AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association January 15, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS - SCOREBOARD: Zhu Jiu Jiang Goe Tournament; MGA Winter Handicap; Fujitsu Qualifier; Pennsylvania Open - GO CLUBS: New Orleans, LA - YOUR TURN: READERS WRITE: Expanding the World Go Population, One E-Journal Subscriber at a Time; Get Over It - GO NEWS: Fujitsu Qualifier: Thomas Triumphs Again! Pro-Am Competition Featured at Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament; Easy Money; Ascheim Public Go Lesson Set for Wednesday - ONLINE GO: Coaching Dos and Don'ts - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) January 20; Arlington, VA Winter Warmer; Allan Abramson, (703) 684-7676; mediate@tryi.com January 21: Online Wings Winter Friends Tournament Starts www.wingsgoclub.org John C. Stephenson; jcsteph@speakeasy.org January 27; Chicago, IL Winter Tournament and Kid's Go Camp Reunion Bob Barber; (773) 467-0423; igo@uic.edu February 4: New Orleans, LA Self-paired tournament (The Bayou Go Club's first tournament) 9AM at the Genghis Khan Restaurant. David Dinhofer; (504) 626-1138; ddinhofer@cs.com; February 10/11: Charlotte, NC 2001 Carolinas Open Wayne Hansen (704) 536-4805 whanson319@aol.com. UPCOMING/ABROAD (see WWW.USGO.ORG for details) - 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 SCOREBOARD: Zhu Jiu Jiang Goe Tournament; MGA Winter Handicap; Fujitsu Qualifier; Pennsylvania Open January 6/7: 9th Zhu Jiu Jiang Goe Tournament Santa Clara, CA; Tournament Director: REID AUGUSTIN; Tournament organizers: ERNEST BROWN, MICHAEL BULL, JUJO JIANG Sponsored by: Ing's Goe Foundation, AGA, Ishi Press Open Section: 1st: JIANG, Jujo; 2nd; JIANG, Ming Jiu; 3rd: (2-way tie) FENG, Yun; LEE, Won Sik. Handicap Section: 6D-2D: 1st (2-way tie): MIN, Hong-yu; FOTLAND, David; 3rd: CHEN, Li-Wen. 1D-4K: 1st: CHAN, Louisa; 2nd: LEBL, Martin; 3rd: LEE, Se Chang. 5K & up: 1st: TSAI, Tiffany; 2nd: HENNER, Jacob; 3rd: LIU, Richard. January 14: MGA Winter Handicap Boston, MA; 32 players; TD: DON WIENER There was a tie for 1st between Rich CHALMERS, 1D and Alex HENZEL, 6k, both with 4-0 records and identical tie-break scores; 3rd was David KAHN, 16K, with a 3-1 score. Next Tournament: April 22. January 13/14: Fujitsu Invitational Lancaster, PA; TD: SAM ZIMMERMAN 1st: Thomas HSIANG; 2nd: Jong Moon LEE; 3rd: Ted NING; 4th: Jimmy CHA; 5th: Michael ZENG; 6th: Lianshou YU; 7th: Janice KIM; 8th: James CHIEN; 9th: Dae Yol KIM; 10th: Hosuk YI; 11th: John YOON; 12th: Yuan ZHOU; 13th: I-Han LUI; 14th: Sunghwa HONG; 15th: Jose CHACON; 16th: Keith ARNOLD. January 13/14: Pennsylvania Open Lancaster, PA; TD: CHUCK ROBBINS Section A 7D-3D: 1st: Kyoung-Rae RHO, 7D, 5-0; 2nd: Hyoung Woo SHI, 3D, 4-1 Section B 2D-1D: 1st: Xiao HONG, 2D, 4-0; 2nd: Takaaki FUJII, 1D, 4-1 3rd: Chris GARLOCK, 1D, 3-2 Section C 1K-2K: 1st: Xin-Li ZHOU, 1K - 3 wins; 2nd: Marc PALMER, 1K - 3 wins Section D 3K-4K: 1st: Young-KI PAEK, 4K - 4-1; 2nd: Roy LAIRD, 4K, 3-2 Section E 5K-22K: 1st: Conny IRL, 5K, 4-1; 2nd: William COBB, 6K - 3-2 Special long-distance prize to CHRIS KIRSCHNER, who came all the way from Seattle, WA to play in the PA Open & assist in running the Fujitsu Tournament. GO CLUBS: New Orleans, LA Tesuji in The Big Easy "The Bayou Go Club is having its first tournment!" reports David Dinhofer. "We have sheduled a self-paired tournament for Sunday, February 4 starting at 9AM at the Genghis Khan Restaurant in New Orleans, La." See the calendar for contact info. GO NEWS: Fujitsu Qualifier: Thomas Triumphs Again! Pro-Am Competition Featured at Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament; Easy Money; Ascheim Public Go Lesson Set for Wednesday Fujitsu Qualifier: Thomas Triumphs Again! Thomas Hsiang, who won last year's Ing Invitational with his 4-0 sweep at the U.S. Go Congress, has repeated with four wins last weekend at the Fujitsu Qualifier in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Thomas - the first amateur winner since pros began competing in the Fujitsu