AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association February 12, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - GO NEWS: Feng Yun Analyzes Pro Game in NYC; Korean Tournament Games Livecast in English; Kid's Go Camp Update; Go Volunteers Sought for Brain Study; Ascheim Public Go Lesson: Chuck Robbins - GO REVIEW: "Attack and Defense" - ONLINE GO: Multiple Server Personalities - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) February 17-18: Princeton, NJ 2001 New Jersey Open Rick Mott (609) 466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu February 17: Lakewood, CO Denver Open Deedee (720) 331-3170 Denvergoassociation@yahoo.com February 17: Sacramento, CA Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament Fred Hopkins (916) 965-0478 home (916) 636-8758 work Fred.Hopkins@mckhboc.com February 17: New York, NY Fen Yun Lecture (see story below for details) NY Go Center (212) 223-0342 February 24: Silver Spring, MD Go/Chess Tournament Anand Modak 301-869-0327 amodak@mcps.k12.md.us February 25: Flushing, NY 2nd AM1480 Radio Seoul/KTV Go Tournament Sammy Park (718) 353-4646 Dae Yol Kim (201) 585-7662 Manhattan Go Club (212) 268-2996 March 3: Philadelphia, PA Go Tournament/Vietnamese Banquet (AKA the Amtrak Special) Phil Straus pstraus@post.harvard.edu 215-568-0595 March 10/11: Amsterdam, Holland Ing Memorial Weekend Tournament European Go Federation/European Go Cultural Centre egcc@xs4all.nl before March 5 to register [http://www.xs4all.nl/~egcc for more info] March 15-18: Gaithersburg, MD Sixth Washington Winter Go Yang Workshop Gordon Fraser (301) 540-2640 gordon@clark.net 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 Feng Yun Analyzes Pro Game in NYC Feng Yun, 9D professional and 1996 Ladies World Champion, will give a go lecture at the New York Go Center on February 17. Ms. Yun will analyze a professional game and -- if time permits -- a high level amateur game. Players of all levels from beginner to high level amateur dans can benefit from the analysis, according to Mr. Takayama of the NY Go Center. The lecture will be from 1:30 - 4:30P at the New YorkGo Center, 323 East 52nd Street (between 1st & 2nd Avenues). Cost: $15 ($10 for students). To ensure a place call the NY Go Center at (212) 223-0342 after 5P Tues-Fri and ask for Tom. Or Mr. Takayama at (516) 223-0342 (days) or (718) 631-1866 (eves). Korean Tournament Games Livecast in English "Korean tournament games are being 'livecast' in English by cyberkiwon.com in cooperation with the Korea Baduk Association," reports Joel Olson. "They post a schedule of upcoming games on their site, which also has a popup page for downloading their powerful client program. They are currently relaying game moves and professional comments and diagrams and providing a chat window. "Currently, they are covering the Myungin (Korean Women's Meijin) which now stands tied 1-1 (Rui Naiwei-Park Jieun), and the Kisung (Korean Kisei). They will start the Kuksu February 20, in which Rui Naiwei is the defender." - Joel Olson, jeolson@webzone.net Kid's Go Camp Update "We made every penny of our goal last year for scholarships" for the AGA's Summer Kid's Go Camp, reports Susan Weir. "It's important for everyone to know this because the great generosity of so many of our go community members needs to be appreciated. Any confusion about this probably comes from the fact that some contributions were made to and reported to the AGF, but other contributions were made directly to the AGA (such as from go clubs, where the tax write-off factor was not important). All in all, about $1000 came in to the AGA and roughly $2000 to the AGF, meeting our total goal of $3000 in scholarship needs. A big thank you to everyone who pitched in to make this possible." Contributions for this year's camp are still needed and welcomed. Send your tax-deductible check - payable to the American Go Foundation - to the AGF attn Mary laird, 211 106th St, 3C, NY, NY 10025 Go Volunteers Sought for Brain Study Two professors researching the relationship between aging and cognitive abilities are seeking subjects for a study. "Our hypothesis is that cognitive abilities such as reasoning and short-term memory do not decline with age within their domains of expertise when people attain high levels of expertise, even though studies have indicated that these abilities - reasoning and working memory - decline during adulthood," says Hiromi Masunaga, an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California. With his colleague, Professor John Horn (distinguished scholar in the area of human intelligence), Masunaga has been conducting studies on expertise development in go. "We propose that adult intelligence needs to be redefined so that age-maintained aspects of reasoning and working memory are included in its definition. In our previous studies we got a full support from the Japanese Go Association. In the last study 300 Japanese go players participated in our study and we got interesting results supporting our hypothesis. We would now like to have at least 150 American go players provide us measures on reasoning, short-term memory, cognitive speed etc. both within and outside the domain of expertise in go." For more information on participating in this study, contact AGA President Roy Laird at mailto:president@usgo.org Ascheim Public Go Lesson: Chuck Robbins This week's Ascheim Public Go Lesson is set for Wednesday, February 14, 8P EST on the IGS. Ms.Feng Yun (9D pro, China) will play a handicap game against Chuck Robbins (IGS "chuck" 4k*, AGA 2D), who will be using the usual student account in this series, "publicgo". Chuck lives and works in Lancaster, PA. He is the Web-Coordinator for the American Go Association and serves on the AGA Executive Board. He has designed a software program for pairing opponents at Go tournaments, and for several years has acted as Tournament Director in many tournaments throughout the United States. He has also been very active in his local club, which has sponsored many Go workshops in the area. APOLOGIA Some E-Journal subscribers may have received editions of UNION CITY!, another e-zine edited by E-Journal editor Chris Garlock, who deeply regrets the list mix-up and apologizes for any inconvenience. If you got one of these mailings in error, please send an "unsubscribe" message to me at dcstreetheat@earthlink.net and I'll make sure you're taken off the UNION CITY! list. GO REVIEW: "Attack and Defense" Attack and Defense (Elementary Go Series, Vol. 5) by Ishida Akira, James Davies, 256 pages (September 1997) Kiseido Publishing Co. Reviewed by Barry C. Willey, 12K (NNGS) This is a valuable book is an excellent introduction to the middle game for go players who know the basics. It takes for granted that you are familiar with some basic openings and begins at that point. Focusing on the strategy and tactics of large scale fighting, the authors use the balance between territory and influence to show the reader how to best attack an opponent's stones while defending one's own framework. This book helps novice players develop workable and potent strategies utilizing influence and teaching defense against common attacks. Middle to high kyu players would easily benefit from this volume. I first read this book when I was about 19K and found it immensely helpful. It sets out basic ideas on how to choose a successful strategy during the middle game. With those principals in mind it gives you specific tesujis or techniques to help put that strategy in play. Next it teaches a few essential defensive moves and three fundamental principals on reducing and invading frameworks. This book helps the novice player place priorities on moves during the chaos that starts to grow during the middle game and encourages players to use their creativity to find their own moves. ONLINE GO: Multiple Server Personalities by Terri Schurter Some look with suspicion on anyone with more than one account on a server, but there are legitimate reasons to create multiple personalities online. They can be especially useful on servers with rating systems such as KGS, NNGS, and IGS. You might want to have one account that you reserve for slow games when you are at your most alert. Perhaps another rated account can be used to try out different strategies and to observe their impact on your rating without hurting your serious account. Perhaps you feel you are caught in a ratings pocket, and want to try your hand at a rating a few stones higher. Just start a new account and set the rating at the higher level and see how you do. A non-rated account can be just the ticket when you are too tired to think, but not too tired to play. And you can travel totally incognito with an account that no one knows about. All you need to do is register using a hotmail account you created specifically for this purpose. Why would you want to do that? Sometimes you don't want to socialize, and if no one knows who you are, you don't have to. 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 2,500 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