
– Brian Kirby
Tuesday September 26, 2017
Sunday September 24, 2017
The pre-registration deadline for this year’s Cotsen Open is now less than a month away. Pre-register here by October 19 for one of the go calendar’s biggest and most popular events. In addition to the 2-day, 5-round tournament October 21-22 at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles, this year’s event features a screening of The Surrounding Game, food trucks (free lunch for pre-registered players), the ever-popular masseuses and the Sunday game between Yilun Yang 7P and Qun Yang 8P.
Cotsen organizers are looking for volunteers to help with set-up, check-in and and take-down; email cotsenopen@gmail.com if interested. As usual, the E-Journal will broadcast top-board games; if interested in being on the recording team, email journal@usgo.org (must have laptop with KGS).
photo: Tournament sponsor Eric Cotsen (second from right) considers a move at the 2016 Cotsen Open as Yilun Yang (far right) looks on); photo by Chris Garlock
Saturday September 23, 2017
Coach Sonny (Sung-Chul) Cho distributed American Go Honor Society first place awards to two teams from the Northwest Chinese School on September 5 at the Seattle Go Center. The “A” team of Xinlei Liu, Chansseok Oh and Steve Ling won the Open Section of the online School Team
Tournament, which was held in April 2017. The “B” team of the Northwest Chinese School won the Kyu Section of the tournament, playing against 10 other school teams. They are Yulissa Wu Lu, Tian Yi Wang and Emma Huang. The principal of the Northwest Chinese School is Dong Ma 6d, a long time supporter of the Seattle Go Center. The teams celebrated by having pizza and ice cream, and by playing simultaneous games with Chinese pro Hai Li, who was visiting Seattle with his family after attending the San Diego Go Congress. Report and photos by Brian Allen.
Saturday September 23, 2017
“AlphaGo,” the dramatic documentary about the 2016 showdown between Lee Sedol 9P and the DeepMind AI, is now screening at festivals across the country and around the world. The updated AlphaGo website has details about screenings, including a run in New York City Sept 29-Oct 5, and screenings in October in Milwaukee, Mill Valley (CA), Hot Springs (AR), Bellingham (WA), Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Easton (MD) and Washington, DC. Check out the film’s new trailer here.
Friday September 22, 2017
Wednesday September 20, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Na of Korea wins 29th TV Asia: The TV Asia tournament is a fast-go tournament for the winners and runners-up in the NHK Cup, China’s CCTV Cup, and Korea’s KBS Cup. They are joined by the previous winner if he (not yet she) is not one of the above. The tournament rotates among these three countries and this year was held in the Sun Lake Hotel in Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province on September 15~17. Results were as follows:
(Sept. 15): Round 1, Game 1) Lee Sedol 9P (Korea) beat Iyama Yuta 9P (Japan) by resig. Game 2) Ichiriki Ryo 7P (Japan) (W) beat Zhang Tao 6P (China) by resig.
(Sept. 16): Round 1, Game 3) Na Hyeon 8P (Korea) (W) beat Li Jianhao 7P (China) by 4.5 points. Semifinal 1) Lee Sedol (B) beat Li Qincheng 9P (China, 2016 winner) by resig.
(Sept. 17): Semifinal 2) Na (B) beat Ichiriki by resig. Final: Na (B, at right) beat Lee Sedol by resig. after 184 moves.
This is Na’s first win in this tournament. Lee missed out on a fifth win. Just for the record, China has won this tournament eight times to ten times each for Japan and Korea. First prize is 2,500,000 yen (about $22,700).
King of the New Stars: The first game of the 42nd King of the New Stars best-of-three title match was held at the Tokyo headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in on September 18. Shibano Toramaru 7P (W, left) beat Son Makoto 5P by resig. The second game will be played at the same venue on October 2.
Promotions
To 7-dan: Kyo Kagen (for winning a place in the Kisei S League)
To 2-dan: Ito Kenryo (20 wins, as of Sept. 8)
Photos courtesy of the Nihon Ki-in
Tuesday September 19, 2017
University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) defeated University of Toronto 2-1 in the championship finals of the 2017 Collegiate Go League to claim their first ever CGL title. Entering the playoffs as the 5th seed, UCSB defeated not only defending champions UCLA, but also upset 1st seed UC Berkeley enroute to the championship finals. While UCSB’s team didn’t contain well-known perennial powerhouse players that came up through the North American youth scene, they had one of the most rounded teams in terms of strength, giving them an edge over the competition. Live commentary of the Finals were provided by AGA’s Eric Lui 1p and Justin Teng 6d. In the 3rd/4th place match, University of Maryland defeated UC Berkeley 3-0 to claim 3rd place. This year’s CGL was the most competitive in history, with the average strength of most A-League teams hovering around 5 dan.
This year was also the first year the CGL introduced a B-League for kyu players who also want to get in on the competitive action. Lafayette College prevailed over University of Virginia 2-1, and then over University of Toronto’s B team 2-1 to claim the B-League championship title. In total, 20 teams across both leagues participated in the CGL.
