December 22, 2003
In This Edition:
2004 TOURNAMENT/WORKSHOP CALENDAR:
Go players in search of competition
or professional instruction have a full tournament and workshop calendar
to choose from. See below for the latest schedule of events coming up
next year; if your event is not listed, send the following information
by e-mail to Bob Barber at komoku@earthlink.net:
2004 CALENDAR: JANUARY 3-4: San Francisco, CA: 12th Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament; JANUARY 10: Salem, OR; 5th Annual Salem Winter Go Tourney; JANUARY 17-18: New York, NY/Seattle, WA: 2nd Toyota/Denso North American Oza Championship; JANUARY 17-19: Evanston, IL: James Kerwin Workshop; JANUARY 18: Boston, MA: MGA Winter Handicap Tournament; JANUARY 23-24: Houston, TX: 1st Four Seasons Championship Series (Winter Tournament); JANUARY 26: Hoboken, NJ: Feng Yun Workshop; JANUARY 31: Gainesville, Florida: Team Tournament; FEBRUARY 23: Hoboken, NJ: Feng Yun Workshop; FEBRUARY 28-29: Princeton, NJ: New Jersey Open; MARCH 27: Arlington, VA: Cherry Blossom; APRIL 18: Boston, MA: MGA Spring Handicap Tournament; MAY 15: Arlington, VA: May Madness; JULY 11: Boston, MA: MGA Summer Handicap Tournament; JULY 17: Arlington, VA: Congress TuneUp; OCTOBER 30: Arlington, VA: Pumpkin Classic.
OZA'S COMING!
It's not too late to register for one of 2004's biggest
events: the Second North American Toyota/Denso Oza Championship,
January 17-18 in New York City and Seattle. Get info and the
registration form at http://www.usgo.org/usa/oza.asp
SHAEVEL, COBB & HAYNES TAPPED FOR BOARD:
Jeff Shaevel, William Cobb and
Willard Haynes were appointed to the Board of the American Go
Association at last week's Board meeting on December 18, reports Chair
Jon Boley. "The Board looks forward to working with these outstanding
members in the upcoming year. With the introduction of Hikaru no Go
into America and the steady growth of the AGA, we play in exciting
times," Boley said. The appointments filled vacancies created by the
recent resignations of David Dinhofer, Chendao Lin and Robert O'Malley;
Shaevel takes over in the Central Region, Cobb in the East and Haynes
in the West. In other business, the Board approved a motion to form a
standing Leadership Development Committee to identify and develop
leadership for the AGA. A motion to reinstate Chris Kirschner as
President of the AGA was tabled until the January 2nd Board meeting,
as was a motion to direct the Leadership Development Committee to find
a new president to take office June 1st 2004. A motion by outgoing
Board member John Stephenson to establish a policy to "govern decisions
about content published in the eJournal" failed for lack of a second.
CORRECTION:
In last week's report on the Rocky Mountain Winter Go
Tournament , the third-round game with the komi mix-up was between Dr.
Michael Zeng (not Zipei Feng, as reported)
and Jung Hoon Lee. We apologize for adding to the confusion.
PHOTO QUIZ WINNER:
Bob Barber correctly identified former AGA
President Chris Kirschner and wins this week's Photo Quiz Gift
Certificate. Runners Up: Terry Benson; Chuck Robbins; Peter Gousios &
None Redmond. Bippy Boyer gets the Close But No Cigar Award for mixing
up one bearded go player with another and mis-identifying Chris as
Mark Palmer.
THIS WEEK'S PHOTO QUIZ: tell us who's in the photo at http://www.usgo.org/index.asp and you could be the next Photo Quiz winner! Bonus points if you can identify the location.
CH'ANG-HO NOTCHES 12TH MYEONGIN:
By the narrowest of margins, Yi (Lee)
Ch'ang-ho 9p, won his sixth consecutive Myeongin title, defeating his
one-time teacher, Cho Hun-hyeon 9p, by just half a point in the fifth
game to take the 34th Myeongin title 3-2. This is Ch'ang-ho's 12th
Myeongin title overall; he has maintained almost continuous possession
of the title since he wrested it from Cho in 1991. Cho, who gave Yi
his only loss in the tournament in the last decade (1997) dominated
the Myeongin in the late seventies and eighties. Yi and Cho are
considered by some to be two of the most brilliant go professionals
in recent history, with Cho dominating the international go scene in
the seventies and eighties, and Yi continuing that dominance in the
nineties and beyond. This stands to reason since Yi studied under Cho
before breaking out on his own. In fact, Cho has had to change his
style in recent years to rely more on his "natural" intuition and
quick reading to account for Yi's legendary deep thinking and superior
calculating ability. Game records for all five games can be found at
http://www.go4go.net.
-reported by Dennis Hardman
CH'EOL-HAN TAKES CHUNWON IN FOUR:
In game four of the best-of-five
series, Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 5p played White to defeat Weon Seong-chin 5p
by resignation after only 172 moves, thus winning the 8th Chunwon
title 3-1. This is Ch'eol-han's first major title. The Chunwon,
sponsored by the newspaper Sports Korea, has traditionally been the
stage for some of Korea's rising young stars such as Yi Se-tol (Lee
Sedol) 9p, Pak Yeong-hyeon 5p, and Song T'ae-kon 5p.
In fact, both Ch'eol-han and Seong-chin are only 18 years old. Game records can be
found at http://www.go4go.net.
