AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association March 27, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - GO NEWS: Feng Yun Simul in NYC; Pre-register for Cherry Blossom; Ascheim Public Go Lessons on Hiatus; NAMT Schedule Update; New Record of "A Game of Go" Now Available; Last Chance for Kerwin Workshop; Chapter Team Championships - GO REVIEW: Magnetic Go Set - Online Go: Real Life vs. Virtual Play - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) March 31: Washington, DC 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 sburrall@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 http://www.wam.umd.edu/~smount/Spring.html sm193@umail.umd.edu April 21-22: Houston, TX 2001 Houston Spring Tournament Mike Peng (281) 228-4233 pmpeng@swbell.net April 22: Boston, MA MGA Spring Handicap Tournament Don Wiener (617) 734-6316 donwiener@earthlink.net April 28: Cuyahoga Falls, OH Cuyahoga 2001 Go Tournament Joe Carl (330) 493-1663 jcarl@neo.rr.com July 21-29: U.S. Go Congress York College, York PA Keith Arnold, Director; (410) 788-3520 hlime@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 7 GO NEWS Feng Yun Simul in NYC Ms. Feng Yun, pro 9 dan, China, will play simultaneous games against amateurs at 3P this Saturday, March 31 at the New York Go Center, 323 East 52nd St. (between 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave.) in Manhattan. Cost is $15. For more information, or to reserve a match with Ms. Feng, call the New York Go Center at (212) 223-0342 after 5P or Mr. Masao John Takabe at (212) 679-1970 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. Pre-register for Cherry Blossom To pre-register for this Saturday's Cherry Blossom tournament in Washington, DC, email or call Allan Abramson with your name, playing rank, AGA #, and whether you wish to go to the post-tournament group dinner (Aroma restaurant, probably: Indian food). mediate8@worldnet.att.net; 703-684-7676. Ascheim Public Go Lessons on Hiatus "I have deferred further Ascheim Public Go Lessons for awhile," David Saunders reports, "in part to avoid possible scheduling conflicts with the NAMT, and in part to try to put in good order the SGF records of the lessons that have already occurred." Stay tuned for further developments. NAMT Schedule Update Xiaoren He, 5p will play against Feng Yun, 9p on IGS this Thursday, March 29, starting at 7pm EST, 6pm CST, 4pm PST. On Saturday, 3/31, Huiren Yang, 1p will play against Jong Moon Lee, Ama starting at 1pm EST, noon, CST, 10am PST. New Record of "A Game of Go" Now Available "A new recording of my piece 'A Game of Go' has just been released on Klavier Records by the 2-piano team, Quatro Mane," reports Haskell Small. "The CD is entitled 'A Game of Go'". Check it out at: http://www.klavier-records.com/new.htm. Last Chance for Kerwin Workshop Only a couple of openings remain for the Weekend Workshop with James Kerwin in Gaithersburg, MD, on May 4 - 6, 2001, starting at 7 PM Friday night and concluding at 4 PM Sunday afternoon. The theme will be Finding the Big Area in the Opening, Middle Game, and End Game. To attend, send a check for $135.00 to Gordon Fraser at 20505 Anndyke Way, Germantown, MD 20874. Chapter Team Championships AGA chapters and their members should start planning now to enter a team in the AGA Chapter Team Championships, a new online tournament approved by the AGA, reports Steve Fawthrop. The main tournament for 2001 is scheduled to start in May and will feature a handicap tournament and an even game tournament. Teams of 3-5 players from any AGA chapter are invited to participate. All team members must also be AGA members. Each chapter can enter as many teams as they wish for either or both tournaments. Deadline for entries is 15th April, 2001. For more details, including registration forms, go to www.wingsgoclub.org or contact Steve directly at AGAChampionships@Eklectika.net Last Week for 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. Choose either the CD-ROM or one of the pocket series: Go Problems, Vol. 1: Life and Death; Vol. 2: Uplifting Exercises; Vol. 3: Whole Board Opening Problems or Learning from the Masters, Vol 1. 