AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association February 5, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - SCOREBOARD: Kid's Go Camp Reunion and Tournament; Bayou Go Club Tournament - GO NEWS: Ascheim Public Go Lesson Set for Wednesday; NAMT Kicks Off This Weekend; Feng Yun Workshop Offered In Western Mass. - GO CLUBS: Go Navy!; AGA Chapter Championships Piloted - GO REVIEW: "Pro-Pro Handicap Go" - YOUR MOVE: Go Masters on 53rd Street - ONLINE GO: What We Talk About When We Talk About Ratings (Part 2) - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) February 10/11: Charlotte, NC 2001 Carolinas Open Wayne Hansen (704) 536-4805 whanson319@aol.com February 17: Sacramento, CA Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament Fred Hopkins (916)965-0478 (h); (916)636-8758 (w) Fred.Hopkins@mckhboc.com February 17-18: Princeton, NJ 2001 New Jersey Open Rick Mott (609) 466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu February 24: Sandy Spring Scholastic K-12 Chess and Go Tournament and Pizza Bash Sandy Spring, MD John Goon 301-315-8297 jgoon@erols.com February 25: Flushing, NY 2ND AM1480 RADIO SEOUL/KTV GO TOURNAMENT (AGA-rated) Sammy Park (718) 353-4646 Kim Daeyol (201) 585-7662 Manhattan Go Club (212) 268-2996 March 15-18: Gaithersburg, MD 6th Yi-Lun Yang Winter Workshop Ken Koester; 410-267-0487 kkoester@riva.net March 24-25: Raleigh, NC Spring 2001 Go Tournament Joe Berry (919) 787-4358 gggc@nc.rr.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: Kid's Go Camp Reunion and Tournament; Bayou Go Club Tournament Kid's Go Camp Reunion and Tournament (3rd annual) January 27; Chicago, IL "The 3rd Kid's Go Camp Reunion and Tournament was a smashing success," says Bob Barber. "We had 52 players, half of them under the age of 18. Eight of the 52 won all their games. Two of the winners were adults. Kids came in from Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, and even Windsor, Ontario. Three of the winners are regular students of Ms. Huang Liping, who lives in a suburb of Chicago. Winners: Dan 1st place (tie) Richard LIANG, 3D; Jin CHEN, 2D; Low Kyu 1st place: David HAST, 6K; Mid Kyu 1st place (tie): Lannie CARTER, 15K; Richard ZHANG, 19K; High Kyu 1st place (tie): Ben XIE, 22K; Sheila STEINMAN, 26K; Shawn ZHAN, 28K. Bayou Go Club Tournament February 4; New Orleans, LA The Bayou Go Club's inaugural tournament netted a full day of go, nine new AGA members and "great food compliments of Henry Lee," reports David Dinhofer. Sixteen players from 35K to 5D played 32 games. Art DAVIS gets the award for most games played and won with a 6-5 record. "Dr. Han and Dr. Kuk were there and participated in showing our new Dan level members - including Jae Hong Kim (5D) and Kazuo Sato (5D) -- that the Bayou Go club has its share of strong players," David reports. "At the other end of the spectrum, Cyndey HEDGPETH (age 9), Chelsea and Elka DINHOFER (both aged 8), the youngest participants, played some great games." Stay tuned for more events in the Big Easy, perhaps as early as the Spring Jazz Festival. GO NEWS Ascheim Public Go Lesson Set for Wednesday This week's Ascheim Public Go Lesson is scheduled for Wednesday, February 7 8:00P (USA EST). Ms.Feng Yun (9D pro, China) will play a handicap game on IGS against Mr. Dave Weimer (IGS "Flashman" 2k* and "weimo" 2k*, AGA 5d). For this lesson, Dave will be using the usual student account in this series, "publicgo". Dave Weimer is a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While he was at the University of Rochester (NY), he created and taught an undergraduate class in go every Fall semester and ran the "Empty Sky Go Club" from his home. One of his former students writes: "Dave Weimer is a person who very much wants to expose others to the joy of go yet who isn't out looking for pats on the back for his kindness." NAMT Kicks Off This Weekend The North American Master's Tournament (NAMT) is scheduled to begin this weekend, reports Don Wiener. Most of the games will be played live on the IGS. The first game of the Promotional Round match will be played on Saturday, February 10 starting at 3P EST (US) between Feng Yun, 9D pro and Ted Ning, amateur. Players (in order of rank): ZHUJIU JIANG (9D pro, China) San Francisco, CA (Title holder); FENG YUN (9D pro, China) Caldwell, NJ; MINGJIU JIANG (7D pro, China) San Francisco, CA; XIAOREN HE (5D pro, China) Montreal, Canada; HUIREN YANG (1D pro, China) Boston, MA; JANICE KIM (1D pro, Korea) San Francisco, CA; HOSUK YI (amateur), Los Angeles, CA, seeded from 2000 NAMT; JONG MOON LEE (amateur), New York City, NY, seeded from 2000 NAMT; TED NING (amateur), Hawaii, 2000 US Open Champion. Seed order for the 2001 NAMT: 1. Xiaoren He, 5-D pro; 2. Jong Moon Lee, amateur; 3. Huiren Yang, 1D pro; 4. Hosuk Yi, amateur; 5. Janice Kim, 1D pro; 6. Feng Yun, 9D pro; 7. Mingjiu Jiang, 7D pro; 8. Ted Ning, amateur. Promotional Round Matches: Janice Kim vs Mingjiu Jiang; Feng Yun vs Ted Ning. NOTE: THOMAS HSIANG, Ing Champion, was invited to participate. Unfortunately he was unable to find someone available to referee his games, so he will not be playing this year. Feng Yun Workshop Offered In Western Mass. Feng Yun, a 9-dan professional who is gaining a well-deserved reputation for her excellent teaching style will be conducting a go workshop in Massachusetts