December 31, 2007; Volume 8, #81

N.A. OZA REGISTRATION NEARING 200: Over 100 have now registered in Baltimore and 79 in Los Angeles for the January 19-20 North American Oza Go Tournament, one of the premiere go tournaments in the North American go calendar. The prize pool for both locations is more than $25,000 and the open section winner in each location will win a prize of $3,000. Click here for details and to register.

TOURNEYS TO AWARD MIND SPORT POINTS: Entry points for the World Mind Sports Games Trials will be awarded at three tournaments this month, kicking off the selection process for the US team in next October's World Mind Sport Games in Beijing. The first points will be awarded this weekend at the Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament in San Francisco. Two weeks later, players in both the Baltimore and Los Angeles sections of the Toyota Denso North American Oza Qualifying Tournament will win up to ten points each. “Any tournament can qualify, depending on the number of players, average strengths in the op section and other variables,” says AGA President Mike Lash. Board Chair Roy Laird urges strong players to “encourage your strong friends to come -- if they play too, all top finishers will get more points!” To learn more, download a point calculator to figure out the points for any size tournament, or write to operations@usgo.org for more information. Stay tuned to the AGA events page for WMSG point tournaments in your area.

STILL TIME TO BOOST RANKS FOR REDMOND: Young go players who are not quite up to 5k in the Redmond Cup junior bracket yet or haven't made Shodan in the senior still have time to boost their ranks. January 31 is the last day to register for both Redmond events; click here for details. "In playing against the strongest players you learn how to become stronger," says organizer None Redmond. As an added incentive, the American Go Foundation also provides cash prizes to the winners, $300 for first place and $200 for second place in each division. To register for either tournament e-mail None Redmond, by Jan. 31, at chinski@inreach.com, with your name, address, phone #, date of birth, email address, AGA rating, citizenship, and go club. Be sure to indicate which tournament you are registering for.

KAZ BLOGS: Kazunari Furuyama, the author of the popular go lessons "Important, Fundamental Matters" that appear once a month in the E-Journal has now started a blog in which he will also write go lessons. Click here to check it out. photo: Kaz (left) with EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock ® and EJ photographer John Pinkerton (c) in Tokyo earlier this year.

DUANE BURNS UPDATE: Visitation hours for Duane Burns 2d, who passed away recently, will be January 4 from 6-9P at Gattozzi and Son Funeral Home, 12524 Chillicothe Road, Chesterland, OH. A memorial Mass is scheduled for 11A Jan. 5 at the Church of St. Mary, 401 North St., Chardon, OH.

CALENDAR: San Francisco, CA
January 5-6: San Francisco, CA: Annual JuJo Jiang Goe Tournament
Ernest Brown Ernest@GoeDharma.com 415.641.1452

GU LI SWEEPS MINGREN: Gu Li 9P (l) completed his 3-0 sweep of the Chinese Mingren (Japanese: Meijin) on December 28th. Gu defended his title against Ding Wei 9P, who is almost thirty and has only won one title so far, the CCTV Cup in 2000. This is Gu's fourth consecutive victory in this event, though he is still a long way from equaling Ma Xiaochun 9P's record of holding this title for thirteen consecutive years. Gu, who is in his middle twenties, has won many titles, both national and international, and currently holds two international titles, the Chunlan (Gu is the only Chinese player who has won this event) and the China-Korea Tengen, as well as two of the most prestigious national titles, the Mingren and the Tianyuan.

LIU XING REPEATS IN CHINA-JAPAN AGON CUP: Liu Xing 7P (r) defeated Cho U 9P for the second year in a row in the one-game match between the winners of the Agon Cup in Japan and in China. Last year Liu won by resignation, but this year he won by a mere half point, playing Black. This is the fifth consecutive victory for the Chinese in this event. The last Japanese Agon Cup winner to prevail against the winner of the Chinese Agon Cup was Cho Chikun 9P who defeated Yu Bin 9P in 2003. Cho U currently holds five Japanese national titles, including two of the top seven: the Meijin and the Gosei. Liu's only other title win was the CCTV Cup in 2005.

