November 17, 2003
In This Edition:
THE GIRL WHO WROTE ABOUT GO:
Shan Sa, author of "The Girl Who Played
Go" [reviewed July 2003],
gave a lecture on November 14 at Seton Hall University in New Jersey,
reports professional go player and teacher Feng Yun,
who attended the lecture and met the author. "I was very impressed by Shan
Sa's dedication to writing," Feng Yun tells the E-Journal. "I was
reminded of some professional go players, who have a similar seriousness
and intensity as they study the game of go." The book is about a
16-year-old Manchurian girl and a Japanese soldier during the Chinese
occupation of Manchuria in the 1930's. "To Shan Sa, the whole story in
her book is like the process of playing a game of go," says Feng Yun.
"Ms. Shan Sa thinks that go is a wonderful and mysterious game. She
knows the basics of playing go, but she adds 'I don't play very well'.
When she wrote the book, she did not know that most western go players
use Japanese go terms. Of course, the go terms that she used in her
book are Chinese expressions. When the book was first published, some
French go players did not realize that she played go at all!" Shan Sa
was born in Beijing in 1972, grew up in China and moved to Paris in 1990
when she was 18 years old. "I am very grateful to Shan Sa," adds Feng
Yun, "because her popular book is helping spread awareness of the game
of go to the world." See Shan Sa and Feng Yun on the AGA's homepage at
http://www.usgo.org
KOREAN PHILLY TOURNEY:
The Korean Philadelphia Go Club is holding a
one-day tournament this Saturday, November 23. The double elimination
format tournament includes two sections; AGA 4D and above and AGA 3D and
below. Prizes are $300 for first, $150 for 2nd in the upper section, and
$200 for first, $100 for 2nd in the lower section. See the calendar below
for details or contact JP at 267-266-9944.
CLEVELAND KYU TOURNEY/SEMINAR SET:
Kyu players are the focus of a
December 13 event in Cleveland, Ohio. Non-rated self-paired games will
alternate with seminars such as "How to Develop your Game" with Harold
Lloyd 3d and "How to think about life and death" with Duane Burns 2d.
There's no registration fee and players can show up anytime between 10A
and 6P, and play as many or as few games as they want. Clocks may be
used to limit the playing time by agreement between the two
players, but are not required. See the calendar listing below for
details or email organizer Joe Carl at jcarl@neo.rr.com
VIRTUAL ROCHESTER:
Meet the whole Empty Sky Go Club
posse online and check out the 2004 U.S. Go Congress site, all without
leaving the comfort of your own home! Dave "Bippy" Boyer's website
[http://www.bippies.com] features
an extensive collection of ESGC photos (including coverage of the recent
tournament) and a comprehensive tour of the RIT Inn and Conference Center
(including detailed photos of the rooms; sign me up!).
ESGC photos: http://homepage.mac.com/bippy/PhotoAlbum10.html
2004 Congress site: http://homepage.mac.com/bippy/PhotoAlbum11.html
AGA ARCHIVES EXPANDED:
AGA Archivist Craig Hutchinson reports that the
AGA Archive now includes the WD Witt collection of English and Japanese
books; these books are editions prior to 1940. The archives include
material dating back to 1509; check them out at
http://users.erols.com/crhutch/agagobib.html
SECOND AGA BOARD MEMBER RESIGNS:
AGA Eastern Region Director Chendao
Lin, saying "it is time to move on," resigned from the AGA Board on
Thursday, November 13, joining Central Region Director David Dinhofer,
who resigned the week before. The resignations leave two vacancies on
the Board, which must be filled within 30 days and are certain to be a
major topic of discussion and possible action at the next Board meeting,
scheduled for December 4. The current status of the attempt to recall
the four Board members who voted to oust AGA President Chris Kirschner
is unclear at press time, between the legal questions raised previously
and the subsequent resignations of two of the four Board members. Some
chapters are now apparently considering withdrawing their recall
petitions.
CORRECTION:
The Tokyo Seimitsu Match on November 29 is between Joey
Hung 6d and Japanese pro Ms. Yumiko Okada 6p, not Joey and Alexey
Lazarev 6d as previously reported (US, Euro Champs Face Off, 11/10/03).
Joey won the November 2 playoff between the US Open champion and the European champion.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK:
There were no winners of last week's Go Photo of the
Week contest, which was taken at the recent Empty Sky Tournament in
Rochester, NY. Tune in next week for the latest Go Photo of the Week
contest!
