World Go News from the American Go Association
November 5, 2007; Volume 8, #73

U.S. GO NEWS: Jang Bi Tops Portland Tourney; Andy Olsen Wins Austin;Hugh Zhang Wins Jujo Youth Tourney; U.S. Defeats Canada In Online Team Tourney; Cotsen Offers Strong Field, Big Prizes;Moon Cha Deadline Saturday
WORLD GO NEWS: Meijin Goes To Decisive Game 7; Lee Sedol Sweeps Korean Myeongin; Rui Naiwei And Park Jieun In Finals Of Yuanyang Cup; S. Korea Dominates Hangzhou Tourney
GO CALENDAR: NYC, LA & Baltimore
IN MEMORIAM: Craig Hutchinson
YOUR MOVE: Choe Bae AKA Zhao Pei
GO PHOTOS: Feng Yun 9P’s Summer Go Camp
GO QUIZ: Of Time and Go Families
KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: The Center
GO CLASSIFIED
MEMBER’S EDITION BONUS CONTENT: Making steady progress, pro turned medical doctor Sakai Hideyuki 7P takes on Yoda Norimoto 9P in the quarter final of the 16th Ryusei tournament in today’s game commentary by Rob van Zeijst. Will Sakai be able to beat this veteran who has held many titles, including the Meijin, a number of times? Find out how to play an early ko battle, experience complicated capturing race fights, and find out how a spine-chilling ko causes over 100 points to trade owners. E-Journal regular contributor van Zeijst is a Dutch player who lives in Tokyo. He writes the Magic of Go column in the Daily Yomiuri Our bonus file today is a hot-off-the-press Jie Li 9d commentary on the October 29 US-Canada online Team Go game between Yongfei Ge 8d (Canada) and Huiren Yang (US). Non-members: all this great content is just a click away
photo: Yilun Yang 7P plays a top Chinese pro at the 2006 Cotsen tournament while tourney founder Eric Cotsen observes.

JANG BI TOPS PORTLAND TOURNEY: Jang Bi took top honors in the November 3 Portland Tournament, topping a field of 43 players. Results: Dan: 1st: Jang Bi; 2nd: Chang Yu; 3rd: Zhao Yan. 1-9 kyu: 1st: Lucas Carlson; 2nd: Jeremiah Burley; 3rd: Frank Brown. 10+ kyu: 1st: Richard Steinfeld; 2nd: Gordon Costanza; 3rd: Robert Solovay. Youth: Mike Tobias. Female: Akane Negishi. New: Chang Yu. The next Oregon tournament will be in Salem on Jan 12, 2008
- reported by Peter Drake

ANDY OLSEN WINS AUSTIN: Andy Olsen won the November 3 Austin Go Club fall tournament. The 3-round event attracted 13 players, including 5 new members; Joe Eaton was TD. Results: 1st: Andy Olsen 3-0; 2nd: Bart Jacob; 3rd: Mike Heinich; 4th: Lorenzo Sadun.
- reported by Joe Eaton

HUGH ZHANG WINS JUJO YOUTH TOURNEY: Hugh Zhang – “a rising star in American go” -- won the October 28 Jujo Jiang Youth Tournament, reports Ernest Brown. Held in Sunnyvale, California, 116 youngsters participated in the 10th annual event. Winner’s Report: first place finishers in each division: Hugh Zhang, Eric Su, Corey Huang, Ethan Chao, Alex Shieh, Joey Chou, Justin Fang, Kevin Fang, Alvin Kao, Justin Wu, Jonathan Ta. For complete tournament results click here
photo: Mingjiu Jiang and Kris Wang (Mayor of Cupertino, CA), present the trophy for the top section to Hugh Zhang.

U.S. DEFEATS CANADA IN ONLINE TEAM TOURNEY: The U.S. team won the October 27-29 U.S.- Canada tournament by a score of 7-4 after Huiren Yang 8d defeated Yongfei Ge 9d and Eric Lui 8d beat Jun Fan in the final rounds of the online event on October 29 (the U.S. had led 5-4, as previously reported). In other U.S. team news, Lionel Zhang turned in the best U.S. result yet in the Hangzhou International City Go Tournament. Click here for details.
- reported by Ke Lu