-reported by Dennis Hardman
LOVE ON THE GOBAN:
As reported by John Power on the Nihon Kiin web
site, two go weddings have been held recently. On December 7th,
Yamashita Keigo Kisei and Takanashi Shoko held their wedding party
at the Tokyo Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku. Takanashi is the younger
sister of Takanashi Seiken 8-dan. Yamashita and his wife studied
together at Kikuchi Yasuro's go school, the Ryokuseikai. The other
auspicious occasion was a little earlier, when Ko Reibun 4-dan
married Kobayashi Sayaka on November 30th. Ko is the son of top
Chinese players Nie Weiping 9-dan and Kong Shangming 8-dan, but he is
now a naturalized Japanese citizen. His bride is the eldest daughter
of Kobayashi Satoru 9-dan. Even though it is comforting to see that
these go greats have lives beyond the goban, we must note that they
seem to marry into the go family nonetheless. Congratulations to the
happy couples.
-reported by Dennis Hardman
CLAAS ROEVER WINS SCOTTISH BARLOW:
Sixteen players, ranging from 1 kyu
to 20 kyu, played in the Scottish Barlow Tournament in Edinburgh on
December 13th. Professor Iwashita (5 dan) was on hand to play people
between rounds. No one had four wins, and the winner with three
victories was Claas Roever 4 kyu of Newcastle by tie-break from
Edinburgh's Shinpei Tanaka 1 kyu and Jim Cook 2 kyu. Jim Cook, Allan
Crossman, Donald Macleod, and Colin Robertson qualified for the
Scottish Championship semifinals.
-from the BGA News Site
Go to http://www.usgo.org/ratings and enter either your name or your AGA #; your rating, by the way, is 6.7kHOW DO I GET THE ATTACHED FILES?
The attached files are a popular feature available to AGA members, who also receive the new American Go Yearbook, a selection of the best of the E-Journal and a CD with all the year's EJ content. It's a great deal for the $30 membership; join at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp and you'll start getting the attached files next week!SGF READERS:
Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html
"It's nerve-wracking to play Cho in a match," says commentator Kobayashi Satoru 9p. "He doesn't compromise; his games are always played at the edge. I'm not exaggerating. Danger lurks in every one of his moves, from the beginning to the very end. He intimidates his opponent. Even before Cho has made his move, his opponent feels that he will go down in defeat."
Our first bonus file this week is an opening problem selected from "Come Up to Shodan" by Rin Kaiho and published by Slate & Shell. It is used with permission; you can check the book out at http://www.slateandshell.com
The second bonus file, a pdf, is an interesting "Next Play" problem selected from Go Review, the English language magazine published by the Nihon Kiin from 1961 to 1977.
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!
Have you ever wished you could just connect directly to a friend and play, without the need of a server? That's the function Uwe Auerswald's program Netgame promises to deliver. Try it out by downloading from http://www.usgo.org/resources/computer.asp#internet By the way, for those who asked, we have updated the WinIGC/WinMGT link.
And for the complete beginner on your shopping list, you might
want to download "GoeBasics" a fifteen-minute video available from the
AGA courtesy of American Ing Goe. See Step One of our new "Play Go Now"
feature at http://www.usgo.org/resources/playnow.asp to view or download
this video.
- Roy Laird
A good book for those who teach go is "Teaching Life Skills Through Chess" by Fernando Moreno. "Teaching" offers a wonderful example of what can happen when all the right ingredients come together. Through chess, Moreno motivated his students to strive for higher goals and he was formally recognized for his accomplishment by the US Chess Federation on the steps of the US Capitol in the late 1990's. Today, his program continues to thrive and has several locations throughout Silver Spring, MD, a suburb of Washington DC. His primary group is the "Chess for Success Club" which averages 30 teenagers each week; when I was there this winter 50 kids showed up. Not bad for a program that only meets during the school year.
Some of the passages in Moreno's book reminded me of the Empty Board essays by Bill Cobb that have appeared in the American Go Journal. I've copied many of Bill's essays to use as handouts for workshops and demos because they cover such a wealth of interesting ideas. Imagine if Bill's essays were compiled and published.
Moreno's focus is properly on the kids; chess is simply a tool to reach them. The kids are the source of his passion and dedication and there are some good lessons to be learned from how they sustained him during the early lean years when the program was struggling to prove itself.
(Goon is the AGA's Community Outreach Coordinator)
SEEKING SVACHA & THE WATSONS: Peter Shotwell is looking for Shawn Svacha and Michael and Diana Watson to give them their reviewers' copies of 'Go! More Than a Game' He doesn't have their current email addresses.
FOR SALE: Exotic Go Stones for the serious collector. Semi-precious
10mm x 21.5mm; lapis, jade, carnelian, jasper and more.
http://www.algorithmicartisan.com/gostones
(NOTE: the E-Journal is very interested in reader reviews of these stones; email us at
journal@usgo.org)
WANTED: Go-playing/teaching K-12 educators to share ideas and plans for promoting go within schools. Contact Brian J. Olive at oliveb@ocps.k12.fl.us
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 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 Championshiip 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
January 23 & 24: Houston, TX Winter 2004 Tournament Christopher Vu 281-480-8615 wasonlyyesterday@yahoo.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 6,000 readers every week! List your Go event/news In the E Journal: email details to us at MAILTO:journal@usgo.org
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
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Editor: Chris Garlock
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