14 children from Mexico City and Portland, OR. played a two round match on Saturday, February 25, on KGS. Mexico City won the match 8-4. “Our players are from two elementary schools in Mexico City, Escuela de Arte Pipiolo and Colegio Serapio Rendón,” says team leader Siddhartha Avila. Diego, 5 kyu, Bruno, 10 kyu, and Javier, 18 kyu all won both their games. Oliver, 23 kyu, won two games for Portland. Portland and Mexico City have been playing one or more matches a year for the past several years. – Peter Freedman, Portland organizer. Photos by Siddhartha Avila and Peter Freedman: The teams meet via Skype to set up the match.
American Go E-Journal
Mexico City Bests Portland
Friday March 10, 2017
Your Move/Readers Write: Go Clock Recommendations
Friday March 10, 2017
Leap PQ9903: “The MGA battled about this for about a year before finally settling on the Leap PQ9903,” writes Neil 
Ritter in response to the February 25 Your Move/Readers Write: Looking for go clocks posting, noting the clocks were more affordable through Alibaba compared to Amazon. It’s “perhaps important to note explicitly that this clock doesn’t do Canadian Byoyomi particularly well,” Neil adds. A thread summarizing the Massachusetts Go Association’s discussion on the topic can be found here.
Ritter in response to the February 25 Your Move/Readers Write: Looking for go clocks posting, noting the clocks were more affordable through Alibaba compared to Amazon. It’s “perhaps important to note explicitly that this clock doesn’t do Canadian Byoyomi particularly well,” Neil adds. A thread summarizing the Massachusetts Go Association’s discussion on the topic can be found here.DGT3000: “I believe the best game clock for the money is the DGT3000,” 
suggests Dave Baran. “I am aware of three clocks that currently available that have both Japanese and Canadian byo-yomi: the DGT3000, the Cronos, and the Duel Timer.” Dave notes that the Excalibur is an affordable option that might be available on EBay, but has been discontinued from production. Dave adds that, “the byo-yomi time control on the Zmartfun II chess clock is inadequate.”
suggests Dave Baran. “I am aware of three clocks that currently available that have both Japanese and Canadian byo-yomi: the DGT3000, the Cronos, and the Duel Timer.” Dave notes that the Excalibur is an affordable option that might be available on EBay, but has been discontinued from production. Dave adds that, “the byo-yomi time control on the Zmartfun II chess clock is inadequate.”Amazon.com: “You can get just about anything from Amazon.com,” points out Ralph Meyer, suggesting searching for “Chess Clocks”.
– Edited by Brian Kirby
– Edited by Brian Kirby
Go tourney blooms again in Santa Fe
Thursday March 9, 2017
On March 4th, the Santa Fe Go Club held its first AGA-rated tournament in several years. A mixed crowd and some interested 
watchers attended the Spring Go Tournament with 14 players from Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Albuquerque, NM.
As an experiment for the Santa Fe Go Club, the first round was paired as usual, followed by as many self-paired games that could be fitted in. The tournament was held at a private home with outdoor areas that were much enjoyed for game reviews in the beautiful, early spring weather.
Billy Maier won first place with Mario Espinoza a close second and Jonathan Zingale coming in third. Prizes were awarded to everyone. Robert Cordingley as the tournament director, ran the GoClubsOnLine software (goclubs.org) to pair, record games and determine winners. Many thanks go to Steve Uhl and Lew Geer for donating prizes and our additional sponsor and host Nancy Dahl.
– report/photo by Lewis Geer
Note, this post has been updated; the tournament was held March 4th, not May 4th.
Kim Seong-Jin edges out Pavol Lisy to win 2017 Irish Confucius Cup
Thursday March 9, 2017
The 2017 Irish Confucius Cup took place in Dublin on the weekend of March 4-5. It was the most diverse tournament ever in Ireland, with players coming from 15 different countries. It was also the strongest ever tournament held in Ireland, with 2 European professionals competing, and the top group bar set at 6d. 3 Chinese professionals were also in attendance to give commentaries: Guo Juan 5p (who was also sponsoring the event), Yu Ping 2p, and Chen Rui 5p. Taking first place in the 5-round event was Kim Seong-Jin 7d, who edged out second placed Pavol Lisy 1p by half a point in their round 3 encounter. On 3 wins and taking third place was Mateusz Surma 1p, edging out on tiebreak Csaba Mero 6d. Lower down the field, other players also had outstanding performances, for example Sona Smolarikova 3k picked up 5 wins out of . Players on 4 wins included Julien Renaud 2d, Alec Delogu 2d, Marianna Szychowiak 10k, and Colin Lafferty 13k. The tournament was directed and organised by Rory Wales, with a great deal of assistance and co-operation from the University College Dublin Confucius Institute. The final standings are published here and full details of the tournament and sponsors can be seen here.
– Ian Davis
Redmond’s Reviews, Episode 2: Honinbo Dosaku 9P v. Kikukawa Yuseki 5P
Wednesday March 8, 2017
Episode 2: Honinbo Dosaku 9P v. Kikukawa is the latest in the new series of video commentaries with Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock, Managing Editor of the American Go E-Journal.
In today’s commentary, Redmond and Garlock take a look at a 347-year-old game that not only features the move that 
Kobayashi Koichi 9P said changed his life, but includes moves that Master — the latest version of AlphaGo — played in its recent 60-win sweep of top professionals. Go history in the making!
