AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association April 11, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - SCOREBOARD: Austin, Texas; Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; Hoboken, NJ - GO NEWS: NAMT: Mingjiu Jiang Defeats Xiaoren He By 1 Point; Young Go Players: Join the AGA 2001 Summer Go Camp! - GO REVIEW: Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go - Online Go: The Interactive Way To Go - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) THIS WEEKEND! 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 April 28: Sandy Springs, MD Sandy Spring Scholastic K-12 Chess and Go Tournament and Pizza Bash Anand Modak (301) 869-0327 amodak@mcps.k12.md.us Apr 28/29: Brooklyn, NY Go at the Sakura Matsuri Festival in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Marc Palmer morrsarian@juno.com May 5: Corvallis, OR Corvallis Spring Go Tournament Robert O'Malley omalley@oce.orst.edu June 9 & 10: Denver, CO Yang Yilun Workshop Susan Howell showel3@attglobal.net 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 YOUR MOVE: Readers Write "I tried the email address for Susan Howell's workshop in Denver and got an error. Is the address correct?" - John Mumby The correct address is showel3@attglobal.net We apologize for the error. "I enjoyed the review of 'Understanding How to Play Go', but the review didn't give much info on how to obtain the book. It didn't turn up at Amazon or any of the other online bookstores I checked. Is there an address or web site for the publisher 'Slate & Shell'?" - David Goldberg Slate & Shell, 1425 Westshire Lane, Richmond, VA 23233 SCOREBOARD: Austin, Texas; Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; Hoboken, NJ March 24: Austin Go Club 2001 Spring Tournament Austin, Texas TD: JEFF SHAVEL; 14 players Section A(dan): 1st: Joseph Kang, 6d; 2nd: Shaoze Ouyang, 3d; 3rd: Mike Peng, 5d; Section B: (kyu): 1st: Anderson Mills, 19k; 2nd: Darron J. Shaffer, 7k; 3rd: Jeff Michael Little, 8k. March 31: NOVA Cherry Blossom Festival Tournament Washington, DC 45 players TD: ALLAN ABRAMSON First place: Cheng Xiang, 3d, 3-1; Chuck Robbins, 2d, 4-0; Paul Celmer, 1k, 3-1; Ray Hunley, 2k, 3-1; Adam Bridges, 7k, 3-1; Kathy Qiu, 8k, 2-2; Yufeng Mau, 16k, 3-1; Brian Postow, 20k, 3-1; Juan Quizon, 30k, 3-1. Second place: Xin-Li Zhou, 1k, 3-1; Yi-Ren Zheng, 2k, 3-1; Yimeng Huang, 7k, 2-2; Betsy Small, 13k, 2-2; Lars Peterson, 18k, 3-1; Chris Ellison, 20k, 2-2. Allan Abramson reports that "Many new and beginning players participated" in the tournament, which was "capped by dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant attended by 21 people. As usual, Mark Laing and Bruce McJelton volunteered to run the GO tent at the Sakura Matsuri Festival." "Plan now for the NOVA Congress Tune-Up on Saturday, 14 July!" April 7-8: San Francisco Go Club 2001 Spring Tournament San Francisco, California TD: STEVE BURRALL 35 players, including 10 children Thanks to the Ing Goe Foundation for sponsorship Division 1 (3d-7d) 1st: Bob Hamilton 5d; 2nd: James Chien 7d; 3rd: Lloyd Gowen 3d. Division 2 (2d) 1st- Wang Yi; 2nd: Alfred Ho; 3rd: Aaron Rosen. Division 3 (1d) 1st: Gina Shi 1d; 2nd: Adam Miller 1d; 3rd: Brian Leahy 1d. Division 4 (1k-2k) 1st: Matthew Burrall 2k; 2nd: Tetsuo Asano 2k; 3rd: Kristen Burrall 2k Division 5 (3k-5k): 1st: Nick Kersting 3k; 2nd: Eric Branlund 5k; 3rd: Frazer Meacham 3k Division 6 (6k-9k): 1st: Christopher Berner 7k; 2nd: Tommy Slater 8k; 3rd: Dan Westfall 6k. Division 7 (10k+): 1st- Jason Pan 18k; 2nd: Charles Slater 16k; 3rd: Lon Atkins 15k. April 8: Hoboken Spring Tournament Hoboken, NJ 27 players TD: LARRY RUSS 4 game winner: Chuck Robbins 3 game winners: David Carper, Steve Bretherick, Peng Li, Masaaki Hamaguchi GO NEWS NAMT: Mingjiu Jiang Defeats Xiaoren He By 1 Point In a nail-biting game, Mingjiu Jiang, 7p defeated Xiaoren He, 5p by 1 pt in their Challenger Round game, reports Don Wiener. The next game will be between Feng Yun, 9p v Hosuk Yi, Amateur on Saturday, Apr 14, starting at 2pm EST. Young Go Players: Join the AGA 2001 Summer Go Camp! The Go Camp Organizing Committee is now accepting applications from young go players, reports Peter Rzepecki . "Do not miss this great opportunity! There is not much time left. We have assembled magnificent staff, numerous attractions and have prepared a great program that balances the study of go with social and physical activities. These activities