AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL

News from the American Go Association

January 20, 2003

In This Edition:

• CALENDAR OF EVENTS
• SCOREBOARD: San Francisco, CA; Arlington, VA; Salem, OR
• GAME COMMENTARY: The Daring Dragon
• GO NEWS: Lee Dethrones Cha In Fujitsu Upset; AGA Membership Up For 7th Straight Month; Hikaru No Go Collectibles
• GO CLUBS: PGC Now PGA; Feng Yun Event Photos; Free Bowls To A Good Home
• LESSONS OF A GAME RECORDER
• THE EMPTY BOARD: The Power of the Wall
• GO REVIEW: The Thirty-six Stratagems Applied to Go
• GO CLASSIFIED
• AGA CONTACT LIST

CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.)

March 22: Arlington, VA
Cherry Blossom
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.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

YOUR MOVE

"The Many Faces of Go Palm Joseki Library is also a great resource for Palm/PDA users, although not for recording games," Ellis adds. The full version is $20; download a free trial that allows you to explore 3-3 josekis at http://www.smart-games.com/PalmOS.html

SCOREBOARD: San Francisco, CA; Arlington, VA; Salem, OR

Open section: 1st: Jiang, Zhu-jiu (Jujo); 2nd: Jiang, Ming Jiu; 3rd: Hung, Joey; 4th: Chen, Wei-Yu; 5th: Hong, Seung; 6th: Chien, James; 7th: Bull, Michael; 8th: Xu, Patrick; 9th: Yao, Jin; 10th: Kemper, Lance; 11th: Phipps, Ned; 12th: Wang, Justin.

Handicap section: 1st: Tang, Curtis 4d; 2nd: Wang, Xunfeng, 5d; 3rd: Van, Kiet Chanh 3d; 4th: Shi, Gina 4d; 5th: Burrall, Steven, 4d; 6th: Hao, Jerry 3d; 7th: Min, Hong-yu 5d; 8th: Harris, Mark, 4d; 9th: Phipps, Joanne, 3d; 10th: Chen, Wan Yu 3d; 11th: Fotland, David 3d; 12th: Zucker, Joshua 3d; 13th: Brown, Ernest 3d; 14th:Kass, Michael 5d.

2d-1d: 1st: Tsai, Tiffany, 2d; 2nd (2-way tie): Elchert, Ken 2d & Shiah, Samuel, 2d; 4th: Tang, Isaac 1d; 5th: Mang, Josef 1d

1k-4k: 1st: Marvit, Dave 3k; 2nd: Tang, Stephen 3k; 3rd: Oto, Robert 1k

5k-10k: 1st: Shen, Hao 6k; 2nd: Sonnenblick, Eddie 10k; 3rd: Zhang, Tony 9k

11k & up: 1st: Liu, Kevin 11k; 2nd: Shieh, Ray 29k; 3rd: Lim, James 13k

Arlington, VA: January 11
NOVA Winter Warmer Go Tournament
20 players
Organizer: ALLAN ABRAMSON

DANS: 1ST: Brian KLEINER, 4d, 3-1; 2nd: Hal SMALL, 3d, 2-2
1-4 KYUS: 1st: Ray HUNLEY, 1k, 3-1; 2nd: Sam ZIMMERMAN, 4k, 2-2
6 KYUS: Kathy QIU, 6k, 4-0 (promoted to 5k); 2nd: Raymond YEH, 6 K, 3-1,
7-10 KYUS: 1st: Seth HOFFMAN, 9k, 3-1; 2nd: Louise INGRAM, 8k, 2-2
11-14 KYUS: 1st: Todd HEIDENREICH, 14k, 3-1
15 AND UNDER KYUS: 1st: Greg MCCALL, 17k, 4-0 (promoted to 15k)

Salem, OR: January 11
5th Salem Winter Handicap
32 players, inc. 8 youth players, youngest age 9
3 rounds, Ing Sponsored,

DAN: Three way tie for first (all 2-1): Jun, ByungSu, 6d; Hakala, Ben 1d; Letts, Peter, 1d
SINGLE KYU: Three way tie for first (all 3-0): Shelley, Christopher 1k; Wahl, Ed, 7k; Riehl, Dave, 7k
DOUBLE KYU: Tie for first (3-0): French, Aaron, 21k; Davis, Caleb (14) 27k; Three way tie for third (2-1): Bliss, Chris, 15k; Hodge, Trevor 17k; Klymak, Jody, 18k; Gaty, Cynthia, 26k

GAME COMMENTARY: The Daring Dragon

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GO NEWS

Jimmy Cha, who has won the North American Fujitsu more times than anyone else, took second, defeating Lianzhou Yu and Thomas Hsiang before losing to Lee in the final. Lianzhou Yu came in third (winning a coin-toss tie-break with Thomas Hsiang), winning over June Ki Beck and Yuan Zhou and posting his only loss against Jimmy Cha. In fourth place was Thomas Hsiang, who beat both June Ki Beck and and Hui Ren Yang and losing to Jimmy Cha. Hui Ren Yang was fifth, with a win against Yuan Zhou and losses against John Lee and Thomas Hsiang. Coming in sixth was June Ki Beck, who defeated Eric Lui and lost to Thomas Hsiang and and Lianzhou Yu. Yuan Zhou was seventh, winning against Eric Lui and posting losses to both Hui Ren Yang and Lianzhou Yu. In eighth place was Eric Lui, who lost to John Lee, Yuan Zhou and June Ki Beck.

