December 15, 2003
In This Edition:
With all this talk about top players, the Oza team reminds us that the Oza is a tournament for everyone. "There will be significant cash prizes down to fourth place in every band," says Laird. "There will also be more than 100 'Fighting Spirit' prizes, assuring that everyone who finishes all six rounds will win something." Sign up soon for this event, coming in New York City and Seattle on Martin Luther King Day weekend (January 17-18 ,2004), by going to the official Oza web site at http://www.usgo.org/usa/oza.asp, where you can download registration forms for both events.
SOUVENIR OZA POSTER:
This week's EJ contains a very special attachment
-- your very own official souvenir poster for the North American
Toyota/Denso Oza Championship. Print out, hand it out, put it up at your club.
Not available in stores!
MEMBERS IN THE NEWS:
Dewey G. Cornell 2d testified last week in the
high-profile trial of Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the accused
"DC snipers." Cornell, a University of Virginia psychologist, spent
54 hours with the defendant this year and testified that Malvo suffered from
a mental illness during the Fall 2002 DC-area shootings.
KOMI CONFUSION IN DENVER:
Confusion over komi led to several reversals
in the results of the Rocky Mountain Winter Go Tournament, held
December 6 in Denver, CO. In the third-round game between Dr. Zipei Feng
and Jung Hoon Lee, Lee lost by one point on the board, but won with
komi. After another player pointed out that the pairing list showed no komi, TD Ulo
Tamm, with Lee's agreement, recorded the game as a win for Dr. Zipei Feng,
who took top honors in the Open Section. After checking with AGA Tournament Coordinator
Chuck Robbins the next day, however, Tamm reports that "Chuck very
eloquently explained that in high-level play, komi is natural and once the outcome has
been agreed to by the players it is final, regardless of what the pairings list
shows," and the game, and Open Section win, were awarded to Jung Hoon Lee.
Despite the mix-up, "This was a very good year for tournaments in Denver," Tamm says. "We held three tournaments with a total attendance of 86. No fees charged has been an attraction as has the phenomenal growth in Boulder, started by Bob Mendenhall and now continued by David Weiss and Paul Barchilon."
Thirty-two players participated in the Winter Tournament, vying for prizes including cards donated by go-playing artists Lonnie Wiens and a special prize for the first game won by one point to refute the TD's theory that passing the last stone is irrelevant. One of the winners, Joseph Kim 7d reported that he had to sacrifice a 13 stone group near the end to meet the prize requirement. FINAL RESULTS: Open section winners: Jung Hoon Lee, Zipei Feng; Low dan and kyu Section: David Johnson (4 wins), Eric Wainwright; Kyu Section: Sebastian Kuzminsky (4 wins), Steve Shapland.
TUTTLE PUBLISHES NEW GO BOOK:
Tuttle Publishing, which has the
distinction of having published one of the first English-language books
on go (Arthur Smith's classic "Game of Go: The National Game of Japan")
has just published "Go! More than a Game" by Peter Shotwell. Shotwell, a
longtime contributor to the American Go Journal, has been writing about
the relationship of go to Eastern and Western philosophy, literature,
and history for nearly twenty years and has lived in China, Tibet and
Japan while researching the origins of the game. "The most comprehensive
beginner's book ever written," the book not only demonstrates basic
techniques and strategies, but chronicles the evolution of playing
strategies and styles, the game's roots in ancient Chinese myth, and
explores Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, as well as providing
illustrations of its depictions in Eastern art and literature, and its
modern role in mathematics, psychology and computer science. "Go! More
than a Game," says Tuttle, "will enable its readers to play and converse
intelligently with anyone who has ever been involved in the game."
Available now for $14.95 at http://www.tuttlepublishing.com
CHAPTER REPS TO CAST VOTES IN "STRAW POLL":
Representatives of AGA chapters are casting their votes for candidates to replace the
recently-resigned AGA directors, reports Election Committee Chairman
Sam Zimmerman. "This vote is an informal, but important, vote because
the results will be considered seriously by the current directors who
are responsible for appointing the replacement directors when they meet
on December 18," Zimmerman says. Nominees include: EASTERN REGION: Bill
Saltman, Belchertown MA; Bill Cobb, Richmond VA; CENTRAL REGION: Robert
Cordingley, Houston, TX; Jeff Shaevel, Austin, TX; (Mike Peng, Houston,
was nominated, but declined to run); WESTERN REGION: Will Haynes,
Sacramento, CA; Jie Li, San Diego, CA. Chapter reps should send their
votes to Sam at szimmerman@wareunl.com Comments to the Board should be
sent to agaboard@usgo.org
TIMOTHY HUANG PHOTO QUIZ WINNER:
Timothy Huang correctly identified Guo
Juan as the pro in last week's Photo Quiz; Chuck Robbins came in a
close second and gets a Special Honorable Mention for correctly
identifying the other folks in the photo: Conny Irl 4K (seated beside
Guo), Jean-Claude Chetrit 4K (standing lower left), and Daphne Grosett-Ryan
5K (top middle). None Redmond gets a SHM too, for correctly
identifying the youngster as Lionel Zhang, "one of the youngest little
go players who was at the Go Congress last year. He'll be 9 next
January." Honorable Mentions: Jean-Claude Chetrit; Michael LePore; Ben
Spillers; Marc Palmer; Peter W. W. Gousios; Bob Felice; James Bonomo;
Robert Barber.
