Volume 9, #34: July 14, 2008

KOH JUYONG SURPRISE WINNER AT SEATTLE KOREAN CONSUL GENERAL CUP: In a dramatic turn-around, Koh Juyong 7d won the Korean Consul General Cup tournament in Seattle last weekend, beating out several higher-ranked opponents including Jang Bi 9d, the former Korean insei. After Saturday’s three qualifying rounds, Koh Juyong finished 8th, but his 3-0 sweep on Sunday carried him into first place. Edward Kim 7d’s win over Jang Bi on Sunday reversed his loss to Jang Bi on Saturday and earned Kim 2nd place. See below for complete Open results. Joining these players at the Korean General Consul Cup were Consul General Lee Haryong, Consul Sung Moon Up, Professor Hahn Sang Dae, Ahn Young-Gil 6p, and Lee Ha Jin 3p. “Professor Hahn, creator of the European Ambassador’s Cup, helped set up this year’s Korean Consul General Cup,” reports local organizer Jon Boley. “He also brought Ahn Young-Gil and Lee Ha Jin to the United States for their first trip.” Starting next week they will head to Los Angeles and will stop in Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Open Results: 1st: Koh Juyong 7d; 2nd: Edward Kim 7d; 3rd: Jang Bi 9d; 4th: Ko Dae Hyuk 8D. Dan Results: 1st: Kim Won Jong 3d; 2nd: Katsuhisa Hikojiro 3d; Daniel Smith 1d; 4th: Lin Yen-Chun (Josephine) 1d. Single Digit Kyu: 1st: Joseph Spencer 6k; 2nd: Eric Feiveson 6k; 3rd: Chris Wells 3k. Double Digit Kyu: 1st: Antony Richfield 12k; 2nd: Ken Tsai 20k; 3rd: Cassie Gritten 14k. Photo: Jang Bi (left) plays Edward Kim on Saturday, photo by Brian Allen

SUN CAPTURES 4TH PLACE AT WORLD YOUTH: Eleven-year-old Calvin Sun 7D (below, on right), representing the United States, took 4th place in the Junior Division 25th annual World Youth Go Championship, which was held July 6th-11th in Guiyang, China. In the Senior Division, US representative William Zhou defeated France and Finland but lost to China, Singapore, and Ukraine, missing the cut for the semi-finals. The event -- sponsored by the Ing Foundation -- is notable for its turnout of stars such as 1988 Jr. Division Champion Chang Hao, 1992 Jr. Division Runner up Lee Sedol and 1994 Jr. Division Champion Gu Li. A total of 20 players -- 8 in the Junior Division, 12 in Senior Division -- from 13 countries attended. Sun notched three wins in the preliminary rounds, defeating, Russia, Ukraine, and Taiwan and losing to China and Japan. China, Japan and Korea each had four wins and in the semifinal, Sun lost to the Chinese representative, while Japan defeated Korea. In the final round, Sun was overpowered by the Korean representative, and China defeated Japan. "I tried to fight, but they were still too strong," Sun told the E-Journal. "However, this time I got a really nice trophy; I like it a lot," Sun added. Junior Division top results: 1st: China; 2nd: Japan; 3rd: Korea; 4th: United States. Gansheng Shi represented Canada in the Senior Division, defeating Finland and Japan but lost to China, Ukraine, and France. The final result in the Senior Division: 1st: Korea, 2nd China – whose representative made 1P last year -- 3rd Taiwan, 4th Singapore. The 26th Ing World Youth Goe Championship will be held in Shanxi, China next year. Click here for complete results.
- reported by Lawrence Ku; photos by Yiming Zhou

TOP N.A. PLAYERS BATTLE ONLINE THIS WEEKEND: Nearly two dozen top players will battle it out online this weekend in the North American Ing Masters (NAIM) Qualifier on KGS. Winners qualify to play in the NAIM tournament at the upcoming U.S. Go Congress. The 5-round tournament starts on Saturday July 19th at 9A PST (12 noon EST), 2nd round at 1P PST (4P EST), 3rd round at 4:30P (7:30P EST). Sunday’s schedule: 4th round at 9A PST (12P EST), 5th round at 1:30P PST (4:30P EST). Click here for the complete field of players; results and game records will also be posted here. Akane Negishi is the Tournament Director, with Steve Colburn Assistant TD and Chris Sira the Pairing Monitor.

