AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association February 26, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - SCOREBOARD: Flushing, NY - GO NEWS: Masters Tournament Update; "Stronger Player" Now Available Online; Cybercamp Back Online! ; Ascheim Public Go Lesson: Jonathan Wang - GO REVIEW: Many Faces of Go Joseki Dictionary (Palm OS Edition) - ONLINE GO: rec.games.go - YOUR MOVE: Letters from Readers - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) March 3: Philadelphia, PA Go Tournament/Thai Banquet (AKA the Amtrak Special) Phil Straus pstraus@post.harvard.edu 215-568-0595 March 10/11: Boca Raton, FL Miami Go Club Annual Tournament Chris Goldthorpe ChessGuy@bellsouth.net March 15-18: Gaithersburg, MD Sixth Washington Winter Go Yang Workshop Gordon Fraser (301) 540-2640 gordon@clark.net March 24-25: Raleigh, NC Spring 2001 Go Tournament Joe Berry (919) 787-4358 gggc@nc.rr.com March 31: Arlington, VA Cherry Blossom (Part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival) Allan Abramson, (703) 684-7676 mediate@mnsinc.com ABROAD: - March 3: Cambridge Trigantius (England); alex@archduke.demon.co.uk - March 4: European Youth (Poland) - March 10/11: Amsterdam, Holland: Ing Memorial Weekend Tournament egcc@xs4all.nl before March 5 to register [http://www.xs4all.nl/~egcc for more info] - Polish Go Association Internet Cup; Slawek Piela pga_ic@poczta.arena.pl 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: Flushing, NY February 25: AM1480 Radio Seoul / KTV Tournament Flushing, NY TD: Chuck Robbins Section A (14 Players): 1st: Sung Ho KIM 6D - 4 Game Winner; 2nd: Sun Sup KWAK 6D - 3 Game Winner; 3rd: Hyung Woo KIM 6D - 3 Game Winner. Section B (26 Players): 1st: Hyoung Woo SHIM 3D - 5 Game Winner; 2nd:Byung Ho CHOI 4D - 4 Game Winner; 3rd: Wong Suk OK 3D - 4 Game Winner Section C (47 Players): 1st: Jong Kun LEE 2D - 5 Game Winner; 2nd: Myoung Ho KIM 2D - 4 Game Winner; 3rd: James Jong LEE 1D - 4 Game Winner. Section D (25 Players): 1st: Yong Won JUN 1K - 5 Game Winner; 2nd: Michael SAMUEL 3K - 4 Game Winner; 3rd: Randy SURH 2K - 4 Game Winner GO NEWS Masters Tournament Update Mingjiu Jiang, 7P defeated Janice Kim, 1P yesterday (Sunday) to win their Promotional Round match 2-0 in the North American Masters Tournament. Mr. Jiang advances to the Challenger Round. The second game in the Promotional Round match between Feng Yun, 9P and Ted Ning, amateur is scheduled for Sunday, March 4 starting at 3pm EST on the IGS. "Stronger Player" Now Available Online "How To Play Against The Stronger Player -- Volume 1 Local Positions" is available as an MS Word or a PDF (Adobe Acrobate Reader) file, reports John Stephenson [jcs@wingsgoclub.org] . This edition prints out on letter size paper. http://www.wingsgoclub.org Cybercamp Back Online! Young go players are invited to join the group playing go on KGS in a room called Cybercamp hosted by James Chien. It runs for 2 hours on Sundays from 6P EST. All children are invited to join. - None Redmond, chinski@inreach.com Ascheim Public Go Lesson: Jonathan Wang Ms.Feng Yun (9 dan pro, China) playS a handicap game against Mr. Jonathan Wang (IGS "airj" 4d*, AGA 6d) on the IGS this Thursday, March 1, 8P EST. Jonathan will be using the usual student account in this series, "publicgo". Jon was born in 1982 and has been playing Go since he was 9 years old. He is currently a 1st year engineering student at Univ. California (Davis). For several years, he competed (often successfully) in the Redmond Cup (USA children's tournament) and has represented the USA several times in the World Youth Goe Championships. Jon has been very active teaching children at US Go Congresses, on the internet, and as a paid instructor in the AGA's Summer Go Camp and most recently as one of the organizers at the Sunday afternoon "cybercamp" for kids on IGS. He has also produced a CD for teaching Go basics. GO REVIEW: Many Faces of Go Joseki Dictionary (Palm OS Edition) Palm OS Edition of the Many Faces of Go Joseki Dictionary Version 1.04 Joseki Library by David Fotland Palm Programming by Bob Felice Reviewed by Kirby Huget, 8K PDAs have become popular among Go enthusiasts to record and review games. A new application can now put an extensive joseki dictionary in the palm of your hand. The Palm OS Edition of the Many Faces of Go Joseki Dictionary contains a library with more than 50,000 moves in standard corner sequences. Moves can be played in any corner. Joseki and trick plays are displayed along with responses to bad moves. It is ideal for study at all levels. A single stylus stroke allows pass and retraction for easy navigation through