THIS WEEK'S PHOTO QUIZ: Tell us who the bearded fellow on the left is
at http://www.usgo.org/ and you could be next week's winner!
THE BEST GIFT OF ALL:
Give yourself (or your favorite go player) the
gift that keeps on giving every week! Join the AGA today at
http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp and get the weekly game
commentaries and problem files PLUS the E-Journal's go news, reviews
and columns AND the brand-new 2003 American Go Yearbook!
GRAND MASTER TOURNAMENT TIED 2-2:
Cho Hun-hyeon 9p, playing White,
forced current title holder and former student, Yi (Lee) Ch'ang-ho 9p,
to resign in game four of the 34th Myeongin championship match. This
best-of-five match is now tied at 2-2. Game five will be played on
December 15th. The Myeongin (also known as the "Grand Master") is
sponsored by the Korean Daily News and the Sunkyong Group. Game records
can be found at http://www.gobase.org.
- reported by Dennis Hardman
CHO WINS SAMSUNG:
On December 11th, one of Japan's premier go
professionals, Cho Chikun 9p, defeated 18 year-old Korean prodigy Pak
Yeong-hyeon 4p to win the 8th Samsung Cup, with a score of 2:1. The
third game of this best-of-three series was played in Taegu City in
Korea, and was decided when Yeong-hyeon, playing black, resigned after
220 moves. Cho's victory ends six years of domination by Korean go
professionals in this prestigious international tournament. (Japan's
Yoda Norimoto 9p won the tournament the first year it was held in 1996.)
While this is the first international tournament Cho has won in over 10
years, he has been a powerful force in the go world. Cho is the only
player to have won every one of the top seven Japanese titles (the
"grand slam" of Japanese go) and still holds the record for most titles
won by a Japanese professional. All three games of the final match can
be viewed at http://www.go4go.net.
- reported by Dennis Hardman
POCSAI, CSANKI WIN HUNGARIAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Hungarian go is being
promoted among the younger generation, with two separate tournaments
held last weekend, the Hungarian Youth (under 18 years old) and
Hungarian Children (under 12 years old) Championships. Rita Pocsai 4d
made an excellent showing in the youth tournament with straight wins for
the top place, with second place going to Alexandra Urban 5k, who has
been playing for just over a year. Alexandra has improved dramatically
since February of this year, when she entered a tournament as 18 kyu.
Top place in the children's tournament went to Norbert Csanki 13k who
has been playing for one year. Second was Domonkos Albrecht 14k.
- reported by Ethan Baldridge
FRANZ-JOSEF DICKHUT SWEEPS GERMAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS:
Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d won the final round of the German Go Championship with an
astounding perfect record. Second place goes to Christopher Gerlach 6d
and third place to Zhao Pei 6d, both with scores of 5-2. Fourth place
was a three-way tie between Egbert Rittner 6d, Benjamin Teuber 5d, and
Felix von Arnim 5d. The final round is played as a round-robin between
the top six players from the preliminary round, and the champion and
runner-up from the previous year. Dickhut has been the champion for
four of the past five years.
- from Sensei's Library
http://senseis.xmp.net
- reported by Ethan Baldridge
ALAN THORNTON SWEEPS WEST SURREY:
The West Surrey Handicap Tournament
took place on December 7th, after a workshop taught by Francis Roads,
Alex Selby, Tony Atkins, Simon Goss and Natasha Regan. Alan Thornton 2d
came out with top honors, while Kay Dackombe 25k was the only other
player to win all her games. Prizes were also awarded to players
winning three out of four games, including Brian Brunswick 1d, Geoff
Kaniuk 2k, Malcolm Hagan 4k, Erwin Bonsma 4k, Bill Streeten 4k,
Jonathon Englefield 11k, David Galeano 16k and Ken Dackombe 25k. Ron
Bell won the 13x13 section, with four out of five wins. Prizes were
also awarded to people who came up with the "best" go-related caption
for a photo of a gun pointing at a kitten with raised paws, and the
player who could sort 26 countries into order of size correctly. The
caption prize went to Fred Holroyd, with "You can't shoot me, I've got
two real eyes" while the geography prize was taken home by Malcolm
Hagan for 16 out of 26 correct answers.
