May 12, 2008; Volume 9, #21

YEARBOOK SURVEY: "Include problem collections" "More pictures of the Go Congress" "More on youth go" Tell us what YOU think of the new American Go Yearbook and you could win a prize! Click here to take our brief survey. KIM SALAMONY is this week's winner. The 124-page compilation is the biggest Yearbook yet, featuring the best of last year's world go coverage in the E-Journal, including major event reports, photos, youth and world go news and a Yearbook CD that includes every 2007 E-Journal, including all game records.

KGS STRONG PLAYER TOURNEY UNDERWAY: Players holding the black stones proved to be unstoppable in this weekend's opening round of the Suk B. Choi Amateur Invitational Tournament on KGS, sweeping the first seven games of the event. Notable results included London Open champion Shaoyou Ouyang (left) beating Cornel Burzo and European #10 Junfu Dai (below) defeating Jan Simara of the Czech Republic. Closer to home, Zhaonian Chen lost an exciting game to former Korean insei Jang Bi while Argentinian strongman Fernando Aguilar was defeated by American youth player Andy Liu. The first round closed Monday with an American cross-coast battle between New Jersey's Eric Lui and Dae Hyuk Ho of California. The players - and their KGS nickname - include Fernando Aguilar (aguilar1), Andy Liu (BigBadWolf), Ben He (bigben79), Seokbin Cho (bin7674), Cornel Burzo (Cornel) DaeHyuk Ko (chunga), Junfu Dai (ericdai), Jan Simara (flashback), Bi Jang (gentlerain), Chris Wong (HFL), Kibong Lee (LeeKibong), Shaoyou Ouyang (oysy), Eric Lui (Pianist), Bao Yun (unknownplr), Al Jang (wolchengi) & Zhaonian Chen (zchen). For full tournament details and results, click here.
- includes reporting from Philip Waldron

ING SCHOOL TEAM TOURNAMENT BREAKS RECORDS: After two months, almost 400 games played, and over 200 US and Canadian youth participants, the Ing School Team Tournament concluded on April 27th, reports Chairman of the American Go Honor Society and tournament organizer Matthew Mallory who ran the event in conjunction with the AGA. A total of 50 teams participated with participants from elementary and high school schools, public libraries and other youth clubs. All games were played even, but the four member teams were sorted by average rank and competed in bands against other teams with similar ranks. Thanks to the Ing Foundation, every team will be receiving a free go set, as well as $75 in gift certificates to the go vendor of their choice, and the top teams in each band will receive an extra $25 certificate as well. "The players on the two Manlius Pebble Hill School teams were so focused and serious during the 32 games they played, and they were delighted with their 3-1 team records," said team advisor Richard Moseson from upstate New York. "The tournament generated a great deal of interest at the school, not only among the eight tournament participants (some of whom had played go for less than a year) but among the other students and faculty as they read about the results in the school paper," added Moseson. "When I signed up with our team I was terrified I wouldn't manage to pull my own weight," reports 15 year-old Dillon Pierce. But "now that it's over I am glad to say.... I was undefeated throughout the tournament." Pierce - who didn't have enough go players at his school to form a team - played on the Tiger's Mouth Team. "The ING Team tournament was amazing fun," said 14 year-old Tiffany Easton, another Tiger's Mouth Team member. "Despite not winning we still did great." The tournament was sponsored by the American Go Honor Society and the American Go Association. The event will be held next year; look for announcements in future E-Journals or on the forums at the Tiger's Mouth website.
     Winners Report: Mission San Jose High, CA, won the dan section with four wins; Punahou School, HI, won the 1-5 kyu section; Manlius Pebble Hill School, NY, won the 5-10k section; Milpitas Christian School, CA, won the 11-15 kyu section; Jackson Junior High, WV, won the 16-20 kyu section; Cary Chinese School, NC, won the 21-25 kyu section; and Crossroads School, CA, won the 25-30 kyu section. Click here for complete results.
- report by Paul Brachilon, Youth Editor

MONTHLY RATINGS TOURNEYS A HIT IN NORCAL: The April 26 monthly AGA ratings tournament in the San Francisco Bay area was a big success (left). Thirty three players ranging from 30k to 6d participated, with six players entering at 5d or above. "It was great to see such a wide spectrum of players-several beginners and lots of very strong players as well, " said Tournament Director Steve Burrall 5d. Added Tournament Organizer Roger Schrag 10k, "The monthly ratings tournaments are averaging over 30 players per event, and really seem to be catching on!" The April 26 tourney saw three players win all three rounds: Jason Pfaff 4k, Yin Jia Qiu 8k, and Henry Zhang 11k. Eight players won a go book of their choice from a dozen titles available-the three players who won all of their games and another five players who were participating in their first AGA rated tournament.
- Report/photo by Roger Schrag