KOREAN GO BUSINESS EVENT DEADLINE LOOMS: Slots are still available on the American Go Association’s team for the World Businessmen Baduk Fair (WBBF), scheduled for September 22-27 in Seoul, Korea. An opportunity to network while playing in a tournament and making new friends, the WBBF is sponsored by the City of Seoul, which seeks "to promote friendly relations and transactions among business baduk players through the world.” Team members must pay their own travel expenses, but expenses in Korea are covered. For more information, download the informational brochure and the letter of invitation. Deadline for applications is July 30; write to president@usgo.org or contact President Mike Lash now if interested. In addition to the networking opportunities, the city is organizing a workshop on preparing and submitting business proposals, and Prof. Jeong Soo-hyon, the chairman of the Dept. of Baduk Studies at Myungji University and co-author of Janice Kim's Learn To Play Go books, will present a lecture on the application of baduk principles to business strategy. Participants will also visit successful Korean businesses. There will also be five-round team and individual tournaments, plus simultaneous games with professional players, a lightning tournament and friendly games.
- Roy Laird

U.S. CONGRESS UPDATE: 3 MORE PROS & BEAT THE HEAT: Three more pros have confirmed for the upcoming U.S. Go Congress in Portland, OR: Janice Kim 3P (r), Yin Kuo 3P (l) and Kim MyungWan 8P. “Janice Kim 3P won't be able to stay for a entire week but she says that she'd willing to do some casual commentary games with mixing in some pot-limit Omaha or Texas Hold 'em, in which case she's golden,” reports Congress Co-Director Akane Negishi. Yin Kuo 3P is currently working with Feng Yun 9P and Kim MyungWan 8P is going to play in the Open, but both will be available for lessons and other activities. “The weather in Portland is perfect,” Negishi tells the EJ. “Sunny with highs in the seventies, making your stay very pleasant. I recommend bringing a hat and walking shoes.” And your tennis racquets and ping pong paddles: the EJ and Congress staff will be organizing daily games to blow off post- or pre-game stress.

NEW JOSEKI BOOK OUT FROM YUTOPIAN: An old go proverb holds that "josekis are not for memorizing, but for forgetting." The point is not to memorize the order of the moves, but to understand the meaning of each move in a joseki. That’s the idea behind “21st Century New Openings” by Kim Sung-rae 4P, out now from Yutopian. In “21st Century,” Kim Sung-rae analyzes modern josekis in detail with emphasis on the reasons for the moves. The book is comprised of three sections, the first on joseki, the second on the relationship of joseki to fuseki, and the third a summary of new patterns currently played by professionals. Click here for details on ordering.

GOT VOTE? If you’re a member of the American Go Association and have not yet voted in this year’s At-Large election – some members either never received electronic ballots or were unable to vote online -- special procedures have been set up to enable you to vote. You may send in a paper ballot on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper with your selection of candidate – click here for At-Large candidates and their statements -- to the elections coordinator. You must include your name and AGA number in your return address or back of the envelope to verify eligibility; your vote will be anonymous. You may also send an email to elections.@usgo.org with your vote and AGA number in the text. The email address must be the one on record with the AGA membership database; be sure to specify "Official Ballot At-large Election" in the subject line; if you choose this option your vote will not be anonymous. All mail ballots must be received by July 30. “I'd like to apologize to those members who have experienced any inconvenience or confusion in the voting process,” says AGA Elections Coordinator Arnold Eudell.