BATTLE OF THE YOUNG TURKS:
Hane Naoki, the current holder of the
Japanese Tengen title, has defeated Cho Chikun to earn the right to
challenge Yamashita Keigo for the Kisei title. This means that for the
first time ever the Kisei match will be between two players in their
twenties. Hane and Yamashite, along with Cho U, are the top players of
the younger generation in Japan. However, Hane has a poor record against
Yamashita, including a loss of the first game in their battle for the
Tengen title. This will be Hane's first match involving two-day games.
In his defeat of Cho, Hane came up with a new move in the opening that
gave him a lead that he maintained until the end. Unfortunately, we
don't have access to a game record. The first game of the title match
between Hane and Yamashita will take place in Seattle, Washington, on
January 15th and 16th.
-reported by John Power on the homepage of the Nihon Kiin
RUI NAIWEI UPSET BY TEEN:
In a stunning upset, the amazing teenager Cho
Hyeyeon 4p has defeated Rui Naiwei 9p for the title in the Women's Kuksu
in Korea. This is the first women's title match Rui has ever lost,
marring the record that has led her to be called the "female demon" of
the go board. The score was 2-0. You can download the game records at
http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/fk2.html .
PERFECT DINERSTEIN:
In the latest event of the European Toyota-PandaNet
Tour, in Moscow, Alexandre Dinerstein 1p
emerged as winner with a perfect record of 5 wins. There were 84
participants from Russia, Finland, and the Ukraine. Winning four
out of five were Rustam Sakhabutdinov 5 dan and
Andrej Kulkov 6 dan.
-from BGA News
This week we begin a new feature: lessons by an outstanding Japanese teacher, Kazunari Furuyama. The lessons will be attached as PDFs that can be read and printed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader (which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html). They are aimed primarily at kyu players, but will be useful to dan players, especially those who lack a firm grasp of fundamentals and/or are interested in teaching kyu players. "Kaz" is a former insei who has been a highly successful go teacher for several years. Many of his students experience gratifyingly rapid progress in becoming stronger. His lessons focus on basic mistakes and tesuji and strive to present ideas that have many applications. Kaz was the co-author of Get Strong at Joseki, vols 2 and 3 (Kiseido). You can see a picture of him at http://www.ne.jp/asahi/star/bluemoon/kiraku02/furuyama.htm . The first lesson, attached to this issue, is called "Mistake #131: How to Defend the Corner" and offers a basic understanding of life and death issues and fighting in the corner.
Completing our san-san trifecta, this week's bonus files are three brand-new original tsume-go problems from Yilun Yang. Look for the solutions next week!
If all of this sounds good, Christmas is coming! Get yourself the gift that keeps on giving year-round: join the AGA or sign up for the Games Edition today at http://postsnet.com/r.html?c=255505&r=255002&t=46044451&l=1&d=84931585&u=http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp&g=0&f=84931590 and get game commentaries and problem files PLUS the E-Journal's go news, reviews and columns. And you won't even have to wait for Christmas: your game files will start arriving next week!
Oops; a hyphen between 'go' and 'school' was omitted. The correct link is:OPEN OZA:
http://go-school.org/Activities/MingJiuGuoJuan/MJGJSeriesUK.shtml
"Yes, absolutely!" responds organizer Roy Laird. "It's an open tournament. Anyone in the world can play, although only citizens of North American countries are eligible to be the representative to the World Oza."
I was recently out on the West Coast for a short book tour and had some extra time in San Francisco. "Perfect," I thought to myself, "I'll check out the famous San Francisco Go Club." So, after some cheap (but totally yummy) dim-sum in the Richmond district (the Other Chinatown), I walked the half-mile or so from our hole-in-the-wall on Geary to that little hole in the wall on the corner of 8th & Anza with a brisk anticipation for some out-of-town go. Or not. It was two hours past the opening time but nobody was home. I had another friend I wanted to see and some business to take care of, so I hiked back to Geary and then up and down the hills toward a bookstore I meant to visit in the Haight.
As I walked past the banks and dry-cleaners and car dealerships lining Geary, I started to fume. "Man, what a drag - where ARE those guys?" Around the time the hill crested at Masonic it simultaneously occurred to me that it would have been way more beautiful to have walked through the Golden Gate and Who the hell was I to bitch? Because I probably have the worst "avidity/attendance" ratio in the entire AGA. Here I am writing this book, playing online 29 out of 30 days a month, and I've probably only been to the Twin Cities Go Club a half-dozen times since the US Go Congress. A complete bum, and so I deserved the desultory views of my walk.
And why go to the club, anyway? Because if play is a deeply human activity, it is most fully human when all our faculties are engaged with other humans - their laughter, their bodily tics, their labored breathing as you execute that sweet tesuji (your true understanding of schadenfreude as you screw it up and they calmly play the fatal stone). So, Nate, Jeff, Martin, Tim, Ming, Matt & Co.: I'll see you next Tuesday, 'cause I'm still on tour this week - and I'd be crazier than an Alcatraz swimmer to miss out (though my game will be just as cold).
