News from the American Go Association

February 23, 2007
Volume 8, #15 (Member's Edition)

SARASOTA FENG YUN GO WORKSHOP A "GREAT SUCCESS"
DC UPDATES
BIG APPLE TOURNEY
"ONE-ARMED BANDIT"STRENGTHENS COMPUTER GO
CLOSE BATTLE IN JAPANESE WOMEN'S KISEI
KATO TAKES FIRST GAME IN JAPANESE WOMEN'S MEIJIN
AITKEN WINS OXFORD TOURNAMENT
LATEST ON CURRENT PRO SCENE
MINUTES POSTED ONLINE
WEEKEND ACTION: Los Angeles & Montreal
GO QUIZ: New Champ In New Mexico
GAME COMMENTARY: Challenger Game & Latest Haruyama
ATTACHED GAME(S): 2007.02.23 Challenge, Felcan-Huang, Yang.sgf; 2007.02.23 Questions from Actual Play #27, Haruyama.pdf

SARASOTA FENG YUN GO WORKSHOP A "GREAT SUCCESS": The first-ever Sarasota go workshop, conducted by 9 dan professional Feng Yun, was a great success, reports Dan Moise. Details in Monday's EJ; photos online now at www.usgo.org

DC UPDATES: Yuan Zhou 8d's next monthly lesson will be on March 2nd, and the ongoing team match with Rockville will resume on March 9th, reports DC organizer Hal Small. Details Monday.

BIG APPLE TOURNEY: Registration are being accepted now for the New York Go Center's upcoming monthly rating tournament next Sunday, March 4. Send an e-mail to nygc@usgo.org with your name, AGA ID# and AGA rank or estimated playing strength.

"ONE-ARMED BANDIT"STRENGTHENS COMPUTER GO: "Two Hungarian scientists have now come up with an algorithm that helps computers pick the right move in Go," reported Andras Gergely in a February 21 Reuters wire story. Details Monday or read the story now at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa001&articleID=E3DB3D2C4E2856DCB72526473106BAA5

CLOSE BATTLE IN JAPANESE WOMEN'S KISEI: Mannami Kana 3P and current Women's Kisei took the second game to tie up her title match with challenger Umezawa Yukari 5P. Details on Monday.

KATO TAKES FIRST GAME IN JAPANESE WOMEN'S MEIJIN: Challenger Kato Keiko 5P won the first game in her title match with Aoki Kikuyo 8P and current Women's Meijin. Details on Monday.

AITKEN WINS OXFORD TOURNAMENT: Sam Aitken 3d of Leamington took first place in the Oxford Tournament in Britain. Details on Monday.

LATEST ON CURRENT PRO SCENE: The latest article in the Agora Black & White series by Lee HongReal on Gobase.org discusses recent shifts on the international level among pros. Details on Monday.

MINUTES POSTED ONLINE: The minutes of last year's American Go Association's Assembly and last month's Board meeting are now online at
http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/2006assemblyminutes.pdf
http://www.usgo.org/board/ApprovedMinutes/Jan-07-minutes.pdf

CORRECTION: EJ commentator Sorin Gherman's website address was misspelled last week; it's at http://361points.com/

WEEKEND ACTION: Los Angeles & Montreal
- February 24-25: Los Angeles, CA
United States Youth Go Championship
Southern California Region
http://www.ocgoclub.com
Kevin Chao ocgoclub@ocgoclub.com 949.466.1479
- February 25: Montreal, QC
Tournoi d'Hiver de Go
Alex Weldon alex@benefactum.ca 514.488.2350
Steven Mays smays@videotron.ca

GO QUIZ: New Champ In New Mexico
       Most (7/13) correctly replied that Jie Li 9d won his first U.S. Open on his first try, at the 14th Congress in Santa Fe New Mexico back in 1998. Five of you insisted it was the following year in San Francisco, but Jie Li was third that year, behind Daning Jiang. Apparently a prior E-Journal bio may have led some of you astray, but the print journal is the source (along with my memory) for the above info. One of you chose Denver, but that was Ted Ning, and Yongfei Ge of Canada won in York. Congrats to this week's winner, Kim Salamony, chosen at random from those answering correctly. Kim is emerging as a dark horse with 4 for 4 for the year so far! And a belated congrats to Daniel Denis, whose correct response to our previous quiz came in after last week's quiz was written (but before it was published), so he keeps pace with Phillip Waldron at 7 for 7. And please, everyone, try to respond to the quiz by Wednesday, so I can come up with this piece in time to not drive Chris crazy!
     CHO WHO? Ok, that was uncalled for - Cho U is clearly one of the top players in Japan, and is still doing well in international events and other tournaments - but he is definitely in a slump when it comes to the big seven titles in Japan. Back in 2004, he held the Meijin, Honinbo and Oza, and challenged for the Judan. Today, he only holds one of the big seven - is it the Honinbo, Oza, Judan or Gosei? Submit your choice at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=483823074699
- Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold, hka

GAME COMMENTARY: Challenger Game & Latest Haruyama
       Shodan Challenger Tim Huang 2k takes on Dave Felcan 2k in today's game, with Yilun Yang 7P providing the commentary. Our bonus file is the latest installment of Haruyama Isamu 9P's Questions from Actual Play.
       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

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.

To make name or address corrections, go to http://www.listlynx.com/MailUser1.asp Story suggestions, event announcements, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space, and should be directed to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
journal@usgo.org

American Go Association
P.O. Box 397
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113-0397