Qualifier -- will represent North America in the international Fujitsu competition later this year. 2000 U.S. Open winner Ted Ning pulled off a stunning upset in his second-round game against Jimmy Cha, Pro 4D. The hard-fought game came down to a complex semei that had spectators on the edge of their chairs. Ning won the race by two liberties, which seemed to be his magic number that day: he won his 1st-round game against Keith Arnold (who was happily subbing for Joey Hung, who couldn't make it) by...you guessed it: 2 points. See Scoreboard (above) for full Fujitsu results. Pro-Am Competition Featured at Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament For the first time, professional players competed in the open section of an amateur style tournament at the 9th Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament, played in Santa Clara, California on Jan. 6-7. "Nam Chihyung said that this was the first time that pros have played in a swiss system tournament anywhere," reports Mike Bull. "It was our good fortune to have five professionals on hand. Feng Yun 9-Dan, of China, is living in New Jersey and agreed to join the tournament. Janice Kim 1-dan recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and joined the fray along with Jiang Ming Jiu 7-dan. Jiang Ming Jiu, also from China, is Jujo Jiang's brother and lives and teaches go in Mountain View, CA. The ever-popular Nam Chihyung 1-dan from the Korean Baduk Association also graced the event. And, oh yeah, Jujo managed to make it too. "As it turned out, two incredibly strong amateurs entered the field. Former US Open Champion Jie Li managed to defeat Ming Jiu Jiang 7p by a single point in the fourth round. This was no small feat. Ming Jiu, remember, defeated Feng Yun 9d in round three. A strongman from Los Angeles, Won Sik Lie defeated two 1-dan professionals and then lost to Jujo Jiang 9-dan by just one point." "We are grateful to our sponsors; Ing's Goe Foundation, the American Go Association, The American Professional Go Association and Ishi Press. We promise never to use our 'good ole' pairing system again," concludes Mike. Easy Money Send us a 150-word review of a go book or go software and - upon acceptance -- we'll give you a $25 gift certificate to the go vendor of your choice. Tell us what you liked - or didn't like - and how it helped (or didn 't help) your game. Include the book's title, publisher, cost, your name and email address. Choose any book you like, from brand-new publications to old stand-bys that you keep going back to. Ascheim Public Go Lesson Set for Wednesday The next Ascheim Public Go Lesson takes place this Wednesday. Ms. Guo Juan (5 dan pro, China) will play a handicap game against Mr. Eitan Aharoni (IGS "hawk" 1d*) at 1P USA EST on Wednesday, January 17. Eitan has been active organizing the Israeli Go Association and teaching, and played for Israel in the most recent World Amateur Go Congress (WAGC). As usual in this series, Eitan will play using the IGS student account "publicgo". Skip Ascheim - who died last summer -- was known as "ubu" and "critic" on IGS. For more than 25 years, Skip was a well-respected leader in the Boston go community. With the consent of Skip's family, this series is called the "Ascheim Public Go Lessons". All games are played on the Internet Go Server (IGS). These lessons have been organized and sponsored by friends of Skip Ascheim. YOUR TURN: READERS WRITE: Expanding the World Go Population, One E-Journal Subscriber at a Time; Get Over It Expanding the World Go Population, One E-Journal Subscriber at a Time "My name is Sakae Inoue," writes a new E-Journal subscriber. "I am 60 years of age and retired last October. My ranking is 5 dan-kaku. My target in the future is to contribute to the expansion of the go population in the world. I am preparing for that goal and would like to keep contact with you and look forward to your advice and hints to promote go. Please register me for the American Go E-Journal. Many thanks." (NOTE: We welcome Mr. Inoue, all