Today's edition of the AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL -- mistakenly headed "February 26, 2001" -- is of course actually the March 5 edition. If you deleted it, thinking it was last week's, please email us at journal@usgo.org and we'll re-send it. We apologize for the error. AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association February 26, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - SCOREBOARD: Philadelphia, PA - GO NEWS: New Record for New Members; 2001 Congress Registration Form Now Available; Kid's Go Camp 2001; More Than a Game: SF Weekly Reports on Go; March Bonus For Renewing Or Lapsed Members - GO REVIEW: Graded Go Problems for Beginners (Vols 1-4) - ONLINE GO: Club, AGA and Online Ratings - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) 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 April 22: Boston, MA MGA Spring Handicap Tournament Don Wiener, (617) 734-6316 donwiener@earthlink.net ABROAD: - 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: Philadelphia, PA March 3: Philadelphia Tournament Philadelphia, PA TD: Chuck Robbins; Organizer: Phil Straus Players: 33 4 Game Winners: Carson TU, 6D; Michael DOBBINS Jr., 20K 3 Game Winners: Mickey LEE, 3D; Phil STRAUS, 3D; Chris GARLOCK, 1D; Tong HUANG, 2K; Yonghe ZHANG, 3K; Samuel ZIMMERMAN, 4K; Andrew WINTERS, 13K; Lars PETERSON, 18K GO NEWS New Record for New Members Forty new members - a new monthly high -- joined the American Go Association in February, bringing total membership to 1,549. Chapter membership now stands at 59. 2001 Congress Registration Form Now Available Be the first on your block to register for this year's U.S. Go Congress, the highlight of the annual go calendar. Email Keith Arnold at hlime@clark.net for a copy today! Kid's Go Camp 2001 Kids: Do you like to play Go? Would you like to have a week of fun in the sun while meeting other kids? Would you like to spend a week learning from professional Go Players? The AGA 2001 Summer Go Camp is for you! We will spend the week immersed in Go, and still find time to enjoy all kinds of outdoor and indoor activities between Go sessions. There are marvelous sports facilities on campus reserved for our use, including an indoor swimming pool, indoor tennis, basketball, and racquetball courts (in case of rainy days). We'll swim, hike, boat, roller-blade, play baseball, ping-pong, soccer, and silly games, and eat s'mores around the campfire. You can also do arts and crafts, or bring a musical instrument. Dates: June 23-30, 2001, at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota. $410 per child. Contact: Piotr Rzepecki, Camp Administrator; P.O. Box 1954, Maple Grove, MN 55311-9998 (763) 420-7618; AGAGoCamp@aol.com More Than a Game: SF Weekly Reports on Go "To its obsessed fans, Go isn't just a board game. It's a way of life, a key to building better computers, and maybe even the savior of American education." Mark Athitakis reports last week's cover story in SF Weekly (San Francisco, CA). "If you want to get metaphysical about it -- and so many Go players do -- you can start seeing the game as something that is, in a way, perfect: a source of immeasurable potential for strength, goodness, and wisdom. Something worth not just interest, but devotion. Something that, in fact, isn't so far from how a dictionary goes about defining God." Read the whole article at http://sfweekly.com/issues/2001-02-28/feature.html/page1.html MARCH BONUS FOR RENEWING OR LAPSED MEMBERS Current or lapsed members who renew their AGA membership in the month of March will receive a special FREE bonus: your choice of either the AGA's Starter CD-ROM or one of the great new pocket series published by Bill Cobb. The CD-ROM features an interactive tutorial by Horoki Mori, free 9x9 software, 9x9 games (some fully commented by professional players), hundreds of full-board professional game records for advanced study and an annotated bibliography of dozens of the best go Web sites. Or choose one from the pocket series: Go Problems, Vol. 1: Life and Death. A number of basic patterns illustrated at varying levels of difficulty; Go Problems, Vol. 2: Uplifting Exercises. A large number of problems involving various techniques; Go Problems, Vol. 3: Whole Board Opening Problems. Find the next move in a whole board situation; Learning from the Masters, Vol 1: Kyu level commentaries on five professional games. This offer is good for any current or lapsed AGA member who renews their full membership this month. Your $30 membership ($10 if under 18) also entitles you to: the quarterly American Go Journal; 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 PLEASE BE SURE to note your bonus choice -- CD-ROM or one of the books -- in the "Remarks" section of the questionnaire at the end of the application form. GO REVIEW: Graded Go Problems for Beginners (Vols 1-4) Graded Go Problems for Beginners (Vols 1-4) Nihon Kiin, 1990 Reviewed by Jean G. DeMaiffe, 7K Graded Go Problems for Beginners is a four-volume set of books that takes the reader from an absolute novice to "Advanced" play (defined as 15-kyu or stronger). The books are compilations of go problems, divided up by level of difficulty and by subject matter. For instance, Volume One has lots of problems on how to capture one or more stones and how to avoid being captured. The "Level Two" problems in Volume One include ladders, snapbacks, ko, and how to play in the opening and in endgame. Each succeeding volume continues to explore these main themes. Some of the problems in the third and fourth volumes will challenge American players stronger than 15-kyu (myself included), probably because, unlike Asian go students, our study of go has been almost entirely self-directed and without any structure. This four-volume set provides a excellent grounding in the basics of go at an early stage and can't help but prove helpful to any double-digit (and at least one single-digit) player willing to take the time to study them. They are also excellent teaching tools for go kids. ONLINE GO: Club, AGA and Online Ratings by Terri Schurter In a real life club, because you play the same people again and again, you know exactly what handicap will result in a fair and interesting game. This may not be the same handicap that would prevail in an AGA tournament; it's a rating you arrive at through an understanding of style. While AGA ratings differ from club "ratings" due to style, online ratings may be even farther off because of variables including the extent to which players may receive coaching, use local client boards to "read" ahead, and consult resources such as joseki dictionaries. Although time limits reduce the amount of time available for such activities, they do not eliminate them altogether. As a result, online ratings are necessarily suspect. Style is always a factor in play. There are some people we can handle easily, and some we can't. Many of us have faced players at tournaments who have a style different from our own. We suspect that the handicap is either too much or not enough and think to ourselves, "This is likely to be an easy win", or "Man, I am going down." Neither assumption, of course, is a good point to begin a game, but we are human, and we react. It is not the actual rating of the player that makes us feel the way we do, but the recognition of disparate style. In a club you get to know the style of each player, and are able compensate by adjusting the handicap. As a result, regular club members often have their own comparative rating system that may differ slightly from that of the AGA. John may only be able to give Chuck one stone, despite an AGA ratings difference of two stones, for example. A good way to compensate for style at the local club a good way is through the use of a three game kadoban that adjusts the handicap by one stone for each string of three consecutive wins. 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. 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. Also, be sure to indicate what level player is best served by the material. 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