AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association May 28, 2002 In This Edition: - CALENDAR OF EVENTS: Latest listings - SCOREBOARD: Baltimore, MD - GAME COMMENTARY: The Eternal Ocean vs. The Raging Fire - GO NEWS: DC Go Club Breaks in New Boards; Go At Your Own Pace; A Game of Go Tours New York & Philly; SmartGo:Player Discount Available; Jellyfish Enters the Field - Kerwin's Close Up: Stone Blind - AGA OFFICER CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) June 1: Davis, CA Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament Fred.Hopkins@mckesson.com 916-636-8758 June 2: Seattle, WA Monthly Ratings Tournament Jon Boley 206-545-1424 go@seattlego.org June 14: Washington, DC Yuan Zhou Lesson 8P, Greater Washington Go Club, 9601 CedarLane Haskell Small 202-244-4764 haskellsmall@starpower.net June 15: New York, NY Feng Yun Lecture New York Go Center 212-223-0342 ftakayama@nyc.rr.com June 15: Chicago, IL Bloomsday Basho Bob Barber 773-467-0423 igo@uic.edu June 15-16: San Francisco, CA Northern California Open Danny Swarzman 415-221-7194 ncal@stowlake.com June 15: Austin TX Austin Go Club Ratings Roundup Jeff Shaevel 512-733-0027 tournament@shaevel.com http://www.shaevel.com/Go/austingo.asp June 22: Richmond, VA Virginia Open William Cobb 804-740-2191 wmscobb@rcn.com June 27-30: Mawah, NJ 2002 N.J. Yang 7p Go Workshop John C. Stephenson 201-612-0852 jcs@wingsgoclub.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: Baltimore, MD May 25-26: 2002 Maryland Open Tournament 60 Players Organizer: Keith Arnold TD: Sam Zimmerman Open Section 4-6 Dan: 1st: Yuan ZHOU; 2nd: Ihan LUI; 3rd: Eric LUI 3 Dan Section: 1st: Kevin WANG; 2nd: Ji Sang KIM 1-2 Dan Section: 1st: Chuck ROBBINS; 2nd: Chris GARLOCK 1-2 Kyu Section: 1st: Ray HUNLEY; 2nd: Joe MAIA 4-7 Kyu Section: 1st: Conny IRL; 2nd: Greg LEFFLER; 3rd: Leonard BAUM 8-13 Kyu: 1st: Jamie BIRGER; 2nd: Nathan CURTIS; 3rd: Saul LAPIDUS 14- 17 Kyu: 1st: Ian MCCOWN; 2nd: Jia M. YU 22-27 Kyu: 1st: Michael KIM; 2nd: Aaron Alexander BRAZIE GAME COMMENTARY: The Eternal Ocean vs. The Raging Fire In today's commented game, an 1898 masterpiece retrieved from our archives, Honinbo Shuei plays calmly and without hurry, taking large points and leaving miai situations for his opponent to puzzle over; he is like the eternal ocean. On the other hand, Honinbo Shusai's moves are exciting, aggressive and he takes great care to squeeze the most out of a given situation; he is like a raging fire. The final result is a tie: a perfectly balanced game that seems to tell us to find our own style and persevere. To receive the Member's Edition complete with new commented games each week, please go to http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp GO NEWS DC Go Club Breaks in New Boards "This Friday the Greater Washington Go Club will inaugurate our recently acquired new equipment," reports Haskell Small. "We have just purchased 6 new 2" table boards and sets of very nice glass stones and bowls. Come enjoy with us!" 9601 CedarLane, 8P. Go At Your Own Pace Don't like to play on the Go servers? Lack the time or don't like the atmosphere? Here's a great alternative, suggests Bill Cobb, Chapter Services Coordinator: a turn based web site that lets you play one move at a time. It's at http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/index.jsp. "You make a move and the site sends an email to your opponent saying it's his turn to play," says Bill. "You can make a move or two a day at your own pace. I find this very enjoyable, especially for games on small boards. I usually have half a dozen games going at once. It's a nice option for those who don't have other players near by, and a good place for beginners, too." A Game of Go Tours New York & Philly On Wednesday, June 5th, the dynamite 2 piano team Quattro Mani will perform the Haskell Small piece "A Game of Go" (audio only) in Weill Hall (the old Carnegie Recital Hall) along with pieces by George Crumb, Frank Zappa (sic), and others. And, just in: The Philladelphia Fringe Festival will present "A Game of Go" as part of their festival this fall- date(s) being set. The visuals will be included (Shushaku vs. Yuzo game playing out in time with the music). SmartGo:Player Discount Available REMINDER: SPECIAL OFFER FOR AGA MEMBERS: For a limited time, AGA members get a $5 discount on SmartGo:Player. In the Optional Information section of the online order form, specify your AGA number as your personal code and specify AGAeJournal as your discount coupon. This offer expires June 30 so act soon at http://www.smartgo.com/ Jellyfish Enters the Field Fredrik Dahl, the author of the world famous Jellyfish Backgammon program has just released a "preliminary version" of a Go program called "WinHonte". It can be downloaded for free from Jellyfish-ai.com. He started work on Go programming in his spare time about six years ago. His program uses a combination of several different neural nets for different aspects of the game, such as shape evaluation and territory estimation. Some nets are trained by self play, others from expert games. The program also uses apha-beta search for local problems like connectivity and life-and-death. He has yet to test WinHonte in a systematic way, but it has beaten Handtalk version 97.06E a couple of times without handicap on a 19x19 board (but lost more). - From Mick's Computer Go Page, News and information about computer programs that play the ancient oriental game of Go: http://www.reiss.demon.co.uk/webgo/compgo.htm NOTE: e-Journal reader Michael Ham says WinHonte "plays a pretty good game -- and fast." Email Chris at journal@usgo.org if you're interested in reviewing the program for the E-Journal. Kerwin's Close Up: Stone Blind "Go gets very difficult when the stones get entangled," writes James Kerwin 1p in the just-published Spring edition of the American Go Journal. "I'm sure every player would like to be stronger at fighting, and I always recommend solving problems to improve at tactics. But many players who are pretty good at tactical problems are still weak at tactics. They are 'stone blind'. They are great at seeing the stones, but they never look at the board." "At the start of every engagement you must learn to look over the board and decide where you expect to benefit from the engagement. Then you can use your tactical strength to direct the engagement to give you benefits in those areas," says Kerwin. Read all about it in the American Go Journal: subscribe today at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp 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@nyc.rr.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