AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association March 12, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - GO NEWS: Ratings Redoubt; "How To Play" Available Online; Cyber Camp How-To; 2001 Congress Registration Form Now Available - GO REVIEW: Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go - ONLINE GO: The Totally Virtual Player - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) 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 24: Austin, TX Austin Go Club Spring Tournament Clay Chip Smith (512) 302-0908 ChipSmith@IEEE.org March 31: Arlington, VA Cherry Blossom (Part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival) Allan Abramson (703) 684-7676 mediate@mnsinc.com April 7-8: San Francisco, CA 2001 San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament Steve Burrall (916) 688-2858 burrall@home.com April 8: Hoboken, NJ Hoboken Spring Tournament Larry Russ (201) 216-5379 lruss@stevens-tech.edu April 14: College Park, MD Univ. of Maryland Spring tournament Steve Mount (301) 779-8582 sm193@umail.umd.edu ABROAD: - 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 GO NEWS Ratings Redoubt Last week, the "Online Go" column discussed some issues with regard to various ways a player can estimate playing strength. Taking this opportunity to help more players have a fuller appreciation of how the rating system works, we asked Ratings Statistician Paul Matthews to comment on the difference between self-estimates based on casual play and AGA ratings. Here is Paul's response. "AGA ratings are based principally on over-the-board play in tournaments, where players compete to win and play as best they can. Other things happen in more casual and less controlled circumstances. For example, in club play winning is not so important, players are more likely to experiment, and handicapped games often have the addition purpose of teaching weaker players. And between friends, insisting on the proper handicap and going all out to win may not be socially acceptable behavior. In short, judging your true handicap level based on games played for fun is unreliable, which is one reason you should play in tournaments, to get more objective and accurate feedback by playing serious games with more people. Because AGA ratings are scaled based on a lot of real data about the effect of handicaps related to rating differences, AGA ratings also provide one of the best guides to proper handicaps in all your games. On the other hand, for fun, you can play any way you want." "How To Play" Available Online "How To Play Against The Stronger Player -- vol. 1 Local Positions" is available via www.wingsgoclub.org; a free download for personal use, provided the downloader agrees not to modify, repost, sell or redistribute it. - John C. Stephenson jcs@wingsgoclub.org Go T-Shirts & More The Games Galore Go Club is selling a go-themed t-shirt (and other stuff) as a fund-raiser to purchase equipment to be used in tournaments, seminars, etc. If you are interested, please visit http://home.nc.rr.com/jberry02/gggc/t-shirts/ . Cyber Camp How-To Attention kids: Cyber Camp is an extension of the AGA Go Camp. It is a special time set aside each month for kids to get together, say hello to old go buddies and meet new ones, have fun and play some games together on KGS (Kiseido Go Server). New people are always welcome. Every Sunday, 6-8P, EST, 3-5P PST on KGS, in Cybercamp Room. To get there: go to http://kgs.kiseido.com/en_US/applet.html or log on to www.kiseido.com and follow the "Go Server" and "Play Go Now" links. When you sign on go to the cybercamp room, say hello and your name (not everyone will know who you are by your login!!); tell everyone what's been happening with you lately. James Chien (aka "ratbert") and Jon Wang (login "Jon") host Cyber Camp and are in charge of organizing the tournaments. At every Cyber Camp there is a different tournament that you will get to play in. After you log on and let people know your name, you might, at some point, want to let either Jon or James know of your AGA rank so they can pair you up accordingly. In addition the AGA is offering a book value up to $25 from Yutopian or Samakand to those children who play ten 19 x 19 go games on Cybercamp before this year's U.S. Go Congress. For more information: James Chien at jamesjchien@hotmail.com or Jon Wang at jwang@ucdavis.edu How to use the rooms on KGS: (you may want to save these instructions) 1. Log onto KGS; 2. To enter room "cybercamp", click on the "Rooms" menu and select Room List. Then click on "cybercamp". Then, you can talk to everybody in that room by typing in the window that pops up. If you want to talk to any individuals, click on that person's name and then type in the new window that comes up. 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! March Bonus For Renewing Or Lapsed Members Current or lapsed members who renew their AGA membership in March receive a special FREE bonus this month: 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, free 9x9 software & 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. 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: Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go by Toshiro Kageyama, 7P Translated by James Davies, 1978 Published by Kiseido, 1996 [$15] Reviewed by Tom Boone, 9K Anyone 12k or stronger can benefit from this book. Kageyama, a professional teacher and lecturer on Japanese television, observed four levels, starting around 12K, where his amateur students seemed to hit roadblocks. His book prescribes the same remedy at each level. Review the fundamental principles until practice and experience give you the confidence to make sound moves without hesitating. Repeat as needed. For example, you'll have a much easier time finding the best move if you know at a glance whether or not the ladder works. You won't have to look for alternatives to an obvious move, even though it seems wholly uninspired, if you can see how effectively it settles an urgent area. "Lessons" holds up well under repeated browsing. It comes in particularly handy when you're looking for something to help you warm up for the next tournament. ONLINE GO: The Totally Virtual Player by Terri Schurter I would be willing to bet that some of you reading this have never lifted a stone in real life, and have never sat across a board facing a live opponent. Not many, perhaps, but some. To those of us who discovered go through traditional means, well before the advent of personal computers, this is a hard thing to imagine. Many of us regard online go as a means to enjoy what we already know and love. For us it is a supplement to the world of real life tournaments and workshops. But for many, it is the entry point to the world of real-life go. And for others, it is the entire world of go itself. It gives me pause to think about how technology has not only enhanced access to the most ancient game in the world, but has quite literally changed our perception of it. Although I came to go through traditional means thirty years ago, and had played a handful of games, it was not until 1996 that I actually got a chance to play seriously because I discovered IGS. I remember going to the first tournament of my life after having played online go for a year. I found myself repeatedly standing to lean over my board in an effort to gain the "proper" viewpoint, one not distorted by perspective, but more closely resembling the flat screen I was accustomed to. Since then, I have seen many uninhibited first-time tournament attendees do the same. (You've got to be fairly uninhibited to do this when everyone else is firmly glued to their seats.) Two years ago, at a New Jersey Yang workshop, I watched in awe as a player, already quite a bit stronger than myself, touched stones and board for the first time in his life after having taken professional lessons on line for a year or more. I saw this strong player have his first experience of scoring the game through replacing prisoners and shifting boundaries, something he had never had to do before. 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