Thursday February 20, 2020
This month, Smithsonian Magazine published an article called Great Board Games of the Ancient World; naturally Go is included, though towards the end of the article, along with Mancala, Senet, the Royal Game of Ur, Mehen, Backgammon, the Game of the Goose, and others. Thanks to Steve Zilber for spotting this article.
Wednesday February 19, 2020
by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Iyama close to defending Kisei title
Iyama Yuta made a great start in the 44th Kisei best-of-seven, racing to a 3-0 lead, but Kono Rin picked up his first win in the fourth game, so Iyama won’t be counting his chickens. In his previous challenges to Iyama for big-three titles—the 26th Meijin, the 41st Kisei, and the 74th Honinbo—Kono scored two wins each time. He can still improve on that record, but each game is a kadoban for him.
The title match got off to a start on January 9 and 10, with the first game being played at the Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo. Iyama, who drew black in the nigiri, won by 5.5 points. Kono started well, taking the initiative in the opening, but he made an error of judgment in the crucial fight, and this cost him the game.
The second game was played at the Renkeiji Temple in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, on January 20 and 21. Iyama (W) took the lead in the opening, but Kono caught up in the middle game. However, Iyama again secured the lead in the endgame. Kono resigned after 198 moves. There was a complication under the surface that became clearer later. After playing move 114, Iyama began muttering bitter self-recriminations; after the game, he said he had overlooked a simple counter by black. Fortunately, Kono was out of the room at the time; when he came back, Iyama reverted to a poker face. Kono took his move on trust and didn’t think to query it, so Iyama got away with his blunder.
The third game was played at the Olive Bay Hotel in Saikai City, Nagasaki Prefecture on February 1 and 2. In a word, Iyama (B) simply outfought Kono and forced him to resign after 153 moves.
The fourth game was played at the Kyushu National Museum, Dazaifu City, Kyushu, on February 14 and 15. Kono (B) won by resignation after 231 moves, thus saving his first kadoban. The fifth game will be played on February 26 and 27.
Iyama ahead in international final
The 1st Wild Fox Contest for Supremacy is an online tournament run by a Chinese server, Wild Fox, and has a top prize of 500,000 yuan (about $71,700). It was open to the 32 top-ranked players on the server. As no. 30, Iyama just made the cut, but he has done very well, winning eight games in a row to make the final, a best-of-three in which he started off with a win. In order, he beat Son Tengyu, Li Weiqing, Tang Weixing, Jiang Weijie, Chen Zijian, and Xie Ke to reach the semifinals; there he beat Chen Yaoye 2-0. His opponent in the final is Tong Mengcheng. The first game was played on January 29, with Iyama eking out a win by half a point. The second game of the best-of-free was scheduled for February 12 but has been deferred because of the corona-virus crisis in China.
Park wins New Year’s Cup
The 8th CCTV New Year’s Cup, which celebrates the Chinese New Year, is an invitational mini-tournament for one player each from China, Japan, and Korea. This year it was held in Zhengdu City with a first prize of 800,000 yuan (about $112,000). Game conditions follow the NHK format. With three participants, the tournament is an irregular knock-out. After drawing lots, the pairing for the first game (Jan. 20) was Park Junghwan 9P of Korea versus Ke Jie 9P of China. Taking white, Park won by 1.5 points and went through to the final. The first-game loser gets a second chance. In the second game (Jan. 21), Ke (W) beat Shibano Toramaru by resig. The loser of this game is the only player who doesn’t get to play two games; Shibano suffered the same fate last year, though his opponent then was Park. In the final (Jan. 22), Park (B) beat Ke by resig., winning this tournament for the third year in a row.
Tomorrow: Suzuki wins Women’s Kisei title; Shibano to challenge for Judan; 75th Honinbo League; 45th Meijin League
Tuesday February 18, 2020
by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Most wins
Shibano Toramaru, the youthful new Meijin, topped this list for the third year in a row. Considering the level of his competition now, as he’s playing top-flight opponents in leagues and title matches, that’s a significant achievement and testimony to his great form for most of the year. Also significant are the two best results ever attained by female players, with Ueno Asami and Fujisawa Rina coming third and fourth respectively. In particular, their good results against male players show that the level of women’s go is steadily rising. Here are the top 12.
Most successive wins
Best winning percentage
2019 Prize-money promotions
There are three ways to earn promotions. One is through cumulative wins, which is the slow way. The fast way is through a tournament success, which will enable a low-ranked player to skip some intervening ranks. The conditions are fairly complicated, so here is a summary. Promotion to 7-dan: challenging for one of the bottom four (Oza, Tengen, Gosei, Judan) of the top seven titles; winning the Agon Kiriyama Cup or the Ryusei tournament; winning a place in the Kisei S League or the Honinbo or Meijin League. To 8-dan: winning one of the bottom four of the top seven titles; challenging for one of the top three titles (Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo); coming second in an international tournament. To 9-dan: winning a top-three or an international title; winning one of the bottom four of the top seven titles a second time. In theory, a new 1-dan could go straight to 9-dan by this system. In practice, however, it’s unlikely because it would take close to two years to go from the first qualifying round to a top-three title match, during which time a player strong enough to do this would have already made 2-dan or 3-dan.
