American Go E-Journal

Your Move/Readers Write: No Japanese Pros?

Tuesday June 16, 2015

No Japanese Pros? “I see the E-Journal is reporting the pros coming to the Go Congress (Top Pros Confirm for US Go Congress 6/8)” writes Bill Chiles. “I’m a bit shocked there are no Japanese pros coming. Why is that?! Maeda Sensei is almost always there at the very least.”
We should have specified that this was a preliminary list; the Nihon Kiin and Kansai Kiin in Japan and KBA in Korea have not yet provided the names of their pros who will be in attendance.

About the Liebniz piece: “Most of this information about Leibniz’s acquaintance with go (Go Spotting: Leibniz calls go “ingenious and quite difficult” 6/11) can be found in The Go Player’s Almanac (2001) in Jaap K. Blom’s essay, Go in the West in the 18th Century, pages 38 to 42,” writes Richard Bozulich from Kiseido.

Categories: U.S./North America,Your Move: Readers Write

Go Spotting: Hikaru no Go in Symmetry Plus

Tuesday June 16, 2015

Symmetry Plus, a magazine for young mathematicians in the UK, published an article about Hikaru no Go and math in its latest issue. Calin Galeriu, a professor at Becker College, writes that go is a “board game with an incredible amount of mathematical content.” Young people reading Hikaru learn about area, the coordinate plane, deductive and inductive reasoning, and more. The problem solving techniques Hikaru and his friends use for go problems are similar to those used when solving mathematical problems.

But the manga does even more than introduce mathematical concepts, Galeriu argues. Hikaru no Go promotes a “message of hard work and dedication” that applies to more than learning go. It teaches kids about the values of staying calm, of using intuition, of perseverance, and of working together. Hikaru no Go is an introduction to go and mathematics, but it also “offers our youngsters an authentic learning philosophy” that lasts for life. Galeriu’s article can be read in full here.
– report by Julian Erville. Image from Hikaru no Go © 1998 by Hotta Yumi, Takeshi Obata/Shueisha Inc.

Categories: U.S./North America,World,Youth

Saki Fujita 5D & Yizhi Wang 5D Tie to Top NOVA Congress Tuneup

Sunday June 14, 2015

Saki Fujita 5D and Yizhi Wang 5D tied to top the 2015 NOVA Congress Tuneup tournament on Saturday, June 13 at George Mason Law School in Arlington VA. Twenty-six players participated. “In an unusual situation in the top band, three players finished 3-1, each losing once to one of the others,” reports organizer Allan Abramson. SOS tie-break showed that two tied for first place, with the third alone in second. “In another unusual situation, there were no players at 2,3, or 4 kyu, resulting in a greater number of higher handicap games than normally is the case,” Abramson noted.

Gurujeet Khalsa bade a fond farewell to Ning-Yuan Ernest Wang, saying “We first met him a year ago when he showed up at a NOVA tournament with a band of fellow go players from the revitalized go scene at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. His cheerful presence at go events this past year has been wonderful and we wish him a warm sendoff as he heads back to his native Taiwan.”

Full results:

First place: Saki Fujita 5D and Yizhi Wang 5D, tied; Quinn Baranoski 1K, 3-1; Mike Lash 6K, 4-0; Ning-Yuan Ernest Wang 11K, 4-0; and Sarah Crites 13K, 4-0

Second place: Josh Lee 6D; David Reed 5K, 3-0; Robert Cole 12K and Betsy Small 12K, tied, 3-1; and Antonina Perez-Lopez, 2-2

(6/16) This report has been updated with a correction to the spelling of Ning-Yuan Ernest Wang’s name and the addition of Gurujeet Khalsa’s farewell to Wang.

Categories: U.S./North America

Gotham Go Group’s Steph Oppenheim Dies

Sunday June 14, 2015

Gotham Go Group member Steph Oppenheim died Wednesday, reports Peter Armenia. Oppenheim (right) had been fighting cancer for over two years

“He was always one of our most enthusiastic players and promoters of the game,” says Armenia. “He was always willing to teach beginners, and he spent a good deal of time helping teach go to students in local schools. He will be missed, but we are happy to have watched him beat the predictions of his doctors by over a year. And he made the most of that year.”

