Thursday October 6, 2016
The fifth year of the Pandanet AGA City League is starting soon. Register your team before October 16th to ensure your team is able to play. Please make sure to read the latest rules for the tournament. Email Steve Colburn to register or re-register your team. Any questions can also be sent to this address.
Are you a strong go streamer? Contact Steve at the email above for an opportunity with the City League during the season.
Thursday October 6, 2016
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.'”
Wednesday October 5, 2016
Kubo and the Two Strings: “At the beginning of the new stop-motion animation movie “Kubo and the Two Strings,” 
two villagers are seen playing go briefly,” writes Marc Hedlund. “My go-pl
aying daughter was very excited about this (as was I)!”
NYPD Red 2 Redux: “A dozen Chinese men from twenty-something to eighty-something were grouped in a semicircle, chain-smoking and watching two men hunched over a makeshift table. They were playing Go, the two-thousand-year-old Chinese board game.” From “NYPD Red 2” by James Patterson & Marshall Karp, sent in by EJ reader Gene Halverson. See also Go Spotting: Patterson’s NYPD Red 2 (7/24/2015).
Wednesday October 5, 2016
“My God! It’s full of water.” “Do you know what this quote is referencing?” asks Austin Harris. “It is written on our 26th Go Congress water bottle from Colorado Springs in 2010. We assume it’s referencing something funny that happened at the previous Go Congress. We’ve been dying to know. Any clues? Or anybody else that might know?”
Email journal@usgo.org with your answers/guesses.
Tuesday October 4, 2016
Catching up on a bunch of go reports and updates; here goes…
Peters Talks Go on Podcast: Glenn Peters appeared on the “Giving The Mic to the Wrong Person” podcast recently, discussing go, its history, appearances in American pop culture and significant games.
Go on “No Such Thing as a Fish”: The podcast No Such Thing as a Fish run by the QI elves is a general trivia podcast, reports Steve Colburn. “QI may resonate more with our British friends who love panel shows, but some of us in the US love 
them too. Their 128th episode’s last fact is about go. They mention a few famous games from the past and a bit of AlphaGo. Skip forward to 27m 55sec to hear the facts about go.”
Shawn Ray’s “How to Play Go” Series: Shawn Ray’s free “How to Play Go” series is now available. The 14 brief videos cover all the basics, from liberties to false eyes, ko and how to count the game. Ray says the videos can be shared widely “since these videos are aimed at helping spread Go. However, I must state that these videos cannot be sold or profited from. They are free and should remain free.”
Kiseido’s Go Book Sale: Kiseido is having a sale of all English-language go books; order 1 or 2 books and get free shipping, 3 to 9 books gets you 10% off with free shipping and 10 books or more are 15% off with free shipping. The sale runs through December 1, 2016.
Monday October 3, 2016
One of the highlights was the participation of ten college students from North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Their performances were outstanding,” says Kuang. Brian Wu 2D from NCSU won the top prize in the open section by sweeping all 4 games. Andrew Zalesak 3D from UNC at Chapel Hill earned second place along with Yiyu Wang 5D from VA and local strong player Owen Chen 5D. Alex Parrott 4K won 1st place and Justin Blank 4K came in 2nd place in the 1K-6K section. Alvin Chen 7K won 1st place, Kerianne Squitire 7K and Alex Kuang 8K tied for 2nd place in the 7K-9K section. Ralph Abbey 10K came in 1st place and Ben Parrott 12K and Don Nonini 15K tied for 2nd place in the 10K-15K section. Ganning Xu 17K won 1st place with a perfect 4-0 score and Russell Herman 16K was 2nd place in the 16K-17K section. Joshua Mu 20K and Justin Su 21K swept all 4 games and tied for 1st place and Bhaskar Bharath 18K and Daniel Lee 19K shared 2nd place in the 18K and up section.
Monday October 3, 2016
New York Institute of Go’s Flushing Team 1 swept the first New York Youth Team Go Championship on September 24. The 
champions topped a field of ten teams facing off in the five-round event organized by the New York Go Association and held at Queens Library in Flushing, NY. The teams, with three players on each team, represented different regions competing in the tournament.
