World
Go News from the American Go Association
March 26, 2007
Volume 8, #26
GABBERT, GUO TOP SF
TOURNEYS
SUN CAPTURES JUJO JIANG YOUTH GOE TOURNEY
TITLE
LIU SWEEPS RALEIGH TOURNEY
GO
PHOTOS: Farrington
Go Clinic
HIKARU COMES TO CABLE
MORE SHOTWELL ON GO
AVRAM NOTCHES 1ST TITLE IN ROMANIAN
WOMEN'S TOURNEY
TAIWANESE PRO WINS INTERNATIONAL LG
CUP
LIU SHIZHEN TO CHALLENGE GU LI FOR
TIANYUAN
CHANG HAO AND HU YAOYU IN FINALS FOR
RICOH CUP
GU LI DEFEATS CHANG HAO TO TAKE CHUNLAN
CUP
YOUTH GO: Sittin'
At The Boards By The Bay
KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS:
Getting Started
GO CALENDAR
GO CLASSIFIED
GABBERT,
GUO TOP SF TOURNEYS: Thirty players competed in the
2007 San Francisco 
Go Club
Spring tournament and US Youth Go Championship (USYGC) Regional
Qualifier on Saturday, March 24th and Sunday the 25th. Adam Gabbert 4d
took top honors in the SF Spring tournament, while 14-year-old Jimmy
Guo 5d (l) pulled out all the stops to win first place in the USYGC
Senior Division, and Tony Zhang 4d took 2nd place. In the USYGC Junior
Division, 10-year-old Hugh Zhang 2d rallied to defeat Christopher
Kiguchi (also ten) 4d in a best-of-three series on Saturday. Zhang then
crossed the Bay on Sunday to play in the Jujo Cup as well, where he
beat another ten-year-old titan, 6d Calvin Sun in their game in the
fourth round. Zhang, whose days as a 2-dan would seem to be at an end,
looks likely to emerge as a top contender in the USYGC finals in
Seattle. SF Spring tournament Winner's Report: Dan Division: 1st: Adam
Gabbert 4d; 2nd: Changyu Han 2d; 3rd: Ned Phipps 7d & Brian
Leahy 3d (tie). Kyu Division winners: 1st: Sammy Zhang 14k; 2nd:
Karoline Burrall 5K; 3rd: Bob Nugmanov 5K.
- Reported by Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor. Photo by Kristen
Burrall.
SUN
CAPTURES JUJO JIANG YOUTH GOE TOURNEY TITLE: Calvin Sun 6d
topped a field of 114 youth players at the 11th Jujo Jiang Youth Goe
Tournament last Saturday in
Sunnyvale, CA. The West Coast's oldest and biggest youth tournament
attracted a strong field that included several 6-dan players and 3 US
Youth Go Championship qualifiers. Eighty-six players competed in a
fierce, all day tournament, while 28 beginners practiced their skills
in the half-day 13x13 tournament. Reid Augustin directed.
WINNERS REPORT: 6D-3D: SUN Calvin; 2D-1D: LEONG Lim; 1K-6K: FENG Felix;
7K-10K: HUANG Corey; 11K-18K: SHIEH Alex; 19K-23K: QIN Tiantong;
24K-25K: QIN Tiancheng; 26K-29K A: FANG Kevin; 26K-29K B: FANG Alex;
26K-29K C: FANG Justin. 13x13: A: KUANG Alicia; B: LU Mimi; C: WU
Nicklaus; D: LI Aaron.
- report/photos by Lawrence Ku, EJ West Coast Correspondent.
Photo above: Round 4; San Francisco WYGC Qualifier Champion Hugh Zhang
(far right) 3d defeated Calvin Sun 6d, Los Angeles WYGC Qualifier
Champion, by a half-point. Michael Cheng 6d defeated Lawrence Ku 6d,
Seattle WYGC Qualifier Champion, on time. Photo top right: Mingjiu
Jiang 7P scores a game between Hugh Zhang 3d and Yangyang Shi 4d.
