News from the American Go Association

October 20, 2006

Volume 7, #89 (Member's Edition)

CHALLENGE 2007 DEADLINE LOOMS
COTSEN OPEN SET FOR NEXT WEEKEND
LI DEFEATS LIN IN NAMT
GO PLAYERS TIE THE KNOT
HANE TO PLAY KOBAYASHI IN KISEI CHALLENGER FINAL
IT'S LEE VS. CHOI IN KOREAN KBS CUP FINAL
YUN FACES PARK IN KOREAN KUKSU FINAL
NEW CHO HUNHYUN BOOK IN ENGLISH
WEEKEND ACTION: Portland, OR
CLARK WINS QUIZ
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Non-Japanese Title Winners in Japan
AGA HAPPENINGS: The President's Note
GAME COMMENTARY: Inside the Mind of a Pro
ATTACHED FILES: 2006.10.20 Hane-Yamashita, Kisei, Go World #108.sgf; 2006.10.20 Lee-Hane, Asian TV, Dinerchtein.sgf; 2006.10.20 McGuigan Series #23.pdf

CHALLENGE 2007 DEADLINE LOOMS: Here are some of the reasons 20 players have already signed up for the 2007 Shodan Challenge, an improvement program for go players of all strengths: "The Shodan Challenge will force me to take my goal seriously" to avoid "trying to improve my game alone" "Fear of humiliation is a potent force." "It's easier to motivate myself when I have a specific goal." "Being part of a challenge is a thrill." "It's hard to forget about the goal when you've got this pesky challenge thing hanging around." The deadline for signing up for the 2007 Shodan Challenge is November 1. The third annual Challenge - which drew 50 participants from around the world last year-features contests designed to aid studying and prizes including donations from go vendors, simuls with strong players and more. "The Challenge provides a great opportunity to make studying more effective and mo re enjoyable," say Shodan Challenge organizers Lee Huynh and Laura Kolb. More info at challenge@usgo.org

COTSEN OPEN SET FOR NEXT WEEKEND: Next weekend's Cotsen Open in Los Angeles features $3,000 in prizes, free registration, free lunch, pro game reviews and more. The E-Journal will be on hand to cover the tournament again this year, broadcasting Board 1 games live on IGS and KGS, with live game commentary. Details at http://web.mac.com/thelec/iWeb/Go/Index.html

LI DEFEATS LIN IN NAMT: Jie Li 9d defeated Xuefen Lin 1P by 24 points in Wednesday's Wednesday's round of the North American Master's Tournament. Four more rounds will be played this weekend: Saturday at 10A PST, ZhaoNian Chen vs Jie Li and Thomas Hsiang vs Huiren Yang; Sunday at 12:30P, Mingjiu Jiang vs Yilun Yang and at 1P, Huiren Yang vs Xuefen Lin. Details, including the full schedule, are online at www.usgo.org (click on NAMT on the right).

GO PLAYERS TIE THE KNOT: Carrie Gustavson 8k and Saul Lapidus 1k are getting married tomorrow, reports Steve Colburn. The couple, who met at the Empty Sky Go Club in Rochester, NY, now live in Stonybrook, NY, where they plan to start a go club soon. Colburn also reports that the Empty Sky Go Club this week supplied the nascent School Without Walls go club with go boards and stones; the club's half-dozen players have been playing online until now.

HANE TO PLAY KOBAYASHI IN KISEI CHALLENGER FINAL: Hane Naoki 9P and Kobayashi Satoru 9P will play a one game match to determine who will be the challenger for Kisei title holder Yamashita Keigo 9P. Details on Monday.

IT'S LEE VS. CHOI IN KOREAN KBS CUP FINAL: Lee Sedol 9P will face off with Choi Cheolhan 9P in the best-of-three-game finals of the 25th KBS Cup. Details on Monday.