- from the British Go E-News, reported by Ethan Baldridge
INTERCALARY ERROR:
Respected go writer John Fairbairn says that our
background on last week's famous "Blood Vomiting Game" commentary got
a key point wrong. We said that "The game stretched over eight days
and at the end, exhausted and suffering from tuberculosis, Akaboshi
collapsed at the board, vomiting blood. He died within the month at
the age of 25." However, says Fairbairn, "Akaboshi died on 20 October
1835. The game ended on 21 August. Furthermore, Japanese sources
usually refer to his death as 'about 2 months' after the game.
Possible explanation of error: lunar months - there was an intercalary
7th month that year and the lunar date of the game is 1835 VII 19." We
apologize for the error.
WHAT THE *#@%?
Jean DeMaiffe's complaint last week about Joel
Turnipseed's use of the words "hell" and "damn" drew several reader
responses. "I agree we should do our best to avoid crude language in
a professional journal," writes Pete Schumer. "More bothersome to me
was the article reporting that "Shaevel got to be an Irish woman for
one round" which seemed like a thoughtless phrase from a previous time
and place." Adds Pete: "One last thought: damn Chuck Robbins for
beating the hell out of the rest of us with his quick photo IDs."
"I completely agree that it's a good idea to set an example for young people in the community," writes Hetty. "But as a young person myself, I can't say that I ever minded - or noticed - the language that Joel used. Many young people use similar language, and to me, "hell" and "damn" aren't enough to provoke much of a reaction. All the same, it certainly depends how young the child is."
"Just as I'm starting to think about this issue," writes Eric Osman, "my eye wanders down to the next article, entitled 'Vomiting Blood, Life & Death and An Old Friend'; HEE HEE! Thanks for making me laugh."
"The words 'hell' and 'damn' are taboo words only to Christians," writes another reader. "The use of words such as 'God,' 'The Creator,' etc., is offensive to atheists, and 'Christ' to Buddhists, etc. I don't think the rest of the community ought to be restricted in its use of words on religious grounds." This reader also finds fault with the argument about protecting children, saying "although there are probably children among the E-Journal readers, it doesn't follow that every word in the E-Journal should be reduced to the pabulum level of children. Far from being a lesson in the 'virtue' of 'courtesy,' it is an indoctrination in the practice of intolerance."
And finally, Bob Barber weighed in with the reminder that Turnipseed "Is an ex-Marine: it could be a lot !*#?@%# worse!
In addition to the solutions to last week's life-and-death problems by Yilun Yang, we're also pleased to present another PDF installment of Kazunari Furuyama's lessons, Tesuji 202, with a special focus on the intricacies of the tsuke, or attachment.
Give yourself (or your favorite go player) the gift that keeps on giving every week! Join the AGA today at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp and get the weekly game commentaries and problem files PLUS the E-Journal's go news, reviews and columns AND the brand-new 2003 American Go Yearbook!
Chicago. City of Broad Shoulders...and revenge. It's a long six-hour drive from Minneapolis to Chicago, but I figured it was a must. I hadn't played in a tournament since the Go Congress in August and I was starting to get e-mails saying things like "Hey, all this philosophy stuff is great, but c'mon -- we want to know how you're doing. You going to be a shodan next year or what?" As I slid South through the limestone bluffs of Wisconsin on I-94, I thought, "Man, I am soooo marked. Everyone at that tournament is going to be gunning for me, just to say, 'Yeah, I beat that Turnipseed guy-he should spend less time writing and more time playing go.'"
My tensions melted when I walked in to see Bob Barber 1k a half-hour before the tournament began. Steffen Kurtz 4k showed up soon after, all the way from Ely, MN, a 10-hour drive. Then Mark Rubinstein 4k came in, carrying his own board and stones. It was like a regular Midwestern Go Congress, complete with new initiations into the "Ever see a man poke his head through a hole this big?" joke. Then I remembered that I had lost to both Steffen and Mark down in Houston: it was time to sit down and settle some scores.
