News from the American Go Association

March 5, 2007
Volume 8, #19

REDMOND ADVANCES IN TENGEN
FAN HUI THREE-PEATS IN ING MEMORIAL
HO WINS WORLD STUDENT OZA
AGA MEMBERSHIP SETS NEW HIGHS
BIG PRIZE TOURNEY IN NYC THIS SAT
ANNUAL YANG WORKSHOP IN MD A BIG SUCCESS
LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN MAXIM CUP
JAEUP KIM WINS CAMBRIDGE TRIGANTIUS
UMEZAWA WINS JAPANESE WOMEN'S KISEI
AOKI TIES UP JAPANESE WOMEN'S MEIJIN
YOUTH GO: USYGC Games, Christopher Kiguchi Profile & Curtis Huang on “My First Tournament”
GO CALENDAR
GO CLASSIFIED
ATTACHED GAMES: 2007.03.05 USYGC CShen-MBurrall Jie Li; 2007.03.05 USYGC CSun-CKiguchi Jie Li

EJ LAUNCHES NEW FORMAT: The American Go E-Journal's new format includes photos, graphics, game diagrams and HTML formatting to improve our look and feel. We've also eliminated clunky website links, which are now embedded in the EJ text. More and better-looking go content: Enjoy!

REDMOND ADVANCES IN TENGEN: Michael Redmond 9P (photo, above right) defeated Ishii Kunio in the first round of the Tengen Challenger’s Tournament on March 1. He’ll play Yamashita Keigo next. Click here for the latest tournament results and read about Michael Redmond here .

FAN HUI THREE-PEATS IN ING MEMORIAL: For the third straight year, Fan Hui 7d won the 2007 ING Memorial tournament, held March 2-4 in Amsterdam. Two dozen of the strongest European players – including professionals Catalin Taranu, Alexandr Dinerstein and Guo Juan -- participated, including five from Romania, five from Russia, three each from France and Holland, two each from Czechia, Ukraine and Germany, and one each from Poland and Hungary. A Chinese student living in Toulouse, France, Fan Hui is also a commentator for the E-Journal. The Ing Memorial tournament (formerly the Ing Cup) honors the memory of the late Ing Chang-Ki (pictured on plate at right), whose Ing Chang-Ki Weiqi Educational Foundation organizes and supports go projects around the world, including . Full tournament details here
Winner's Report: 1st: Hui, Fan 7d; 2nd: Taranu, Catalin 5d; 3rd: Dinerstein, A 7d; 4th: Silt, Ondrej 6d; 5th: Pop, Cristian 6d; 6th: Juan, Guo 7d; 7th: Surin, Dmitrij 6d; 8th: Shikshin, Ilya 6d; 9th: Kulkov, Andrej 6d; 10th: Mero, Csaba 6d. E-Journal game commentator Cornel Burzo 6d placed 12th.
- reports from Marilena Bara, European correspondent for the EJ, and the EGC website

HO WINS WORLD STUDENT OZA: Lee Yeon Ho of Korea won last week’s World Student Go Oza, sweeping all four rounds. US Rep Jin Chen placed 9th. The tournament featured 16 players 30 or younger from ten nations. Complete results below. EJ Member Edition subscribers enjoyed a special edition last week with games and a report from the Oza by Jin Chen; click here to sign up.
Winner’s Report: 1st: Lee Yeon Ho, Korea (4-0); 2nd: Murakami Fukashi, Japan (3-1); 3rd: Wang Yu Qiao, China(3-1); 4th: Takeda Jun, Japan (3-1); 5th: O Keii, Japan (3-1); 6th: Zhao Yan Pei, China (2-2); 7th: Yu Kun Bo, China (2- 2); 8th: Pal Balogh, Hungary (2-2); 9th: Jin Chen, USA (2-2); 10th: Cho Suk Bin, Korea (2-2); 11th: Tsou Meng-Yuan, Taiwain(2-2); 12th: Lin Kun-Te, Taiwan (1-3); 13th: Pariwat Sompaokaew, Thailand (1-3); 14th: Merlijn Kuin, Netherlands (1-3); 15th: Mos Ewa, Poland (1-3); 16th: Cristobal Bravo, Mexico (0-4).

AGA MEMBERSHIP SETS NEW HIGHS: Full memberships hit a record high of 1,811 in February, up a whopping 76, the biggest one-month increase since September, 2003. This continues a 3-month surge in Full memberships. Youth memberships were also the highest ever in February, with 576 Youth members. Total AGA membership hit 2,176 last month, the third-highest ever and just 4 short of the 2,180 record high set in January 2006. Limited members were up 21 to 203, Chapters were up 7 to 132, Sponsors were up 1 to 42, and Sustainers and Life members held steady at 61 and 55, respectively. Click here now to join or renew your membership.

