News from the American Go Association
July 10, 2006
Volume 7, #57
ZHAONIAN CHEN TOPS MASTERS B-LEAGUE
JIN CHEN WINS CHI BEACH BADUK TOURNEY
12 PROS SET FOR US GO CONGRESS
TEAM TOURNEYS BLOOMING
FEMALE AMATEURS GET SHOT AT TURNING PRO
KOREANS WIN NINTH CONSECUTIVE FUJITSU
TAKAO SHINJI SLIPS AHEAD IN MEIJIN LEAGUE
LUO XIHE TAKES CHINESE CCTV CUP
LATEST RANKINGS OF TOP PRO WINNERS
CALENDAR
ZHAONIAN CHEN TOPS MASTERS B-LEAGUE: Zhaonian Chen beat Jung Hoon Lee to advance to the A League in the Masters last Saturday, July 8. Chen joins Jie Li, Thomas Hsiang, Feng Yun 9P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P, Yang Yilun 7P, Lin Xue Fen 1P, and Yang Hui Ren 1P in the A League. Play will start soon; watch for game details in the E-Journal.
JIN CHEN WINS CHI BEACH BADUK TOURNEY: Jin Chen 6d from Michigan took top honors in Chicago's first "Baduk on the Beach" tournament on Saturday, July 8. "Nothing quite beats playing go outdoors at the beach on a perfect day!" reports organizer Jason Allen of the Lakeview Go Club, who was running his club's first tourney. "Special thanks to Mark Rubenstein of the Evanston Go Club who lent us the equipment, and Bob Barber, who provided his years of experience running tournaments in Chicago." Adds Allen, "Because of the great response, I have decided to run another beach tournament before autumn kicks in." Winner's Report: Undefeated in the dan division, Jin Chen 6d from Michigan, in the single digit kyu division, David Grenier 4k of Chicago, and in the double digit kyu division, Irissa Everett 25k also of Chicago. Honorable mentions go to Bogdan Dobrescu 4d and Laura Kolb 4k, who went 4-1 and 3-2 respectively.
12 PROS SET FOR US GO CONGRESS: The latest addition to the list of pros attending this year's US Go Congress - August 12-20 in Black Mountain, NC - is 22-year-old Akihide Murakami 1P of the Nihon Ki-in, making a total of 12 so far: Chien Kaei 9P, Michael Redmond 9P, Kawamura Kazunori 9P, MingJiu Jiang 7P, Duan Rong 7P, Nakayama Noriyuki 6P, Maeda Ryo 6P, Li Xing 6P, Guo Juan 5P, Yang Yi 5P & Niu Xian Xian 5P. Nearly 400 players are already registered for the Congress: get details or register at http://www.gocongress06.org/
TEAM TOURNEYS BLOOMING: The next in what has become a monthly metro DC-area club team tourney battle will be this coming Friday, July 14th, at 8P, "back on home turf at Cedar Lane," reports DC club organizer Hal Small. Details: haskellsmall@starpower.net Meanwhile, Ke Lu is organizing an online team tournament between Boston and New Jersey, set for 10P, July 14 on the KGS server. Participants include Huiren Yang 9d, Jie Liang 8d, Xin Xu 5d, Changlong Wu 6d, David Lin 5d, Yu Zhong 5d, Zhiping You 4d & Ke Lu 4d for the Boston team, and for New Jersey: Zhaonian Chen 7d, Carson Tu 7d, Changkuo Zhao 6d, Wei Zhang 7d, Xun Zhou 5d, Xun Zhang 6d, Tom Bartel 5d, Guoliang Cao 5. Info: ke_lu@yahoo.com
FEMALE AMATEURS GET SHOT AT TURNING PRO: Amateur female players from around the world now have a chance to become professional players, thanks to a special examination being held by the Kansai Ki-in. "Women are currently especially important in developing and popularizing the game of go," says Ryo Maeda, 6P of the Kansai Ki-in. Applicants must be less than 22 years old as of July 1, and cannot be an insei from Japan, China, Korea, or Taiwan. A 3-round selection process will determine the finalist. For applications or more info: Kansai Ki-in General Affairs Department, 2-1-23 Kitahama, Chuo-ku, Osaka 541-0041, Japan. Telephone: 06-6231-0186; Fax: 06-6227-1196. Application deadline: August 31. Thanks to Yoshi Sawada for his translation assistance.
