AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association August 6, 2001 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings! - GO NEWS: Congress Results Posted on Web; Statistics, Damn Statistics; Go Clubs in the Greater Washington Area - Go Resources: New Pocket Size Life and Death Problem Book - GoReview: Jungsuk In Our Time - ONLINE GO: Kogo's Joseki Dictionary - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) August 13: "A Game of Go" Washington, DC; at the the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage A live performance of Haskell Small's piece of music featuring 2 pianos and a video display of the famous Shusaku vs. Yuzo jigo game 6P; FREE; presented by the the Sonic Circuits program of the American Composers Forum August 25/26: Raleigh, NC Fall Tournament Chris (919)781-GAME; gggc@nc.rr.com September 29: Durham, NC Joe Shoenfeld Memorial Marathon Go Tournament Paul Celmer; (919)779-7925 September 1-2: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Canadian Open Steven Donaldson; mailto:sdonaldson@jsquared.com September 6-9: Lake Andrusia, Northern Minnesota: James Kerwin Weekend Go workshop $400 includes tuition, lodging, and 11 gourmet meals cooked by Gretchen, Jim's wife. Limited to 15 participants. Bill Petersen; 218-335-2428; mailto:peterw@paulbunyan.net James Kerwin: 612-822-9513 September 8-9: Corvallis, OR: Go Workshop with Janice Kim Robert O'Malley 541-738-1690; mailto:omalley@oce.orst.edu Gail Cape; mailto:gailcape@home.com September 15: Lancaster, PA: Jack Frost Special Sam Zimmerman; (717) 892-1249; szimmerman@wareunl.com September 21-23: Gaithersburg, MD: Kerwin Weekend Workshop Gordon Fraser; (301) 540-2640; gordon@clark.net August 3-11: 18th Annual U.S. Go Congress; Chicago, IL Robert Barber, Director; (773) 467-0423; igo@uic.edu 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 Congress Results Posted on Web For full (updated & corrected) US Go Congress Tournament results, go to http://www.usgo.org/congress2001 Complete results are listed by events, as well as sorted by: Alphabetical by Name, Entry Rank & Provisional Rating. Be sure to check out the US Open Tie Break link, which provides detailed information on your individual game results, including win probability for each game, SOS (Sum of Opponent's Scores); SODOS (Sum of Defeated Opponent's Scores); & the provisional rating change for each result. You can also check out how your opponents did, as well as anyone else who played in the Congress. Special thanks to Chuck Robbins and Sam Zimmerman, who have done terrific work getting these stats up on the website so quickly. Statistics, Damn Statistics Here are a few numbers Stephen Barbieri has helpfully calculated from the rating statistics from the 2001 Go Congress: The players at the 2001 Go Congress ranged from 36 kyu to 8.6 dan, with an average rating of 2k. The rating changes extremes were -7 and +20, with most people going up or down by less than one rating point. There are 268 people in the list. Based on the provisional ratings, there are 116 dan-level players and 152 kyu-level players; the median rating is -1.95. Steve also calculated the rating change for each person. Eight people had extremely large positive changes (more than +2.20), and one person had an extremely large negative change (-7.00). Removing these outliers from further consideration left 259 people with changes between +2.03 and -2.08. The average change was -0.01, not meaningfully different from zero. The standard deviation was 0.62. There was no strong correlation between rating and rating change: both double digit kyus and dans had changes of more than 1 rating point, both up and down. Go Clubs in the Greater Washington Area DC-area go players or visitors to our nation's capitol can find a game almost any night of the week at one of the following clubs: Monday, 7-11P; Northern Virginia GO Club (NOVA)Central United Methodist Church, 4201 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington (At Ballston Metro, corner of Stafford Street) Allan Abramson - 703-684-7676 or mediate8@worldnet.att.net Wednesday, 7:30P; University of Maryland Go ClubH.J. Patterson Hall, Room 1216, on the campus. Stephen Mount - 301-405-6934 Wednesday, 7P; Frederick Go ClubBorder's Bookstore, Urbana Pike, Frederick. Thursday, 6-11P; Hillandale Go and Shogi ClubShoney's Restaurant, North of 495 and New Hampshire Avenue. John Goon - 301-315-8297 Friday, 7:30P; Greater Washington Go ClubCedar Lane Unitarian Church, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda. Haskell Small - 202-244-4764 Friday, 7:30P; New World WeiQi ClubInternational Christian Ministries Building, Chinese Library, 3rd Floor10523 Main Street, Fairfax VA. Hsu Terry Wang - 703-978-7905 or sywang@aol.com Sunday, 7:30-11:30P; Baltimore Go