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: Magnetic Go Set Magnetic Go Set (Kiseido MG25) Kiseido (www.kiseido.com) $130 (MG20 is $100) Reviewed by Lon Atkins, 15 K At 36 x 34 cm, this magnetic set is large enough to play a comfortable game on, yet still small enough to use for study. The metal of the board wraps around at the center seam. It's possible to gently fold the board closed and have stones on the tenth line maintain their grip when I put the board away on a shelf (standing upright on its 1.9 cm edge). The designer knew that games and study are sometimes interrupted while the table is put to a more pragmatic use, like dinner. The playing surface features a wood-grain print in light yellow-tan, like Katsura. My first reaction as the set was opened: "How can magnets stick to wood?" The plastic stones measure 1.7 cm in diameter. Their magnets are glued snugly into a recess in the base, so that nothing but smooth plastic ever touches the board's surface. Unlike with my first magnetic set (a rather small artifact), the surface of MG25 remains unscratched. The bowls are black plastic. They're shallow and broad, which makes them a bit unwieldy to screw open and closed. Getting the knack of it took me a few days. The set has a nice carrying case, and the bowls are wide so they pack well into the case, which must reflect the dimensions of the folded board. (I made a cork template to hold the bowls more firmly during travel. Otherwise they bump around.) This high-quality set is worth the expense for its combination of utility and elegance. Kiseido also offers MG20 (32 x 30 cm), which I am guessing is the MG25's little brother. I'm sure they'll be glad to tell you if you contact them. Online Go: Real Life vs. Virtual Play by Terri Schurter Traditional tournament play is quite different from either club play or virtual play. You are assigned an opponent, and are given a time limit which includes a specific amount and type of byo-yomi. Basic etiquette requires that you keep your mouth shut during the game except perhaps to remind your opponent to hit his clock and to excuse yourself to get a cup of coffee, or to use the facilities. Out of respect you refrain from pouting, gloating, whining, mumbling, or fidgeting as the game swings from won to lost and back again. You focus your attention on the board, and use your time to read, strategize and count, so your opponent can see that you are taking the game seriously. Real life play at clubs and virtual play, however, have a wider range of behaviors, and differ quite a bit from each other as well. Real life club play is often casual in nature. Clocks are seldom used and game review is the norm among stronger players since they can remember their games. After a hard day of work people may not be playing their best, but they are at a club more for fun, and social contact, than for competition. Since you are going to encounter the same small group of people again and again at a club you tend to be on your best behavior. You can't afford to succumb to negative feelings and say things that make you appear petty or rude. Since it is now possible to go online to catch a game at any time, it is even more likely that those who make the effort to venture out of their homes are interested in the social interaction that real-life play affords. Talking often takes place during a game, not only with your opponent, but often with observers as well. Teaching is common, with lively conversation taking place all around you. Play is at a faster pace than tournament play, but is much slower than online. Virtual play can be quite anonymous. Rated games are the norm, and time limits are often stringent with slow games being difficult to find. Game review is the exception rather than the rule, and usually occurs among players who know each other well, either from real life, or from frequent associations online. It is not uncommon to be beaten up and left to bleed as your opponent skips off to conquer his next victim without uttering a word. This would not happen at a club among players strong enough to review a game. Although teaching does sometimes occur online, it is more rare than at real life clubs. This is due to the difficulties of communicating through typing. While typing may make teaching difficult, it seems to do little to discourage players from multitasking. If your opponent is slow to respond to you, it may be because he is talking with someone else, perhaps about your game. At a club one would never consider getting up in the middle of a game one is losing to flee from the club without so much as a "Goodbye." But in the virtual world it is so common that there is a word for it. It is called "escaping". One's sense of anonymity, and the seemingly endless, and replaceable, stream of players, prompt some of us to misbehave online, even if we are ordinarily well mannered and compassionate. That, however, is true of all aspects of online life, not just go servers. 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. Past columns are archived at http://www.britgo.org/gopcres/agaart/index.html The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the American Go Association. GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 2,500 readers coast-to-coast every week! 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