LIU
SWEEPS RALEIGH TOURNEY: Bing Liu 1d swept
all four games in the Spring Fuseki's top division in Raleigh, NC.
Jeremiah Reid was also undefeated in Section C. "Special thanks to TD
Chuck Robbins," says tourney organizer - and Wolf Go Club President --
Liam Royce. 30 players participated. WINNER'S
REPORT: SECTION A: 1D-5D (7 players): 1st: Liu, Bing 1d; 2n
d: Kuang,
Jeff 4d. SECTION B: 8k-1k (8 players): 1st: Moore, John 1k; 2nd: Bacon,
Bob 8k / Plesser, Adam 8k SECTION C: 12k-10k (8 players):
1st: Reid, Jeremiah 10k; 2nd: Daland,
William 10k SECTION D: 30k-12k (7 players): 1st: DiMattia, Vincent 14k
; 2nd: Blann, Dale 18k & Chen, Franklin 30k
GO
PHOTOS:
Playing
at the Farrington (HI) Go Clinic on March 23 (left). Photo
by Xiao Feng
HIKARU
COMES TO CABLE: Hikaru No Go, the anime series that has
revived interest in go among Japanese youth and developed a cult
following in the West, is finally coming to cable. ImaginAsian TV will
begin broadcasting the 75 episodes on April 2. Now the bad news (for
some of you): ImaginAsian is only available in nine metropolitan areas
at present -- New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston,
Dallas, Hawaii, and two New Jersey communities (Princeton and Edison).
So if you're not one of them, get on the phone and (paraphrasing an old
ad) "Call your cable company and say 'I want IATV!' Click
here for the broadcast schedule.
- Roy Laird
MORE
SHOTWELL ON GO: Go writer Peter Shotwell has just
posted updates of his anthropologically-oriented Origins of Go article
and its Appendices along with a new commentary on the significance of
the new dating of the early Confucian quotes on go. He has also added a
new Appendix with pictures of two Tibetan discoveries of old stone go
boards. Click
here www.usgo.org/bobhighlibrary to check it out.
AVRAM
NOTCHES 1ST TITLE IN ROMANIAN WOMEN'S TOURNEY: Laura
Avram, a 
14-year-old
1d, won her first title last weekend at the Romanian National
Tournament for women in Braila. Thirteen players competed in the
preliminary 4 rounds, and the final 8 played a 6-round double knock-out
in which Avram bested 17-year-old Adelina Sora 1d in the final.
Runners-up included Adelina Sora 1d, the Romanian champion for the last
three years, and Liliana Iacob 2k, the 2002 women's champion. Avram
began playing go seven years ago at school in Bistrita with Teodor
Virtic and has represented the Bistrita Children's Palace in
competitions. In the recent European Youth Go Championship, Avram
finished 31st out of 98 participants in the under-18 group.
- report/photo by Marilena Bara, EJ European Correspondent
TAIWANESE
PRO WINS INTERNATIONAL LG CUP: In a remarkable sign
of how far their pro community has come, Zhou Junxun 9P
(r) of Taiwan has won the international LG Cup by
defeating China's Hu Yaoyu 8P. Zhou won the first game by resignation,
but Hu came back to take the second by a half point. Then Zhou won the
decisive game -- by a half point. Zhou also holds three Taiwanese
national titles. The LG Cup included two participants from Taiwan: Lin
Zhihan 7P, who lost in the second round to Hong Minpyo 5P of Korea, was
the other. There were thirteen Koreans, six Japanese, and eleven
Chinese. The Chinese and the Japanese have both won this cup twice,
while the Koreans have taken it five times, four of them by Lee Changho
9P.
LIU
SHIZHEN TO CHALLENGE GU LI FOR TIANYUAN: Liu Shizhen 6P
has won the right to challenge Gu Li 9P for the Chinese Tianyuan title
with a 1.5 point win over Tao Xin 3P. Gu has held this title for the
last four years. He won the Chinese Mingren title for the third
consecutive time in January. Liu's only title win so far was of the New
Pro Wang to
urnament
in 2000, after which he also won the dual match against the Korean New
Pro winner. Gu pulled off the same double success in 2005.
