Ki-in one afternoon. There were 25-30 people there that day, and Roger met some very nice local players.

While in Tokyo, we had the pleasure of a nice visit and dinner with go teacher Kazunari Furuyama, author of the E-Journal “Lessons with Kaz” series.

Thanks to the game of go, we have made some wonderful friends in the beautiful country of Japan. This was our third trip, and we visited several small towns, did a four-day pilgrimage walk, and learned about the rich history of Japan. But most of all, we enjoyed spending time with our Japanese friends. And Roger was lucky to get in some go games along the way!

Roger Schrag is a co-founder and past president of Bay Area Go Players Association. Photos by Lisa Schrag.

Categories: Traveling Go Board

Latest Attempt to Create International Map of Go Clubs

Tuesday November 29, 2016

There have been a number of attempts to create an international map of go clubs, so that instead of each country maintaining a separate map, there can be one reliable map of go clubs which transcends national boundaries.

One such project is being developed by a member of the German Go Federation (Deutsche Go-Bund). It is open-source and based on free data (OpenStreetMap and umap), so even if the creator were to disappear, it could be taken over and continued with minimal effort, and it would never incur licensing costs of any kind.

The database is currently located here, and the map (which is updated regularly from the database, and therefore
doesn’t include recently-added clubs) is here. The source code is at GitHub here and here.

The map can be freely embedded on any website, and a few regional, local and national sites are already using it to display their country’s clubs, but at the moment, although European and South American coverage is quite good, the coverage of US clubs is rather sparse, and the Far East isn’t really covered at all.

You can look for your local club by sorting the list here (for example by ZIP code), and if your club is not there, you can add it here. Clubs can be added, removed and edited by all users of the site, and registration is free, but requires authentication via a third-party account: at the moment, GitHub, Google, Facebook and VK are supported.

Categories: World

French Go News Updates

Sunday November 27, 2016

Grenoble has won the French club championship for the third year in a row; details here. JunFu Dai won the French

championship; details here. Registration for the next Paris Tournament is now open; the tournament runs April 15-17.

Categories: Europe

National Go Center Has Location, Seeks Contractor and Volunteers

Saturday November 26, 2016

The National Go Center planned for Washington, DC has found a space and expects to sign a lease in December, reports Gurujeet Khalsa. The location has 2900 sq/ft near the Tenleytown Metro in Northwest DC. “It’s a great location with lots of restaurants nearby and off-street parking,” Khalsa tells the E-Journal. “Before signing a lease, we need a fit-out estimate from a contractor licensed to do commercial work in DC; recommendations for a reliable contractor that will do smaller jobs is urgently needed.” If all goes as planned, fit-out will occur in February and the Center will open in March. “There is a lot of volunteer work and a wide variety of skills needed to make this vision a reality,” Khalsa adds. Accounting, non-profit planning and marketing, web and social media, space layout and design, teaching go, “or whatever expertise you can bring,” are welcome; contact gurujeet.khalsa@nationalgocenter.org.

Categories: U.S./North America

Jeremy Chiu Wins Ing’s Cup Youth Go Tournament

Saturday November 26, 2016

The 19th Ing’s Cup Youth Go Tournament was held Sunday, November 6 at the Kungfu Fei SiFu Academy in San Jose, CA. One of the most prominent youth go tournaments in the US, the tournament is directed annually by Mingjiu Jiang 7P and sponsored by the Ing’s Goe Foundation. This year, the top division included current Redmond Cup champions Jeremy Chiu and Ary Cheng, former Redmond champion Aaron Ye, as well as former US representatives to the World Youth Go Championship Matthew Cheng, Raymond Feng, and Eric Liu. Jeremy Chiu 7d won Division A with a perfect 3-0 record; Daniel Liu came 2nd and Aaron Ye 3rd with 2-1 records each.

Winner’s report: Division A: 1st place: Jeremy Chiu, 2nd place: Daniel Liu, 3rd place: Aaron Ye; Division B: 1st place: Tina Li, 2nd place: Steven Chen, 3rd place: Yi Co Deng; Division C: 1st place: Delin Fang, 2nd place: Jessica Liu, 3rd place: Brian Kui; Division D: 1st place: Feiyun Chen, 2nd place: Kevin Zhang, 3rd place: Jingfan Feng

– report by Mingjiu Jiang; photos courtesy Jeremy Chiu

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Go Spotting: Go artefacts

Saturday November 26, 2016

While doing some go research recently, Tony Collman “came across this little feature on go artefacts, with many beautiful photographs which may interest your readers.”

Categories: Go Spotting

Young Lions Deadline Sunday

Monday November 21, 2016

Registration for the annual Young Lions Tournament closes Nov. 27th. Organized by the American Go Honor Society (AGHS), the tournament welcomes kids 18 and younger who have not graduated from high school yet. The tournament will be on December 4th and 11th. There will be four rounds and trophies will be awarded to the top finishers of each bracket. In addition, AGHS t-shirts will be given to the top four finishers of each bracket. Players do not need to compete in all of the four games to participate. For more info, click here; to register, click here.

Categories: U.S./North America,Youth

Deep Zen Go Wins Game 2; Final Game Tuesday Night

Sunday November 20, 2016

Deep Zen Go won Game 2 of the 3-game match with Cho Chikun 9P on November 20, evening the score at 1-1. “Cho played badly with White in the opening but invaded Black’s huge moyo later and had a chance to live and win the game,” Michael Redmond 9P tells the E-Journal. “With mistakes by both players in the final fight, Cho’s group died.” Watch for Redmond’s game highlights, which will be posted here when available.

The final and deciding game will start at 11p US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, November 22. Redmond and Antti Tormanen 1P will once again provide English commentary live online.

[link]

Categories: Computer Go/AI,Japan