Club, Hillcrest Elementary School, Frederick Road, Catonsville. Keith Arnold - 301-539-5535 Every Day: Korean Baduk Club, 9653 Lee Highway, Suite 24, Fairfax VA. 703-385-2170 Plus: Find go clubs everywhere at http://www.usgo.org Go Resources: New Pocket Size Life and Death Problem Book A collection of 110 life and death problems by Maeda Nobuaki 9 Dan -- one of the most famous composers of such problems -- has just been published by Slate & Shell. The difficulty of the problems ranges from about 7 kyu up to 2 dan. Since it's pocket size it's a nice book to carry along for study anywhere. Available at www.slateandshell.com . Go Review: Jungsuk In Our Time Jungsuk In Our Time: Somok (3-4 point Jungsuk) Seo Bong-Soo (9P) & Jung Dong-Sik (5P) Translated by Nam Chuhyunk (1P) Published by Hankuk Kiwon ,Korean Baduk Association. 351 pp. Reviewed by Michael Turk, 10k Jungsuk is the Korean word for joseki. This book provides a well-commented treatment of 3-4 joseki in a form that is readable by middle strength and stronger kyus. The book is rich in information and I expect that it will also provide useful information for stronger players. All conference attendees at the recent 1st International Baduk Conference (Baduk is the Korean word for Go) received a copy from Chiyung Nam when they visited the Hankuk Kiwon. Until recently the English-language go literature has been dominated by translations of Japanese works, but recently works of Chinese and Korean authors have become available, a welcome trend that I hope continues. Jungsuk claims to be the first Korean book on baduk translated into English, but I believe that Jeong Soo-Hyun's and Janice Kim's superb "Learn to Play Go" series lays true claim to that honour. The book is structured around 113 "Primary Patterns". These represent the major variations of the commonly used 3-4 joseki as practiced in Korea today. Many of these are presented within a 'whole board' context and the emphasis is on current or modern variations. Secondary sequences related to these primary patterns are used to explore well-commented interesting variations. Most variations are extended into 'after joseki' and 'unreasonable play', 'modern play' and 'old variations' are mentioned. The authors encourage their readers to "learn ... and then forget" their joseki and to consider joseki choices within the game context. They use korean terms sparingly (sunsoo for sente etc) and provide a glossary at the back for terms that Western readers may not be familiar with. The book is beautifully bound with a high quality cover, it is well printed and well laid out with very readable diagrams and clear explanations. ONLINE GO: Kogo's Joseki Dictionary by Terri Schurter Kogo's Joseki Dictionary is an extensive collection of joseki variations in sgf format, and can be found at http://home1.gte.net/res0kgks/joseki.htm The page offers the following description: "Kogo's Joseki Dictionary has over 4000 variations and modest commentary, covering all basic joseki and secondary variations, common non-joseki plays, and many trick plays. Many enclosure joseki associated with corner formations are also covered. Kogo's Joseki Dictionary is packaged in a single compressed file, with variations for each initial corner play: 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-3, 5-4, 6-3, 6-4 & 5-5. Decompress the file you receive and you have a single sgf file which you can read using an sgf file viewer/editor." The sgf file is so huge (well over half a meg) that it's recommended that you view the dictionary using WinMGT, which is optimized to handle large sgf files. You can obtain WinMGT at http://www.huihuang.bizland.com/ Other compatible sgf editors are listed on the page; if the dictionary fails to load, your editor is probably at fault. To receive your free subscription to Kogo's Joseki Dictionary, email the following information to ko.go@verizon.net: name, city, state, province, and country. Subscribers are assured that their information is not sold or distributed. The dictionary's beginning commentary emphasizes that one must look to the side corners to help pick the proper joseki, and to the opposite corner only if a ladder is involved. The Whole Board Thinking In Joseki series by Yang Yilun serves as an excellent companion to the dictionary for this reason. Kogo's Joseki Dictionary is an excellent, free digital compilation of information from a number of venerable sources, first among them being the three-volume Dictionary of Basic Joseki by Yoshio Ishida. I invite you to view the rest of the sources on the web site. There are so many it would annoy my editor to list them here. 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. 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! 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