TAKEMIYA IN VIENNA: Takemiya Masaki 9P will conduct a workshop in Vienna, Austria from January 4-8, along with fellow pros Kenmochi Jo 7P and Kobayashi Chizu 5P. For details, click here

GO REVIEW: Go World Archive
Reviewed by Philip Waldron
    For over thirty years, Go World magazine has been the premier source of English-language go news, teaching and game analysis. First published at a time when only a handful of go books were available, Go World quickly became an invaluable resource for Western go players. Recently Westerners have been faced with the worrisome prospect of Go World’s valuable contents vanishing into history, but fortunately this fear can be laid to rest with the release of the Go World Archive, an electronic collection of the first 108 issues of the magazine.
    The Go World Archive can be purchased in two ways: issues can be purchased and downloaded individually or, more economically, larger collections can be ordered on DVD. I ordered the complete collection, and was impressed with the elegant three-DVD set delivered a few days later. I was pleased to find that Go World issues are distributed as PDF files, which allows for portability across many computer systems. Digital issues are faithful copies of the originals, and the complete collection includes over 6000 printed pages of material, ranging from commented games to tsume-go problems. Fortunately, the digital version includes a searchable index file and table of contents to aid in searches for a particular article. Finally, there are scans of the beautiful magazine covers, although unfortunately not at high enough resolution to be usable as desktop wallpaper.
    While my experiences with the Go World Archive were positive overall, there are two difficulties worthy of note. Page images were generated by scanning the original printed versions, and some artifacts, mainly blocky text and diagrams with crooked lines, are visible in places. While this doesn't have much practical effect, the final product is not as attractive as it might otherwise be. More disappointing was the fact that the PDF files have several security features enabled. Extracting page images or copying and pasting text is forbidden. Given that the files as whole can be copied without difficulty, this seems like an unnecessary aggravation rather than a serious effort at copy protection.
    These minor difficulties aside, the Go World Archive is a wonderful resource for Western go players and I highly recommend it. It is the largest collection of commented games in available in English, and a treasure trove of teaching material for players of all levels.
The Go World Archive is available from Kiseido Digital.

GO CLASSIFIED
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 12,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

FOR SALE: The original audio and video material from Pieter Mioch’s 1999 interview with Go Seigen at his house in Odawara, Japan. “The interview covers Go's views on religion and Chinese/ Japanese culture,” says Mioch, “there is almost no technical material dealing with the game itself.” Materials include: one 120-minute Hi8 tape about 100 min long; 1MD with same contents but better sound quality plus some extra conversation between Mioch and Mr. Teramoto, Go's manager; 1 video camera (1994 model) with small lcd screen, adaptor for 110~220 V included; 1 copy of a signed copy of Go’s biography, "Ibun Kaiyu" and some not too well focused pictures made by Teramoto during the interview. NOTE: All the material is in Japanese. There are no extra copies of the original tapes; purchaser gets all rights of usage. “Most of the material has never been used in any of the articles I did,” says Mioch. If interested, email pmioch@ma.ccnw.ne.jp and include "Go Seigen Material" in subject line. (12/24)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Rexburg, ID. The BYU-I Go Association has been formed and is looking for members. We meet every Wednesday 7-9 pm on the BYU-I campus, Manwaring Center building, first floor at the "Nordic Landing". instruction provided! email Mark: markoliver07@gmail.com (12/25)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: New Brunswick, NJ: Starting up a club in Rutgers University. I've gotten a few people already, and am still looking for those who are interested with any level experience. Please contact Andrew at tenorfella@gmail.com (12/17)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Anyone interested in starting a Go club in Lexington, KY. Days to meet and times not yet decided, planning to seek input and discuss among all interested. Email dickens.ja@gmail.com (12/17)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Washington, PA; I am going to start a go workshop every weekend at any coffee shop in Washington PA. Anybody is welcome. please drop a message to Qi Guan at guangame@gmail.com if interested. (12/17)

GO BOARDS WANTED: Looking for a decent go board; not homemade, warped or abused (dinged or scratches OK). Need bowls too. Also seeking one 13x13/19x19 reversible board. Contact gkoewing@ gmail.com (12/3/07)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Mooresville, NC area. New club trying to start up. Playing on Sundays at Gamers University in Mooresville. Email Angela: a_e_blackwell@hotmail.com (11/26)

GO PROFESSOR WANTED: The Department of Baduk Studies at the Myongji University of Korea is looking for a Contract Professor. Must be a M.D. holder in the fields related to Baduk; responsibilities include lectures in English and lectures related to Baduk. For more info email Kim Se Young at gnuoyes@hotmail.com (11/26)


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

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