American Go E-Journal

Go Spotting: Return of The Hedgehog; ’42 Ozu Film

Saturday December 27, 2014

Return of The Hedgehog: “The French movie ‘The Hedgehog’ has a mention of go and a scene showing the game,” writes Bart Lipofsky. “It’s based on the book ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ by Muriel Barbery, which mentions the game at a dinner table discussion. The adult is corrected by the young girl concerning rules.”
Previous EJ reports include Go Art: “The Hedgehog” Now Available Online (11/28/2012 EJ) and Your Move/Readers Write: The Elegant Hedgehog Pops Up Again (9/1/2012).

’42 Ozu Film: In the 1942 movie There Was a Father (“Chichi ariki”), directed by Ozu Yasujiro, “There are views of a go parlor at minute 35, then further mention of the game later,” reports Bob Barber.

For more about go on film, check out the European Go Federation’s Go Filmography.

Categories: Go Spotting

Go Spotting: Go and International Relations Theory

Thursday December 25, 2014

Former AGA Board Chair David Weimer tipped us off about a forthcoming book with a go-themed cover. International Relations Theory, The Game-Theoretic Approach is by Andrew H. Kydd, a colleague of Weimer’s in the Political Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI. “Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this is the first textbook on international relations theory to take a specifically game theoretic approach to the subject,” according to the book’s description on the Cambridge University Press website. “International relations theory is presented and analysed using simple games, which allow students to grasp the concepts and mechanisms involved with the rationalist approach without the distraction of complicated math.” The book is due out in March.

Categories: Go Spotting

In-seong Hwang 8D’s Online Go School Welcomes New Students

Thursday December 25, 2014

In-seong Hwang 8D’s online go school starts its fourth American season – and 11th European season – next month and is accepting new students now. Click here for details on the American Yunguseng Dojang and here for the European Yunguseng Dojang. A well-known top player in Europe, Hwang Inseong 8D trained at the Korean Yunguseng Academy, studied Go in Myong-ji University and worked for a baduk TV channel as commentator. The program consists of interactive online lectures, student league-play and game reviews on KGS. Students have access to all past lectures and reviews — more than 100 lectures and over 2,000 game review videos — as well as “personal go reports” to help students assess the progress they are making and the areas which need most work. “After just one year, the American league already has the biggest number of players, thanks to the members who bring their friends,” says Hwang. “Since we have more members, the next season league will be much more interesting and competitive!” Click here for details on the program, schedule and pricing.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

EuroGoTV: Romania, Ukraine, Serbia

Tuesday December 23, 2014

Romania: Liviu Oprisan 4d bested George Chirila 1d (left) at the 6th Radu Baciu Grand Prix in CSRB on December 14 while Mihai Lita 2d came in third. Ukraine: Also on December 14, the Tournament of 50 parallel finished in Kharkiv with Oleksandr Hiliazov 1d in first, Anton Parafilo 8k in second, and Leonid Shumakov 5k in third. Serbia: Lazar Manojlovic 5d took the 39th Serbian Championship on December 14 in Kragujevac. Mijodrag Stankovic 5d placed second and Dragan Mitic 4d was third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

Categories: Europe

2015 Euro Go Congress Set for Czech Republic

Tuesday December 23, 2014

The 2015 European Go Congress will be held in Liberec, the Czech Republic, from July 25th to August 8th. “I´d like to invite American go players to join us,” says Vladimir Danek, chief of the EGC 2015 Organizing Committee and president of the Czech Go Association. “The motto of this Go Congress is ‘Go, Fun and Relaxation’“ says Danek. “We want to make the Congress attractive for everybody.” Click here to check out their cool video. Liberec is 100 km north of Prague, “very close to Germany and Poland,” Danek adds. The Congress site is the Babylon Center, which, in addition to conference halls, hotel and restaurants, has attractions including the Aquapark, iQpark, bowling, golf simulator and other activities. “The large open terrace on the roof of Babylon will be a great place for meeting friends and playing friendly games,” Danek promises. Although the EGC runs for two weeks, “you can also play for just one week or visit us for a couple of days,” says Danek. Registration goes up after January 1.
photo: still from 2015 EGC video

