American Go E-Journal

The Evanston Go club hosted its third quarterly tournament on Saturday, October 8. Attendance was good at 30 players. “We’re so glad we were able to use the Immanuel Lutheran Church again”, said club president and TD Mark Rubenstein. “It’s a great space, with lots of tables and plenty of light. And if you step outside the playing room, you can faintly hear the organist practicing. We will continue to have four tournaments a year; the next one will be in January. If you’re not on our email list, hop on over to our website and click the link to sign up!”

Hurricane Cancels Space Coast Tourney: The Space Coast Go Tournament scheduled for October 8 in Rockledge, FL is cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew. “We’ll try to reschedule,” says TD Bart Lipofsky. “We had 24 signed up including four 4 Dan players.”

Go Congress Water Bottle Mystery Solved: Thanks to the many EJ readers who wrote in to solve the mystery of the water bottle reading “My God! It’s full of water” at the 2010 Go Congress.  “I assumed that it was a reference to a line in the film ‘2010: The Year We Make Contact’ (since it was the 2010 Go Congress),” wrote Ken Crumpler. “I believe the line was ‘Oh my god. It’s full of stars!’ But since this was a water bottle rather than a monolith, the quote was changed from ‘stars’ to ‘water.’ I have not been to a Go Congress in awhile,” Crumpler continues, “but of the myriad of things I used to enjoy about Congresses was the clever ‘themes,’ such as the James Bond theme at the 2007 Congress.” Zaid Alawi at the Chicago Go Club notes that “Originally a line from Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ novel, it later appeared in the sequel film ‘2010’ and subsequently became a minor Internet meme.” Marcel suggests “Maybe it’s a pun on someone’s reaction to a nine-stone handicap game, where are all the star points are occupied by Black stones.” And Bram Vandenbon says that “the only time that I ever heard somebody refer to water in the context of Go” was Janice Kim in a proverb in one of her books about “The river runs out” which he says “refers to a situation where you have tried to defend your territory by creating a wall. Unfortunately the shape is too weak and the opponent is able to push through your wall. Janice Kim compares this situation to a dam that is breaking, “and then the river runs out.'”