AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association December 4, 2000 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS - GO NEWS: Go Camp Scholarship Funds Needed; Attn Go-Playing Youngsters! - YOUR TURN: READERS WRITE: On Time But Out of Season; Desperately Seeking Whole Board - ONLINE GO: Banned Online (Readers Respond) - GOCLASSIFIED - ELECTION 2000: Laird Accepts - GO CLUBS: Princeton, NJ - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) December 9-10: Washington, DC Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship Ken Koester; (410) 267-0487; kkoester@riva.net December 9: Davis, CA Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament Fred Hopkins, (916) 636-8758w; (916) 965-0478h fred.hopkins@mckhboc.com January 6-7: Santa Clara, CA 9th Zhu Jiu Jiang Goe Tournament Ernest Brown, (415) 641-1452; Falcon@sfo.com January 13: Salem, OR Third Annual Salem Winter Go Tournament Jim Levenick, levenick@willamette.edu January 13-14: Lancaster, PA Pennsylvania Open; Held in conjunction with the Fujitsu Qualifer Chuck Robbins, (717) 203-9100; crobbins@wareunl.com January 13-16, 2001; Evanston, IL Yang Yilun 7P Workshop Mark Rubenstein, (847) 869-6020; workshop@easyaspi.com January 14; Boston, MA MGA Winter Handicap Tournament Don Wiener, (617) 734-6316; donwiener@earthlink.net January 20; Arlington, VA Winter Warmer; Allan Abramson, (703) 684-7676; mediate@tryi.com January 27; Chicago, IL Kid's Go Camp Reunion & Winter Tournament Bob Barber; (773) 467-0423; igo@uic.edu UPCOMING/ABROAD (see WWW.USGO.ORG for details) - December 3: West Surrey (UK) Handicap; pab27@compuserve.com - December 29-January 1: London Open geoff@kaniuk.demon.co.uk - January 20: Furze Platt (Maidenhead, UK) best@vfree.com NOTE: this listing is not all-inclusive, featuring only upcoming tournaments in the next month or events which require early registration. For a complete U.S. listings, go to http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.html For the European Go Calendar see http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/go/tourn.html GO NEWS GO CAMP SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS NEEDED Support go-playing kids! The fourth annual AGA Go Camp will take place next year in the spectacular valley of the upper Mississippi, in Winona, Minnesota. Previous go Camps have been a great success, and we need your help in raising the 2001 Go Scholarship Fund so that we can send more kids to camp. For many kids, receiving a scholarship means a difference between a week of go immersion and not going at all. Those wishing to make a tax-deductible contribution in calendar year 2000 should act now to support camp scholarships by sending a check --(payable to the American Go Foundation -- indicate that it's for the scholarship fund); send to the AGF attn Mary Laird 211 W 106th St, 3C NY, NY 10025. ATTN GO-PLAYING YOUNGSTERS! "We invite you to next year's Go Camp. It will be as great as the previous ones," says Peter Rzepecki, who reports that registrations are now being taken for the 4th Annual Summer Go Camp for Kids. Running from June 23-30, 2001, the camp is for go-focused kids ages 8-18. Instruction is provided by Janice Kim, Pro 1-Dan. "We also hope to have James Kerwin, Pro-Dan visit the Camp," says Rzepecki. The Camp will be in the spectacular valley of the upper Mississippi, in Winona, Minnesota. The Camp features lots of daily outdoor activities, sight-seeing, and twice-a-day go workshops, tournaments and just fun playing. AGA scholarships are available, and we challenge go clubs to sponsor a youth from your area to attend. For more information, or to register: Peter Rzepecki AGAGoCamp@aol.com YOUR TURN: READERS WRITE On Time But Out of Season "I'm enjoying the AGJ, but you've hit a new record in the Fall 2000 issue, I think, with an error repeated on every page! (Summer 2000 instead of Fall 2000). Besides the go theory and practice articles, I also enjoy the "philosophical rumination" type columns. Keep it all coming..." - Russ Williams Desperately Seeking Whole Board "Can you give me info on how to contact Whole Board Press? The book review in a recent journal (A Way to Play for the 21st Century" p 25, Summer 2000 issue) had no information on how to purchase the book reviewed." - Carroll Rusk WHOLE BOARD PRESS: KEN ELCHERT WHOLEBOARD@AOL.COM ONLINE GO: Banned Online (Readers Respond) By Terri Schurter "The Internet is not America," writes Rick. "The freedom of speech that the U.S. guarantees does not apply in foreign countries. IGS can use any rules it wants, sensible or obnoxious, and players can vote with their keyboards (by playing elsewhere) if they're unhappy. Yes, I take my freedoms for granted. Thanks for reminding me how lucky we are. "Don't get me started!" Steve writes. "A bunch of us were banned from IGS about 2 years ago. All we did was to have a conversation in a channel to the effect that IGS was very slow that day and NNGS was performing better. As we were having a teaching session someone (maybe me, I don't remember) suggesting moving to NNGS till IGS performance improved. Five of us had our registration cancelled! "Fortunately