COTSEN OFFERS STRONG FIELD, BIG PRIZES: Over $5,000 in prizes and a free lunch buffet attracts one of the largest and strongest fields to the annual Cotsen Open, scheduled for this weekend in Los Angeles, CA. Pre-registration is required for the free buffet; email casie@thelec.com or click here The E-Journal will broadcast top games live on KGS, as well as a pro-pro game between Yilun Yang 7P and another professional. Sponsored by Eric Cotsen and the American Go Association, the tournament also features “two masseuses (l) (who) will be making the rounds to ease the tensions that arise in your shoulders” as well as $1,500 prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Go clubs.
photo: Chris Garlock

MOON CHA DEADLINE SATURDAY: Pre-registration is required for the upcoming Moon Cha Memorial Go Tournament in Rockville, MD. Registration deadline is Saturday, November 10; the tournament is on November 17. “Players at all levels are welcome and prizes will be awarded at all levels,” says organizer Yuan Zhou. Organized by the XYZ Private Go Group and sponsored by Slate and Shell, this is an official AGA-rated tournament.

MEIJIN GOES TO DECISIVE GAME 7: This year’s Meijin all comes down to one game now. After being down by a score of 1-3 at the end of the fourth game in the defense of his Meijin title, Takao Shinji 9P came back to win games five and six by margins of a two and a half points and a half point to tie up the match before this week’s decisive final game against challenger Cho U 9P. Game 7 is set for November 8th and 9th. Takao took this title last year from Cho, who had held it for two years. Takao's only other title is the Honinbo, which he also took from Cho. He has held the Honinbo for three terms now, defeating challenger Yoda Norimoto 9P earlier this year. Cho holds the Gosei title, one of the top seven Japanese national titles, and also won the Agon Cup, the Ryusei , and the NEC Cup. He is also to play Cho Chikun 9P for the right to be this year's challenger for the Kisei. TO HYPERLINK OR NOT: How useful are the hyperlinks to foreign players and events? Click here to let us know what you think!

LEE SEDOL SWEEPS KOREAN MYEONGIN: Lee Sedol 9P (l) defeated Cho Hanseung 9P by a score of 3-0 to win the Korean Myeongin (Meijin). In this event there is a ten-member round-robin league. The top two finishers then play a best-of-five-game match for the title. At the end of the league play Lee was number one with a 7-2 record, but Cho was tied with Mok Jinseok 9P at 6-6, so they had a play-off won by Cho. Interestingly, during the league Mok defeated both Lee and Cho, but went down by resignation in the play-off with Cho. Lee is one of the most successful current pros; many see him as a serious challenge to Lee Changho 9P's status as number one in Korea and the world. This is the first time Lee Sedol has won this event, which was won by Lee Changho twelve times in the previous thirteen terms.

RUI NAIWEI AND PARK JIEUN IN FINALS OF YUANYANG CUP: The Yuanyang Cup is a brand new international women's tournament that includes a representative from both North America and Europe, along with six each from Korea and Japan, and ten players from China. The event is sponsored by a Chinese company and played in Baejing. The Western reps, Feng Yun 9P and Zhao Pei (Cho Bae) 6d, both lost in the first round. The semifinals on November 1st included a Japanese rep (Yashiro Kumiko 5P), a Chinese (Zhang Xiang 8P), and the two Koreans who came out on top, Rui Naiwei 9P (r) and Park Jieun 8P (l). Rui beat Zhang, and Park defeated Yashiro. The finals will be a best-of-three-game match and is scheduled for January 2008.

S. KOREA DOMINATES HANGZHOU TOURNEY: Nearly 30 teams participated in this year’s Hangzhou International City Go Tournament, held in October 25-29 in Hangzhou, China. Lionel Zhang and Jack Shih represented the U.S., and Zhang’s 5-4 result was the best performance yet in the three years the U.S. has participated. A total of 87 players participated, playing nine rounds over four days. South Korea’s four teams -- three from Seoul and one from Chun-Lo-Dao – comprise the events biggest and strongest group. The oldest players was a 71-year-old from Japan and youngest a 9-year-old from China. The Republic of Mongolia sent a team for the first time this year. Many famous China professional players also joined the 6th annual event, including Nie Weiping 9P, Ma Hsiao-Tsun 9P, Hua I-Kang 9P, Zhang Weng-Tung 9P, Tsao Da-Yen 9p, and Lo Jeang-wen 7P, who played friendship games against each other.
Results: Team section: 1st: Seoul #3; 2nd: Seoul #2 team; 3rd: Chun-Lo-Dao team. Individual section: 1st: Kim, Shun-Zen (S. Korea 3); 2nd: Kim, Da-Ho (S. Korea 1) 3rd: Jiang, Zen-Pei (S. Korea 2), 4th: Lee, Shun-Hau (China, Zhung-Chin), 5th Hong, Shou-I ( Chun-Lo-Dao), 6th: Hu, Yu-Chin (China, Hangzhou; Hu was the Hangzhou champion for last three years and is also a former World Amateur Tournament champion).
- reported by Jack Shih

