AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association May 13, 2002 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings - GAME COMMENTARY: A Tickling Move - YOUR MOVE: Readers Write: The Best Go College; Go History - GO NEWS: L.A. Times Covers the Cotsen; Teacher of the Year Nominations Open - GO CLUBS: NoVa Back in Business; Wheaton, MD Go Club; Willamette, OR Club Takes Go to Kids; Yuan Zhou Gives Demo This Week in DC - SPECIAL REPORT: Mind Sports Olympiad - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) 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 18: New York, NY Feng Yun Lecture New York Go Center 212-223-0342 ftakayama@nyc.rr.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 GAME COMMENTARY: A Tickling Move "White 38 is a tickling move, to see which way Black jumps. The subsequent moves through White 60 are quite difficult and it is not easy to comment on them," says Sakata Eio, 9P in today's game commentary. The 30th Honinbo Title Match game between Sakata Eio 9P and Ishida Yoshio Honinbo 9P originally appeared in Go Review vol. 10 (Autumn 1975) and was translated from "Igo Club" by John Power. Despite Sakata's comment, there's plenty to say about this 269-move masterpiece from our archives. To get the Member's Edition with full-commented games each week, join the AGA today at www.usgo.org YOUR MOVE: Readers Write The Best Go College "What is the best 'Go' college in North America?" wonders Joey Chen. "What colleges have the best Go clubs and tournaments on or near campus?" Send your nominations to us at journal@usgo.org and we'll help other college-bound students choose the right school for Go players! Go History "I am very interested in East Asian history and especially the fact that Go is 4,000 years old," writes Tom Gargaro. "Are there any web sites with photos of some ancient Go sets? Any in a North American museum? I've heard that historically many different materials were used. How old is the oldest known Go set?" One place to look is on the AGA website -- www.usgo.org -- in the 'Go Resources' section in the Bob High Memorial Library, responds Peter Shotwell. "My essay there on the Origins of Go is a corrected version of what appeared in the recent Go Almanac put out by Kiseido. It is too new for Google.com, but a search for 'Go History' will turn up others writings, including those of John Fairbairn and Andrew Grant. Paolo Zanon also wrote two excellent articles. Yutopian.com has some pictures of old stone go boards from Han period tombs and there was an old issue of the major Chinese Archeological magazine (from the 80's or 70's) that had pictures of a number of sets.. There is also a beautiful set housed in Nara, Japan c. 750 AD, which is pictured in the Go Almanac. If that's too far for you, you'll find a lovely goban with a classic game in the Museum of Natural History in New York City. GO NEWS L.A. Times Covers the Cotsen "The silence was broken only by the faint beep-beep-beep of timers" writes Beverly Beyette in a May 8 story in the Los Angeles Times. "At long tables, players -- one against one -- bent over yellow boards marked in squares. Soon, strategies took shape as opponents positioned black and white stones at the intersections of the grid lines." "It was a Saturday morning in May and, at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, more than 100 Go enthusiasts were gathered to compete for money, glory and ranking points at the two-day Cotsen Open, from which one player would emerge $1,000 richer." Check out the full story on the Cotsen Open at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/features/1403057 Teacher of the Year Nominations Open The American Go Foundation invites nominations for the 2002 Teacher of the Year award, an annual honor reserved for teachers of the highest merit who have demonstrated their love for children by teaching them the game of Go. This prestigious award carries with it the prize of free room, board, and entry fees at the 2002 U.S. Go Congress in Chicago, IL. Minimum requirements for this honor include that the applicant has 1. been teaching in at least one school or class every school week; 2. been teaching for at least the last 2 years; 3. is a member of the AGA The Teacher of the Year must be an example to other teachers both in teaching Go and drawing young people into a love of the game. Please include any other documentation, endorsements or information to substantiate the value of the teacher's Go activities. Send nominations to: None Redmond at 5931 Wymore Way, Sacramento, California, 95822 or to chinski@inreach.com GO CLUBS NoVa Back in Business Thanks to Bob Ehrlich, the Northern Virginia (NoVa) Go club will reopen on Monday, May 20, at 7P, reports Allan Abramson. "Our temporary home will be the George Mason University Law School, which has been the site of our quarterly tournaments for a while. We will be in Room 331, on the third floor." The GMU Arlington campus is at 3401 North Fairfax Drive, in the "Old Building." Park in the central lot between the old and new buildings, or wherever you can, in the street around the campus. Entry to the central lot is off Kirkwood. Wheaton, MD Go Club Weekly Go meetings are held at the Gilchrist Center in Wheaton, Maryland, every Wednesday, from 6-8P. The Gilchrist Center is located one block east of Georgia Avenue, and a half block south of University Blvd. From the Wheaton METRO station, it is a short two block walk due north. Street or garage parking is available and free after 6 PM. There are many great restaurants nearby, reports John Goon. Willamette, OR Club Takes Go to Kids "In March, I was invited to the chess club at a local elementary school," reports Glenn Peters. See the fun at http://www.wvgc.org/boise-eliot020307/ Yuan Zhou Gives Demo This Week in DC Yuan Zhou 7-dan will give another simultaneous exhibition this Wednesday, May 17th at 8P at the Greater Washington Go Club, 9601 Cedar Lane, followed by game commentaries. The cost is $5 per player for a 90 minute session, but depending on the turnout the time and cost could be adjusted to a maximum of $10 per player. The suggested format is for 45 minutess of play and 45 minutes of commentaries. Haskell Small haskellsmall@starpower.net SPECIAL REPORT: Mind Sports Olympiad By Charles Matthews Cambridge, England It wasn't just the four Go events. To be frank, in a number of cases they may not have been Go players at all. At least not when they arrived. Games players of all descriptions attended Cambridge's own Mind Sports Olympiad, held May 4-6 in the quiet of Parkside Community College over a weekend and public holiday. And come they did. Software developer Demis 'Theme Park' Hassabis (a Matthews Go pupil around 4 kyu), took time off the final testing of his new game Republic to play in the two-day Purple Software British Open Shogi Championship, taking bronze. Alex Selby 3 dan, a reluctant celeb after his solution of the Eternity puzzle, ran the Go Dans' Event for us on the Monday, and played some casual Settlers of Catan. Shogi pros Miyata 7 dan and Tamura 5 dan were sent by the Shogi Renmei - Tamura played go with my son George (16 kyu). Hudson Kyagaba, the Omweso champion from Uganda, was there to compete in the three mancala events (he also plays 10x10 draughts, one of three checker variants featured); he was seen trying 9x9 Ggo with Adam Atkinson at the BGA stall. Other notables were Mamba inventor Christophe Berg from La Rochelle, bringing us his hit game from this year's February Cannes Festival; and Yehooda Harpaz from Israel, now a Cambridge resident, who brought his amazing touch-sensitive Maldoo machine, which as one option offers Go - but from random starting positions. The new word game Blank went down a treat. The Games & Puzzles shop shifted stock like Christmas come early. Top Go event was the Challenger's League, which selected Matthew Cocke 5 dan as opponent for tile-holder Matthew Macfadyen 6 dan for the best-of-five match in August to determine the 2002 British Champion. Cocke, from Norwich, never looked back after defeating my co-author Kim Seong-june 6 dan by 2.5 points in Round 2 of seven, losing only the final game to Des Cann 4 dan after it was all sown up. It was quite a party, with entry total 465, four times the numbers at last year's pilot, and including 210 junior chess players from the Cambridge region. I count 25 games or variants that were on the schedule, producing as Grantamind (overall winner on three best events) a go player (William Brooks, 12 years old and 8 kyu), second Hudson, third a more senior go player, Piers Shepperson 5 dan, who tried Maldoo - Visiput, Fillit and Count Lines - and Magic the Gathering CCG amongst his competitions. And me? Oh, I was far too busy organising stuff you'd not thank me for mentioning, apart perhaps from the live radio piece I did with World Draughts activist Leo Springer; but George Matthews, 15, took the junior Grantamind with events Minibridge, Bar-Low (kyu players' go) and Magic. And no, not just a male occasion, and I have the photos to prove it. Full results on the pages at http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/msocam02/ 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: mailto: 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. 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