BIG PRIZE TOURNEY IN NYC THIS SAT: Over 100 players are expected at this Saturday’s NY Radio Korea 2007 Spring Go Competition in Flushing, NY. The March 10 event features big prizes, including a 42" LCD TV and Home Theater Systems, and sponsor Radio Korea is giving all players a gift. See the Calendar listings below for details.

ANNUAL YANG WORKSHOP IN MD A BIG SUCCESS: Yilun Yang 7P's workshop last week in Maryland proved very popular once again with the 16 players who enthusiastically participated. Held at the Germantown home of Gordon Fraser, the schedule included three lectures a day by Yang and a thorough review of games played by the participants each day. Yang also gave out his notorious life and death problems as "homework" during the workshop. Despite a massive effort and a lot of cooperation among some of the players, no one managed to solve them all, a not uncommon result. The workshop was particularly enjoyable because Fraser's wife Susan prepared lunch and dinner for the entire group every day.
- reported by Bill Cobb; photo by Phil Straus

LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN MAXIM CUP: After losing the first game in their best-of-three-game match, Lee Sedol 9P defeated Park Jungsang 9P 2-1 to take the Maxim Cup. All three games were decided by resignation. This is Lee's third year in a row to take this title, which no one else has done.

JAEUP KIM WINS CAMBRIDGE TRIGANTIUS: Jaeup Kim 5d of Reading beat out Andrew Jones 3d of Wanstead in the final round to win the annual Cambridge Trigantius in Britain. There were 56 participants in the main tournament. The prize for Best Kyu Player was shared by Matthieu Flinders 1k, Ukrit Mankong 1k, and Taka Obita 2k, all of Cambridge.

UMEZAWA WINS JAPANESE WOMEN'S KISEI: Umezawa Yukari 5P has won her first title, taking the Women's Kisei with a score of 2-1 over Mannami Kana 3P. Although Umezawa is one of the best known Japanese women pros, this was her first challenge for a title as well. The Women's Kisei has been dominated by Chinen Kaori 4P, who has won it five times. Mannami has held it twice, winning in 2004 and last year.

AOKI TIES UP JAPANESE WOMEN'S MEIJIN: Aoki Kikuyo 8P took the second game of her defense of her Women's Meijin title against Kato Keiko 5P to even the score at 1-1. Kato won the first game by 6.5 points and Aoki took the second by resignation. The decisive third game is scheduled for this Wednesday. Aoki first won this title in 1990 and has held it four additional times since. This is Kato's first challenge for a title.

YOUTH GO: USYGC Games, Christopher Kiguchi Profile & Curtis Huang on “My First Tournament”
by Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor
With three qualifiers coming up in March, the US Youth Go Championship (USYGC) is kicking into high gear. We have three reports today, including two game commentaries, a profile of Christopher Kiguchi 4d, and Curtis Huang’s report on his first go tournament. We hope these inspire you to jump in: kids who want to compete can pick a regional event from the website
First up are two game commentaries from the USYGC qualifier event held on February 24 in Orange County, CA (attached). Jie Li 9d provides detailed comments on the top game in each bracket. (If you enjoy these game commentaries, consider signing up for the weekly Member’s Edition, which features game commentaries, reviews and go news previews every Friday; more info Two teen titans squared off in the senior bracket, with Cherry Shen 5d drawing white against Matthew Burrall 7d (W112 in the diagram at left is the final losing move; see the attached game commentary to find out why). In the junior bracket, it was a battle of the pre-teen titans, with dueling ten-year-olds Calvin Sun 6d taking white against Christopher Kiguchi 4d, who is profiled below in our second feature. The event “ran very smoothly,” reports tournament organizer Kevin Chao, who credited the experience of TD Steve Burrall. “The competition level was very high in both Senior and Junior sections as well as the handicap section. I am very sure next year we’ll see more players attending this tournament."
Finally, Curtis Huang 16k -- a senior at Mission Viejo High School -- provides a first-person youth perspective on his experience at the qualifier.

YOUTH PROFILES: Christopher Kiguchi 4d
by Preston Hutchins
Christopher Kiguchi, a ten-year-old 4 dan from Irvine, California, started playing go at the age of 4 while living in Japan. His mother introduced him to the game in order to teach him to think, taking him to a go club where he took an immediate and keen interest in the game. Members at the club played regularly with him and gave him teaching games and he reached amateur shodan strength in just two years. Kiguchi plays a game every day on the internet, and studies go problems regularly, 10 per day. Though he has no go activity at school, he continues to learn from strong players such as his teacher, Yilun Yang, 7p, who gives him teaching games. He would like to return to Japan to study go as an insei so that he may become a professional player. Kiguchi says that he does not emulate any favorite professional players, seeking instead to construct and build upon his own particular style. He describes his play as emphasizing territory with an eye towards killing weak groups of stones. Christopher also enjoys playing soccer and basketball.

