September 10, 2007; Volume 8, #65
U.S GO NEWS: Tacoma Tourney Rescheduled; Clock Ticking On Hangzhou Tourney; Calendar
WORLD GO NEWS: Takao Takes 1-0 Lead In Meijin Title Defense; Japan Out Of Samsung After First Round; Dusan Mitic Wins Serbian Youth Tourney
KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: Strategic Overview
GO QUIZ: Nobody Wins, Everyone Gets A Chance
GO CLASSIFIED
MEMBER’S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: One from the vaults this week, as Chen Zude plays Nie Weiping in this classic 1974 game. Non-members: all this great content is just a click away!
TACOMA TOURNEY RESCHEDULED: The Tacoma Go Club’s Fall “Back-To-School” tournament, originally scheduled for September 15th, has been re-scheduled for Saturday, September 29th. Contact Gordon Castanza gcastanza@comcast.net for more info.
CLOCK TICKING ON HANGZHOU TOURNEY: Anyone interested in being on the U.S. team going to the upcoming Hangzhou International City Go Tournament, must contact Nicole Casanta as soon as possible; team names must be submitted by September 20. The tournament runs Thursday, October 25 through Monday, October 29. Contact Casanta at nicole@seraphine.us
CALENDAR: College Park & Livermore
September 15-16, 2007: College Park, MD; 19th Mid-Atlantic Championship
Ken Koester kkoester@riva.net 410.267.0487. September 15, 2007: Livermore, CA: Livermore Vintage Go Event; A Day of Go and Wine at Livermore Valley Cellars Winery, Ming Gu mfgu@ssl.berkeley.edu 650.804.5001
NOTE: know of other upcoming go tourneys around the world? Click here to post them now and get listed in the EJ!
TAKAO TAKES 1-0 LEAD IN MEIJIN TITLE DEFENSE: Takao Shinji 9P won the
first game in
the defense of his Meijin title against Cho U 9P by 4.5 points last
Friday, September 7th. One of the top three Japanese titles, this is a
best-of-seven-game match, with the next game set for September 19-20.
Takao took this title from Cho last year to become the sixth
Meijin-Honinbo. Cho had held the title for two years. Takao's only
other title is the Honinbo, which he took from Cho in 2005, while Cho
currently holds four other titles: the Gosei, Agon Cup, Ryusei, and NEC
Cup. Takao and Cho are also scheduled to play each other in the
semifinals of the Judan tournament. Cho is scheduled to play Imamura
Toshiya 9P in the semifinals of the Oza, as well, and he is playing in
the semifinals of both the Agon Cup and the Ryusei.JAPAN OUT OF SAMSUNG AFTER FIRST ROUND: Japan was knocked out of the Samsung Cup last Tuesday when the last four Japanese players lost in the first round. The field was whittled down to four players each from China and Korea after the second round on Thursday. Only four players from Japan -- Kono Rin 9P, Ko Iso 7P, Cho Chikun 9P, and Yamashita Keigo 9P -- had made it into the main tournament of the 12th international Samsung Cup, but all four lost their first-round games on Tuesday, September 4th, leaving only players for Korea and China still in the contest. China's players have won this tournament the last two years, Luo Xihe 9P in 2005 and Chang Hao 9P in 2006, with Lee Changho 9P of Korea taking second place both years. Chang and Lee are playing again this year and both won their first round games. In the second round, on Thursday, September 6th, China was represented by four players and Korea by twelve. All four Chinese won, making the third round a match between four for China and four for Korea. For China: Chang Hao 9P, Gu Li 9P, Hu Yaoyu 8P, and Huang Yizhong 5P. For Korea: Lee Sedol 9P, Han Hangsoon 1P (a teenager, who defeated Ma Xiaochun 9P by a half point in the first round and Lee Changho by 2.5 in the second), Park Yeonghun 9P, and Yoo Changhyuk 9P. The third round will be held in early October.
DUSAN MITIC WINS SERBIAN YOUTH TOURNEY: Seventeen-year-old Dusan Mitic 4d (l, in photo) won the Serbian Youth Go Championship last week in Nis,
defeating Lazar
Manojlovic 4d (also 17, r in photo), while fifteen-year-old Nikola
Mitic took third after narrowly losing to his brother.
Seventeen-year-old Ivana Stojanovic 6k was the strongest female
youngster. Sixteen teens participated in the tournament at the
Children’s Educational Center in Nis, which hosted the 1989
European Go Championship. Dusan Mitic took 2nd place in the European
Youth Go Championship held in Holland in March 07, and 5th in the
recent World Youth Go Championships in Boston (fifth place), which has
sparked an increase of interest in go among teens in Nis, and the first
Nis go school is expected to be organized soon in Mitic’s
school. The tournament was organized by the Children’s
Educational Center, with the Serbian
Go Association, and the local University
Student Go Club - reported by Zeljko Veselinovic, Special Correspondent to the E-Journal
ONLINE ARCHIVES: Homepage and news page reports, photos and games are archived on the AGA’s website! You can now easily click backwards and forwards through the archives, thanks to work by Thomas Weniger, who designed the elegant arrows, Chuck Robbins and John Hilt, who implemented the design.