There will be a funeral at 11:15 on Monday, June 15 at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 180 W 76 St, with refreshments and food afterwards.

Categories: U.S./North America

Garlock’s Wales Walk Going for $3K

Sunday June 14, 2015

Thanks to the generous contributions of many go players, E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock’s upcoming Wales Walk has already surpassed its original goal and is now going for raising $3,000 to support the American Go Foundation. “Wow!” said AGF president Terry Benson, “Go’s path is long – and so is Chris and Lisa’s – and the more support we receive, the farther we can go.” The AGF is dedicated to promoting go in the U.S. and has enabled thousands of American children to learn go in hundreds of schools, libraries and community centers across the country. “We also provide scholarships and resources for youth who play go, and we support go in institutional settings such as prisons, and senior centers,” Benson adds. The Garlock’s walk starts at the end of June; click here to contribute to the Walk and support the AGF.
photo: Garlock on a recent training walk; photo by Lisa Garlock

Categories: U.S./North America

Go Events Hopping Down Under

Friday June 12, 2015

December is a long way off but anyone considering the Southern climes for the winter will want to mark their calendars for this year’s Australian National Go Championships in St Lucia, Brisbane, on December 5-6. And the second Australian Go Congress is being planned for Sydney, January 15-18, 2016 and may include Pair Go; if you’re a pair go player, contact committee@australiango.asn.au.
– Horatio Davis, EJ Correspondent for Australia

Categories: World

Go Spotting: Leibniz calls go “ingenious and quite difficult”

Thursday June 11, 2015

“I easily believe that the magnitude of the Board and the quantity of pieces render this game quite ingenious and quite difficult,” wrote the German polymath and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz about go in 1710. Leibniz, in “Miscellanea Berolinensia” goes on to note “the singular principle” of go is not “the death of the enemy, but only to push him to the limits of the Table,” which, while not perhaps technically accurate, certainly gets at the heart of the game, though he goes on to draw the questionable conclusion that the game’s inventor “abhorrent of murder, wished to obtain a victory not soiled by blood.” Leibniz learned about go from the book “Christian Expedition among the Chinese,” by Nicolas Trigault, a missionary to China in 1600s.
graphic: from Miscellanea Berolinensia; thanks to Simon Guo for passing this along.

Categories: Go Art,Go Spotting

Gold for Korea, Silver for China and Bronze for Chinese Taipei

Wednesday June 10, 2015

Changhun Kim 6d (right) of Korea has won the 36th World Amateur Go Championship, held this year for the first time in Thailand. In second was Aohua Hu 6d of China, and third place was taken by 12-year-old Jyun-Fu Lai 7d from Chinese Taipei. The remainder of the top-ten finishers: [4] Chi-hin Chan (Hong Kong), [5] Satoshi Hiraoka (Japan), [6] Cornel Burzo (Romania), [7] Artem Kachanovskyi (Ukraine), [8] Juyong Koh (Canada), [9] Pal Balogh (Hungary) and [10] Daniel Ko (United States). Click here for the full tournament results and the final-round report. Other reports include Round 6: Hungary vs Belgium; Korea Storms Ahead on Third Day of WAGC & Round 4: China vs Korea.
– Ranka Online

Categories: World,World Amateur Go Championships

The Power Report (III): Aizu Central Hospital Cup; 2nd Mlily Cup; O Meien wins 1,000 games

Wednesday June 10, 2015

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Aizu Central Hospital Cup: Xie Yimin (right), Women’s Meijin, will meet O Keii 2P (left), the daughter of O Rissei 9P, in the final of the 2nd Aizu Central Hospital Cup. In the semifinals, played on June 7, Xie (W) beat the previous winner Fujisawa Rina 2P by resignation and O (B) beat Kato Keiko 6P by 4.5 points. The final, the only two-day game in women’s go, will be held on July 2 and 3.