Categories: Europe

UK Go News Updates: UK Youth Team Fights Hard, But Loses To Israel; Joe Cai Sparkles at Christmas in Edinburgh

Monday December 22, 2014

UK Youth Team Fights Hard, But Loses To Israel: The BGA UK Youth team lost 1-4 to Israel on Sat, 13 Dec 2014, in the European Youth Go Team Championship. They currently rank 10th place overall out of the 13 teams, with 2 rounds left to play.The next round, Czechia vs. United Kingdom, will take place on Saturday, January 17th, 2015.

Joe Cai Sparkles at Christmas in Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Christmas tournament saw a total of 25 players. Tongzhou (Joe) Cai (3d Glasgow) won all four of his games and co-organiser Boris Mitrovic, Alistair Wall, Niall Paterson, Baron Hasslinger, and Greg Cox each took home a prize for three wins.
– compiled/edited by Amy Su, based on reports on the BGA website

Categories: Europe

Your Move/Readers Write: Stop & Go; Winning Question; Gato Go

Monday December 22, 2014

Stop & Go: “While not really a spotting of a game of go, this photo (at right) does remind a player to STOP by the local club,” says Ted Terpstra.

Winning Question: “I’ve often wondered why tournament winners get the books,” writes Eric Osman. “Don’t the losers need them more?”

Gato Go: “This photo (left) is from the Facebook page of one of the Ecuadorian players I met in Quito,” writes Bob Gilman.

Categories: Your Move: Readers Write

Murakawa Daisuke Takes Oza Title in Surprise Victory Over Iyama Yuta

Saturday December 20, 2014

In a surprise victory, Murakawa Daisuke 8P defeated Iyama Yuta 9P on December 16 to win the 62nd Oza. The Oza is Murakawa’s first major title. This is the first time a player from the Kansai Kiin has won the Oza since Hashimoto Shoji 9P did so 33 years ago in 1981. The final game was played in Toba, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The upset attracted a lot of attention in Japan, because former Oza Iyama Yuta currently dominates the domestic Japanese go scene.
– excerpted from Go Game Guru; click here for the full report, including game records.

Categories: Japan

Singapore Go School Welcomes US Students

Saturday December 20, 2014

A new go school in Singapore welcomes students from the United States. The Go Academy offers a wide range of classes, from a 1-day introduction to kyu and dan intensive camps, reports Director Daniel Chan. More info available on Facebook.

Categories: Tools: books, software & hardware

Your Move/Readers Write: An IBM CTO Responds to Scottish Neural Network

Saturday December 20, 2014

“It’s interesting to read about the work of University of Edinburgh to use machine learning to improve the level of playing in computers, (Scottish Neural Network Takes Computer Go to Next Level 12/16/2014 EJ)” writes Nin Lei, Distinguished Engineer and CTO, Analytics and Big Data, STG IBM Systems and Technology Group. “However, the title in their article creates an impression that their research is creating a program that can beat the best human players. If their probability of guessing their next move is only 44%, then their chance of guessing it wrong is 56%. In a sequence of 10 moves, the chance of getting the complete sequence correctly is 0.44 ** 10, which is a very small number.” Noting that checkers “has been solved via machine learning,” Lei says that “it appears it is promising for go as well.” But because machine learning predicates that there is a pattern in the underlying data set, Lei warns that “it could be so complex that machine learning can only attain a certain level of accuracy. It seems to me a program needs to have very high level of accuracy before it can play a good game at strong human level.” Lei also says that “Since machine learning is based on pattern recognition, I wonder if a professional can trick the program by using moves that may not be optimally locally but will create patterns that the program has not seen before. I applaud the work they are doing,” Lei concludes. “It is innovative by using a different approach than the existing strong computer programs. It will be interesting to find out if someday they can come up with an algorithm that can improve the accuracy significantly.”
12/22: the chance of getting the complete sequence correctly has been corrected to 0.44 ** 10 (from 0.56).

Categories: Your Move: Readers Write