News from the American Go Association
January 26,
2007
Volume 8, #7 (Member's Edition)
GUREVICH WINS MGS WINTER
TOURNEY
REGISTER NOW FOR FEB 3
NOVA EVENT
KIDS GO
FOR 2007 FUJITSU QUALIFIER
7TH USYGC VENUE
ADDED
CHANG HAO BLANKS LEE CHANGHO
KONG JIE TAKES CHANG-KI CUP
KATO KEIKO 5P IS NEW WOMEN'S
MEIJIN
COMPUTERS CATCHING
UP
WEEKEND ACTION: Des Moines (IA), Richmond (VA)
& Tacoma (WA)
GO
QUIZ: Top Chuck
GAME COMMENTARY: A Young French Challenger
ATTACHED GAME(S):
2007.01.26 French Open Sacailles-Fenech, Fan Hui.sgf; 2007.01.26 McGuigan Series
#26.pdf
GUREVICH WINS MGS WINTER TOURNEY:
David Gurevich 1d took first place in the January 14 Massachusetts Go
Association Winter Handicap Tournament. Check out photos online at http://www.massgo.org/photogallery.html Full
report in Monday's EJ. Thanks to TD Zack Grossbart for reporting results online
at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=182593165484
REGISTER NOW FOR FEB NOVA 3 EVENT:
Pre-registration is required for the first Chinese New Year Go Tournament
in the metropolitan Washington area, scheduled for Saturday, February 3. Email
your name, rating, sign-up session (partner name if Au Pair Pair Go) and a brief
description of your go experience to allango@igc.org by Wednesday, January 31.
The event features three events, a 4-round AGA-sanctioned tournament, Au Pair
Pair Go and a Lightning Session for beginners. Organized by the NOVA Go Club,
Great Falls Go/Chess Club, HAI HUA Community Center and sponsored by Yeena Liu
(UBS), Financial Advisor. Directions & more at http://www.novagoclub.org
KIDS
GO FOR 2007 FUJITSU QUALIFIER: The new crop of strong young go
players will be well-represented in the upcoming 2007 North American Fujitsu Cup
Qualifier. Organizer Chris Kirschner reports that 2006 US Open winner Zhi Yuan
(Andy) Liu 8d will play in the Fujitsu, along with Eric Lui 8d, Guthrie Price 6d
and Calvin Sun 6d. Also playing will be Huiren Yang 1P, Jung Hoon Lee 8d,
Vincent Wang 7d, Thomas Hsiang 7d, Yuan Zhou 7d, I-Han Lui 7d, Wei-Yu Chen 8d,
Steve Stringfellow 6d and Jon Boley 6d. The player is not yet complete; stay
tuned for a final list. Mingjiu Jiang 9P is the defending titleholder and the
games will be played on the IGS beginning February 3.
7TH USYGC VENUE
ADDED: A seventh US Youth Go Championship Qualifier has just been
added, reports Nicole Casanta. The Orange County (CA) Go Club will host a Youth
Qualifier February 24-25, joining Tacoma, WA (3/16-17), San Francisco
(3/24-3/25), Chicago, IL (4/7-4/8), Boulder, CO (4/14-4/15) and Philadelphia
(date TBA). The first was held last weekend in Piscataway, NJ by the Feng Yun Go
School (Lin & Gu Win Jersey Youth Qualifier 1/22 EJ). For details on rules,
eligibility, etc, click on http://www.usgo.org/usa/USYGC.htm
CHANG HAO
BLANKS LEE CHANGHO: Chang Hao 9P of China defeated Lee Changho 9P of
Korea 2-0 to win the international Samsung Cup. Details on Monday.
KONG JIE TAKES CHANG-KI CUP: Kong
Jie 7P defeated Gu Li 9P 2-1 to take the 3rd Chang-ki Cup in China. Details on
Monday.
KATO KEIKO 5P IS NEW WOMEN'S
MEIJIN: Kato Keiko 5P has won her first title, claiming the Japanese
Women's Meijin. Details on Monday.
COMPUTERS CATCHING UP: "Ever since the
stunning victory of Deep Blue, a program running on an IBM supercomputer, over
Gary Kasparov, then world chess champion, in 1997, it has been clear that
computers would dominate that particular game," reports the January 25 Economist
magazine. "Today, though, they are pressing the attack on every front.There is
one game, however, where humans still reign supreme: Go. Yet here too their grip
is beginning to loosen." More in Monday's EJ or check out the original story
(thanks to Anton Ninno for the tip) online at http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8585017
WEEKEND ACTION:
Des Moines (IA), Ricjmond (VA) & Tacoma (WA)
- January 27: Des Moines, IA
Ratings
Tournament
Anthony Postert anthony@postert.org 314.497.9679
- January 27: Richmond, VA
Slate &
Shell Open
http://home.comcast.net/~wmscobb/
William
Cobb wmscobb@comcast.net 804.740.2191
-
January 27: Tacoma, WA
Verna Castanza Memorial
www.TacomaGoClub.org
Gordon
Castanza gcastanza@comcast.net 253.732.0874
GO QUIZ: Top
Chuck
No surprises, most
(22/26) knew that Chuck Robbins 4d tops the stats with 1,092 rated games since
1990. "He also played in the most...wearing a white button-down collared shirt"
quips Christopher Vu. Steve Barberi is a close second with 943, then Horst
Sudhoff with 843 and Keith Arnold has 833 (and yes, Shai, I WOULD have myself as
an answer if I could come up with a question!). Chuck's total is all the more
impressive since he only started in 1995. And given that Horst Sudhoff from
Germany only attends one event a year, his tally is also noteworthy. For
all-time most games, our best guess (we've only been keeping official stats
since 1990) is that Chuck is probably still only third, behind Steve and Keith,
but at his current rate of play it is only a matter of time. See the Top 50
stats (2006 and 1990-2006) in the forth-coming Yearbook, and congrats to winner
Daniel Denis of Cambridge, MA, chosen at random from those answering
correctly.
More AGA trivia for this week's Quiz: give us the first and last
AGA presidents, not in chronological order, but alphabetically by last name.
Enter your two names at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=483823074699
- Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold,
hka
GAME
COMMENTARY: A Young French
Challenger
Antoine Fenech 5d is one
of the young emerging players in France. He has been European Youth Champion and
is now captain of the Youth Go French team. Jeff Sacailles 6d, a very well-known
player in France, has been French Go Champion several times. Today's game
commentary by new EJ contributor Fan Hui 2P is from the 2006 French Go
Championships in Marseille. "This was a very important game since both players
were leading the tournament at this point and could expect to win the title,
depending on the result of this game," says Fan Hui, a 2 dan professional from
China who now lives in France (although he is presently studying go in China);
he is the strongest player in Europe. The commentary was translated and
transcribed for the E-Journal by Benoit Roturier.
Today's bonus file is the latest
installment of Haruyama Isamu 9P's "Questions from Actual Play", translated by
Robert McGuigan and used by permission of the Nihon Kiin which published the
original text in 1979.
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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American Go Association P.O. Box 397 Old Chelsea Station New York,
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