AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association June 12, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - GO NEWS: E-Journal Off Next Week; Japanese 7D Visits Metro DC; WAGC Results Available; Keeping Ing Up To Date; $250K A Year Teaching Go?; E-Journal Subscribers Hit New High; Buenos Aires is Nice in October; New AGA Banner; Congress Registration Tops 200 - YOUR MOVE: Responses to "Crosscuts Cartoon is Offensive" - GO REVIEW: The Go Player's Almanac - ONLINE GO: Online Go Problems - Go Resources: Masterpieces of Handicap Go - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) June 16: Chicago, IL: Bloomsday Basho Bob Barber (773)467-0423; igo@uic.edu June 23: Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Summer Go Tournament Don Broersma (734)487-9871; dbroersma@provide.net June 30: Richmond, VA: Virginia Open William Cobb (804) 740-2191; wmscobb@rcn.com July 14: Arlington, VA: Congress Tune-Up Allan Abramson (703) 684-7676; mediate@mnsinc.com July 15: Boston, MA: MGA Summer Handicap Tournament Don Wiener (617) 734-6316; donwiener@earthlink.net July 21-29: York PA: U.S. Go Congress Keith Arnold, Director; (410) 788-3520; hlime@clark.net ABROAD July 7-8: Scottish Open (Edinburgh) Donald Macleod; donald@sandwood.demon.co.uk http://www.faldara.co.uk/Go/Scottish.html 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 E-Journal Off Next Week The E-Journal will not appear next week; the next edition will be published on Monday, June 25. Japanese 7D Visits Metro DC Mr. Aketa, 7 dan amateur from Japan, visits the metro DC area later this week. Join him for simultaneous games Friday, June 15, at the Greater Washington GO Club, Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, about one mile East of Wisconsin on Cedar Lane (which is the North border of NIH), at 8P. Mr. Aketa also plans to visit the NOVA GO Club on Monday, June 18, at 7:30P. Build bridges to the East, and join us! WAGC Results Available The results of the World Amateur currently on in Hyuga, Japan are on page http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/amakisen/worldama/23/gameresult-e.htm Keeping Ing Up To Date "As I read the e-Journal these days I notice announcements of many tournaments," says None Redmond. " "Sometimes great reports of these tournaments follow. It would be a nice idea for Tournament Directors to send the reports to the Ing Foundation, particularly if you have pictures, and especially if the pictures include children. It's a good way of thanking the Ing Foundation for their considerable help and letting them know that go is alive and well in the States. The address is: ING Chang-Ki Educational Foundation, 4th Floor, #35, Kuang-Fu South Road, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C." $250K A Year Teaching Go? If you think this is a joke, just ask Bruce Pandolfini, co-founder of "Chess in the Schools," a foundation that teaches chess to 35,000 children in New York City. According to a profile in the June 4 issue of The New Yorker, that's how much he took home last year. Pandolfini, the real-life inspiration for the Ben Kingsley character in Searching for Bobby Fischer, gained national recognition doing commentary on public television for the Fischer-Spassky World Championship in 1972. "In my day," he says, "chess was a shady activity, something that street hustlers did. Maybe just a few hundred kids played tournament chess, and many of them were eccentric. Today, chess is mainstream. My students play baseball and hockey. They go to summer camp and they play the piano." Hardly any, however, play go. What shall we do about that? - Roy Laird E-Journal Subscribers Hit New High Subscriptions to the American Go E-Journal hit a new high last week, passing the 2,500 mark with a new high of 2517 subscribers. Pass it along! Buenos Aires is Nice in October The Third Iberoamerican Go Tournament in Buenos Aires next October 11-13 is open to players of all levels. There will be cash prizes of up to $500. "We expect players from several countries and would like to cordially invite American Go Association members to this event," says Hugo Scolnik, scolnik@fd.com.ar Round trip tickets from Miami-Buenos Aires are as little as $499 and hotels start at $30. "There are many tourist packages for Bariloche, glaciers, the beautiful North of Argentina and whale watching in the South," Skolnik suggests. New AGA Banner Check out Fred Hansen's new AGA banner at http://www.usgo.org/org/banners.html. If you have your own ideas for a nice AGA banner submit them to: webmaster@usgo.org. Congress Registration Tops 200 Registration for this years U.S. Go Congress -- scheduled for July 21-29 at York College in York, Pennsylvania - topped 200 last week. Register today for the biggest go event of the year at www.usgo.org The week-long event features major tournaments, lectures, top professionals, and tons of casual play. Players have been known to improve several levels in eight short days. There's plenty in the area for non-players, so bring the whole family! YOUR MOVE: Responses to "Crosscuts Cartoon is Offensive" Lighten Up "Lighten up, Dan! I get a good number of jokes about being Irish, and the stereotypical associated drinking," writes Michael "Mick" Leary. "But so what? Does anyone lack for colorful heritage? If I think a comment or joke is stupid, or ill-spirited, I'll just say something like, 'That's very clever' or 'That's dumb' and move on. But mostly I can see the humor in humor, without feeling obligated to self-identify as a drunk, a leprechaun, a Catholic/Protestant terrorist, or a violent soccer fan." No Offense "I don't find representations of Asians engaging in martial arts or wearing traditional clothes offensive," writes Janice Kim. "Maybe if there was something wrong with either of these things, I would take offense. Go is, after all, considered a martial art -- are we going to say it feeds stereotypes when Asians play it? "I sympathize with Mr. Kim's anger at the know-nothings in