KOREANS WIN NINTH CONSECUTIVE FUJITSU: Park Jungsang 6P of Korea defeated Zhou Heyang 9P of China in the 19th international Fujitsu to extend the Korean dominance of this major event. In the final game, Park took the time to avoid a ko and capture five stones only to discover that a larger group of his own was in more trouble than he realized. Here's a link to the game record: http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=11887 The Fujitsu is an international event, including players not only from the big three -- China, Japan and Korea -- but also representatives from Taiwan, Europe (Alexandre Dinerchtein 1P this time), North America (MingJiu Jiang 7P), and South America (Eduardo Lopez 6d). Korean players have won twelve times, including the last nine. Ma Xiaochun 9P won in 1995 for the only Chinese victory. Japanese have won the first five years and once since. Last year's winner was Lee Sedol 9P; he and Cho Hunhyun 9P of Korea have both won this event three times. Lee Changho 9P of Korea and Takemiya Masaki 9P of Japan have both won it twice.
TAKAO SHINJI SLIPS AHEAD IN MEIJIN LEAGUE: In the League to determine the challenger for Japanese Meijin Cho U 9P, Takao Shinji 9P and current Honinbo has slipped ahead of the other competitors with five wins. Only five games remain to be played, but there are four players with four victories. Takao must play one of them, Han Zenki 7P. Two others must play each other, Yoda Norimoto 9P and Yamashita Keigo 9P. The fourth, Yamada Kimio 9P will play Sakai Hideyuki 7P, the former WAGC champion who has a 3-3 record at this point. There may well be a tie requiring a playoff, as there was in the Honinbo this year.
LUO XIHE TAKES CHINESE CCTV CUP: Luo Xihe 9P, who won the international Samsung Cup back in January, has also won the fast-play CCTV Cup, defeating Wang Xi 5P in the final by 1.5 points. Luo defeated Gu Li 9P by 1.5 points earlier in the tournament and got by Luo Xihe 9P by a mere half point. The top two finishers, Luo and Wang, will participate in the international fast-play Asian TV Cup later this year. They will be joined by the top two finishers from the Japanese NHK Cup and the top two from the Korean KBS Cup, along with last year's winner of the international contest, Cho U 9P of Japan.
LATEST RANKINGS OF TOP PRO WINNERS: The cream is rising to the top among pros in terms of who is winning the most games. In Japan, Yamashita Keigo 9P has a good lead with 29 victories. Cho U 9P has 24 wins, but only 6 losses to Yamashita's 15, so Cho's winning percentage is much higher, 80% to 66%. Yoda Norimoto 9P is third with 22 wins and 12 losses. In Korea the top three players are at the top of the list, Lee Sedol 9P and Choi Cheolhan 9P are tied for first with 36 wins and 15 losses each. Lee Changho 9P is right behind them with 34 wins and 12 loses for a slightly better winning percentage (74% to 71%). Rui Naiwei 9P is tied for 19th with 22 victories to 13 loses. In China, number one player Gu Li 9P leads with a 35 to 11 record. Xie He 6P, Wang Xi 5P, and Zhou Ruiyang 3P are tied for second with 34 wins. Xie has the best winning percentage with only 10 losses (77%).
July 15, 2006: Kalamazoo, MI
Kalamazoo's 5th tournament
http://voltar.org/kgc/tourney/
Benjamin Schooley benjaminschooley@hotmail.com 269.672.7466
July 16, 2006: Somerville, MA
MGA Summer Handicap Tournament
Zack Grossbart zack@grossbart.com 617.497.1232
July 22, 2006: Arlington, VA
Congress Tune-Up
Allan Abramson allango@igc.org 703.684.7676
July 22, 2006: Iowa City, IA
Race for the Kaya All-Iowa Go Tournament
First Prize: Kaya go board
http://www.researchuse.org/Go/
Duncan H. Brown duncanbrown108@yahoo.com 641.472.7066
Jacob Uptain muchodelcrazy@yahoo.com
July 22, 2006: New York, NY
Youth Tournament
World Journal readers@wjnews.com 718.746.8889 x6361
July 29-30, 2006: San Francisco, CA
Northern California Goe Tournament
Ernest Brown ernest@goedharma.com 415.641.6255
July 29, 2006: San Antonio, TX
San Antonio Go Club Summer Tournament
http://sagoclub.org/tournament
Levi Self levi.r.self@gmail.com 210.367.9759
July 29, 2006: St. Paul, MN
Minnjin- Minnesota Meijin Go Tournament
Nathaniel Ming Curran respectablebusinessman@hotmail.com 612.232.1105
August 12-20, 2006: Black Mountain, NC
The 22nd US Go Congress
http://www.gocongress06.org/
Paul Celmer congress@usgo.org 919.779.7925
Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
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