AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association May 6, 2002 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings - SCOREBOARD: Hoboken, NJ; Corvallis, OR; Wings KGS April League - GAME COMMENTARY: One Move to Lose - YOUR MOVE: Readers Write: Of Clocks & GameBoy - GO NEWS: AGA Governing Board Nominations Sought; Go Camp Registration Extended; Feng Yun Go Lectures in NYC; Go Congress Update: Here Come the Pros! - GO CLUBS: Gathering No Moss in Boulder; Cleveland Rises; Pensacola Go Player Alert - GoReview: Get Strong at the Endgame - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) May 10-12: Raleigh, NC 2nd North Carolina Kerwin Go Workshop Attack Plans & How to Win Without Fighting Brad Jones 919-466-7084 Bradley.Jones@sas.com May 17-19: Ann Arbor, MI Yilun Yang Workshop Susan Weir 734-663-1675 susan@weirdolls.com May 18: Denver, CO Rocky Mountain Open Eric Wainwright, 303-626-0103 ewainwright@decisioneering.com May 25-26: Baltimore, MD 29th Maryland Open (AGTC EVENT) Keith L. Arnold 410-788-3520 hlime@earthlink.net June 2: Seattle, WA Monthly Ratings Tournament Jon Boley 206-545-1424 go@seattlego.org 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: Hoboken, NJ; Corvallis, OR; Wings KGS April League May 5: Hoboken, NJ Hoboken Spring Tournament TD: Larry Russ 29 players 4-game winners: Yonghe ZHANG and Ji Sang KIM 3-game winners: Steve BRETHERICK and Siu-Kou HUI other prizes: Michael KIM, Lionel ZHANG, Kim WONG Longest distance traveled prize: Chuck ROBBINS May 4: Corvallis, OR Corvallis Spring Go Tournament 27 players TD: Robert O'Malley 1st Division: 1-2d: 1st: TSUKAMOTO, Masaya 2d (2-1); 2nd: LEVENICK, Jim 2d (2-1) 2nd Division: 1-9k: 1st: SAFFELL, Matt 5k (2-1); 2nd: O'MALLEY, Robert 3k (2-1) 3rd Division: 10-19k: 1st (tie): BURLEY, Jeremiah 12k (3-0); PEGAU, Scott 18k (3-0) 4th Division: 20-30k: 1st (tie): SOLOVAY, Robert 23k (3-0); FRENCH, Aaron 25k (3-0) This was the first tournament for ten of the players, including four middle school players and three high school players. Prizes were distributed to all participants. Wings KGS April League 18 players. Baghera secured first place with 32 earned points; followed by giuseppe in 2nd place with 23 earned points; and a tie for third place between playgo and madsenm each with 22 earned points. The Wings KGS May League is now open for registration. Join in by logging onto the http://www.wingsgoclub.org web site, press the purple Leagues button, then press the Register button appearing next to the May League. GAME COMMENTARY: One Move to Lose "In this game, we will see that one move can result in a loss," says Jie Li, 7d in today's game commentary. The game between Nam Chiyun professional 2D, visiting the US from Korea, and Joey Hung 7D, one of Jie Li's students, appears in the current Spring 2002 American Go Journal. White plays defensively and Black gains a big lead by chasing a White group but a single thoughtless move changes everything... We are hope you enjoy today's game commentary; to get the member's edition with commented games EVERY WEEK, join the AGA today at www.usgo.org At just $30 a year it's the best Go bargain you'll find! To view the attached game record (05.06.02 Jie Li Commented, Spring 2002 AGJ.sgf), simply save the file to your computer and then open it using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html YOUR MOVE: Readers Write Of Clocks & GameBoy We received a number of helpful replies to last week's queries about Go clocks and GameBoy software. The consensus on clocks came down overwhelmingly in favor of the "Chronos" digital clock, with multiple convenient pre-set times. $110 from DCI, P.O. Box 390741, Mountain View, CA 94039. For those with a tighter budget, Rick Mott in Princeton recommends the Aradora plastic clocks, which are "rugged, have large clock faces that are easy to read" and can be found on the Internet for less than $30 including shipping. And on the GameBoy front, Ashley Feniello reports that her son plays "Hikaru no Go for GBA" available at http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/software/ahkj/ "Very nice," Ashley says. "Japanese only, but my son can still find his way around." Bob Felice also recommends Mark Boon, the author of a program for the Japanese home market, at Tesuji Software; tesuji@xs4all.nl GO NEWS AGA Governing Board Nominations Sought The nominating committee is now accepting nominations for directors to serve on the governing board of the American Go Association, as required by the new articles of incorporation. Any current member of the AGA may nominate a candidate for the office of director from the region in which that member resides. Any current member of the AGA may nominate a candidate for the at-large director. The election will be done by weighted votes of the chapters. Directors will be elected from each of the three regions (Eastern, Central and Western) and one at-large director who will represent the total USA. Each candidate must 1. be a resident of the region that he represents (The at-large candidates must reside in the USA.); 2. be at least 18 years old; 3. be a full member and must have been a full member for one year at the time of the election; 4. have certified in writing that he has read and understands the Articles of Incorporation and the bylaws; 5. give his approval of the nomination in writing. A nomination must be in writing. It must include the name, address, telephone number and email of both the nominee and the person doing the nominating. The nominations may be sent either by United States Postal Service or by email. The nominations should be sent as soon as possible to allow the nominees time to present their platforms, etc. to the voters. Nominations must be sent by June 15 to: Samuel E. Zimmerman, 925 Lindsay Lane, Lancaster PA 17601-6622; szimmerman@wareunl.com Go Camp Registration Extended! The registration for the only kid's Go camp in the world has been extended to May 30. "Don't miss this great opportunity!" urges Camp Director Peter Rzepecki. A magnificent staff, numerous attractions and great program balancing the study of Go with social and physical activities awaits the Go-playing youngster. Japanese and Korean kids will likely join the Camp this summer and Peter's latest news is that Mary Godel has agreed to join the staff as the counselor. For more information visit: http://www.usgo.org/gocamp/index.html or write Peter Rzepecki, the camp administrator: AGAGoCamp@aol.com SPECIAL APPEAL FOR SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS: There are several kids who need financial help to join the Camp; please contribute to the Go Camp scholarship fund. Your donation of any size may make a difference between them coming to the Camp or not. Tax deductible donations should go to the American Go Foundation at AGF attn Mary Laird, 211 W 106th St, 3C, NY, NY 10025 Feng Yun Go Lectures in NYC Ms. Feng Yun, 9p and 1995 Ladies World Go Champion, will present several Go lectures at the New York Go Center, 323 East 52nd St, through the end of 2002. The lectures are designed for both dan and kyu- level players. Topics include game analysis, opening (fuseki), middle game (chuban), endgame (yose), whole-board thinking and fighting tactics. The lectures will be held on the third Saturday of every month, from 1-4P on May 18, June 15, July 20, August 17, September 21, October 19, November 16 & December 21. $15 Adult ($10 student). Advance registration is recommended: 212-223-0342 or Mr. Takayama 718-631-1866. Go Congress Update: Here Come the Pros! A stellar crowd of Go pros is lining up for the 2002 U.S. Go Congress, reports Bob Barber in Chicago. Confirmed so far: Michael Redmond 9p; Yang Yilun, 7p; Jim Kerwin 1p, Janice Kim, 1p, Mr. Fujita 7d, Guo Juan 6p from the Netherlands; the beloved Nakayama Noriyuki, as well as Mr. Maeda 6p from Kansai Ki-In. "Last year Maeda Sensei told me he'd work on his English this year if I would work on my middle game," says Bob. Register now at www.usgo.org GO CLUBS Gathering No Moss in Boulder "Last August, I began having informal get-togethers with a couple of the beginning to intermediate players in our club every other Monday evening at my house, just for fun, to help them get stronger," writes Bob Mendenhall in Boulder, Colorado. "The effect on our local Go community has been amazing. Instead of the same six to eight dan-level players every week, with maybe one or two kyu players, we now have a lot of beginners and intermediates, and a lot more depth and enthusiasm. Our club attendance has more than doubled, and brand new players have a lot more 'advanced beginners' to learn from." Bob says that as news of the "tutorials" spread, more players began showing up. They created an email list, started rotating the location to a different house each session, added a few munchies and a reminder email noting the new location every two weeks. "We've done a number of different activities," Bob says. "The favorites seem to be my commentary on their own recorded games, with everyone listening in and asking questions, and 'team go' against me as several players gather at a board and discuss aloud the move they'd like their group to make until they reach a consensus. Several of our players have improved 7 stones or more since August." To find out more, email Bob at bobandchrismendenhall@msn.com Cleveland Rises After being active, passive, and now active again, the Cleveland Go club will have it's first meeting this Saturday a t Fairmount Circle Arabica coffee house, reports Joel Gabelman. The meeting will be on Saturday, May 11th from 2-5P and will continue every Saturday from then on. For more information, contact Joel Gabelman at elmsley4@adelphia.net Pensacola Go Player Alert Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, May 24-27, the Fun Coast Go club of Daytona Beach will be visiting the Pensacola FL area and invites interested Go players to contact them at g.u@juno.com and they'll make arrangements to meet for lessons or gaming. GoReview: Get Strong at the Endgame by Richard Bozulich Kiseido Publishing Company, 1997, 200 pp., $15 U.S. Reviewed by Paul Thibodeau Get Strong at the Endgame is one of the best books in the 'Get Strong At'series. It contains a total of 291 endgame problems, followed by an appendix comparing a 3d amateur's and a 6D professional's playing of the same full-board endgame position against a pro 7-dan. The amateur loses by one point, the pro wins by 7, a pretty big swing of eight points. The book begins with 42 problems to test your endgame skill, thirty-six on 11x11 and six on 9x9, almost all from Kano Yoshinori's 'Endgame Dictionary'. The author recommends writing down the moves and final score of each problem without looking at the solution, proceeding directly to the tesuji and calculation problems, and then returning and redoing the test to compare your answers. While this method will show you what a big improvement the book makes in your endgame, most may simply want to work through the solutions the first time, without losing any advantage. The 120 tesuji problems illustrate various local situations where you can reduce the opponent's territory anywhere from one point to total devastation compared with ordinary looking endgame moves. The 101 calculation problems give you practice in knowing how many points an endgame move is worth, in sente or gote. The final section contains twenty-eight 11x11 'practical endgame problems', again composed by Kano. These help put all the skills together in complicated endgame situations. This book is nicely crafted and well thought out, with good explanations, suffering only a little from the series' general problem of a lack of instructional material. It does a good job of noting the different value of sente and gote moves, for example, but one could still miss the forest for the trees without caveats like that from Ogawa and Davies: 'A player who could not count at all, but understood the difference between sente and gote, would have the advantage over an opponent suffering from the reverse affliction.' Nevertheless, 'Get Strong at the Endgame' is well done enough as a problem book that in my opinion it would be fine as a challenging first endgame book for players stronger than 4 kyu. Players at the low dan level will find it just about right. Players less than 5 kyu will probably get more from Ogawa and Davies' excellent Elementary Go Series book: 'The Endgame'. Learn these skills, and you will be amazed at how many times you find yourself coming from behind and winning the game. GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach nearly 4,000 readers every week! List your Go event/news In the E-Journal: email details to us at 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 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.org 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; 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. 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