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AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL

News from the American Go Association

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January 19, 2004

In This Edition:

U.S. GO NEWS:
Feng Yun & Mingjiu Jiang Win N.A. Oza; Mingjiu Jiang On Punishing Mistakes; 2003 Yearbook Published
SCOREBOARD:
2nd Toyota/Denso Oza, New York City & Seattle
WORLD GO NEWS:
Redmond Update; Kobayashi Izumi Wins First Women's Hayago Tournament; Yi Ch'ang-Ho Tops Ch'oe In Kuksu; Li Shen Shines At Maidenhead
GAME COMMENTARY: A Rising Star in China
BEGINNER'S MIND
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
ATTACHED FILES: [Games Edition only]

U.S. GO NEWS

FENG YUN & MINGJIU JIANG WIN N.A. OZA:
After winning the Seattle and New York City Oza Tournaments last weekend, Feng Yun and Mingjiu Jiang are the North American representatives to the 2nd Toyota/Denso North American Oza Tournament and will play for $300,000 and a new Lexus later this year in Japan. The Oza was organized by Roy Laird and directed in Seattle by Jon Boley and in New York City by Chuck Robbins.

MINGJIU JIANG ON PUNISHING MISTAKES:
Mingjiu Jiang 7P's "Punishing and Correcting Joseki Mistakes" has just been published by Slate & Shell. "Punishing" is a study of joseki mistakes in amateur games. In the process of identifying and explaining joseki mistakes, Jiang shows how to take advantage of them and provides an excellent way to learn the correct sequences in a number of common joseki, by understanding the purpose of the correct moves. The book includes joseki starting with a stone on all the usual points, from the 3-3, 3-4 and 3-5 to the 4-4, 4-5, and 4-6. 120 pages, $15. http://www.slateandshell.com

2003 YEARBOOK PUBLISHED:
The 2003 Yearbook has just been published, and includes the best of the 2003 E-Journal: games, reviews, columns, a CD with all the content organized and much more! Member's free copies are being mailed, but non-members can join now to be sure to get the 2004 edition, as well as a discount on the 2003 edition.

SCOREBOARD: 2nd Toyota/Denso Oza, Seattle & New York City

OZA: NEW YORK CITY
TD: Chuck Robbins

Open Division: 1st: Feng Yun; 2nd: Huiren Yang; 3rd: Yansong Zhou; 4th: John J-S Lee; 5th: Ron Snyder; 6th: Ke Huang.
A Division: 1st: Yong Chen; 2nd: Wei Chen; 3rd: Siu-Kou Hui; 4th: Lingyu Zen; 5th: Sung Jin Cho
B Division: 1st: Peng Li; 2nd: Shi Feng; 3rd: Tak Cheng; 4th: Jia Yu
C Division: 1st: Jason Gu; 2nd: John Exeter; 3rd: Michael Samuel; 4th: Jiangtao Gu
D Division: 1st: David Choi; 2nd: Dmitri Lechtchinski; 3rd: Joe Carl; 4th: David Carper
E Division: 1st: Paul Chetrit; 2nd: Ethan Baldridge; 3rd: Yuchen Feng; 4th: Todd Heidenreich
F Division: 1st: Jeffrey Vogel; 2nd: Yang Xu; 3rd: Kevin Shang; 4th: Kevin Wang
G Division: 1st: Daniel Xia; 2nd: Justin Chang; 3rd: Dustin Wu; 4th: Eugenia Huang
H Division: 1st: Osman Kibar; 2nd: Neil Chen; 3rd: Matthew Tse; 4th: Dominic Gerard

Thanks to: Toyota and Denso Corps; The Nihon Kiin; the Nippon Club; the Hotel Pennsylvania; Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin and Allen Nyoshin Steir; Samarkand, Slate and Shell and Peter Shotwell for providing substantial discounts on prizes; Marc Palmer, Rick Mott, Joe Carl, Larry Russ, Feng Yun, Arnold Eudell, Todd Heidenreich, the NY Wei Chi Society and the Brooklyn Go Club for producing among them over 130 sets of stones, boards and clocks; Terry Benson for providing the PA system; Marilyn Campbell, Wanda Metcalf and Joanne Saltman for helping with registration and staffing the main table; Jim Mangold for helping with publicity; Matt Kennedy, Terry Assael, Ron Snyder and many others for helping with setup and strike. Special thanks to the more than 200 players who participated in the biggest go tournament in North American history, and a very special thanks to Mary Laird, without whom this event would not have been possible.