EJ PLANS FULL CONGRESS COVERAGE: Keep up with your friends and favorite opponents at this year’s U.S. Go Congress as the E-Journal once again provides wall-to-wall coverage of the biggest event of the annual U.S. go calendar. Watch online as we broadcast top boards live on KGS from the U.S. Open and the North American Ing Masters. Reports, photos and game records will be published in special Congress editions of the EJ and updated daily on the AGA website. We also hope to have tournament grids – updated daily – available online as well. Here’s the EJ Team line-up: CHRIS GARLOCK, Managing Editor; STEVE COLBURN, Congress/EJ IT; TODD HEIDENREICH, Lead Game Recorder; MATTHEW HEYMERING, KGS Admin/Game Recorder; RICHARD DOLEN, Game Recorder/Translator; DENNIS WHEELER, Game Recorder; GORDON CASTANZA, Game Recorder; TERRY FUNG, Game Recorder; RUKA MURUGAN, Game Recorder: BILL COBB, At-Large Reporter; LEE HUNYH, Reporter; LAURA KOLB, Reporter; PAUL BARCHILON, EJ Youth Editor; CALVIN LEE, Youth Reporter: PHIL STRAUS, photographer. For details on joining the EJ team, email Todd Heidenreich at todd@capitalgo.org photo: Akane Negishi broadcasts a game at the 2007 U.S. Go Congress

LAIRD RECALL FAILS: The effort to recall AGA Board of Directors member Roy Laird has failed. The E-Journal has learned that there were just 45 votes in favor of the recall, far short of the 133 needed.

AGA ADOPTS POLICY ON INT’L CONTACT: At its July meeting, the AGA Board of Directors adopted a policy to address the increasing volume of public international contact between AGA players and officers and the rest of the go world, reports AGA President Mike Lash. “With more players and officials traveling overseas,”Lash tells the EJ, “the AGA wishes to make sure everyone is clear on the responsibilities of travelers when representing the USA and the AGA. This will help all parties manage expectations and be aware of what will be provided by the AGA. It should serve to increase the comfort level for everyone involved.” The short agreement will be posted on the AGA website soon.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO A GO PLAYER? Hearts no doubt beat a bit faster in the go community when headlines surfaced recently linking actor Leonardo DiCaprio (l) and the word 'atari'. Close, but no cigar: turns out that DiCaprio is set to star in “a biopic about entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell, the creator of Atari and one of the founding fathers of the vidgame industry,” according to Variety. Thanks to Richard Hayes for sending this in.

TEXTING TO WIN: An Iranian chess player came up with a novel way to cheat earlier this year at the Dubai Open. “M. Sadatnajafi, with an Elo rating of 2288, while playing against Chinese Grandmaster Li Chao, made his moves based on the text messages he received on his mobile phone,” reported Chessbase News in April. Sadatnajafi was banned from the tournament. Click here for the full report. Thanks to Phil Waldron for passing this along (and our apologies for not getting it in sooner!).

GO CALENDAR: Alabama, California, Virginia & Massachusetts

July 19: Hueytown, AL: Birmingham Go Association Invitational
Pre- Registration required
Louis Gutenschwager lcslouis@gmail.com 205.903.0688

July 19: Palo Alto, CA: Bay Area Go Players Association Monthly AGA Ratings Tournament
Steve Burrall sburrall@comcast.net 916.688.2858

July 19: Arlington, VA: Congress Tune-Up
Allan Abramson allango@igc.org 703.684.7676

July 20: Somerville, MA: Massachusetts Go Assoc. handicap tournament
in Davis Square, downstairs in Soc. Sec. bldg. Registration starts 9:30 AM
Eva W. Casey eva@theworld.com 617.666.8934

GU LI WINS FUJITSU: Gu Li 9P (r) of China defeated Lee Changho 9P of Korea to take the 21st international Fujitsu Cup. This is Lee's second year as runner-up in this tournament; he won it in 1998 and 1996. Chang Hao 9P of China got third place by defeating his fellow countryman Liu Xing 7P. Click here for records of all the games. Gu Li also holds the current international Chunlan Cup. GoGameWorld.com reports that Gu Li is the first non-Korean to win three world titles; the third is the LG Cup which he won in 2006. Korean representatives had won the previous ten editions of the Fujitsu. Chang Hao is the most recent winner of the Ing Cup, so three of the most prestigious current international titles are held by Chinese representatives.

