Click here to send this to a friend :
http://gm12.com/r.html?c=168277&r=167880&t=46044451&l=4&g=0&f=59870475
Click here to subscribe :
http://gm12.com/r.html?c=168277&r=167880&t=46044451&l=7&g=0&f=59870475
AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association
January 13, 2003
In This Edition:
January 18-20: Evanston, IL
4th Annual Winter Workshop with Guo Juan 5P
Mark Rubenstein 847-869-6020 mark@easyaspi.com
January 19: Boston, MA
MGA Winter 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
Open Section (10 players): 1st: HUANG, KE 7d; 2nd: GUAN, Mozheng, 7d; 3rd: ZHOU, Yansong 6d
Dan Division: 1?6d (17 players): 1st: CHEN, Wei 1d; 2nd: CHEN, Zhaonian 4d; 3rd: LIU, Andy 4d.
Upper Kyu Division: 1-6k (21 players): 1st ZHANG, Yinghe 3k; 2nd: CHEN, Yu 4k; 3rd: PALMER, Marc 1k.
Lower Kyu Division: 7-22k (14 players): 1st: SIMMONS, Joshua 16k; 2nd: ROSENBLATT, Gregory 20; 3rd: MCCOWAN, Ian 7k.
January 11: Piscataway, NJ
Feng Yun Youth Tournament
42 players; ranging from 5 to 15 years old.
Sponsor: Ing Foundation
Organizer: Feng Yun
Assistant Organizer: Larry Rusche
Director: Chuck Robbins
Assistant Director: Robert Muldowney
19x19 Older Group (12 players): 1st: GU, Jason 15k; 2nd: LIN, Ken 20k; 3rd: HSU, Eric 20
19x19 Younger Group (17 players): 1st: SHANG, Kevin 20; 2nd: YAN, Jasmine 20k; 3rd: DAI, Anna 20k
13x13 Older Group (8 players): 1st: ZHONG, Peter 25k; 2nd: HSU, Sophia 25k; 3rd: AN, Terrence 25
13x13 Younger Group (12 players); 1st: XU, Yang 25k; 2nd: SHANG, Andrew 25k; 3rd: ZHAO, Bonng 25k.
Just unsubscribe the free version via the link/instructions at the bottom of the E-Journal; we'll keep sending you the Member's Edition with attached games. And welcome to the AGA!
Credit Where It's Due
"As one of those responsible for the English adaptation of the Hikaru no Go
manga," writes AGA member Mike Kiefl, "it gave me great pleasure to see the
E-Journal conversations on Hikaru no Go replicated in the print Fall
2002/Winter 2003 issue. I was blown out of the water, however, when I saw my
site, Toriyama's World, www.toriyamaworld.com mentioned. While honored by
the mention, I was dismayed to see that the original authors, writer Hotta
Yumi and artist Obata Takeshi were not mentioned at all. It is typical in
America for the animated adaptation of a series from Japan to receive more
notice than its original manga (comic) version, but in the future I would
like to see the original version and authors given more credit for their
achievements."
Also included this week is the answer to last week's brain-bending 2003 life and death problem by tsume-go master Yi-lun Yang. We're very pleased and proud to announce that Mr. Yang's popular problems will become a monthly feature in the E-Journal this year, with three brand-new problems each month, ranging in difficulty from beginner to intermediate and advanced.
To receive the weekly Games Edition, sign up today at http://gm12.com/r.html?c=168277&r=167880&t=46044451&l=1&d=59870470&u=http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp&g=0&f=59870475
The AGA Summer Go Camp encourages go clubs, organizations, and parents to send kids to the Summer Go Camp this year in Oakland, California, June 28 through July 5 at beautiful Mills College. Everything is organized to the last detail, from pickup at the airport to send-off for the home-bound flight.
Download the registration forms at http://www.usgo.org/gocamp/index.html
or contact us at:
AGA Go Camp, Attn: James Chien, 12 Sutter Creek Lane, Mountain View, CA 94043;
415-860-3926; AGAGoCamp@yahoo.com
International Go Players Meetup Day
An International Go Players Meetup Day has been scheduled for the second
Saturday of each month. This is a chance for go players worldwide to meet
each other locally to talk about the game, teach, and organize games.
