American Go E-Journal 

August 7, 2000

Special U.S. Go Congress Edition 



IN THIS ISSUE:
- LIVE FROM THE U.S. GO CONGRESS
- PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING: JAMES KERWIN
- BY THE NUMBERS
- SCOREBOARD: Ing Cup; Computer Go; Self-Paired 



LIVE FROM THE U.S. GO CONGRESS

The annual U.S. Go Congress is the American Go community's largest 
event, hosted in a different city each year in August. 

This year's Congress is taking place this week in Denver, Colorado, 
and features several major Go tournaments, as well as lectures, 
game analysis and simultaneous games with professional Go players 
from around the world.

The E-Journal will report daily from the Congress this week, with 
updates on the various tournaments -- both major and "just for 
fun" -- and reports on other activities of general interest.  We 
hope you find these reports useful and that they inspire you to 
mark your calendar for next year's Congress.  



PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING: JAMES KERWIN

"Go is a commonsensical game," James Kerwin, professional 1-Dan 
said in a lecture Sunday at the U.S. Go Congress.  "On the most 
basic level, it's the application of commonsense principles move 
after move."

"At the same time," Kerwin continued, "Go is beyond human 
capabilities to understand.  No matter how deep you go, there are 
still more depths.  Professional players go down 100 feet, while 
amateur players go down six inches before they start gasping for 
breath."

This truth, Kerwin said, assures Go players that "However long 
we play, we can be confident the game will continue to fascinate 
and perplex us." 



BY THE NUMBERS 

- 238: Total number of players at the Congress 
- 87: oldest player (Heidi Kirschner)
- 6: youngest player (Josh Clarke)
- 29: number of states represented
- 7: number of countries represented
- 37: number of children playing 



SCOREBOARD 


10th American Ing Cup
Round 1 winners: 
Table 1: Jong Moon Lee;   Table 2: Yuan Zhou; 
Table 3: Jung Hoon Lee;   Table 4: Lianzhou Yu; 
Table 5: Thomas Hsiang;   Table 6: Dae Yol Kim; 
Table 7: I-Han Lui;       Table 8: Ho-suk Yi.


North American Computer Go Championship
First-round results: 
Many Faces of Go beat both Smart Go & Poka; Smart Go beat Poka.  


Congress Self-Paired
There are 11 divisions in this continuous tournament in which any 
player may invite another to play an AGA-rated game. 

Martin Lebl of Arizona is currently leading the pack in a whopping 
5 divisions: The Champion; The Sensei; The Straight Shooter; The 
Hurricane and The Dedicated.

Oher leaders: David Frankel (The Giant Killer); George Schmitten 
(The Philanthropist); Scott Dossey (The Grasshopper); Piers 
Shepperson (The Keith Arnold); Steve Uhl (The Faithful); Keith 
Arnold (The Optimist).