NOTE TO OUR VALUED SUBSCRIBERS: We hope you have been enjoying the American Go E-Journal, sent to you free, courtesy of the American Go Association (AGA). The AGA is the national organization of U.S. go players and we urge you to consider joining today. You can join online at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.html You'll be helping the AGA continue to provide useful services like the E-Journal, plus you'll receive the print edition of the quarterly Go Journal as well as discounts on tournaments and other AGA benefits. (If you have recently sent in your membership application or renewal, we apologize for the reminder and thank you for your support) AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association January 22, 2002 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings - SCOREBOARD: Boston, MA - GO NEWS: Ascheim Public Go Lesson #16; Yuan Zhou Accepting Students; Texas Go-Getters; Frank Lloyd Wright, Guo Juan & Go; Errata - YOUR MOVE: Readers Write: Environmental Go At the Crossroads - GO REVIEW: Cho Hun-hyeon's Lectures on Go Techniques, Volume One - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) January 26: Seattle, WA Monthly Ratings Tournament Seattle Go Center Jon Boley 206-545-1424 go@seattlego.org January 26-27: San Francisco, CA 10th Zhu Jiu Jiang Goe Tournament Ernest Brown 415-641-1452 Falcon@sfo.com February 2: Chicago, IL Don't Drive Angry Robert Barber 773-467-0423 igo@uic.edu February 2-3: Lancaster, PA Pennsylvania Open Sam Zimmerman 717-892-1249 szimmerman@wareunl.com February 3: Seattle, WA Monthly Ratings Tournament Jon Boley 206-545-1424 go@seattlego.org February 23-24: Princeton, NJ New Jersey Open (**NEW SITE**) Rick Mott 609-466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.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 SCOREBOARD: Boston, MA MGA Winter Handicap Tournament, 1/20; 32 participants. 1st: tie between Douglas Zhang, 6-Dan (4-0) and Daniel Dvinov, 10-Kyu (4-0). 3rd place went to John Aspinall, 5-Kyu (3-1). TD: Don Wiener GO NEWS Ascheim Public Go Lesson #16 Ms. Feng Yun (9 dan pro, China) will play a handicap game against AGA stalwart Sam Zimmerman at 8P (EST) this Wednesday, January 23. Sam will be using the usual student account in this series, "publicgo". The lesson format is a live handicap game lasting approximately 1hr, followed immediately by a live, 1hr commented review of the game. Sam Zimmerman (samz 8k* on IGS, AGA 4k) was born in 1931 and has been playing go for 45 years. A man of many qualities, he's devoted countless hours to the go community. However, his invitation to participate in the Ascheim Lessons can be justified soley by his performance in this year's US Go Congress. As anyone who attended can attest; Sam worked tirelessly throughout the Congress. From the registration process (begun months before the Congress itself) through pulling fire?watch on the Congress's final night to help people check out and make sure they caught their early morning flights, Sam was there to make sure things went smoothly. If not for Sam's ceaseless effort, the 2001 Go Congress wouldn't have been much fun for anybody. Skip Ascheim was known as "ubu" and "critic" on IGS. For more than 25 years, Skip was a very well?respected leader in the local go community of Boston. With the consent of Skip's family, this series is called the "Ascheim Public Go Lessons". Yuan Zhou Accepting Students Yuan Zhou, AGA 7 dan, the author of the book "Understanding How to Play Go" is now accepting students. He offers private lessons, Internet teaching games, comments on your games on the Internet or through the mail. One of the strongest go players in America, Yuan Zhou was recognized in his native China as having unusual talent and received professional training. Shortly after settling in Maryland in 1989, Zhou began to rise to the top of U.S. go, winning the Mid-Atlantic Championship in 1990 and 2000; the Eastern Open in 1992; the University of Maryland Open in 1993; the Maryland Open in 1994; the NOVA quarterly tournament in 1993, 1999; the New Jersey Open in 1995, 1996, 1997; and the Pennsylvania Open in 2000. In 1992 Zhou placed 5th in the World Youth Championship Senior Division as the US representative, and in 2001 he placed 5th in the US Open. He has been an invited participant in the North American Fujitsu tournament in 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2001. He is also a regular participant in the annual North American Ing Invitational Tournament. For more information: yzhou2@msn.com; 301-528-7259; 14016 Rockingham Road, Germantown, MD 20874 Texas Go-Getters Texas go got a nice write-up last week in the Dallas-Forth Worth Star Telegram. "I have learned more about the world by studying the Go board and studying people's response to Go than I have anywhere else," Austin's Jeff Shaevel said in the story. "It's a real Rorschach [test]. The game has few rules, and you have very little on which to base your choices. How you [play] ... says volumes about who you are and what kinds of things you believe in, and how you focus your thoughts, and what you find important, and what sort of things make you afraid." The story is available online for a limited time at http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/2002/01/16/living/2475563.htm "When you play the game you really can't lose," Bob Felice says. "You either win the game, or you don't win the game, and you learn something. Frank Lloyd Wright, Guo Juan & Go "The 18th US Go Congress will be held in River Forest, IL, home to more Frank Lloyd Wright buildings than anywhere else on the planet," reports U.S. Go Congress Director Bob Barber. And if that's not enough, Guo Juan, pro 5 dan from China, now residing in Amsterdam, will attend this year's Go Congress. "Many will remember her from the Denver Congress," says Barber. "She gave out some wonderful advice: 'When you lose a game, you can be angry at yourself for one hour, no more.' Of course, her husband Wiet told me 'That's easy for her to say. She never loses!'" For info on the Congress, email Barber at igo@uic.edu Errata In the lead-off news item in the Fall/Winter issue of the American Go Journal, we mistakenly reported that new Central Vice-President Mike Peng narrowly defeated former Central VP Jeff Shaevel. Peng did win, as reported, but Harold Lloyd, from Cleveland, OH, was the other candidate. We regret the error. YOUR MOVE: Readers Write Environmental Go: At the Crossroads "What does 'the value of the largest available coupon' (4th Environmental Go 1/14/02) mean?" asks E-Journal reader Franklin Bassarsky, all the way from Argentina. In the game of Environmental Go, in addition to the standard Go board, a stack of coupons is also available. The January 25 match will have 37 coupons with values from 19 down to 1. At each turn, a player may elect to take the largest available coupon instead of playing on the board. The game ends when all coupons have been taken and both players pass. Each player then receives a score equal to the sum of his score on the board plus all of his coupons. As compensation for Black's first move, White receives an additional "komi" of 9.5 points. Strong players have differing opinions about when it is best to stop taking coupons and begin playing on the board. At each move, the Environmental Go player needs to make a quantitative assessment of the value of moving on the board, and then compare it to the value of the largest available coupon. This intriguing variant of the game is at the crossroads of Go, the Mathematical Theory of Combinatorial Games, and Expert Systems. For more info, go to http://www.britgo.org/results/env/index.html GO REVIEW: Cho Hun-hyeon's Lectures on Go Techniques, Volume One Translated by Sidney W. K. Yuan Edited and diagrammed by Craig R. Hutchinson Yutopian Enterprises, paperback, 220 pp. $17.50. Reviewed by Neal L. Burstein, Ph. D. Cho Hun-hyeon 9-Dan came to Japan to study Go at the age of ten. He won many tournaments with clean 3-0 sweeps, long dominating Korean Go. His lectures help the intermediate player to answer attacks by building secure shape and structure for the endgame. For example, the connection of two stones to form a "full" triangle after a hane is often seen in strong games. Cho shows us by example why this is essential to prevent problems later. When two stones touch on the third line, do you play up or down, extend or hane? Cho demonstrates the preferred sequence of moves that will stand to the endgame and shows why other results are inferior. The problem sets are, like joseki, fighting patterns analyzed to obtain a good result. The book format is brilliantly designed. Each topic comprises a set of clearly numbered diagrams to illustrate weak and strong play. Each diagram is supported by a caption and brief explanation. There is no other text to confuse the reader. The brief introductory chapter illustrates connects, cuts, shapes, and hanes in detail. Problem sets comprise the bulk of the book, each answering situations that arise in play. Each problem is set on a right-hand page with a handful of stones already in correct position. The possible solutions follow two per page, clearly captioned, to show good and bad responses for each side. The diagrams save 1000 words in illustrating correct stone placement relative to those already in position. What else is Go is about? This book is ideal for players of 10-24 kyu. Strong players might review for fundamentals missing from their game. Writers, translators, and Go book editors would do well to study and utilize the clear format. Available at www.samarkand.net. Everyone's A Critic 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, too!. 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: mailto:president@usgo.org Eastern VP; ChenDao Lin: mailto:vp-eastern@usgo.org Central VP; Mike Peng: mailto:vp-central@usgo.org Western VP; Larry Gross: mailto:vp-western@usgo.org Treasurer; Ulo Tamm: mailto:treasurer@usgo.org Membership Secretary; John Goon: mailto:membership@usgo.org Recording Secretary: Susan Weir: mailto:weirdoll@provide.net Chapters Coordinator; Bill Cobb: mailto:chapters@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator; Mike Bull: mailto:tournaments@usgo.org Education Coordinator; None Redmond: mailto:education@usgo.org Congress Liaison Officer; Chris Kirschner: mailto:cngrsliaison@usgo.org AGA website; Gordon Fraser and Chuck Robbins: mailto:webmaster@usgo.org American Go Foundation; Terry Benson: mailto:terrybenson@eudoramail.com AGA Librarian; Craig Hutchinson: mailto: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