AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association March 11, 2002 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings - GAME COMMENTARY: Janice Kim, Honestly - GO NEWS: Yang on When & How; Iwamoto on Reducing & Invading; Go & Haiku - GOREVIEW: Positional Judgment: High-Speed Game Analysis - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) March 16: Ann Arbor, MI Is It Spring Yet? Susan Weir 734-663-1675 susan@weirdolls.com March 23-24: San Francisco, CA San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament Steve Burrall 916-685-1504 sburrall@attbi.com March 23: Arlington, VA Cherry Blossom 2002 Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net NOTE: ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED; deadline is 10P, Thursday, March 21. CANCELLED! March 31: Ridgefield Park, NJ Radio Seoul and KTV Tournament April 6: Raleigh, NC Games Galore Go Club 2002 Spring Tournament Joe Berry 919-787-4358 gggc@nc.rr.com April 7: Seattle, WA Monthly Ratings Tournament Jon Boley 206-545-1424 go@seattlego.org April 13-14: Houston, TX 10th Anniversary Houston Go Tournament Robert Cordingley 281-228-4774 rcordingley@houston.rr.com April 14: Boston, MA MGA Spring Handicap Tournament Don Wiener 617-734-6316 donwiener@earthlink.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 GAME COMMENTARY: Janice Kim, Honestly "Here's what makes it so hard to get better at Go," says Janice Kim, 1p in today's commented game. "I got an advantage by playing a bad move. Hmmm..." Janice's brutally honest and self-critical columns on "Life in B-League" are a reader favorite and today's game from last year's First China Guiyang International Go Culture Festival features her usual pungent commentary. The first-round game between Janice and Diana Koszegi of Hungary was originally published in the American Go Journal, Fall '01-Winter '02. To receive the Member's Edition with attached commented games, join the AGA today at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.html GO NEWS Yang on When & How An intense 4-day workshop by Yi-lun Yang, 7p, provided a total immersion Go experience last Thursday through Sunday in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Yang covered a wide range of topics, including a brand-new session on "How to defend a connection." Also reviewed were "When to Tenuki," "When to Invade" "When to Approach" as well as sessions on "How to Move Out" and "How to Reduce." And of course, it wouldn't be a Yang workshop without a fun and brain-bending session on life and death problems. Mr. Yang provided valuable insights into common situations in a clear and useful manner. While it will doubtless be a challenge to consistently implement Mr. Yang's lessons, workshop participants came away with a much better appreciation for both the simplicity and complexity of the game. The in-depth sessions were enhanced tremendously by the use of the new AGA LCD projector, which enabled Mr. Yang to quickly present dozens of variations on a computer which were then saved in sgf files, which, along with all the commented workshop games will be distributed to participants. Those interested in availing themselves of Mr. Yang's knowledge can do so at the June 27-30 workshop in Mahwah, NJ. See http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.html for details. Iwamoto on Reducing & Invading Anyone in a hurry to learn more about reducing and invasion moves will want to pick up a copy of the brand-new "Keshi and Uchikomi, Reduction and Invasion in Go" by Iwamoto Kaoru. The Slate & Shell (www.slateandshell.com) publication is based on a highly regarded series of articles in the American Go Journal in the '80s. It is a thorough study of how to invade and reduce formations based on a 3-4 point corner enclosure and deals with situations that arise often in real games. Study it and look forward to the times when your opponent plays on the 3-4 point. The book contains sections of the original that were not published in the Journal. Go & Haiku "I just finished teaching a fully-accredited course called 'Go and Haiku' for first-year students at Middlebury," writes Peter Schumer from Vermont. Schumer co-taught the course with distinguished nature writer and English professor John Elder and combined an intensive writing course with an equally intensive study of Go and Japanese poetry. Visitors included Go-playing pianist Haskell Small, who performed his piece, "A Game of Go") and Go teacher (and Go Journal Assistant Editor) Bill Cobb who explored how the elements of Buddhism are reflected in Go. "I've also just published an article entitled 'Life and Death on the Go Board' in the journal Math Horizons (Feb., 2002)," adds Schumer. The journal is widely circulated among American colleges and universities and Schumer hopes it will "turn on a new group of young, bright, talented people to the game." For more details, contact Pete at schumer@middlebury.edu GoReview: Positional Judgment: High-Speed Game Analysis by Cho Chikun Ishi Press, 1989, 179 pp. Reviewed by Paul Thibodeau "Game analysis is the process of estimating fairly accurately the relative territorial prospects of each player at key stages throughout the game, including a correct interpretation of the weak and strong positions," says Cho Chikun, pretty much summing up the theme of this book. The book's first section covers how to count definite territory, moyos, and thickness, followed by six practice problems. Here the reader develops a good sense of how to accurately judge territorial prospects, "based on the minimum area that cannot be further reduced". These are visually outlined with x's throughout the book, a great aid to learning these skills. The second section applies them. Chapter 3 contains ten diverse illustrations of how an accurate whole board judgment leads to a correct winning strategy, followed by eight multiple-choice problems that clearly exemplify the direct role of territorial estimation in forming strategy. The final chapter contains two of Cho's games illustrating his analysis. The first I found to be a particularly good example. This book doesn't have the smooth and polished feel of Cho's "The 3-3 Point: Modern Opening Theory." More a collection of study material, I had to put the book down frequently and come back to it, but half the problem may have been false expectations. Except for one paragraph on pp. 113-114 suggesting comparing territories directly to quickly assess who is ahead, (this territory is about double that, those two are about the same, so I am ahead), one will search in vain for any mention of 'high-speed' analysis, the main reason I got the book. This method is actually given better coverage in the first chapter 'Territory and Power' of Davies' and Akira's Elementary Go Series book: 'Attack and Defense'. If one comes to the book expecting it to be an extension of that discussion, (even better, reading that section first before beginning the book), he or she will probably get settled in much more quickly. That said, estimating territory is so fundamental to sound analysis that this book will significantly increase the strength of almost any player who doesn't already incorporate estimations in their analysis. Most of the examples are at the amateur dan level, so stronger players -- 1 kyu or above -- will get the most out of it. Players less than 4 kyu may benefit more from 'Attack and Defense'. Available from Kiseido Publishing Company, $15; http://www.usgo.org/resources/books.html GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 3,000 readers every week! 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Send your tournament data to ratings@usgo.org AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST: President; Roy Laird: president@usgo.org Eastern VP; ChenDao Lin: vp-eastern@usgo.org Central VP; Mike Peng: vp-central@usgo.org Western VP; Larry Gross: vp-western@usgo.org Treasurer; Ulo Tamm: treasurer@usgo.org Membership Secretary; John Goon: membership@usgo.orgi Recording Secretary: Susan Weir: susan@weirdolls.com Chapters Coordinator; Bill Cobb: chapters@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator; Mike Bull: tournaments@usgo.org Youth 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: 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. 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