will include several outdoor adventures. Please, let everybody know and/or send the kid to the Camp. The entire American go community may contribute to the success of this precious event!" For more information visit the web site: http://www.usgo.org/gocamp/index.html or write to Peter Rzepecki, the camp administrator: AGAGoCamp@aol.com GO REVIEW: Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go T. Kageyama, 7-dan Translated by James Davis Ishi Press Reviewed by Terry Fung, 1k NNGS What can one learn from studying low-handicap games between two professionals and a professional against a strong amateur? The list could be pretty long, including corner joseki, whole board fuseki, direction of play, middle game technique, sente and gote, honte moves and overplays. But the most important thing that I learned from this book is how professionals deal with over-aggressive moves and unreasonable challenges. This book helps weak players like me to build up confidence when playing against stronger players. It should be a great book for players between AGA 9k to 2d. The book includes nine fully-commented real handicap games from 2 to 5 stones. While the two professionals were playing against each other, they engaged in lively and entertaining conversations. When one professional plays against an amateur, both professionals comment after the actual game and they often have different ideas about an identical position. Last but not least, this book has a feature that I enjoyed very much: there are about 7 to 8 questions per game to test your strength, and you can only find the answers after flipping to the next page. Online Go: The Interactive Way To Go by Terri Schurter A teacher by profession, I am especially interested in educating new players about how to play go. I like to send such "newbies" to http://playgo.to/interactive/ , the home of "The Interactive Way To Go", now available in twelve languages including English. (You can also reach this site by following the first link off my personal web page at http://www.terriblue.com .) Although the AGA website at http://www.usgo.org has a pdf version of the classic document "The Way To Go", many new players, especially young ones, are too impatient to download and read it before playing. The interactive version's advantage is that it holds the attention of users while leading them through the basics of the game in a way that involves the reader. The tutorial starts with diagrams showing how stones are captured. Problems begin at the 50 kyu range (yes, 50 kyu) showing the simple capturing of stones. These problems are reminiscent of the first few problems in Graded Go Problems For Beginners Volume 1. The problems are quite simple and build confidence as the new player works through the explanations. To solve the problems you click on an intersection of the board to indicate your answer. Success is indicated at the bottom of the board. You get the chance to retry as often as necessary. You move through the tutorial by clicking arrows to more difficult pages, and before you know it you have learned the basics of the game and are ready to play. At any point you can view a Table of Contents, which allows you to jump ahead to another area of the tutorial, although it is best studied from beginning to end. An offline version of the tutorial is available in archive form which contains English, French, Italian, German, and Dutch versions. If you visit the main site at http://playgo.to click on the "English" link to find a number of interesting links including an applet which allows you to add go problems to your own web site. 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. 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: president@usgo.org Eastern VP; ChenDao Lin: vp-eastern@usgo.org Central VP; Jeff Shaevel: vp-central@usgo.org Western VP; Larry Gross: vp-western@usgo.org Treasurer; Ulo Tamm: treasurer@usgo.org Membership Secretary; John Goon: membership@usgo.org Chapters Coordinator; Bill Cobb: chapters@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator; Mike Bull: tournaments@usgo.org Education Coordinator; None Redmond: education@usgo.org Congress Liaison Officer; Chris Kirschner: cngrsliaison@usgo.org AGA website; Gordon Fraser and Chuck Robbins: webmaster@usgo.org American Go Foundation; Terry Benson: mailto: terrybenson@eudoramail.com AGA Librarian; Craig Hutchinson: 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