AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association July 10, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - SCOREBOARD: Richmond, VA - GO NEWS: 9 Days of Go just 11 Days Away!; IA: The Game - GO REVIEW: The Master of Go - ONLINE GO: Kiseido Online - GO RESOURCES: Masterpieces of Handicap Go, volume 2 - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) 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 21-August 4: European Go Congress (Dublin, Ireland) John Gibson +353-1-490-8779 john@mhg.ie 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: Richmond, VA June 30: Virginia Open; Richmond, VA Players: 25; Dan Players: 9; Kyu Players: 16 Organizer: Bill Cobb Director: Chuck Robbins Open Section (2-3D, 6 Players): 1st: JOHNSON, Evan 2D; 2nd: SALANTRIE, Frank 2D; 3rd: HOU, K. K. 2D Section A (1K-1D, 5 Players): 1st: QIN, Harry 1D; 2nd: WONG, David 1K; 3rd: CHENG, Chao-Kun 1D Section B (5-2K, 6 Players): 1st: BITONTI, Thomas 2K; 2nd: FRUCHTENICHT, David C. 2k; 3rd: HUNLEY, Ray 1D Section C (20K-6K, 8 Players): 1st: ALLEN, David A. 12K; 2nd: BERRY, Joseph A. 6K; 3rd: BRIDGES, Adam 7K GO NEWS 9 Days of Go just 11 Days Away! Nine days and nights of go.hundreds of avid go players from across the country and around the world.top professional go players.lectures, simuls, and so much more.you won't want to miss the 17th annual American Go Congress, coming up in just two weeks in York, Pennsylvania. Scheduled for July 21-29, the Go Congress is the highlight of the American go calendar, and is sponsored this year by the Baltimore Go Club and the American Go Association. York, Pennsylvania is located in south-central Pennsylvania near several historic sites including the Gettysburg Battle field, the Amish country around Lancaster, Baltimore's museums and Inner Harbor. For more info or to register, go to http://www.usgo.org/congress/congress2001.html IA: The Game The Intelligent Go Foundation reports that the upcoming 21st Century Cup computer go competition at the Go Congress promises to be one of the liveliest ever, with 12 participants already announced, including entrants from Asia and Europe. Details are at http://www.intelligentgo.org/21cc2001/. Separately from the tournament itself, all Congress attendees are welcome to attend the computer go lectures. Also, positions are still open for volunteers interested in managing tournament facilities or handling public relations. This could be a great way to learn more about computer go. Interested people can contact rtm@intelligentgo.org. GO REVIEW: The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata Published by Vintage Books; $12 Reviewed by Steven Robert Allen, 1K A game of go is much like a story. It has tension, drama and conflict. If you win, the story has a happy ending, if you lose, a sad one. This inherent drama is one reason the prize-winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata was able to take a particularly momentous game of go and transform it into one of the greatest Japanese novels of the 20th century. "The Master of Go" is a fictional account of fact. As a budding writer, Kawabata was commissioned by a newspaper to report on the 1938 retirement match between Shusai (the last hereditary Honinbo) and Kitani Minoru (given the fictitious name Otaké in the novel). Because of Shusai's failing health, the game extended over six months, and was played in over a dozen different sessions at various locations around Japan. After the war, Kawabata transformed his newspaper accounts into this extraordinary novel, eventually winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. The game itself plays a central role in the book. Game records are sprinkled throughout along with detailed analyses of the match. Yet this novel is much more than just an elaborate game record. The Master of Go, like much post-war Japanese literature, maps the rough and difficult terrain between traditional Japanese society, represented by the Master (Shusai), and contemporary westernized society, represented by Otaké. As such, the book is as much about Japan's defeat in World War II and the waning of traditional Japanese culture and values as it is about the match. It's a sad but intensely beautiful story, filled from start to finish with tragedy and pathos. The Master of Go holds a special place in the hearts of go players not only because it focuses on the game we love, but because it incorporates that game into a work of the highest literary art. Every go player should read this book. Most, if they are serious about the game, will read it many times. 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. ONLINE GO: Kiseido Online by Terri Schurter This week we visit another go website rich in more than go books and equipment. The Kiseido page is at http://www.kiseido.com/ The Kiseido page features a number of interesting quotes about the game of go, as well as a menu of links including "Go Server", "Online Shop", "Go News", "Go and Art", "Essays", "How to Play", and "Igowin". Unique to Kiseido is its Go Server, KGS, administrated by William Shubert. KGS has made a name for itself in the past year or so as an excellent place to play go, and has grown considerably since its inception. The main attraction seems to be its unrivaled editing facilities which make preserving comments and variations effortless. The online store offers advice on studying go, sprinkled with references to the role that Kiseido products can play in this endeavor. This frame gets low marks for aesthetics, since the red text on dull green background is ugly, and the large point size of the text not only cramps the narrow column but required you to scroll to the right to read the descriptions of the main links, even on a 19 inch monitor. Among the store' s main links are excerpts from Kiseido's latest book "Get Strong At Attacking," along with links for "English Books", "Japanese Books", "Go Equipment", and "Computer Software". Kiseido offers a wide selection of books, equipment and software. The equipment page has good visuals. I decided to order the book "Get Strong at Attacking" to experience the online checkout process. (In the past I had ordered by phone from Kiseido.) Unfortunately there was no indication of a secure server, and I was reminded of why I had ordered by phone before. They attempt to make up for this lack by offering an option to fill in all information but the credit card number, and to fax or call in the number. That was too much trouble for me, and it felt like an incomplete process. I would just as soon call in the whole order and be done with it all at once. 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, volume 2 Masterpieces of Handicap Go, volume 2 is now available from Slate & Shell: www.slateandshell.com This second volume of the games from the popular series in the American Go Journal contains the remaining 14 games from the series plus four newly translated for this volume. As in the first volume, these games between established pros and young players destined to become famous have commentaries that are offer excellent advice for playing both Black and White in handicap games. This is an American Go Association publication. 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