Meetup creates real-world group gatherings about anything anywhere, using technology and a network of venues (cafes, bars, etc.) that can help any interest group easily organize local monthly Meetups in over 530 cities across 27 countries. Check out details of the upcoming Meetups at http://go.meetup.com/
SmartGo 1.1.1
SmartGo 1.1.1 has just been released, with two new features: Open Folder
allows you to open all the SGF files in a whole folder with a single
command. You can then apply SmartGo's powerful search or diagram features to
that collection of games. Or use it to reduce SGF file clutter. And if 19x19
isn't big enough for your fuseki, you can also now play on a large scale:
SmartGo:Board now allows board sizes up to 29x29! The upgrade is free to
registered users. SmartGo:Player (the full version) is available for $59;
SmartGo:Board (without computer play) is $29. Check http://www.smartgo.com
web site for details.
MasterGo 2.2
The latest release of MasterGo has 16,068 games by 993 professional players.
MasterGo 2.2 also fixes a number of bugs and adds new features, including
the ability to import SGF files by dragging and dropping the files onto
either the board window or game list window. Users can now start MasterGo
with a specific game collection by dragging and dropping the MGD file onto
the MasterGo Executable or the short cut to MasterGo. Upgrade, order or
download a free trial version at http://MasterGo.com
NOTE TO CLUB ORGANIZERS: This space is available for YOUR club announcements and news! Spread the word to over 5,000 go players worldwide about what your club is up to! Email us at journal@usgo.org
U.S. representative Jie Li went 2-2 in the Student Oza: Round 1: Jie Li (B) d. Nitipone Aroonphaichitra (Thailand); Round 2: Son Chang Ho (Korea) (B) d. Jie Li; Round 3: Ishii Akane (Japan) (B) d. Jie Li; Round 4: Jie Li (W) d. Diana Kosgezi (Hungary).
In other news, Zhou Heyang 9p is the challenger for the 15th Mingren title,
defeating Yu Bin 9p 2-0 in the best-of-three challenger decision match. The
current title holder is Ma Xiaochun 9p, who has held this title for 13
consecutive years. As this is Ma's only remaining title, and with no titles
for #2-ranked Zhou at this point, this match has assumed major importance
for both players.
- Reported by Yuan Zhou
The "ko" rule, which ensures a result in nearly every game by avoiding endlessly repetitive situations on the board, leads to situations of fascinating complexity: double and triple kos, multi-stage and multi-step kos, "hot" and "cold" kos, flower-viewing kos, thousand-year kos, "super-ko" and thousands of other peculiar positions, including the mind-bending "molasses ko." In truth, few if any of us truly understand the depth of those complications. Ko fights often decide games, especially if one player is afraid. Life and death problems often center on the question of finding, or avoiding, ko.
Ko is the only rule to be the subject of an entire book (Fighting Ko by Jin Jiang, available from Yutopian Enterprises.) Nonetheless, we were surprised to discover dozens of web pages devoted exclusively to this topic. We were looking at Rob Van Ziejst's wonderful column, "The Magic of Go," which appears in the online English language Yomiuri newspaper. A discussion of pon-nuki, the four-leaf-clover shape that captures a stone, gradually evolved into a discussion of ko, which is created when two ponnukis of opposing colors overlap. Column #192 at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/igo_e/ is a good place to jump in. Better yet, go back and read all 192 in order. They're great, especially for new players.
Sensei's Library, a set of user-maintained pages, contains two separate collections of pages on the subject. Learn the basics at http://senseis.xmp.net/?KoFighting, then move on to "The Second Course of Ko" at http://senseis.xmp.net/?SecondCourseOnKo. where you can learn about such arcane subjects as "Moonshine Life," the earliest known rules dispute, which arose during a game played in Japan in the 13th century.