HOUSTON CLUB BRANCHES OUT: "The Houston Go Club is expanding to meet the needs of go players in the Spring/Conroe/Woodlands area!" reports Robert Cordingley. "Join us on Monday, May 19th for the opening of our new location at the Pie Town Dessert Shop in the Portofino Shopping Center in the Woodlands just off I45 N." Meetings will be held Mondays from 5:30-8:30P "and the first three players to show up on the 19th will get free ice cream!" adds Cordingley. "Meetings are open to all skill levels and anyone with an interest in learning the game. We provide the equipment, you provide the experience."

SAVE $100 AT U.S. GO CONGRESS: Register now to get the discounted rate of $260 for registration at this year's U.S. Go Congress, set for August 2-9 in Portland, OR. "Once the full price kicks in, registration will be $360," reports Co-Director Peter Freedman. Click here to register online. (PLUS report from Akane on New Pros who have now committed to coming; keep an eye out for email from her).

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR AGA BOARD: Nominations are now being accepted for three regional directorships and one At-Large position. Nominations close June 15. Click here for complete information.

KOREANS DOMINATE ING CUP SEMIFINALS: Three of the four Ing Cup semi-finalists are Korean, giving that country an excellent chance to regain this top international title. Korea has won four of the five previous editions of the international Ing Cup; the exception was last year when Chang Hao 9P of China won. The four players in the semifinals of this 6th edition include three Koreans (Lee Changho (above) 9P-who won this Cup in 2000, Lee Sedol 9P, and Choi Cheolhan (right) 9P), and one Chinese representative, Liu Xing 7P. Lee Changho and Liu Xing are the "old" guys, in their thirties. The other two are in their twenties. No one's overall record in international events equals Lee Changho's, of course, but Lee Sedol, is the current holder of three international titles: LG Cup, Samsung Cup, and Asian TV Cup and should probably be considered the favorite. Choi has been a little off his game in the last couple of years, but took two national titles from Lee Changho in 2004 and won the international Zhonghuan Cup in 2005. Liu is definitely the underdog in this case, but not to be taken lightly. He won the Chinese CCTV Cup in 2005 and defeated Cho U 9P in 2006 in the dual China-Japan Agon Cup. The semifinals of the Ing Cup are scheduled to be played in Septermber.

PARK YEONGHUN: A MAJOR NEW STAR: Park Yeonghun (left) 9P of Korea is having an amazing year. At the age of twenty-three he won the international Fujitsu last month-for the second time: he also won this event in 2004 while still a teen. His first title was the Korean Chunwon in 2001. Now he has successfully defended his Korean Gisung (Japanese: Kisei) title, defeating Baek Hongsuk 6P on May 7th to win with a 2-1 score. This is Park's fifth consecutive win of this prestigious title. He also took the GS Caltex Cup title from Lee Sedol 9P last December, winning the last three games of their five game match after being down 0-2. In March of this year he defeated Mok Jinseok 9P to take the prestigious Maxim Cup. So he currently holds three Korean titles as well as the international Fujitsu, giving him virtual parity with Lee Sedol 9P and Lee Changho 9P in terms of current titles.
- report by Bill Cobb

HONG SEUL-KI SWEEPS AMSTERDAM PANDANET: Hong Seul-ki (right) 7d swept all six rounds to win the 2008 Amsterdam PandaNet tournament and the 500-euro top prize, besting a field of over 100. With only six rounds over four days - May 1-4 this year -- the tournament is like a small Go Congress, with plenty of time left analysis and side-events. Guo Juan 5P from Amsterdam and Kang Seung-hee 2P of Hamburg, Germany provided public comments and PandaNet broadcast top-games on IGS, while EuroGoTv.com streamed live video. Side events included a blitz and two one-day rapids during the weekend. As the only former European Champion (St. Petersburg 2003) and 7-dan attending, Hong Seul-ki 7d was the clear favorite. Zou Jin 6d only lost to Hong and won 400. Both are resident in Germany. Ondrej Silt 6d of Czechia took 3rd, Geert Groenen 6d, Holland was 4th. In the kyu-section only Arnaud Bondelu 4k of France won all his games. All players with 5-1 records also won prizemoney and those with 4-2 received a book from the sponsoring shop "Het Paard." During the fifth round professional chess-reporter Frits Agterdenbos did a shoot, click here for his superb pictures and further links.
- Report by Peter Dijkema, European correspondent (Holland); photo by Frits Agterdenbos