AGA MEMBERSHIP UP FOR 7TH STRAIGHT MONTH
Membership in the American Go Association continued to break new ground in December, increasing for a record seventh consecutive month. Although the 1634 total membership edged up just slightly from November, the 33 new members continued a healthy growth trend that could well put the AGA over 1,700 members this year.

HIKARU NO GO COLLECTIBLES
"People into unusual go collectibles might be interested in this," reports Joel Sanet. "Anime Castle is offering figures of seven of the characters from Hikaru no Go." Check it out at www.animecastle.com/hikarunogofigures.html

GO CLUBS

FENG YUN EVENT PHOTOS: Lots of photos from the Feng Yun doubleheader on January 11 are now posted at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/fengyun/FY_Go_Center/FYGT.htm

FREE BOWLS TO A GOOD HOME: The Fun Coast Go Club is offering empty Ing Bowls, quantity four (two sets) for any club in need of replacing broken or damaged bowls. These are in good condition and all mechanisms work fine. We have placed our stones in "traditional" bowls and offer these for cost of shipping only. email g.u@juno.com

LESSONS OF A GAME RECORDER

My moves are like a river, deep, powerful and flowing inexorably to the sea of victory. Except they're not mine. The next best thing to being a 6-dan is to record a top-level game at an event like last weekend's Fujitsu. On Saturday, it meant giving up playing in the amateur Fujitsu but the opportunity to immerse myself in good play was just too good to pass up.

Three exhausting games later, here's what I think I learned: never be sure about anything. The difference between a top-level amateur and the rest of us is that the entire board is constantly in play. Virtually no position is settled and sente is king as they search for opportunities to play away. As I tried to follow the games I recorded, I found it nearly impossible to count and assess the balance of territory and power, as both shifted dramatically, often from one move to the next. Even areas that seemed to be sure territory could not be counted on because huge kos would erupt and then it was open season on any and everything.

These guys may put their pants on one leg at a time just like you and me but as far as I'm concerned they're living, breathing go gods. That they walk among us is a gift we don't appreciate nearly enough. On the most fundamental level, John, Jimmy, Thomas, Lianzhou, Hui Ren, Yuan, June Ki and Eric are all tremendous human beings, as humble as they are strong and generous to a fault. Saturday night, after nearly twelve grueling hours of take-no-prisoners battle on the board, I watched almost the entire gang of Fujitsu competitors continuing to analyze games in a swirl of languages, and Sunday afternoon as soon as Jimmy Cha resigned he and John Lee launched into an hour-long blow-by-blow analysis of the game, playing out variations so rapidly that the stones seems to literally fly on and off the board. Every player this weekend behaved the way I'd like to but so often struggle with: truly magnanimous in victory, gracious in defeat and always committed to finding the best move. If a touch of that grace and commitment rubs off on me it'll repay me a hundred times over for my time last weekend.

THE EMPTY BOARD: The Power of the Wall

Language shapes the way we perceive the world, and nothing has a bigger impact in this regard than metaphors. This is as true in go as it is in love, politics, and war. A striking example of this is a metaphor that James Kerwin often uses. In discussing styles of play, he likes to speak of "the power game".

Kerwin is referring to the phenomenon often called "thickness". This, of course, is a group of stones that do not have a base on the edge but are well connected and face an open area in the center of the board. This sort of pattern is usually achieved by allowing/encouraging your opponent to take territory on the edge while you take "influence" toward the center. The resulting structure of your stones is often called a "wall". Kerwin wants to call this "wall" "power". What difference does it make?

How do we choose metaphors? A "wall" is a strong structure, nearly invulnerable to attack, but this is a static image. It is easy to think of a wall as the side for a building--of territory. However, that attitude is universally condemned by strong players: "don't use thickness to make territory."

What happens if we refer to this structure as "power"? This is a dynamic term. Power is something you use to act more effectively, more assertively, and that's the point: use thickness to attack. With "power" you easily think about pounding on the other player's positions, exploiting weaknesses, and invading more deeply because you have such powerful back-up. This attitude makes for much more efficient and much more exciting go.

So, quit building walls, go for POWER.

GO REVIEW: The Thirty-six Stratagems Applied to Go

Ma's interesting book explores the resemblance between warfare and go tactics and strategies, based on the ancient Sanshiliu Ji [The Thirty-six Stratagems]. The stratagems, structured in six sets of six schemes each, are illustrated in the same number of brilliantly selected and commented games. Briefly explaining the meaning of the military stratagem, Ma continues by presenting a selected game that illustrates a similar go tactic, accompanied of course by thorough strategic and tactical analysis and explanation. Although the traditional maxims of go cover the tactics and strategies of the game, this book succeeds in bringing a completely unique and new approach that might be closer to our thinking and is one of the most entertaining go books I have read. In addition to learning a lot, it's also a real pleasure to read.

GO CLASSIFIED

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: Go players in the West Lafayette, Indiana/Purdue area; e-mail Chris Kubica at ckubica@insightbb.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

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AGA CONTACT LIST:

Published by the American Go Association
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Editor: Chris Garlock
email: journal@usgo.org
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