News from the American Go Association
June 27, 2005
Volume 5, #54
In This Issue:
US GO NEWS: Lee Defeats Hsiang In Masters; Calvin Sun Tapped For Korean Kid's Tourney; Jack Yang Tops Feng Yun Youth Tourney; Holiday Bonus
WORLD GO NEWS: Suzuki Ayumi Update; Cho Off To Fast Start In NEC Cup; Cho U And Lee Changho Fight Back; Reflections In China
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
US GO NEWS
LEE DEFEATS HSIANG IN MASTERS: In the latest round of the Masters Tournament, Jung Hoon Lee 7d defeated Thomas Hsiang 7d by 1 point last Friday, reports Jon Boley. Lee faces Feng Yun 9P tonight on the Interget Go Server at 8P EST. The Master's final will be played at the U.S. Go Congress in August.
CALVIN SUN TAPPED FOR KOREAN KID'S TOURNEY: Calvin Sun 3d has been chosen to represent the United States at next month's children's tournament in Korea, sponsored by the Korean Baduk Association. The 8-year-old is a recent top qualifier for the World Youth Goe Championship. "Calvin's outstanding results in the 12th Redmond Cup Junior division confirmed that he is playing at his best right now and we are pleased to have him represent the AGA," says AGA President Mike Lash. The annual Korean children's championship is usually limited to domestic Korean players, but this year the KBA extended invitations to seven additional countries, the US, China, Japan, Taipei, Thailand, Russia and the Netherlands. The tournament will be held July 27-30 in Seoul.
JACK YANG TOPS FENG YUN YOUTH TOURNEY: Jack Yang 5d took top honors in the 3rd Feng Yun Youth Tournament on June 18. Forty-four players participated in the kids-only event organized by Feng Yun 9P in Piscataway, NJ. All winners received their choice of a set of Chinese-style stones or a 19x19 board. "We needed an extra player for the 13x13 tournament so Melissa Danitz played in both tournaments!" reports Rob Muldowney, who co-directed with Steve Bretherick.
Full Winners Report;
19x19 (35 players, 5 rounds): Section A: YANG, Jack 5 wins; GU, Jason 4 wins; ZHAO, Zhongxia (Ricky) 3 wins; Section B: WANG, Jonathan 3 wins; SHANG, Kevin; XU, Yang 3 wins; YAN, Jasmine 3 wins; Section C: ZHAO, Allan Xiang 5 win; ZHANG, Peter 4 wins; LI, Anton 3 wins; TRIEU, Nicholas 3 wins; Section D: LI, Jaron 5 wins; LIN, Maverick 4 wins; LI, Albert 2 wins; HO, Jason 2 wins; VEL, Sudhir 2 wins; Section E: TSE, Matthew 5 wins; WU, Tiffany 3 wins; AN, Terence 2 wins; WU, Jessie 2 wins; Section F: DANITZ, Melissa, 5 wins; NAN, Karen 3 wins; LEUNG, Kristian 3
wins
13x13 (10 players, 6 rounds): HUANG, Andrew 6 wins; YE, Peter 5 wins; DANITZ, Melissa 5 wins; LEE, Richard 5 wins.
HOLIDAY BONUS: Along with your barbecue grills and suntan lotion EJ Member's Edition subscribers will have extra game commentaries to pack for the upcoming 4th of July long weekend; look for six games later this week, with commentary by Yilun Yang, Yuan Zhou, Jon Boley, Trevor Morris and Phil Straus! Non-members can sign up for the Member's Edition at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp
WORLD GO NEWS
SUZUKI AYUMI UPDATE: Since the US's Jie Li 9d beat Suzuki Ayumi 3P late last year in the Seimitsu Cup, when she held the title of Strongest Woman in Japan, we have been paying more attention to Suzuki's career. She has won her first round game in this year's Strongest Woman tournament, defeating Kim Hyunjong 3P by resignation, and her second round game in the Women's Honinbo, defeating Inori Yoko 5P by 7.5 points after beating Shiraishi Kyoko 3P in the first round. In the first round of the 7th Women's Saikyo, Suzuki defeated Kim Hyonjon 3P, She also won her first round game in the 30th New Stars back in January, beating Ohashi Hirofumi 3P by resignation, but lost in the second round to Iyama Yuta 4P.
CHO OFF TO FAST START IN NEC CUP: Cho U 9P has won his first round NEC Cup game against Yoda Norimoto 9P. Cho was last year's winner in Japan's NEC Cup, a fast move, knockout tournament broadcast on TV. The players have thirty seconds per move, plus ten minutes thinking time. Also winning in the first round were Yamada Kimio 8P over Cho Chikun 9P, and Hane Naoki 9P over Ryu Shikun 9P.