OZA: SEATTLE
TD: Jon Boley
Assistant Director: John Hogan
Referee: Frank Fukuda
Total participants: 105: 85 in the Oza; 28 (8 from Oza) in the Lightning Youth Tournament

Open Division: 1st: Mingjiu Jiang; 2nd: Jie Li; 3rd: Jung Hoon Lee; 4th: Charles Huh; 5th: Ned Phipps; 6th: Edward Kim
A Division: 1st: Mike Cai; 2nd: Chunlei Dong; 3rd: Cha Duk Lee; 4th: Christopher Kirschner
B Division: 1st: Hyon Cha; 2nd: Jim Huang; 3rd: James McKee; 4th: Barna Rubin
C Division: 1st: Alex Chang; 2nd: Lee Anne Bowie; 3rd: Alex Chin; 4th: Jason Baghboudarian
D Division: 1st: Ryan Dowling; 2nd: Gabriel Young; 3rd: Leila Baldwin; 4th: Joel Simpson

Lightning Tournament: 3-0 Players: Matthew Burrall, Ryan Dowling, Robert Oto

Thanks to: Toyota, Denso, Nihon Ki-in, Michael Redmond, Kudou Norio, NHK, the NHK video crew, Go weekly, Shimura Tomohiko, The North American Post, The Korean Times, John Hogan, Connie Hayashi-Smith, Deborah Niedermeyer, Brian Allen, Akira Sato, None Redmond, Aria Von Elbe, Scott Arnold, Chris Kirschner, Mike Malveaux, Andrew Cox, Andrew Gross, Peter Davidson, Frank Fukuda, Tacoma Go Club, Microsoft Go Club, Seattle Chinese Go Club, all the players that came from out of state.

WORLD GO

REDMOND UPDATE:
As reported by John Power at http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp, American Michael Redmond 9p, who spoke with the EJ last week, has been keeping busy. Not only did he provide game commentary for the first game of the Kisei held in Seattle last week, he has also been battling it out on the pro circuit, as he discussed in the EJ interview. On December 15th Michael lost to Kamimura Kunio 9p in the Preliminary A bracket of the Toyota & Denso Cup. On December 18th, however, Redmond defeated Takemiya Masaki 9p by resignation in the main Tengen tournament. And on January 8th, Ogaki Yusaku 9p defeated Redmond by resignation in the Preliminary A bracket of the Kisei tournament.
- reported by Dennis Hardman

KOBAYASHI IZUMI WINS FIRST WOMEN'S HAYAGO TOURNAMENT:
In the 1st Women's HayaGo tournament (sponsored by Japan Airlines) Women's Honinbo Kobayashi Izumi 5p defeated Nakazawa Ayako 5p by 5.5 points. Kobayashi, who is the daughter of veteran go professional Kobayashi Koichi 9p, had a good 2003, winning the Women's Honinbo and becoming engaged to men's Honinbo Cho U 9p. 2004 also appears to be starting out well. Veteran player Nakazawa won the 9th and 10th Women's Honinbo titles in 1990 and 1991 at the age of 19, and won Women's Kakusei titles in '95 and '96. Unfortunately, game records were not available.
- reported by Dennis Hardman