our society who make assumptions based on a person's features or ethnic background. But I can't see how a cartoon imagining the characters in the extremely popular movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' playing Go, can be considered as something that "feeds stereotypes", unless the movie is offensive too. "My grandfather wore the hat depicted in the Winter 2001 'Crosscuts' - it never crossed my mind that it was some kind of 'coolie hat.' It makes me wonder if it would be offensive to depict my grandfather wearing a baseball cap, or maybe if it would be offensive or would feed stereotypes to depict my grandfather at all. He was, in many ways, a very stereotypical Asian. "It's perhaps the saddest thing of all that if a group has been discriminated against, just depicting them or using a generic name for the group is considered offensive." Not Racist, Not Funny "I don't know whether the way the two individuals were portrayed in the cartoon in question was necessarily racist," writes Geenius at Wrok, "it was pretty obvious to me that they were meant to mimic the characters in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' However, I also urge you to stop publishing "Crosscuts," for the simple reason that it's NEVER FUNNY." GO REVIEW: The Go Player's Almanac edited by Richard Bozulich Published by Ishi Press; $30 Reviewed by Steven Robert Allen, 1K People are attracted to go for many reasons. It's fun. It's excellent mental aerobics. It's also an ideal springboard for philosophical speculation about life and the cosmos. A particularly seductive aspect of the game is its extraordinary culture and past. One of the most exciting things about go is that its millennia-long history is filled with colorful stories and equally colorful personalities. The Go Player's Almanac, unique among go books in English, provides a detailed look at the game's culture and history. The book contains no lessons, no theory, no advice for improving go-playing skills. What it does provide are well-written essays and reference sections covering the history, philosophy, culture and personalities which make go so fascinating to so many people. The book covers go history from ancient times to the present. It also contains biographies of all the most significant players, living and dead. One of the book's finest features is its extensive glossary of go terms. Another nice feature is its survey of go equipment, the collection of which is a fetishized pastime in itself. If that isn't enough, The Go Player's Almanac also describes: the manner in which players become professionals, the tournament system in different countries, the various rule sets, why go computer programs are so difficult to create, and more. Every serious go player will eventually want to have this book. Though The Go Player's Almanac is currently out of print, it's available at several Internet vendors of go equipment. An updated edition is rumored to be in the works. ONLINE GO: Online Go Problems by Terri Schurter "Do you know a good place to find online go problems that you don't have to pay for or download?" asks Danny. Actually, Danny, I just found a great site at http://www.goproblems.com At goproblems.com you can solve go problems and add your own to the collection. You can set the problem level from "any," "easy," "medium," or "hard." You can also designate the type of problem you want to solve choosing from "any," "elementary," "life and death," "joseki," "tesuji," "best move," and "endgame." Once you have set your selections, press the "get problem" button and you get a description of the problem such as "white to live in the corner" along with a starting board position. You can solve the problem one move at a time. If you progress beyond the point where you have a chance to solve the problem you will be told that you are "wrong". At that point you can reset and try again. After a number of false tries, if frustration sets in, you can be shown the solution. There are three solution options: you can have the solution "animated," which will show you the moves one at a time with a slight pause between moves. You can have the solution "numbered" which will present all the stones of the finished diagram with numbers indicated the order in which the stones are played. Or you can choose to "navigate the solution". This option presents you with red dots for the wrong moves and green dots for the right move. If you like, you can rate the "coolness" of the problem with a dropdown list with ratings from 10 to 1. Once you have finished with a problem you can click "next" to go on to another problem. You can use the site without registering, but if you do register, you can personalize your settings, submit problems of your own, and get email notification of new go problems via email. In the week since I discovered goproblems.com I received notification of quite a few new problems, several in one day, and problem #700 was added to the list earlier this week. PilotGone follow-up: "The latest version of PilotGOne no longer limits sgf file sizes to 4k," writes Michael. "The latest PC Palm Desktop slices up larger memos and numbers them. PilotGOne automatically stitches them back together when the first is opened." Terri Schurter -- onlinego@usgo.org -- 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. Go Resources: Masterpieces of Handicap Go The second edition of the first volume of Masterpieces of Handicap Go is now available. This collection of 18 games between established pros and young players destined to become famous pros is full of useful guidance for playing both the black and the white stones in handicap games. They were first published in the American Go Journal and have been completely reset. Study of this American Go Association publication will lead to an improvement in anyone's handicap play. It's available from Slate & Shell at www.slateandshell.com . 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: 202-857-3410 Fax: 202-857-3420