Honinbo Dosaku (1645~1702) was by far the strongest player of his time, and is still considered to be one of the strongest players in go history. He made important contributions to go strategy for the opening, laying the foundations for the following golden period of progress for go.
Produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson
The Power Report: Iyama one win away from defending Kisei; Fujisawa Rina makes good start in Women’s Meijin challenge; Honinbo League
Monday March 6, 2017
by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama one win away from defending Kisei: The fifth game of the 41st Kisei title match was held at the Tokiwa Hotel in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, on March 1 and 2. Playing black, Iyama forced a resignation after 165 moves. That took his score to 3-2, so he is just one win away from defending his title. The game was marked by fierce fighting throughout, so it became a competition in reading. In the end, Iyama brought down a big white group. Incidentally, the game showed the increasing influence of the AI program Master in two places in the opening. Both of the moves in question were played by Iyama, but, although it didn’t come out in this game, Kono is also said to have been strongly influenced by AI go. The sixth game will be played on March 9 & 10.
Fujisawa Rina makes good start in Women’s Meijin challenge: The first game of the 29th Women’s Meijin title match was played at the Arisu Pavilion at Heian Women’s University in Kyoto on March 1. Fujisawa Rina, the 18-
year-old holder of the Women’s Honinbo title, is challenging Xie Yimin, holder of the other four women’s titles. Xie has dominated women’s go in Japan for a decade and has picked up 26 titles in the process (more than twice as many as any other woman player). Fujisawa has won just three titles so far, but she has established herself as the number two woman player. The two have met twice in titles match (the 2016and 2015 Women’s Honinbo) and won one each. The Heian Women’s University includes go as a regular subject in its curriculum. It has now hosted the first game of this match for six years in a row and has also appointed Xie as a Guest Professor. Fujisawa drew black in the nigiri. In the middle game, the game seemed to tilt a little in Xie’s favor, but Fujisawa fought back and took the lead, so Xie resigned after move 217. Since this match is a best-of-three, starting with a win is a big advantage. Xie already faces a kadoban. The second game will be played on March 8.
Honinbo League
(March 1) Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) beat Yuki Satoshi 9P by 5.5 points; Ko Iso 8P (W) beat Hane Naoki 9P by resig. This loss cost Hane his share of the lead. Motoki Katsuya 7P has the provisional lead on 4-1; Hane and Ko follow him on 4-2.
Go Spotting: Walter Mosley’s “Known to Evil”
Monday March 6, 2017
Fred Baldwin reports that “on p. 212 of one of Walter Mosley’s noir crime novels, Known to Evil (2010) the detective Leonid
McGill sums up the results of an online search. ‘Bug must have been serious about Zephyra because I received a long document from him, giving me all kinds of hitherto unrevealed information about Angie. She’d participated in a few long-distance runs of ten kilometers or more and worked for the Hillary campaign during the primaries. She played Go over the Internet and was pretty good at it, earning an emerald rating at a California club.’ I have no clue what an ’emerald rating’ in go means,” says Baldwin, “but, hey, it was in California.”
Guo Juan 5P’s New Website/System Developments
Sunday March 5, 2017
Many go players around the world already know that Guo Juan 5P has an online go school, featuring recorded lectures and problems presented in a Spaced Repetition System for remembering correct play. 
But you may not know about the new developments. “My website/system has made big improvements in the last half year,” Guo Juan explains. “Now you can use tablets and phones to do the exercises, which makes possible for people to use the system anywhere, instead of sitting before the computer.” She adds that “One of our website users (has) posted a thorough overview/review.”
School Teams Tourney Registration Opens
Friday March 3, 2017
The American Go Honor Society has announced the 2017 School Team Tournament (STT) will be held April 15 and April 22. Modeled on the team play in Hikaru no Go schools send three representatives to compete against other schools. Any non-go institution (school, Chinese school, other organization) is eligible to compete. There are no limits on the number of teams per institution. All matches will be played online, and schools from Canada, the US, and Mexico are all invited. The American Go Foundation is again offering full scholarships (tuition + room/board) to the AGA Summer Go Camp. All three members of the top dan and top kyu team will win the scholarships. Prizes will also be awarded in the other divisions, including both cash and trophies. Due to a series of miscommunications, some prizes from last year were never delivered reports former AGHS President Yunxuan Li. “We would like to sincerely apologize for the mix up. The new treasurer of the AGHS will be sending last year’s prizes to the captains of each team soon. We know it seems a bit late at this point, but we would still like to keep our word about the prizes and make them up for everybody.”
This year’s tournament will be held on April 15 and April 22. To register, fill out the form here. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Image: Haze Middle School Go Team, from Hikaru no Go © 1998 by Yumi Hotta, Takeshi Obata/Shueisa Inc.
AGA launches Master review series
Thursday March 9, 2017
The American Go Association has launched a new series of video commentaries on the recent games between between Master — the latest version of AlphaGo — and top professionals. The series on the AGA’s YouTube channel features
commentaries by Michael Redmond 9P, Jennie Shen 2P and Ryan Li 1P. Some two dozen videos are now in production and are expected to be released each Wednesday and Saturday.
[link]
In the first commentary, Michael Redmond 9P and AGA E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock review the first game in the series, which took place in early January (Is AlphaGo the Master? Mystery Player Sweeps Top Pros and AlphaGo confirmed as Master/Magister, both 1/4/2017). In this game, Master plays white against Pan Tingyu 1P (username “manhan7”).
The series is produced by Andrew Jackson and Michael Wanek.