GO CALENDAR: Arlington, VA
May 17: Arlington, VA: May Madness
Allan Abramson 703.684.7676

WORLD AMATEUR PLAYER PROFILES: Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Indonesia
Players from 70 countries and territories will compete in the 29th annual World Amateur Go Championship May 29-31 in Tokyo, Japan. The American Go E-Journal will once again provide full coverage of the 8-round tournament, posting daily updates on the web and in the EJ, including news, features, photos and game records live from the playing venue at the Nihon Ki-in. We've been profiling WAGC players and this week we're pleased to introduce the players from Armenia, Azerbaijan, China and Indonesia.
- Chris Garlock

ARMENIA: Samvel Voskanyan 3k is a 36-year-old engineer from Yeghnadzor. He won the 2007 Armenian championship and his hobbies include music. His favorite thing about go is ko.

AZERBAIJAN: 46-year-old programmer Ibadat Mammadov 1d is from Baku, where he lives with his wife and two children.

CHINA: Yuzheng Guo 7d is a 15-year-old student from Beijing. He's been playing since he was 5 years old and won the 21st Evening News Cup National Amateur Go Championship. His favorite thing about go is that "It triggers my passion."

INDONESIA: Martin Putera (left) 3d is a 19-year-old student studying in Nanyang Technological University. He started playing five years ago because of Hikaru no Go, learning the rules from the internet. In the first half-year he only played on 9x9 board with a younger brother, then for a short while on 19x19, getting to 25k on KGS before stopping playing for a few months. After he found a go community in Jakarta, he joined them and began playing more seriously.
NOTE: US WAGC rep Mozheng Guan 8d won the November 2002 Mid-Atlantic Go
Championship in Maryland, not the 2003 Baltimore Open, as reported last week. We apologize for the error. (include his photo here if he sends it)

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
Go In Japan: "I will be going to Japan in a week," writes Peter Armenia, "and I am wondering what go-related things I should not miss. Any suggestions or pointers would be helpful." Our reports in the 2003 and 2007 American Go Yearbooks are an excellent starting place. Readers with other suggestions can email them to us at journal@usgo.org.

GO QUIZ: The First Six
Bob McGuigan gave the best and most certain identification of my photo from last week "The people in the photo are the directors of the first six US Go Congresses, in order left to right. They are all wearing the official T-shirts for their congresses, including Haskell Small (there was no shirt for the first congress)" Full points for Bob and Steve Fawthrop - although Steve admits his was a guess - including the Haskell part. It should be mentioned, for completeness, that Stu Horowitz was co-director with Ulo Tamm in Denver. Bob McGuigan is not only thorough but lucky as well: he's this week's winner, selected at random from those answering correctly. Congrats, Bob!
     THIS WEEK'S QUIZ: We direct you to check out the "Who's Coming" link at the 2008 Congress website; as of this writing, and for purposes of this quiz, 143 folks have registered. Not counting current directors Akani Negishi and Peter Freedman, how many former Congress Directors have registered thus far - is it 5, 6, 7 or 8? Click here to make your choice, and please list them in the comment section so I know it's not just a guess.
- Quizmaster Keith Arnold

GO CLASSIFIED
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 13,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

FOR SALE: Go World magazine collection, pristine condition, vols. 95, 97-105 for $55 or best offer. Email vision5m@aol.com (5/12)

GO PLAYERS AND/OR CLUBS WANTED: Endicott, NY: email Trevor Douglas; chaos56459@gmail.com (5/5)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Greenville, NC, near ECU. Contact: o.marrow@gmail.com (4/28)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Tallahassee, FL: Looking for players in the Tallahassee area. Contact Noel at emmalark@comcast.net (4/21)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Western Colorado: Rifle, Grand Junction, Glenwood
Springs, perhaps farther afield. Email jake@edge2.net (4/14)

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
Professionals: Yilun Yang 7P; Alexandr Dinerchtein 3P; Fan Hui 2P
Contributors: Paul Barchilon (Youth Editor); Lawrence Ku (U.S. West Coast Reporter); Brian Allen (U.S. West Coast Photo Editor); Peter Dijkema (Dutch/European Correspondent); Marilena Bara (Romania/European Correspondent); Ian Davis (Ireland Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Zeijst; Roy Laird; Peter Shotwell
Translations: Chris Donner (Japan); Bob McGuigan (Japan); Matt Luce (China)

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

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.