CHANG
HAO AND HU YAOYU IN FINALS FOR RICOH CUP:
The finalists for the Chinese RICOH Cup will be Chang Hao 9P (r) and Hu
Yaoyu 8P. Hu, has won some national titles and done well in several
international tournaments, but has yet to win an international title.
Chang's most recent international success was defeating Lee Changho 9P
2-0 to win the Samsung Cu
p in
January.
GU
LI DEFEATS CHANG HAO TO TAKE CHUNLAN CUP: Gu Li 9P (l)
of China defeated China's Chang Hao 9P 2-0 to win the
international Chunlan Cup, denying Chang a third current international
title. Gu won the first game by only a half point, but took the second
by resignation. This is Gu's only current international title, while
Chang holds the Samsung, which he won in January, as well the most
recent Ing Cup, won in 2005.
YOUTH
GO: Sittin' At The Boards By The Bay
The San Francisco Bay Area had a busy
weekend with both the U
S Youth Go
Championship (USYGC) in San Francisco and the 11th Jujo Jiang Youth Go
Tournament in nearby Sunnyvale (see reports above).
"I played in the San Francisco Spring
handicap tournament while the youth qualifier was going on," USYGC
champion Matthew Burrall (left, in photo at right) told the E-Journal
"I had a good time with no pressure since I qualified a few
weeks ago in Orange County. Jimmy Guo
ended up winning all his games in the senior division. Tony Zhang was
second and was really disappointed to miss out on the Go camp
scholarship and trip to Seattle for the U.S. champion
ship. In
the junior division, Hugh Zhang (left) had a tough opponent in
Christopher Kiguchi, but Hugh was at my house a couple of months ago
for a Yilun Yang workshop and has been really excited about getting
stronger at go since then. He's really improving fast. It's going to be
fun going up to Seattle with Jimmy, Lawrence and Hugh in May."
Fourteen year old Jimmy Guo 5d is
currently a freshman at Burlingame High School. "I began playing go at
the age of 9," Guo tells the E-Journal, "learning
from my father who was 5k at the time. I reached shodan within a year,
and then played go on and off (mostly off) for the next five years."
Guo adds that "recently, my interest in go has returned and I hope to
improve as much as I can. My goal is to reach 9d by the end of high
school, and I've begun taking lessons from Mingjiu Jiang to help me
reach it." In his spare time Guo says "I like to hang out with friends,
and play sports, especially basketball. I am currently also on my
school's badminton team."
- Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor
KERWIN'S
ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: Getting Started
By James Kerwin 1P
This is the start of a series presenting
my road map from absolute beginner to 15 kyu. This road covers a fair
distance, and I know you are already at various stages along the way.
I'm starting at the very beginning, but I encourage you all to start
reading now, wherever you are on the road. In addition to the value of
looking backward, a clearer picture of the distance you've covered can
help you understand the road ahead.
Those of you just starting out, let me
welcome you to the community of go players. You've begun a wonderful
journey exploring the most fascinating, challenging, and, sometimes,
maddening game. One of the names for go in Asia is 'rotted axe', from
the old tale in which a woodsman encountered two sages playing go in
the forest. When he stopped watching them play and turned to pick up
his axe he found the handle had rotted. You may not have seen this
fascination for yourself yet, but you will.
You may have already found that the go
community does not seem to give you as much help as you would like to
travel this road. But it is easier now than it was when I learned the
game, and I'll help you with my road map. You won't get stronger from
reading the column, but you will learn what to do to become stronger.
If you're finding go difficult, don't
worry. It's not you, it's the game: go is simply difficult. Ask any
strong player. Even if you're good at other games, you will find go
difficult at first Other games progress by moving pieces from one place
to another. In go the pieces do not move, and the game progresses by
growth, not displacement. As a complete beginner you can't see the
fundamental patterns the stones make, seeing each stone as an
individual object, instead of groups (connected stones) and positions
(mutually supporting stones). Your first step is to learn to see in
this way.