there is enough choice these days that it is no big deal. If I want serious play there are several other servers just as good as IGS (WWgo, Wing, CTN) so that I'm sort of glad I got thrown off -- I never would have discovered the others without it. And I also would not have made a lot of friends that I have made on the more chat-friendly servers." It seems as if bannings from IGS for fairly innocent conversations are more common than most people would imagine. Freedom of speech issues aside, it would be nice to know why you have been banned (else how can you modify your behavior?). Putting aside also the issue of whether banning in general is necessary or justified, IGS could generate more goodwill by explaining its reasons for banning and could also lend credence to the process if banning were the result of a decision of a board whose purpose would be to openly and fairly examine individual offenses. Terri Schurter has been playing Go online since 1995. Her Go club, Wings Across Calm Waters [http://www.wingsgoclub.org], is a "virtual" chapter of the AGA. Wings meets week-nights on the Zone from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm Eastern Time, and on Wednesday nights at 8P on KGS. Terri plays under the name goddess_of_go. GOCLASSIFIED Go board, stones (shell/slate) & bowls: worth $2,000+ but selling for just $600. Fred Guggenheim, 603-643-1803; katoguggenheim@aol.com ELECTION 2000: Laird Accepts By Roy Laird The AGA's first contested Presidential election proved to be invigorating and rewarding, for both the membership at large and for me personally. We all had the opportunity to examine who we are as an organization and what we want to accomplish in the next few years. I also faced the challenge of articulating what I want to bring to the AGA as president. I thank everyone who supported and encouraged me in this campaign, as well as the other nominee, Jeff Shaevel. Jeff ran a clean, issue-based campaign, something we rarely see in politics these days. Of the various issues that have played across this campaign, organizational development stands out as a common, indeed near-universal concern. AGA growth has been steady, but glacial, but we are not alone in this problem. Several European go associations, and even the venerable Japan Go Association, have actually lost members in the past few years. While we have been more fortunate, we should not rest on our modest success. We need to do more to reach out to new members and to retain the members we have, by responding to member and chapter concerns, by concerted membership drives and by doing more and more to promote go in the media. (Look for a couple of upcoming articles in Smart Money magazine, and more to come.) At the same time, we are re-examining and redefining the AGA's basic governance mechanisms, and moving ahead with other projects such as an upcoming international Internet tournament, the expansion of AGA publications and products and other activities. It looks like an eventful, productive couple of years ahead. It is heartening to see more people doing more to promote go in the US than ever. With the support of volunteers and officers alike, the AGA will continue to work hard to provide you with the tools you need to build a nationwide awareness of go. I look forward to the challenge. GO CLUBS: Princeton, NJ PRINCETON SELF-PAIRED FALL RATINGS; November 11; Princeton NJ; TD: Rick Mott; 20 players; 35 games rated: Undefeated: Yuchen BAI 4D (2/0), Charles FRENCH 3K(3/0), Steven BRETHERICK 6K (3/0), Sean MADIGAN 15k (1/0). 3 or more wins: Dan MOISE 1D (3/1), Ulrich GOERTZ 1D (3/1), Oren FIRESTEIN 9k (3/1) GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 1,300 readers coast-to-coast every week! List your Go event/news In the E-Journal: email details to us at journal@usgo.org Ratings are on the web! Check the website (www.usgo.org) for the full list. GET YOUR TOURNAMENT RATED! Send your tournament data to ratings@usgo.org AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST: President; Roy Laird: president@usgo.org Eastern VP; ChenDao Lin: vp-eastern@usgo.org Central VP; Jeff Shaevel: vp-central@usgo.org Western VP; Larry Gross: vp-western@usgo.org Treasurer; Ulo Tamm: treasurer@usgo.org Membership Secretary; John Goon: membership@usgo.org Chapters Coordinator; Bill Cobb: chapters@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator; Mike Bull: tournaments@usgo.org Education Coordinator; None Redmond: education@usgo.org Congress Liaison Officer; Chris Kirschner: cngrsliaison@usgo.org AGA website; Gordon Fraser and Chuck Robbins: webmaster@usgo.org American Go Foundation; Terry Benson: terrybenson@delphi.com AGA Librarian; Craig Hutchinson: archives@usgo.org Published by the American Go Association Material published in " AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL" may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. To make name or address corrections - notify us at the email address below. Story suggestions, event announcements and other material are welcome and should be directed to: Editor: Chris Garlock email: journal@usgo.org Voice: 202-289-7174 Fax: 202-371-0168