2nd Mlily Cup: Nineteen Japanese players took part in the open preliminary tournament for the 2nd Mlily Cup, held at the Chinese Qiyuan (Ki-in) in Beijing from May 22 to 26. They were made up of ten male professionals, five female professionals, and four amateurs. No Japanese players won a seat in the main tournament, but Yo Seiki 7P, Fujisawa Rina 2P and Xie Yimin 6P did reach the semifinals. In the second round, Fujisawa scored a memorable win over the world’s top-rated woman player, Choe Cheong 5P of Korea. Fujisawa, playing white, had fallen behind but found a brilliancy, a move that looked like a suicide move but which turned the game around. Fujisawa commented that Choe, who is two years her senior, is definitely stronger than her, but she was happy to pick up a win.

O Meien wins 1,000 games: A win on June 4 was O Meien’s 1,000th as a pro. He is the 16th player at the Nihon Ki-in to reach this landmark, and it took him 38 years two months. With 571 losses, two jigos and two no-results, his winning percentage is 63.7.

Promotion: To 8-dan: Kitano Ryo (150 wins) (as of May 29)

Correction: In my report about Otake Hideo’s decoration (5/3 EJ), I wrote that he was the 23rd go player to be so honoured. Go Weekly subsequently amended the list it published; actually 25 players have won decorations.

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

The Power Report (II): China wins 4th Mt. Tiantai Nongshang Bank Cup; Yo Seiki wins Okage Cup; Hane senior wins 1,200 games

Tuesday June 9, 2015

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

China wins 4th Mt. Tiantai Nongshang Bank Cup: The 4th Mt. Tiantai Nongshang Bank Cup World Women’s Team Championship was held in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province in China from May 8 to 10. Three-player teams from China, Korea, Japan, and Chinese Taipei competed. The teams finished in the order just given. Representing Japan were Fujisawa Rina 2P, Xie Yimin 6P, and Kaneko Maki 1P. Results are given below.
(Round 1) China beat Japan 3-1; Korea beat Chinese Taipei 3-0. (Round 2) Japan beat Chinese Taipei 3-0; China beat Korea 2-1. (Round 3) Korea beat Japan 3-0; China beat Chinese Taipei 3-0. So Yokoku 9P accompanied the Japanese team as coach. A conversation he had with the top board for China, Yu Zhiying 5P, gives an idea of what goes into becoming a top player. As a member of the national team, Yu studies at the Chinese Qiyuan from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. At night, she plays Net games, with her norm being 3.5 games a night. Even on days when she has official games, she still completes her norm. She said she plays about 1,700 games a year. So commented that Fujisawa and Xie are also studying hard. In an interview with the Chinese press, Fujisawa said that she studies eight to ten hours a day, at least six days a week. The other members of the Chinese team were Song Rongrui 5P and Rui Naiwei 9P. The Korean players were Choe Cheong 5P, Kim Hye-min 7P, and Pak Ji-yon 3P. Choe inflicted the sole loss suffered by China, defeating Yu on the top board. As of May, Choe was the top-ranked woman player in the world (#193 on the geocities site).

Yo Seiki wins Okage Cup: The O-kage (gratitude) Cup is sponsored by a group of tourism-related shops in the street leading to Ise Shrine. It is open to players 30 and under and so far has been won by Cho Riyu (2010), Anzai Nobuaki (2011 and 2012), and Ichiriki Ryo (2013 and 2014). This year, the main tournament (for the best 16) was held in Ise City on May 14 And 15. In the final, Yo Seiki 7P of the Kansai Ki-in (W) beat Ichiriki by resignation.

Hane senior wins 1,200 games: On May 21, Hane Yasumasa 9P became the sixth player at the Nihon Ki-in to reach the landmark of 1,200 wins. It took him 57 years one month (he will turn 71 on June 25). With 641 losses and 5 jigos, his winning percentage is 65.2. He won the Oza title in 1990. He is the father of Hane Naoki.

Tomorrow: 2nd Mlily Cup; O Meien wins 1,000 games; Aizu Central Hospital Cup

Categories: Japan,John Power Report

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