The sole reason I purchased this program was because it is fully SGF based and is the only reader I've found with that ability. I've also used PilotGOne, Pilot Go, and AIGO. Palm SGF's major advantage is that it can read SGF files from my SD memory card rather than from the "Notepad" application. The drawback is that a 3rd party utility is required to copy SGF files to the SD card, as the basic "hotsync" application refuses to copy SGF files to my Tungsten|T. However, this is a minor issue compared with cut and pasting the entire SGF file to notepad on the palm desktop in order to put the file onto my palm pilot.
There are a few issues with the interface on Palm SGF. The graphics allow you to change the board color, stone color, and blink speed but the comments field is unruly. You cannot view the whole field at once, and the only way to scroll the field is to click a small arrow with your stylus. The website says "jog dial" support can move the comment field, but this is on the Sony Clie and there isn't any equivalent on the Tungsten.
The file chooser is fairly good. There are no problems getting to a file, and you can see basic info about the file (event, filename, date, and players). The only thing I think could be improved is a way to sort the files. They don't really seem to have any sorting at all and folders are as likely to appear at the top of the list as they are somewhere in the middle of the list.
By far, the best function has been the "play through" one. If you load an SGF file (a pro game or tsume go set perhaps) you can play the next move. In other words, if black to play, you can search around until you make the correct choice and white's next move will be shown. This is wonderful for Tsume go!
Overall, Palm SGF is a significant improvement on older PDF go programs and has become my primary reviewing utility.
[The E-Journal welcomes user reviews of Palm Go Library and other PDA and computer go software, as well as go books and equipment; reviewers receive go vendor gift certificates. Email us at journal@usgo.org]
WANTED: A good copy of the movie "The Go Masters." rlaflecheMD@etfsinc.com (11/10)
AVAILABLE: Feel like you have been stuck at your current rank forever? Perhaps you need some lessons from a 5 dan. I will give you one free evaluation lesson, just choose what you want. http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/icarii for details (11/10)
FOR SALE: 10mm agate stones and marble bowls. Both are Chinese, but the stones are rounded on both sides unlike the typical Chinese stones that are flat on one side. Used twice. James Johnston Boise, ID; Alkora_Tokyo@hotmail.com (10/27)
FOR SALE: 7mm glass stones & half inch folding board, both Japanese. $45, plus shp. Will sell separately. Anton Ninno, Syracuse, NY: antonninno@yahoo.com (10/20)
WANTED: Hackensack, NJ area go players of moderate to high strength willing to do a demonstration some time later in the school year. milkyway_locomotive@yahoo.com (10/20/)
WANTED: Professional go player and American Go Journal contributing editor James Kerwin is now accepting game records for a new E Journal feature. Kerwin will review selected games online with both players and the game, with commentary, will then appear in the E Journal. There is no cost to players, but at least one must be a member of the American Go Association. Please send .sgf game records to E Journal Assistant Bill Cobb at wmscobb@comcast.net (10/6)
Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach nearly 6,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org
November 23: Korean Philadelphia Go Club Tourney
JP; 267-266-9944
10A; 431 W. Cheltenham at 5th street.
$30 entry fee payable at the door.
December 6: Chicago, IL
Up on the Rooftop
Bob Barber 773-467-0423 komoku@earthlink.net
CORRECTION: Two of our sharp-eyed readers caught last week's mistake,
made by the Calendar Boy Bob Barber concerning his own tournament. It
will not take place on Tuesday, January 6, but rather on Saturday,
December 6. We think that perhaps more players will be free on the
weekend.
December 6: Denver, CO
Rocky Mountain Winter Go Tournament
Ulo Tamm 303-466-2865 utamm@worldnet.att.net
December 13: Cleveland Kyu Tourney/Seminar
Cafe Momus, 491 Brown Street Akron, Ohio
Joe Carl, 330-493-1663; jcarl@neo.rr.com
December 20: Arlington, VA
NOVA Holiday Helper Tournament
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net
January 17-19, 2004: Evanston, IL
James Kerwin Workshop
Mark Rubenstein 847-869-6020 mark@easyaspi.com
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
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 MAILTO:ratings@usgo.org
AGA CONTACT LIST:
For a full list of AGA officers, contacts & their email addresses, go to:
http://www.usgo.org/org/index.asp#contactinfo
Published by the American Go Association
Text material published in "AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL" may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that attached files, including game records, MAY NOT BE published, re distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the Journal.
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 mailto:journal@usgo.org