our new subscribers and encourage wide distribution of the free E-Journal). Get Over It Responding to Terri Schurter's admonition to "send a message requesting a game, and negotiating the terms, rather than popping up an unexpected game request (which many find annoying)." in her recent column on "Go Netiquette," Dan writes "I really wish folks would just get over this one. Surely it's far more impolite to encourage thinking that everyone on a go server speaks English?" ONLINE GO: Coaching Dos and Don'ts by Terri Schurter Teaching Go online offers unique techniques not available face-to-face. One of these techniques is coaching (i.e. a stronger player helps a weaker player by making suggestions while the weaker player is playing someone else). Done with the opponent's knowledge there are no moral conflicts, but done surreptitiously, it raises serious ethical issues. One major consideration is that if games are not rated no one's rank is at stake. Use an account that you don't use for anything else, keep it anonymous and don't set up unrealistic expectations. Enjoy a game with a stronger opponent than you would have played if you had played without the assistance of a coach. Don'ts: Don't suggest moves way beyond your student's comprehension so he feels unable to continue with the game on his own, while you proceed to suggest every move, eroding his confidence further and further. He will become frustrated, and very little learning will take place. Dos: Work with your student enough so you know his strengths. Have your student ask for help when it is needed. Encourage him to suggest a move or two of his own when he wants help. When offering assistance, keep it within his ability to understand. Avoid throwing in a tesuji that will win the day, but baffle your student. Ideally, your student should feel comfortable enough that he can continue the game on his own if you are called away suddenly. Remember that the purpose of coaching is not to ambush the opponent, but to teach the student in real time, giving your student immediate positive or negative reinforcement. Some coaches have been known to coach both sides of a game, which, done properly, raises the game level and provides a wonderful learning experience all around. Don't forget that you aren't limited to the server facilities in communicating with your student. You can use any instant messaging system. One I find particularly useful is the Yahoo Messenger because it makes noise when you receive a new message if your cursor is outside the messenger window. With the Zone message system new entries into a chat window are soundless, and can easily be missed. 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. The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the American Go Association. 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 MAILTO: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 MAILTO:ratings@usgo.org AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST: President; Roy Laird: mailto:president@usgo.org Eastern VP; ChenDao Lin: mailto:vp-eastern@usgo.org Central VP; Jeff Shaevel: mailto:vp-central@usgo.org Western VP; Larry Gross: mailto:vp-western@usgo.org Treasurer; Ulo Tamm: mailto:treasurer@usgo.org Membership Secretary; John Goon: mailto:membership@usgo.org Chapters Coordinator; Bill Cobb: mailto:chapters@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator; Mike Bull: mailto:tournaments@usgo.org Education Coordinator; None Redmond: mailto:education@usgo.org Congress Liaison Officer; Chris Kirschner: mailto:cngrsliaison@usgo.org AGA website; Gordon Fraser and Chuck Robbins: mailto:webmaster@usgo.org American Go Foundation; Terry Benson: mailto: mailto:terrybenson@eudoramail.com AGA Librarian; Craig Hutchinson: mailto: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, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome - subject to editing for clarity and space -- and should be directed to: Editor: Chris Garlock email: journal@usgo.org Voice: 202-289-7174 Fax: 202-371-0168