We thought we had completely exhausted the subject, until we discovered a series of ten lengthy essays by Britis author Charles Matthews at http://gobase.org/studying/articles/matthews/ko/. Here you can learn even more about how to calculate the value of a ko fight, how and when to start a fight, how to understand "bulge ko" and "apex ko", how to block with implied ko, how to take a ko's "temperature," and other subjects.
Sensei's Library (above) also contains a number of "party-trick" positions, more perplexing than plausible setups such as "Molasses Ko" and "Pinwheel Ko". If these entertainment's strike your fancy, you won't want to miss Harry Fearnley's "Bestiary" at http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/go/bestiary/zippersetc.html. You may never see a "zipper", a "loop" or a "train" in a real game, but they're fun in their own way. You'll also want to check out Matthew Macfadyen's collection at http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/go/bestiary/molasses_ko.html Animated versions of some of these positions can be viewed at http://www.britgo.org/rules/molasses.html and http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/achim/goloopy.html
For a different perspective, check out Robert Jasiek's extensive discussion of the subject at http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/korules.html. Jasiek is particularly interested in classifying and comparing various rule sets according to their handling of ko, a subject he discusses thoroughly at http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/koclass.html. It seems that ko, like go itself, is so vast as to defy complete description.
In this column, I'll keep you aware of the national organizing activity by the American Go Association, with the goal of increasing member interest and participation in the AGA.
First, my deepest thanks go to outgoing President Roy Laird for facilitating an incredibly smooth transition. Roy not only left the house in good order, but he's provided terrific guidance in understanding how things work. And even though he's now served the AGA in one capacity or another for over 20 years, Roy will continue to serve, now as AGA webmaster as well as being available for background information and advice when needed. I will be continuously grateful and the AGA is forever in his debt.
One of the first acts of the new AGA Board of Directors was to propose our very first organization chart, which is posted at www.usgo.org on the "About the AGA" page. What's notable about the chart is that it recognizes that the workload of organizing and coordinating a national go organization requires a lot more people than are currently active national level organizers. Thus, recruiting has become a major activity and I'm pleased to report that we are making good progress finding people to tackle the work. While it's very gratifying to see new blood coming in, we need still more. If you think you might have something to contribute to spreading go in the United States, please contact Terry Assael, our new HR and Recruiting volunteer, at hrandrecruiting@usgo.org to explore the possibilities.
FOR SALE: Sets of old "Go World" magazines: 1-48 and 1-15; 17-25; 50-56 and individual copies #22, #40, #43, and #51. Check them out at http://www.eskimo.com/~dobe/Dobe_ForSale_GO_Worlds01.htm Or email dobe.doinat@verizon.net
FOR SALE: Refrigerator Go sets for displaying (or playing) the game on the large laminated board attached to the metallic surface (for example, a refrigerator - see http://www.promptpublishing.com); $45 from Michal Lebl, storyspyder@aol.com
FOR SALE: Go boards made of 2.5" mahogany or pine, about 17X19", with 19X19 grid (cut with small saw, not drawn) and a 9X9 or 13X13 grid on the back. Sanded and waxed, without feet. $260 ea or $170 ea for 10 or more. Jim Thomas; waldomesa@cybermesa.com
WANTED: Copy of the go novel "First Kyu." Mark Lybrand; maryesme@shore.net
WANTED: MasterGo Team volunteer to enter data into a player biography database. No pay but get your name on the MasterGo website and, possibly, get a free copy of the program. Charles G. Robbins, crobbins@ctipc.com
WANTED: "All About Life and Death, Volume 1," by Cho Chikun; "The Breakthrough to Shodan," by Naoki Miyamoto. John Pinkerton, john.pinkerton@watsonwyatt.com
WANTED: Issues of 'Go World' from the past couple of years. Prefer someone who has several issues to offer. sfragman@netvision.net.il
Got Go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach more than 5,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org
GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 5,000 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; http://www.usgo.org for the full list.
GET YOUR TOURNAMENT RATED! Send your tournament data to ratings@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