CHO U AND LEE CHANGHO FIGHT BACK: Cho U 9P, currently the top title holder in Japan, including five Japanese and two international titles, has managed to stay alive in his match with challenger Takao Shinji 8P for the 60th Honinbo title, winning the fourth game of the best-of-seven contest to avoid being shut out by Takao. This is Takao's first shot at a major title. Meanwhile, Lee Changho 9P, the most successful player in the world, has evened the score in the best-of-five 39th Korean Wangwi title match by defeating Ok Teukjin 2P in their second game. This is Ok's first shot at any title; his pro career was interrupted by required military service. Ok is in his early twenties.
REFLECTIONS IN CHINA: In the third round of the tournament to determine the challenger for the 18th Mingren in China, Wang Lei 4P played mirror go against Yu Bin 9P for a surprising 84 moves. Yu countered by creating ladders leading to the center star point, which resulted in a myriad of opportunities for double-atari and made it difficult to analyze the game situation. At one point Wang captured twenty-two stones, but Yu nevertheless won by 1.5 points and how has a best-of-three match with Luo Xihe 9P for the challenger's spot. You can download the game on the go4go.net site. Mirror was popular some time back in Japan; Fujisawa Hosai 9P frequently used it when playing White.
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
NUMBER ONE WITH AN ASTERISK? "There is a minor error in today's E-Journal (CHO U AND LEE CHANGHO FIGHT BACK, 6/24)," writes Keith Arnold. "While Cho U is widely considered the strongest player in Japan right now, he is not 'currently number one' in Japan. That is reserved for the winner of the Kisei title, which Cho has yet to win. Hane Naoki is 'number one'"
EDITOR'S NOTE: While there is no "official" designation of "number one" in Japan (unlike in China), most commentators refer to the player who holds the largest number of major titles as the "number one" player and the EJ follows that usage. Hane is current Kisei, which is the most prestigious title and has the biggest purse, but no one thinks him to have Cho's dominance.
AKRON CHECKS IN: "Just to say I love your e-newsletter," writes Steve. "My granpa stopped playing go so you're the only connection I have to it. No one around here in Akron has any patience or time to try to learn. I read every one of your e-newsletters so I stay on top of things. Are there any online sites where I could play?"
Check the American Go Association's website for all things go, including playing online http://www.usgo.org/resources/computer.asp#online and local clubs: http://www.usgo.org/usa/chapclub.asp
GO CLASSIFIED
NOTE: classified ads appear once in the E-Journal and are then posted for 4 weeks on the AGA website at http://www.usgo.org/resources/classified.asp
PLAYERS WANTED: Is there anyone playing go in India? If you do, or you know of any go activity anywhere in the country, please let me know. I'm traveling around India until October and would love to get a game in. I'm AGA 8k. Namaste. Eddie e_sonnenblick@hotmail.com
PLAYERS WANTED: I am a 9k looking for go players in the Alton, IL area, maybe try to get a club going. I can be reached at DrWeird05@aol.com or on KGS under the screename Mothman
FREE LESSONS: Free lessons at Santa Clara (CA) Library, Every Friday at 2P. Joanna Hoang kurai.youkai@gmail.com
BUY, SELL, OR TRADE equipment, books and go materials, find a go teacher, find someone to play go with! Complete go classifieds online at http://www.usgo.org/resources/classified.asp
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
July 2-9: Oneonta, NY
East Coast Youth Go Camp
eastagagocamp@usgo.org
July 16: Arlington, VA
Congress Tune-up
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net
July 16-23: Oakland, CA
West Coast Youth Go Camp
westagagocamp@usgo.org
July 17: Somerville, MA
MGA Summer Handicap Tournament
Zack Grossbart 617-497-1232 zack@grossbart.com
July 23: Austin, TX
Austin Summer Go Tournament
Michael Heinich 512-505-0055 mheinich@yahoo.com
July 23-August 6: Prague, Czechoslovakia
European Go Congress
http://www.goweb.cz/egc2005/
August 2-22: Hoi-An, Vietnam
Vietnam Go Camp
http://dragonindigo.free.fr/home.htm
August 6-14: Tacoma, WA
21st US Go Congress
Steve Stringfellow 253-761-9466 congress@usgo.org
This is a digest of events for the next month only; for a complete listing see the Tournament Calendar on the AGA website: http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.asp
For the European Go Calendar see http://www.european-go.org/TOURNAMENTS/TListbyDate.htm
GET LISTED & BOOST TURN OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 7,000 readers every week! List your Go event/news In the E Journal: email details to us at journal@usgo.org
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