The good news is that you don't have to
do anything special. Your brain learns this automatically. The bad news
is that you can't do anything to speed it up. It takes as long as it
takes. The only thing you can do is play. The more you play the less
time it takes.
Use your playing time to play more fast games. In fact, it isn't even
necessary to play go; you can play a subgame of go called the capture
game. The rules of play are identical except that the winner is the
first player to capture a stone. You can also play on a small board,
9x9 or 13x13. Small board games or the capture game are fun and they're
not as frustrating because you're not as handicapped by lack of
understanding as you are on the full board. Just play.
When you play, spend your time making
sure you know which stones are connected and form a group and which are
not. On top of that use any rules of thumb you may have been taught.
But don't worry too much about strategy or even tactics. It's too early
for that.
Although you're just starting out, don't
be shy about asking others to play. Other new players are anxious to
play too, and more experienced players were newbies once, just like
you. When you ask, ask for a short game; it's reasonable to ask for 10
minutes of their time to play a 9x9, but it's not reasonable to ask
them to spend an hour playing. If you play an experienced player,
expect to lose and don't worry about it. Don't ask for any advice or
comments on the game at this point, just say, "Thank you, I appreciate
your playing me" and then ask someone else and lose again. For the
experienced players out there, remember your obligation to repay your
debt to those who helped you get where you are and invest 10 minutes of
your time in a new go player.
Follow this program for the next 30
days. Next month I'll map out the next stretch of the road.
Kerwin, a longtime go teacher, is a regular contributor to
the E-Journal and American Go Yearbook. If you have questions on the
material in this column, or on how to get stronger, email him at
journal@usgo.org
GO
CALENDAR
Click
here for complete listing
March 31: Davis, CA
Davis/Sacramento Quarterly
9A-5P, Yolo County Library
Willard Haynes willard@saclink.csus.edu 916.929.6112
March 31: Washington, DC
Cherry Blossom
Allan Abramson allango@igc.org 703.684.7676
March 31: Kailua, HI
Oahu
Go Club - Spring Quads
Rds 3/G30, 5 /10
Frank H. Alejandro frank713@yahoo.com 808.235.1567
April 1: Ames, IA
The
All-Iowa Tournament
Hosted by the Cyclone Go Club of Iowa State University
Ramon Mercado cyclonego@iastate.edu 787.410.1977
April 1: College Park, MD
John
Groesch Memorial
Steve Mount go@outfoxing.com 301.405.6934
Neil Bernardo
April 1: New York, NY
New
York Go Center Monthly Rating Tournament
TD: Boris Bernadsky nygc@usgo.org 212.223.0342
GO
CLASSIFIED
Locate
go clubs worldwide
PLAYERS WANTED: Chicago, IL: Looking for go players in West Chicago.
Email mrnda@peoplepc.com (3/19)
BOOK SWAP: Looking to trade my mint condition copy of "The Breakthrough
to Shodan" by Naoki Miyamoto, 9-Dan, translated by James Davies, The
Ishi Press for a copy of "Strategic Principles of Go" by Yoshiaki
Nagahara. Contact Richard at flateyjarbok1066@gmail.com (3/19)
PLAYERS WANTED: Bemidji, MN. Seeking go players in this area; I have
been playing go for a little less than one year, and am tired of only
playing online. If there is anyone interested (new or experienced),
please contact me at aboatman26@yahoo.com (3/13)
FOR SALE: "The Breakthrough to Shodan" by Naoki Miyamoto, 9-Dan,
translated by James Davies, The Ishi Press, 1976. Hard-to-find work is
based on a series of 10 articles on 3- and 4-stone handicap play that
Miyamoto wrote for the Igo Shincho in 1973 and 1974. $95 or best offer
plus postage. Contact Andy at abc@glowwormpub.com (3/12)
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 10,000 go-players worldwide!
Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at
journal@usgo.org
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Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
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