LAST WOMAN FALLS IN GG AUCTION CUP: The last of the dozen women playing a dozen senior men in the Korean GG Auction Cup has been eliminated. Park Jieun 9P managed to defeat three of the remaining six men when she came on as the last woman, but lost to Yang Jaeho 9P (l) on July 9th, dashing the women's hopes of winning this event for the second time. Yang was born in 1963. He won the first international Tongyang Cup in 1990, and has played in several international events, getting to the semifinals in the Samsung Cup in 1996.

IYAMA YUTA TO CHALLENGE FOR MEIJIN: It wasn't necessary this year to play all the games in the Meijin League to determine the challenger for Meijin title holder Cho U 9P. Iyama Yuta 7P had a 6-1 record and when Cho Chikun 9P beat Yamada Kimio 9P on Thursday, July 10th, eveyone else had lost at least three games. Since Iyama (r) had only one game to play, he became the challenger at that point. Having a shot at one of the most prestigious Japanese titles at the age of twenty is a remarkable achievement. This best-of-seven-game match will be a major test of young Iyama, who has been making a splash in the Japanese go world since he set the record for being the youngest pro to ever win an open pro title in Japan at the age of 16 in 2005. He also won the Shinjin O (New Stars) last year and has done well in a number of other events. Cho U, who currently holds five Japanese titles, will be a formidable opponent. Cho was also Meijin in 2004 and 2005. Their first game is scheduled for September 4th and 5th. In previous games between Cho and Iyama, Cho has a 3-1 edge.

IYAMA YUTA WINS DAIWA CUP: Iyama Yuta 8P defeated Cho U 9P on Saturday, July 12th, to win the 1st Daiwa Cup Grand Champion tournament. This may be a foreshadowing of what is going to happen when Iyama challenges Cho for his Meijin title in September. This victory brings the record in their games against each other to 3-2 in Cho's favor. Iyama, who turned twenty in May, continues to amass a remarkable record. The Daiwa Grand Champion Cup is his third pro title. Note: Iyama is now 8P -- we reported 7P in an earlier story about the Meijin League. He was promoted to 8P for winning the Meijin League.

GO QUIZ: Quizmaster Outsmarted
Most of you correctly identified Rin Kaiho (AKA Lin Haifong) and Kato Masao as two players who came up one short of winning the Japanese “Big Seven” titles. Both challenged for the Kisei but never won. The idea for this question came from my "knowing" that Kobayashi Koichi had won all but the Honinbo. I then researched and discovered Rin and Kato "completed" the list. My apologies to those of you who searched for the third name - and even though Wikipedia agrees with me, sadly Kobayashi never won the Oza either. Congrats to this week's winner, Reinhold Burger, selected at random from those answering correctly. By the way, conflicting reports have come in on Cho Hun Hyeon's Congress attendance. Mark Lass reports seeing him at the Princeton Go Congress, while Peter Schumer recalls him at the banquet of the first Rochester Congress. Perhaps he showed up briefly multiple times - because my recall is him playing a two- or three-on-one simul - and a young Eric Lui being one of the opponents - and both Congresses mentioned above are too early for Eric to have been there.
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: Ok, I am 100% certain about this question. Since we know Rin Kaiho (pictured, winning the 1990 NEC cup over O Rissei) was at the first Congress, and he has won every title except Kisei - we are left with one question. Has a Kisei winner ever attended a Congress? Obviously it is impossible for any current Kisei holder to come here for a week - he would be too busy - so this would have to be someone who came here before or after he won the title. Click here to send your answer; no, or yes and a name or names.
- Keith Arnold, Quizmaster