YUN FACES PARK IN KOREAN KUKSU FINAL: Yun Junsang 4P will meet Park Yeonghun 9P in the best-of-three-game finals of the 50th Kuksu. Details on Monday.

NEW CHO HUNHYUN BOOK IN ENGLISH: Yutopian has just published the translation of Cho Hunhyun 9P'S Cho Hun-Hyun's Lectures on the Opening, volume 1, in which Cho carefully analyzes the meaning of opening moves and how to punish your opponent's mistakes. www.yutopian.com

WEEKEND ACTION: Portland, OR
October 21-22, 2006: Portland, OR
United States Portland Go Tournament
Peter Drake drake@lclark.edu 503.245.1239

CLARK WINS QUIZ: Calvin Clark of is this week's Go Quiz Winner. His name was selected at random from those who spotted Kobayashi Koichi 9P as the Meijin-Honinbo imposter. Johnson wins a go vendor gift certificate. The one blemish on Kobayashi's otherwise amazing career is his failure, thus far (he's still competing), to ever win the Honinbo title, despite four challenges and two 3-4 near-misses. Kobayashi shares this failure with his father-in-law, the great Kitani, and it was Kobayashi's son in law, Cho U, who finally brought the title into the family. The missing Meijin-Honinbo - Rin Kaiho - was hailed as a "wonder boy" when he won at age 27, in a time when players were thought to hit their primes well into their 30s. Of course, every subsequent Meijin-Honinbo has been even younger. Got Quiz? Send us your ideas for future Go Quiz questions at journal@usgo.org

THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: Non-Japanese Title Winners in Japan
      Go Seigen, Rin Kaiho, Cho Chikun and Cho U are famous non-Japanese winners of Japanese titles. How many more can you name? Nominees must have won one of the top seven titles (Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo, Judan, Tengen, Oza and Gosei), but we will award Honorable Mentions for esoteric finds. The winner will be chosen from those who submit answers with three or more correct names. Click here now to enter our Go Quiz Question of The Week: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=330212370809 One winner will be drawn at random from the correct answers and will be awarded a go book or $15 gift certificate from one of our fine go vendors. Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold, hka

AGA HAPPENINGS: The President's Note
by Mike Lash
      I am delighted to bring you a new weekly item in the E-Journal, AGA Happenings, look for it in Friday's editions. This will be our way of keeping you more up to date with the activities and changes coming to the American Go Association. Each week will bring a new topic about people, events, and emerging programs. Our only problem is where to begin.
      The just-concluded US Go Congress is turning out to have marked the beginning of a new era. We've had a rush of new volunteers, Dennis, Andy, Mark, Todd, Walter, Gary, Nicole,
Peter, Steve, & Calvin just to name a few. The influx of people is much-needed with exciting new programs including a National Youth Tournament, a Rank Certification program, and a proposal for a Professional Go Association kicking off. It's been a lively time in the Chapters Mailing List with discussion to increase membership and membership retention. So much to cover; look for more next week!

GAME COMMENTARY: Inside the Mind of a Pro
        Get deep inside the mind of a pro as he plays in a top title game in today's game commentary. Yamashita Keigo 9P provides the commentary on his Kisei Title Match Game 4 with Hane Naoki 9P, played February 22-23, 2006. The commentary is taken by permission from Go World #108 Summer 2006. Yamashita defended his title successfully in this match against former Kisei Hane, 4-0, although the last two games were won by a total of four points. This was the decisive game. The commentary by Yamashita was reported by Kawakuma Hiroyuki and translated by John Power from Monthly Go World, a Japanese language go periodical.
        Our second game commentary is from the 18th Asian TV Cup Semifinals, featuring Lee Changho 9P of Korea against Hane Naoki 9P of Japan. The game was played August 10, 2006; commentary is by Alexander Dinerchtein 1P.
         Today's bonus file is the latest installment of Haruyama Isamu 9P's Questions from Actual Play, translated by Robert McGuigan.
       To view the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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