The next season of the CGL begins on October 7th; if you and at least two other university students would like to play in the upcoming CGL season, read the rules and sign up by September 25th to be paired in the first round. New schools can join at any time during the regular season, with the top 6 teams in each league eligible to play in the championship playoffs at the end of the regular season.
– Justin Teng
photo: UCSB’s championship team; (left-to-right) Justin Shieh 5d, Rex Luan 6d, Stephen Hu 6d, and captain/club president Colin Liu 4d.
Tuesday September 19, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama evens Meijin Score: The second game of the 42nd Meijin title match was held at the Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, which is located in Bunkyo Ward, on September 12 and 13. The highlight of the game was a fierce fight that started on the first day. A large trade followed in which Iyama (W, right) took most of the top and Takao threatened to take most of the bottom. However, his moyo was too big. Iyama succeeded in breaking into it, so Takao resigned after White 146. This evens the score at 1-1. The third game will be played on September 21 and 22.
Iyama and Yamashita advance in Samsung Cup: The opening round of the 22nd Samsung Cup (officially, the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Cup World Go Masters) was held at the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Global Campus in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province on September 5 to 7. The “campus” is actually one of a number of training camps the Samsung group owns, and facilities rival those of a five-star hotel. The 1st round takes three days to play as it consists of eight double-elimination mini-leagues. There are four players in each league, and the top two players advance to the round of 16. The condition is two wins, which means a score of 2-0 or 2-1. Two Japanese players, Iyama Yuta and Yamashita Keigo 9P, scored 2-1 and made it to the next round. They were joined by seven Korean and seven Chinese players, including Ke Jie 9P and Lee Sedol 9P. The third Japanese representative, Komatsu Hideki 9P, who won a seat in the qualifying section for senior players, was eliminated with 1-2. The next round will be held on September 25.
Kisei leagues completed: The last games in the S League of the 42nd Kisei tournament were held recently. On September 7, Ichiriki Ryo 7P (W) beat Kono Rin 9P by resig. and Cho U 9P (B) beat So Yokoku 9P by resig. Ichiriki had already won the league in the previous round, but making a clean sweep of the league was undoubtedly satisfying. Cho’s win made sure that he kept his place. An important game was held on September 9 between Yamashita Keigo 9P and Murakawa Daisuke 8P. The winner would take second place in the league and, more important, gain a place in the irregular knockout to decide the challenger; the loser would lose his league place and drop to the A League. Taking black, Yamashita (right) won by 2.5 points. The final order in the S League is: 1st, Ichiriki, 5-0; 2nd, Yamashita, 3-2; 3rd, Cho U, 3-2; 4th, Kono Rin, 2-3; dropping out: Murakawa on 2-2 and So on 0-5.
Two key games in the A League were played on September 7. Takao Shinji 9P and Kyo Kagen (Xu Jiayuan in Pinyin) 4P were tied on 5-1. However, Takao was ranked number one and Kyo, as a newcomer to the league, was equal last, so to win the league Kyo needed not only to win his game but also to have Takao lose. The latter just made it: taking black, he eked out a half-point win over Yoda Norimoto 9P, so he won the league. Kyo (B) beat Hane Naoki 9P by resig. Although he missed qualifying for the knockout, Kyo earned a consolation prize: promotion to the S League. The top two players go up, so he will be joined by Takao – except if Takao becomes the challenger and wins the Kisei title, in which case Iyama would join Kyo in the S League. The S League promotion carried with it a promotion to 7-dan.
The play-off between the winners of the two B Leagues was held on September 14. Yo Seiki 7P (W), winner of B2, beat Shida Tatsuya 7P, winner of B1, by resig. This is how the final knockout looks: C League winner Motoki Katsuya 8P vs. Yo Seiki; the winner to play Takao; the winner to play Yamashita; the winner to meet Ichiriki in the final “best-of-three”. The quotes are there because three games will never be played. Ichiriki starts with a one-win advantage, so he needs only one win; his opponent can’t drop a game, so he has to win two straight. That won’t be easy: on current form, Ichiriki could claim to be the number three player after Iyama and Takao.
TOMORROW: Na of Korea wins 29th TV Asia; King of the New Stars; Promotions
Photos courtesy of the Nihon Ki-in
Friday September 15, 2017
“In this game we will see some Go Seigen-like attachments that White plays against a Black shimari,” says Michael Redmond 9p in his game commentary on AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 7. There’s also “an AlphaGo variation for the early 3-3 invasion, and after White makes a moyo there will be a running fight in the center.”
Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, just posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel and hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock.
The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson. The sgf file was created by Redmond, with editing and transcription by Garlock and Myron Souris.
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 8: Two 3-3 invasions and some spectacular fighting
Friday September 22, 2017
“In this game we’re going to see two 3-3 invasions; when AlphaGo jumps in to the 3-3, the other AlphaGo does as well,” says Michael Redmond 9p in his game commentary on AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 8. “This is something that happens a lot, and I have my own theories about why that might be. We’re also going to see the follow-up moves in both of those corners, so we’ll see some options about possible follow-ups. And then there’s going to be some spectacular fighting inside of Black’s moyo. “
Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock.
The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson. The sgf file was created by Redmond, with editing and transcription by Garlock and Myron Souris.
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