the library while a "tutor" mode hides hints to test the user. This is a wonderful tool that can be carried and used almost anywhere. Developers Fotland and Felice are quick to point out that their program is a study aid, not a cheating device. They have included a "beep" accompanying each move to remind users to disable the program during tournament play. The program can be used on any handheld device running Palm OS 2.0 or greater (Palm, IBM Workpad, Handspring, Sony CLIE) and is approximately 79k bytes. There are a couple of limitations worth noting. Once a corner is chosen, all subsequent plays are made in that corner. Additionally, if the first move is a pass, only the top left corner joseki are displayed. A free trial version can be downloaded at www.smart-games.com. The trail version enables only 5-5 joseki and disables some navigation features. Registration is $20.00 and well worth the investment. Registration unlocks all dictionary functions and entitles the user to free future maintenance releases. ONLINE GO: rec.games.go by Terri Schurter If talking with other go players IRL (in real life) at clubs, and chatting with other users on go servers is not enough for you, and you STILL can't satisfy your need for interaction with others about go, then "rec.games.go" is for you. Rec.games.go is a newsgroup, one of many bulletin board type threaded conversations about areas of interest to a specific group, in this case, go players. You can access newsgroups in a number of ways. As of February 2nd, Google, a search engine for the internet, provides an introduction to rec.games.go without the bother of configuring your email program or installing a client specifically for newsgroup access. On the Google page try out the search engine by searching for a key word, or try an advanced search. At rec.games.go you will find posts with ASCII diagrams containing go problems, notices of upcoming tournaments and workshops, even threads of a philosophical nature occasionally appear. You will find references to go in television, movies, and literature as well as - this is the internet, after all -- repeated postings by strong personalities with their own agendas. In short, there is something for everyone on rec.games.go. I read it every day, or rather, I scan it every day, since no one could possibly read it all. Follow the threads that interest you. Ignore the ones that don't, and laugh at the situations and characters you find amusing. I certainly do. Banning Update: Shortly after my column last month exploring the issue of "banning" I found that my IGS accounts no longer functioned. The column reported on instances where go players have apparently been barred from play on go servers, usually without warning or explanation. Efforts to determine whether I have been "banned" or if the problem was simply due to technical difficulties have been unsuccessful thus far. You may draw your own conclusions. Terri Schurter has been playing go online since 1995. Her 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. Your Move: Letters from Readers The Next Best Thing to Being There "There is no one within a thousand miles of me who has ever even heard of the game before," writes Coyote. "well, that's not true, but there is no one in my area who plays. Anyway..I'd like your e-zine, please. And I plan on joining your association as soon as I can scrape up $30.00. Thanks." Free CD-ROM This Month "There was something in a previous ejournal about a free cd of go problems for joining the AGA in February. Can you send me more information about that?" Curtis Gadd Join the American Go Association in the month of February and you'll receive a FREE bonus copy of the AGA's Starter CD-ROM, featuring an interactive tutorial by Horoki Mori; free software (Mac & PC) that lets you play 9x9 go against the computer; many 9x9 games, some of them fully commented by professional players; Hundreds of full-board professional game records for advanced study; Annotated bibliography of dozens of the best go Web sites Quantities are limited so sign up now! Your $30 membership ($10 if you're under 18) also entitles you to the quarterly American Go Journal: 40 informative and instructive pages of news, reviews and commentary; the right to play in any AGA rated tournament and receive an official AGA rating; referrals to your nearest Chapter and nearby players. Join online at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.html or mail a check to us at: American Go Association Dept. E, PO Box 397 Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113-0397 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