I was paired with Mark the first game and won by half a point. I had counted that I was up by ten, and as we counted (and Mark recounted, then recounted his recount), my eyes frantically scanned the table for the inevitable extra white stone next to a coffee cup or under a napkin. But the final tally stood: 81B, 80.5W. Then I was paired with a 7kyu and had to give two stones. Poor guy made the same mistake I had made at Houston in my first tournament, where I discovered that people pay much more attention during competitive games. There's no worse feeling than chasing your opponent's group all over the board and then realizing, as Guo Juan says, that you've just chased a live elephant from your kitchen to your living room. This guy started so many fights he had herds running through his house and he soon resigned.
Next I hunted Steffen down, hoping I could fatten him up with lunch before our rematch. We both ate University of Illinois-Chicago dorm food, so I have to credit the lessons with Kerwin for my win. Steffen was gracious in defeat, and stayed to watch as I played my fourth and final game, taking two stones against a 3-kyu who attacked constantly. I played calmly even though I was sweatin' every move he made, waiting and waiting for the inevitable disaster that never arrived, leaving me 4-0 for the day and low-kyu section winner. Afterward, Steffen remarked, "You know, I can tell that you're learning: that guy was just banging his head against the power of your stones."
I felt like he'd been banging his head against mine. I was wiped and ready for dinner and a few beers, which Bob Barber and Al Mischlove 7k amply provided at Giordano's up the street. It's a local tournament tradition, and a fine one. It was great to meet the folks from Chicago, Ann Arbor, Champaign-Urbana, and Grand Rapids, especially the ones who like "Hard Times." Next time, however, I'm having one less beer and leaving my politics at home. But I'm still bringing my A-game-and the dream of shodan that goes with it.
The Department of Baduk Studies at Myong-ji University, headed by Dr. Jeong Soo-hyun 9-Dan, is trying to build a base of academic knowledge about baduk (go). This year the Department sponsored the 2nd International Conference on baduk during the European Go Congress in St. Petersburg. Of thirteen papers that were presented, one entitled "Some Games Travel, Some Don't", by Ulrich Schadler, caught my eye. Schadler seems to be involved with the Swiss Museum of Games, where they are trying to figure out the best way to organize their exhibits. Creating categories like "chance," "strategy," "simulation" posed difficulties, because some games cross categories. So they thought, what about an "environmental" approach? Show games that flourished at different times in different cultures.
But the Swiss Museum encountered a similar problem -- some games cross categories and have become popular throughout the world. So they wound up creating a special room for voyager games such as chess, backgammon and playing cards. Despite its many advantages as a superior strategy game, go is not in the voyager room. Why not? Schadler theorizes that three factors could account for why some games spread more easily than others: dynamism, variability and gambling. Chess games end dramatically, and the pieces and rules can be altered to suit local taste. Baduk, however, has a universal quality that renders such adaptation at once unnecessary and impractical. It's often not clear whether the game has ended, or what the result is. These elegant and mysterious qualities may partly explain why baduk is so obscure in the West. Many Korean players will attest that baduk actually works quite well as a gambling game, but Schadler's other ideas are intriguing, and can be fun to think about. For instance, another question arises: if baduk was so difficult to spread, how did it spread so widely and easily from China to Japan and Korea?
We have a few copies of the proceedings to distribute, and we can get more; if you're interested, write to roylaird@nyc.rr.com for further information.
WANTED: Idaho Chapter needs go players to demonstrate and recruit for a few hours at the Japan Cultural Fair, Boise State University, Saturday, Dec 6. Contact David Bogie bogiesan@mac.com or 208-854-1518 (11/24)
Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach more than 6,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org
January 3 & 4: San Francisco, CA
12th Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament
Michael Bull bull@lmi.net
ernest@goedharma.com
January 10: Salem, OR
5th Annual Salem Winter Go Tourney
James Levenick 503-370-6486 levenick@willamette.edu
January 17 & 18: Seattle, WA
2nd Toyota/Denso North American Oza Championship
Jon Boley 206-545-1424 jon@seattlegocenter.org
January 17 & 18: New York, NY
2nd Toyota/Denso North American Oza Championship
Roy Laird 212-662-5501 roylaird@nyc.rr.com
January 17-19: Evanston, IL
James Kerwin Workshop
Mark Rubenstein 847-869-6020 mark@easyaspi.com
January 18: Boston, MA
MGA Winter Handicap Tournament
Zack Grossbart 617-497-1232 zack@grossbart.com
For the European Go Calendar see http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/go/tourn.html GET LISTED & BOOST TURN OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 5,500 readers every week! List your Go event/news In the E Journal: email details to us at MAILTO:journal@usgo.org
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