The third way to get promoted is by coming first or second in the prize-money list for each dan from 1-dan to 5-dan; the top 6-dan is also promoted. Only prize money won in the top seven titles is counted. These promotions take effect on January 1 and are based on the previous year. (Players who earn promotions through the cumulative-wins system are not considered.) The promotions for 2019 are given below.
To 7-dan: Adachi Toshimasa
To 6-dan: Terayama Rei, Yo Chito
To 5-dan: Onishi Ryuhei, Koike Yoshihiro
To 4-dan: Otake Yu, Hirose Yuichi
To 3-dan: Seki Kotaro, Torii Yuta
To 2-dan: Chotoku Tetsushi, Sakai Yuki
Top prize-money winners for 2019 (in yen)
Top news of 2019
The readers of Go Weekly chose the following as the hottest news topics of the year.
Tomorrow: Iyama close to defending Kisei title; Iyama ahead in international final; Park wins New Year’s Cup
Monday February 17, 2020
The AGA is looking for one male player and one female player to play as a pair in the new Pair Go Handicap Tournament at the Pair Go World Cup 2020 in Tokyo, Japan from July 1 to July 6, 2020. Both players must be American citizens and have been continuous members of the AGA for one year. Room and board are provided by the tournament, and 50% of the cost of airfare will also be covered, with players expected to bear 50% of airfare and other travel costs.
Eligible interested players (male, female, or pairs) should contact AGA Pair Go Coordinator Hajin Lee at hajin.lee@usgo.org no later than February 26.
Monday February 17, 2020
Go was part of the February 8-9 grand re-opening of the Seattle Asian Art Museum, following a $56 million renovation of the 1933 art-deco building. On prominent display was a large Chinese decorative screen (artist uncertain) featuring the four classical arts required of aristocratic gentlemen: playing the guqin (a stringed zither-like instrument), calligraphy, painting, and playing go (right). Thanks to Steve Jones, South Sound Go Club, Tacoma WA.
Monday February 17, 2020
Evan Lin (B) beat Jeremy Chiu (W) by 11.5 points on Sunday, Feb. 16 in the final game of the 2020 Globis Cup Qualifier, to become the North American representative to the 2020 Globis Cup.
In Game #1, Jeremy Chiu (W) beat Willis Huang (B) by resignation. In Game #2, Evan Lin (B) beat Jeremy Chiu (W) by resignation. In Game #3 Jeremy Chiu (B) beat Willis Huang (W) by resignation. In Game #4 Jeremy Chiu (B) beat Evan Lin (W) by 7.5 points.
“Thanks to everyone who participated and to Justin and Paul for their assistance organizing and monitoring,” said TD Jeff Shaevel.
Monday February 17, 2020
by Steve Colburn
During last year’s U.S. Go Congress I heard the same question more than a few times. “Why does it take so long to get the tournament I last played in rated?” We’re always trying to get ratings updated more quickly but here’s why that’s often a challenge.
At the end of the tournament the Tournament Director (TD) sends a results file to the AGA, which processes the data. Two of the key things are active membership and game result probability.
An active AGA membership gives you many benefits, among the largest of which is being rated in our system. So the first major check is to see if all player’s AGA memberships are up to date, and expired memberships are the largest reason ratings are delayed. The AGA Membership Manager has been working very well since it was fixed in May 2019, and TDs are no longer able to submit tournament results without all players being AGA members.
The second check, which occurs less frequently but can also slow down updated ratings, is when game result probabilities are suspect, like when it’s reported that a significantly lower-ranked player defeated a stronger player. In such a case, we’ll check in with the TD to see if it’s an error, if someone just had a good — or a bad — day.
Once these two hurdles are cleared, the rest of the process moves fairly quickly and the updated ratings can be posted. Our ultimate goal is for every TD to be able to run tournaments with no issues so that we can process and post updated that same weekend.
Thursday February 13, 2020
The AGA Board is meeting on Sunday, February 23rd at 8pm EST. Topics of discussion include: updates on several on-going projects as well as new domestic and international tournaments, the creation of two new commissions, U.S. Go Congress, staff re-appointments, teaching, the accessibility of board meetings, and access to go clubs. For more information, you can find the detailed agenda here.
Are you an AGA member interested in listening in to the meeting? Please contact the Chairperson at lisa.scott@usgo.org for call-in information.
Are you interested in commenting on past board meeting minutes? You can submit your comments here, and they’ll be available to entire board and relevant officers. Past minutes are available here.
Thursday February 13, 2020
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel tonight at 7p EDT to catch Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock with their latest live game commentary on the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo series. “This is amazing content,” says viewer Funaru, “like the Go TV channel we never got in the West.” Viewers will be able to ask Redmond and Garlock questions during the liver commentary.
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 36: The ladder game
Friday February 14, 2020
Chocolates and flowers are popular Valentine’s Day gifts but what go players really want is another AlphaGo game commentary and Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock deliver with their latest AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo game commentary, Game 36 of the series, going up on the AGA’s YouTube Channel at noon today, a bit earlier than the usual 6p release time.
“The most interesting thing to me about this game is the way AlphaGo handles ladders,” says Redmond. “Earlier versions seemed to have some trouble with them, but not AG and in this game, AlphaGo devises some original ways to handle them.” Redmond poses a number of problems for Garlock to solve, and the Twitch audience — the commentary was originally streamed live on the AGA’s Twitch channel — gets involved. Follow the AGA’s Twitch channel and get notified of live streams.
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