CORRECTION: That was Tony Zhang in the white shirt in last week’s E-Journal, not Hugh Zhang; we attributed this correctly in the photo credit, but not in the text.
KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: Strategic Overview
By James Kerwin 1P
Let me give you a strategic overview of a go game. The players divide up an area over a number of moves. They may divide amicably or they may fight, but either way at the end both players have some enduring value. Then the focus of the game shifts to another area and they do it again.
Each area can be divided up in many different ways. The players may divide the local territory up 50-50. One player may get most of the local territory while the other player gets a position of strength that will enable him to get more territory elsewhere. Or the division could be any combination between these two.
The two keys here are “…number of moves…” and “enduring value.” One can only get a small benefit from one move. To get a large benefit one needs many moves. If one player collects his benefit in the area, but the other leaves before his benefit is secure and allows the other to take it away, the neglectful player can immediately find himself far behind. The most common reason for losing in go is not collecting the benefits one is entitled to. One of the major problems I see with beginning players is that they jump around the board, never getting any real benefit in any area. For this leg of your journey, make sure you build an enduring value before you move on to another part of the board.
After you finish this article I want you to do two things. First, review a couple of pro games. The ones included in the membership edition of the E-Journal will do nicely. Don’t worry about the meaning of the individual moves. Simply watch how long the players stay in one area. Try to see how the game breaks up into long sequences resulting in each player getting an enduring value. The other thing is to look at a few joseki. (Joseki are fixed sequences that give an equal divide of a corner.) Again, don’t worry about the meaning of the moves, and do NOT try to memorize any. Just see how many moves it takes to divide up a corner. And especially note how often a joseki ends with a stabilizing extension down the side. That stabilizing extension is the move that collects the benefits. Without it there is no position of enduring value, just stones that are a potential burden.
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 QUIZ: Nobody Wins, Everyone Gets A Chance
Nobody can say they really got this week's quiz correct. Most of you (6/9) chose Chen Zude as the first truly strong player to emerge in post-war China. One chose Nie Weiping (l),
China's
great "Iron Goalkeeper" and arguably the strongest player in the world
at one time. However, according to the Go Player's Almanac, and GoGod
BOTH were made 9 dan together in 1982, along with Wu Shongsheng - so
neither of them "can say they were made 9 dan before anyone else" and
the answer I was looking for was None of the above. While two of you
made that choice, your comments demonstrated that you either did not
have the question correct (Zhang Wendong did not make 9 dan until 1993)
or were simply sick of too many tricky questions. Since no one truly
got this one, and Wikipedia clearly steered some of you the wrong way
(it says Chen Zude was first) everyone who participated has a chance to
win this week, and the winner is Phil Waldron, whose name was drawn at
random from the list of this week’s participants; special
thanks to Phil, who sent along the attached 1974 game between Nie
Weiping and Chen Zude. THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: Over 200 of you have participated in the quiz so far this year, but since some have complained about the trickiness of the last two quizzes, I thought we’d take a break this week and give you (and my editor, who loves these) a poll this week instead. Click here to let us know what you would prefer to see as quiz questions - Asian Go Trivia, Western Go Trivia, Clever Wordplay or All of the above. Plus you can opine on other type questions, harder or easier, tricky or straightforward, keep up the good work, fire the quizmaster or suggest a question or three.
- Quizmaster Keith Arnold, HKA; photo courtesy igo.web.infoseek.co.jp
GO CLASSIFIED
FOR SALE: Complete collection of Go World issues #1 through latest (#111).
Issues #1-10 are protected by hard binding. All issues are in perfect condition.
Asking price: $900 plus shipping & insurance. Please contact bwbgo@yahoo.com (9/10)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Urbana-Champaign, IL: Go is played at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign! If you want to play, or better still, help form an official AGA chapter, please contact Phil Wall (phil.wall@pobox.com). We've got a few players, but we're always looking for more. (9/10)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Hartford, CT: Looking for players in Hartford, CT, contact Benjamin Harter (benjamin.harter@pw.utc.com). We have only about 3-4 people trying to get a regular meeting going over here, almost enough to start a permanent club. It's rough going getting one started... I'm sure there are other players in the area! (9/10)
PLAYERS WANTED: Players near Orlando, FL, all strengths welcome, for more information please contact Masterman535@gmail.com; I'm AGA 1d. (8/27)
PLAYERS WANTED: Birmingham, AL: The Birmingham Go Association is looking for players of all ages and ranks. We meet 2 nights a week on Sundays 3pm to 6pm at the Riverchase Galleria in the food court in front of Nord's games and on Thursdays 7pm to 11pm at the Books-A-Million on Lakeshore Pkwy in the cafe area. Be sure to check out http://www.bhamgo.org for the meeting times and directions and register on the site to receive the weekly meeting Announcement. For more info please contact Louis at 12059030688 or lcslouis@gmail.com (8/20)
PLAYERS WANTED: Hunter College: Members wanted to start go club in Hunter College NY; please contact Boris Bernadsky; wessanenoctupus@aol.com 646-821-5588 (8/13)
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Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
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