MY FIRST TOURNAMENT
by Curtis Huang 16k
I started learning go quite a few years ago, but I stopped due to time constraints. Yet, looking back, it was a mistake to stop. My experience at the US Youth Go Championship in Orange County -- my very first go tournament -- has only strengthened that belief. I had no idea what to expect, as up until then I had only played go with my group of friends during lunch time. However, I was overwhelmed by the tournament. The other players were much younger than I, and they were incredibly serious. Despite being about 10 years older, I was intimidated by these other kids! They showed an amazing passion for the game of go that I had never seen before.
The first day of the tournament I played in the 2 kyu division bracket. Though I won, it was incredibly difficult. My opponents were formidable, and I was constantly on guard. Their enthusiasm for the game was endless. Even during losses, they remained optimistic and positive. On the second day I played with Division 1 Kyu opponents, who completely dominated me. However, it was a valuable experience as I learned many things, and it was still incredibly fun. Though I am graduating this year, I am very happy to have participated in the go tournament, for it will supply me with wonderful memories that will last a lifetime.

GO CALENDAR

March 10: Flushing, NY
NY Radio Korea 2007 SPRING GO Competition!
Prizes: 42" LCD TV and Home Theater Systems! Over 100 players expected! Radio Korea is giving all players a gift!
Chuck Robbins crobbins@ctipc.com 717.682.2667

March 17-18: Seattle, WA
USYGC Regional Tournament
This is one of three in the Western Region
http://www.seattlegocenter.org/generateeventpage.php?page=20070317031801.event
Gordon Castanza gcastanza@comcast.net 253.853.4831
Jon Boley jon@airsltd.com 206.545.1424

March 17-18: Seattle, WA
USYG Qualifier
Gordon Castanza gcastanza@comcast.net 253.853.4831

March 17: Tempe, AZ
Arizona Go rating tournament
1 pm at ASU
Bill Gundberg bill@azgoclub.org 480.429.0300

March 18: Catonsville, MD
UMBC Spring Thing
Start your Spring Break off right!
http://orgs.umbc.edu/go
Todd Blatt todd3@umbc.edu 443.392.6822

March 18: New York, NY
Master Player Lecture Seres at The New York Go Center
US Champion Andy Liu
http://nygocenter.org/master.html
Roy Laird nygc@usgo.org 212.223.0342

March 20: Tempe, AZ
Arizona Go rating tournament
7 pm at ASU
Bill Gundberg bill@azgoclub.org 480.429.0300

March 23-25: Ann Arbor, MI
James Kerwin Workshop
http://www.umich.edu/~goclub/kerwin.html
Eric Jankowski erjank@umich.edu 734.417.5547

March 24-25: San Francisco, CA
SF Go Club Spring tournament and World Youth Go Championship qualifier
Registration for the WYGC must be received by Mar. 17
Steve Burrall sburrall@comcast.net 916.688.2858

March 24: Raleigh, NC
Spring Fuseki
http://clubs.ncsu.edu/go/springtournament/index.html
Owen Chen Owen.Chen@sas.com 919.531.9234

March 24: Syracuse, NY
6th Semi-Annual Syracuse Go Tournament
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/syracusegotournament/
Richard Moseson mosesons@earthlink.net 315.682.7720

March 25: Sunnyvale, CA
11th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament
Mingjiu Jiang mingjiu7p@hotmail.com 650.969.2857
Joe Lee 408.255.5117

March 31: Arlington, VA
Cherry Blossom
Allan Abramson allango@igc.org 703.684.7676

April 1: College Park, MD
John Groesch Memorial
http://chapters.usgo.org/umd/Spring.html
Steve Mount go@outfoxing.com 301.405.6934
Neil Bernardo

April 1: New York, NY
New York Go Center Monthly Rating Tournament
http://nygocenter.org/070401.html
TD: Boris Bernadsky nygc@usgo.org 212.223.0342

GO CLASSIFIED
Locate go clubs worldwide at http://www.usgo.org/cgi-bin/chapters.cgi

PLAYERS WANTED: Stafford, VA: We play go every Thursday evening at the public library, 2001 Parkway Blvd., Stafford, Va. Also, once a month (First Wednesday evening of each month) at the Salem Church branch of the library,2607 Salem Church Rd., Frederickburg, Va. All are welcome. Contactedebutts@crrl.org (3/5)

PLAYERS WANTED: Monument, CO: Anyone in the area of Monument, Colorado willing to start a go club, or just someone to play against. Also anyone who has any ideas on where to host a go club. Please contact go_player_137@yahoo.com (2/26)

WANTED: Go-playing Chinese-speaking English-speaking China Guide. I am looking for one person who will travel through China with me, exploring China and playing go. I will pay expenses but no salary. Please email peterchristopher@yahoo.com (2/26)

FOR SALE: 6 go books, all in great condition. Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go,Volumes 1-5, and Elementary Go Series Vol.2, 38 Basic Joseki. Retails ~$90, sellingfor $50. Email at jmarti71@uiuc.edu (2/26)

SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 9,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

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

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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.