GO CALENDAR: NYC, LA & Baltimore
November 9: New York, NY: Fridays With Andy: Learn From A Champion!
2006 US Open winner Andy Liu 8D (l, photo by Roy Laird), one of America's top ten players, teaches and plays
Roy Laird nygc@usgo.org 212.223.0342
November 10-11: Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Go Tournament
Casie Rizer-Mitchell casie@thelec.com 310.473.5873
Lloyd Eric Cotsen gotournament@thelec.com
November 10: Baltimore, MD: Hopkins 6th Annual Go Tournament
Lisa Scott jhu_go@yahoo.com 816.651.6347

IN MEMORIAM: Craig Hutchinson
    Craig Hutchinson 1d, a longtime player and AGA volunteer, passed away Tuesday, October 30. For many years the AGA Archivist, Hutchinson, a well-known go editor and writer, was deeply involved with go and promoting it in the United States for many years. After a career as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps, Hutchinson became a prominent swing dance organizer and eventually a judge of national swing dance competitions. As AGA Archivist, Hutchinson single-handedly amassed the more than 100 boxes of books, newsletters, photographs and other materials that now constitute the AGA Historical Archive “Craig was a giant of his go generation,” said AGA President Mike Lash. “His contributions to establishing the permanency and recording the history of go in America continued right up to the end. He was a strong presence in our community and will be deeply missed by us all." Added AGA Board Chair Roy Laird, "Everyone who knew Craig knew of his passion for go. Fewer knew his humorous side, perhaps best illustrated in the whimsical ‘Go Origin’ legend that he created.” Despite serious health problems in recent years, Hutchinson remained active, showing up at go events as recently as the 2005 U.S. Go Congress – where, in addition to directing the 9x9 tournament (a longtime tradition), he taught Chinese counting for the Day Off tournament, won the 2 dan section in the U.S. Open, and won the Lasker award -- and published a go website in late 2006 with a long subtitle ending with Hutchinson’s trademark motto, “Enjoy Your Good Premises.” Chuck Robbins, who helped Hutchinson travel to several events in recent years, says “He was upbeat about life and go and did not allow his medical condition to deter him. I’m not sure who helped who the most. He taught me about grace in the face of adversity.” Click here for a longer version of this report. photo: Phil Straus

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write

CHOE BAE AKA ZHAO PEI: “In case your readers are looking in vain for Cho Bae on the EGF rating list, she is known in Europe as Zhao Pei,” writes European Go Federation President Tony Atkins. Cho Bae is the Japanese reading of her name; Zhao Pei is the Chinese version. Pei is a German national currently working in Shaghai.

GO PHOTOS
Photos from Feng Yun 9P’s Summer Go Camp in Hangzhou, China are now available online The 2nd annual camp ran from June 23 through July 29 and offers students the experience of studying go with local Chinese go players of the same age. In addition to go activities, workshop participants are exposed to Chinese culture, and have opportunities to visit local sights.

GO QUIZ: Of Time and Go Families
Last week’s survey generated one of the biggest responses in months, with some very clear results. Electronic clocks are preferred to analog by a whopping 87.1% (despite many complaints about their noise), while 69.4% prefer Japanese byo yomi to Canadian overtime, although several suggested that we should have included Fischer timing as an option. Tournament organizers will undoubtedly cheer to hear that 62.3% would you be willing to provide your own clocks for tournaments. Here at the Go Quiz we were very sad to hear about the loss of old friend Craig Hutchinson; his archive materials have inspired many a Quiz question, and much of the history of U.S. go in the last century would be all but lost without his quiet efforts.
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: Fair warning: I am going to try to come up with some tough questions to finish off the year. There are many famous go families – the Great Kitani with his daughter and son in law, and now their daughter and son-in-law. The Honda Sisters. Father and son 9 dans, Hane Yasumasa and Hane Naoki. Can you name father, son and grandson 9 dans? Click here with your answer.
- Keith Arnold, HKA, Quizmaster

KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: The Center
by James Kerwin 1P
    Despite all that beckoning wide-open space, the center of the go board is generally not a productive place to try for territory. The real significance of the center is that it is the place of safety. All killing attempts begin with enclosing the target group. When a group runs into the center it becomes virtually impossible to enclose it, and thus the group can’t be killed. I realize this may not be very reassuring when your eyeless group is wandering across the board, but you must trust the logic and when your group can’t quickly make life on the side you should run it into the center right away.
    Why are center groups so hard to kill? The fundamental reason is that each move creates multiple new possibilities. The would-be killer can block one or two of them, but not all. Diagram 1 illustrates the principle (but do not consider it a model for actual play): while Black 1 has four obvious follow-ups -- one-space jumps in four directions -- White can only block one. Black 3 then creates three more follow-ups – more one-space jumps, the failsafe center move -- in three directions, and again white can only block one. Black 5 shows another good shape, the ‘dogs neck’, and white can only block one of three good follow-up moves. By Black 3 the group is virtually alive, and black has not used any threats to link up to existing stones or to cut off and kill blocking white stones.
    All well and good, but you’re still worried about safety and eyes. Beginners think that being alive means having eyes, but this is too simple, as well as inaccurate. If a group can’t be killed, it is alive, even if it doesn’t have eyes. How is this possible? To kill a group, three things must happen: deny it eyes, cut off all connections, and be able to withstand a counter-attack. Without all three of these conditions, a group may be vulnerable, but it cannot definitely be killed. For most of the game, most groups do not have eyes but are not killable. However, the addition of one or more stones at key locations may well turn them into killable groups. One skill in go is to find these key locations in areas near a no-eye but not-killable group which simultaneously threaten the group and create profit in the nearby area. Thinking defensively, one can never assume that a group that the opponent is ignoring can never be attacked. One must keep checking the safety of “strong” groups, as well as “weak groups.”
    There are two situations when potential center territory becomes significant. The first is in a large structure game when the center potential is added to an existing corner and side structure. The second situation is roughly the second half of a game when the corners and sides are pretty much played out.
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 CLASSIFIED
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 11,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org Locate go clubs worldwide

NEW! GO PLAYERS WANTED: Baltimore, MD: Go players wanted in northern Baltimore, MD. The Lake Walker Go Club (an official AGA chapter) meets every Monday night at 8. Contact Jim Pickett: j.m.pickett@att.net (11/5)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Go club starting in Orlando, looking for more members. All skill levels and ages welcome. Please contact Masterman535@gmail.com for more details. (10/29)

YOUTH PLAYERS WANTED: N. Portland: 7th grade student at N. Portland school looking for 3rd- to 12th-grade students for a Go Club or just to meet and play in the North Portland, OR area. "Newbies" thru intermediate levels especially encouraged. Please email Kyle at VGRfan@Yahoo.com if interested or have questions. THANKS! (10/29)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Western Morris County, New Jersey. Contact dpalumbo33@comcast.net (10/22)

JAVA DEVELOPERS AND WEB DESIGNERS WANTED for a new open-source web site devoted to promoting go in your local neighborhood. If interested, please contact Alf Mikula, amikula@gmail.com (10/15)

FOR SALE: Complete collection of Go World issues #1 through latest (#112). Issues #1-10 are protected by hard binding. All issues are in perfect condition. Asking price: $800 plus shipping & insurance. Please contact bwbgo@yahoo.com (10/15)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Claremont, CA: Seeking interest in starting a go club/meeting in Claremont, CA centered around the Claremont Colleges campus. Please contact Scott Nichols (deoryp@gmail.com) if you are interested. All ranks welcome. (10/8)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Katy, TX. We are starting a club on the West side of the Houston, TX, metropolitan area. Players of all strengths are welcome. Please e-mail all inquiries to Paul Wheeler at pkwheeler@ti.com (10/1)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Athens, OH: Looking for go players experienced or not. Looking for a study partner or teacher to understand the philosophy of go and to play on a frequent basis. I have a philosophy/science background and want to approach go from those understandings. My email is stahl8@gmail.com (10/1)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Bellefontaine,OH area. I'm trying to get a club started around here; if interested contact Jessy Ferguson yoh_love_aeralee@hotmail.com Also tell me if you have your own go board. (10/1)

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Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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