at the home of Bill Saltman from May 31 to June 3. The workshop is limited to 12 participants; 8 slots are open. The $350 fee includes 8 meals, shared occupancy housing and all instruction. Contact Bill Saltman: bsaltman@charter.net or 413-323-8658 or at 55 Juckett Hill Road, Belchertown MA 01007 GO CLUBS: Go Navy!; AGA Chapter Championships Piloted Go Navy! "A group of midshipmen at the US Naval Academy have expressed interest in learning more about go," reports AGA Membership Secretary John Goon. "They would welcome a visit, or visits, by local area go players to help set their sights. Anyone interested in joining this landing party should let me know right away. If we can make a good enough impression, my contacts may be willing to brief the game to their brigade. GO Navy!!!" - John Goon, (H) 301-315-8297 / (W) 301-394-4288; jgoon@erols.com AGA Chapter Championships Piloted by Steve Fawthrop The pilot version of the AGA Chapter Championships is now underway. Eight teams, representing all regions of the AGA, have started the first round of this 3-round event. Games are played one per month on KGS, at the convenience of the participants. Players from 13K all the way up to 9D (yes, that is not a typo!) are participating in this handicap event, with 11 dan-level players and 15 Kyu- level players. Monthly updates will be reported in the E-Journal. If the pilot proves successful, and we are sure it will be, we intend to start the main 2001 AGA Chapter Championships in May. Chapters should plan on putting together one or more teams for this exciting event. We hope to start both a handicap and an even tournament. All AGA chapters are eligible to participate. See http://www.wingsgoclub.org for more information. GO REVIEW: "Pro-Pro Handicap Go" Pro-Pro Handicap Go, edited by the Nihon Ki-in (Yutopian, 1997) Reviewed by Lon Atkins, 15K How does a strong professional play if given three, four or five stones by another pro and asked to demonstrate victory with clear, straightforward moves? How much could you learn given access to the pros' thoughts as their game unfolded? Three complete and deeply annotated games are the heart of Pro-Pro Handicap Go. Eight additional games carry through to about move 50. The book is visually striking. The main diagrams take up most of the 7" by 8" pages, and no diagram gives more than a few moves. If you're like me and take handis more often than you give them, or if you want to glimpse professional thinking on the white side - this text is great. Unless you're stronger than 9-dans like Ishida Yoshio, Takemiya Masaki and Cho Chikun, you'll learn something. The book has many bonuses. Try forecasting key moves. Learn skillful plays from the pros in sidebar diagrams. Enjoy photographs of 22 well-known professionals. Get stronger! YOUR MOVE: Readers Write Go Masters on 53rd Street "Roy Laird asks if anyone knows where a copy of 'The Go Masters' can be found. The New York Public Library on 53rd Street has a copy that can be checked out for free." - Mike LePore ONLINE GO: What We Talk About When We Talk About Ratings (Part 2) by Terri Schurter How do real-life ratings compare to online ratings? One quick way to get a handle on this is to check out the NNGS comparison of rating systems (type "help rank") which gives equivalent ranks for the AGA, China, Europe, IGS, Japan, Korea, and NNGS. In the real world the Koreans lead in strength: their 18 gup rating (the lowest listed on the NNGS chart) is roughly equivalent to 12K AGA; quite a climb from the 35K that the AGA considers the lowest point of their rating system. Chinese ratings follow Korean ratings in strength, followed by European, AGA, and finally Japanese ratings. In comparing AGA ratings to online ratings, IGS undoubtedly has the toughest online ratings, roughly corresponding to Korean gup ratings. NNGS ratings used to be softer than AGA ratings, but now are slightly tougher. Ratings at both servers, however, seem to soften in the double-digit kyu range, especially IGS where I've been told that anything weaker than 10K should be considered unreliable. KGS ratings seem to be roughly comparable to NNGS ratings. The Zone and Yahoo do not have rating systems at all, but users on both servers inquire about ratings. People quote their ratings from other servers, from the AGA, and from the ratings of other countries. On the Zone the inferred ratings appear to be about two stones weaker than AGA ratings. Sometimes a group of players on a server can stagnate in the ratings. If they play each other almost exclusively they can create a pocket which may be improving at the same rate, while not showing much of a rating change. In real-life ratings a local group could become similarly isolated if none of the players ever traveled to other areas of the country to play in tournaments. The annual U.S. Go Congress serves as a means of equalizing ratings across the country when players from different geographical areas compete. If not for such "reality checks," we could conceivably end up with regional differences in ratings much like those from country to country, and from server to server. 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. 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. 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. 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