CAN'T STOP THE MONKEY JUMP: Our First Go Class
by Motoko Arai
    So, it was during these first go classes I attended that I had a very moving, eye-opening experience.
    Um... where to start? In this go class, first we had about an hour-long lecture from the teacher, and then we played against each other. (By the way, this class format has stayed the same since the start, regardless of the teacher.) In our classes now, while we're playing each other the teacher walks around and looks at our games and then gives us a mini-lesson afterwards. In these first classes, however, the teacher would play simultaneous teaching games against three or four of us. After going to the class 3 or 4 times, it was my turn to play such a teaching game.
    Wow – teaching go. It seems exciting to me now, but at the time I wasn't excited at all. I was just panicked, thinking, “How am I going to play against a pro?” I mean, at that time my go was such that at my home go parties I'd get a 9-stone handicap from a shodan player but it didn't make any difference: I'd still die in at least one big place on the board, and on bad days I'd die in two or more.
    And of course, the teacher was a pro – much stronger than an amateur shodan. No matter how I looked at it, I just figured I'd be dying everywhere. However, in fact, that's not the way it turned out at all.
    It is called “teaching go” after all. Not an everyday game of go, but a teaching game, and the teacher played very gently and supportively, telling me things like, “You'll want to connect up those stones.” And so he allowed me to connect up all of my stones so that I didn't have a single large group that was going to die.
    We were getting toward the end of the game and... and... were we finished? At the top of the board I had a small group worth about ten points, but it had terrible shape and it looked to me like no matter what I did it could be cut apart. My teacher hadn't attacked this group, but I wondered whether it was really alive or not. And then he said, “Okay, let's call this section finished, all right?” and pushed the stones off the board! “I think maybe you realized it,” he continued, “but those stones in that shape were dead, right?” And he pointed at the place where my bad shape had been – where there weren't any stones at all anymore.
    But... but... I wanted you to tell me what I did wrong there, I thought. I wanted you to tell me, but now all the stones are gone. I was thinking of saying something when, slowly, stone by stone, my teacher began playing out the position in that area again. Where he had just cleared everything away, my teacher slowly laid out the stones, talking about the developing position as he did so. And I could see it taking shape – the same exact shape was appearing all over again.
    “... and so, you can see that this is the crux point. If you had protected this point first...” The teacher was talking but I really wasn't hearing anything. I was too absorbed by the thought of something else.
    Could pros really re-play a whole position in one game of four that they had just played moments ago, only from memory? What an amazing thing that must be!
Motoko Arai is an award-winning science fiction author in Japan. Translated by Chris Donner from the Nihon Kiin's Go Weekly

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

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Starting a Go club in the Decatur/Huntsville, AL area. All players, all levels welcome. Anyone interested please e-mail Brandon at gomeditate@gmail.com (7/14)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Phoenixville, PA. All levels of player welcome (though currently, we are mostly beginners). Meeting on Saturday afternoons and sometimes weeknights. If interested, please email Craig at scorelessdraw@gmail.com for details. (7/7)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Middletown, CT. The Central Connecticut Go Club meets
every week on Fridays in Middletown, CT. We would love to have some new
players drop by! Check out our website http://chapters.usgo.org/ccgc/ (6/23)
GO PLAYERS WANTED: Tulsa OK, Starting a go club, need members, any level is welcome. If interested contact me at graham_baluh@yahoo.com (6/16)

TEACHER WANTED: Seeking teacher (1 dan or above) for 13 kyu student in Lake County, Illinois (Grayslake area). Fee and number of lessons to be negotiated. Please e-mail mnewcomballen@juno.com if interested. (6/9)

GO PLAYERS WANTED: Bluffton SC/Hilton Head SC; Starting a go club, need members, any level of strength is welcome. Need to get members in
order to start fundraising for equipment. If interested, please contact me at: teamochi@mac.com (6/9)

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); Jens Henker (Korea 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.