“It was a great start for the youth go community in New York,” reports organizer Stephanie Yin 1P. “The main purpose of the event was to stimulate and motivate more young players to participate. Some of the parents mentioned after the tournament that ‘the kids seem to like playing go more and they want to win the prize next time.'”
Yin promises “There will be more tournaments coming up,” including similar youth tournaments and others oriented for a wider audience. “It makes me happy to see more people getting inspired and become passionate about go.”
photos courtesy New York Institute of Go coach Stephanie Yin 1p (at right in photo, above left)
Friday September 30, 2016
Mark your calendars, the 2017 US Go Congress dates and location have been confirmed as August 5-12 at the Town and 
Country Resort in San Diego. Centrally located in San Diego’s Mission Valley, the Town and Country Resort will offer newly remodeled tower rooms or less expensive garden rooms, “all virtually next door to the ballroom, where the US Go Open will be played, and the classroom space, where the pros will give lectures and analysis,” reports Ted Terpstra, who will co-direct the Congress with Les Lanphear, both of the San Diego Go Club, which is hosting the Congress.
Town and Country is a ten-minute drive from many of San Diego’s major attractions, including beaches on the Pacific Ocean, Seaworld, San Diego’s world-famous zoo and Balboa Park, with its nine museums.
Congress registration is expected to open soon. Meanwhile, be sure to take the brief Go Congress survey to weigh in on your favorite Congress activities as San Diego organizers begin planning for 2017!
Wednesday September 28, 2016
Pre-registration for this year’s Cotsen Open — October 22nd-23rd in Los Angeles — closes on Tuesday, October 20th. Players
who pre-register get a discounted $20 entry fee, free food truck lunch on both days and a full refund of the entry fee if they play in all five games; click here to register. Day-of registration will also be available for $25. The Cotsen Open features thousands of dollars in prizes, an extremely competitive Open Division, free masseuses to massage players during their games, and a demonstration game between Yilun Yang 7p and Guiyong Liao 9P. The EJ will provide live KGS commentary on top board games as well as streaming coverage on the AGA’s YouTube channel.
photo: Eric Cotsen (left) at the 2015 Cotsen Open with Yilun Yang 7P (in E-Journal cap); photo by Chris Garlock
Monday September 26, 2016
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Fujisawa has sole lead in Women’s Meijin: A key game in the first half of the 29th Women’s Meijin League took place at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on September 22. In a clash between the joint leaders, Fujisawa Rina 3P (B) beat Okuda Aya 3P by 1.5 points. Fujisawa improved her score to 3-0 and has the sole lead. However, she is only halfway to the goal. Of the seven league members, three have already played three games, but three have played only one. Fujisawa has an edge, but all seven players are still in the running.
King of the News Stars begins: The first game in the best-of-three final of the 41st King of the New Stars tournament
was played at the Kansai Ki-in headquarters in Osaka on September 22. Onishi Ryuhei 2P (aged 16, at left) (W) of the Nihon Ki-in beat Taniguchi Toru 2P (aged 20) of the Kansai Ki-in by half a point. This was a regrettable loss for Taniguchi: he held the lead for most of the game, but missed all his chances to wrap up a win. In the end, he suffered an upset loss by the narrowest margin. The second game will be played on September 30.
Agon Kiriyama Cup: The final of the 23rd Agon Kiriyama Cup will feature a clash between two veteran players: Cho Chikun (60) and Kono Rin (35). Cho previously won the 9th Cup; Kono reached the final of the 21st Cup, but lost to Iyama Yuta. In the semifinals, Cho beat Murakawa Daisuke and Kono beat Yamashita Keigo. Unfortunately, the founder of the tournament, Kiriyama Seiyu, died on August 29 at the age of 95. He founded the Agon sect of Buddhism in 1978 and has been a strong supporter of go in Japan and China.
Chen makes good start in Bailing final: The best-of-five final in the 3rd Bailing Cup started in Yunnan Province in China on September 22. The 19-year-old Ke Jie 9P was the favorite, as he is China’s number one and he won the previous Bailing Cup, but his compatriot Chen Yaoye 9P, who is all of 26, has made an excellent start, winning the first two games. Chen had black in the first game and won by resignation; in the second game, played on the 22nd, Chen secured a resignation after 178 moves. The match will resume in December.