YI CH'ANG-HO TOPS CH'OE IN KUKSU:
In Dali, China, this week, current title holder Yi (Lee) Ch'ang-ho 9p defeated challenger Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 6p in game one of the 47th Kuksu title match. Yi, who played Black and won this first game by a close 1.5 points, is arguably the most successful international go professional on the scene today and is also the current Myeongin title holder -- a title he has held for six straight years and twelve years overall. Eighteen year old Ch'oe is one of Korea's up-and-coming go stars, most recently winning the 8th Chunwon against Weon Seong-chin 5p. Game records can be found at HTTP://www.go4go.net.
- reported by Dennis Hardman

LI SHEN SHINES AT MAIDENHEAD:
For the second year in a row, the young Chinese boy Li Shen (a 4 dan from London) won the Maidenhead Tournament, held at the headquarters of HITACHI Europe Ltd on January 17th. There were 86 players altogether. Young Kim took second, and several players were 3 for 3: Chris Dawson (1 dan Maidenhead), James Aspden (1 dan Oxford), Matt Piatkus (2 kyu Oxford), Xin Yi Lu (11 kyu Maidenhead) and Matt Griffiths (12 kyu Sindon). Mike Charles (2 dan St. Albans) with 2.5 wins and all those who were 2 for 3, also got prizes, thanks to the generosity of HITACHI. Team winners were Oxford (90 percent), and 9x9 winner was William Brooks (2 kyu Cambridge) with a 9 and 0 record. A special prize went to young Matthew Knight who played 12 9x9 games during the day.
- from BGA News

GAME COMMENTARY: A Rising Star in China

This week's game is from the recently concluded Chinese Mingren title match between Qiu Jun 6p and Zhou Heyang 9p. Qiu is one of the rising young stars in China, but he loses to the slightly older Zhou in this game. The commentary is by Alexandre Dinerchtein 1p from his subscription service for commented pro and amateur games at www.go4go.net and is used by permission.

Today's bonus file is another PDF installment of Lessons from the Past, this one exploring how to handle a pesky cut.

Also included this week are the solutions to last week's life and death problems by Yilun Yang.

Get the weekly game commentaries: join the AGA today at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp

BEGINNER'S MIND

by Aria von Elbe

"Well, welcome" were the first words I heard from someone who actually plays go. I'd read about the game, studied the rules, and downloaded "The Way to Go" from the AGA website, but this was the first time I'd been able to meet someone who was willing to teach me how to play. Then I looked around the small Border's cafe in Miami and realized I wasn't just the youngest one there; I was the only girl.

Welcome to the go world, populated mainly by men and with so few people under the age of 18 that, as I've learned the game over the last year, I've sometimes wondered what I've gotten myself into.

That doesn't mean I don't like it. Quite the contrary, in fact. For anyone who doesn't play go, it's hard to put into words how I feel, but for those who do, well, you understand. It's the feeling of the go stones in your hand, the sound of stone hitting wood, that makes it all worthwhile. All those hours of studying problems without avail, trying to analyze professional games and realizing just how horrible you are, playing on 9x9 boards for seemingly forever and then 13x13 before finally moving onto 19x19.

And just when you feel like you're never ever going to get better, maybe because of school work and exams that keep you from practicing or those people on IGS who keep beating you even with 9 stones, you show up at that little café in Borders every Thursday night and see those people who are helping you learn the game. And yes, they're all men, and yes, all at least 20 years older than me but they're helping me slowly but surely get there. Helping me get to the point where I feel confident enough about my game not to be intimidated and not to care about whether I win or lose. Happy to sit down, play a good game, lose by 40 points and be able to say, honestly, "Yes, it is worth it."
- 15-year-old Aria von Elbe is a 10th-grader in Miami, Florida.

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write

HOW TO MOVE SGF FILES:
"I'm using a $19.95 utility called 'Card Export' available at http://www.softick.com" writes Zeke Tamayo in response to last week's question about what third -party utility to use to move sgf files to a sd card for Palm SGF. "There is also a free utility called 'Pilot Install ' available at http://pinstall.envicon.com I prefer 'Card Export' because it treats the media card as an external drive rather than as a hotsync utility. A support forum for Palm SGF can be found at http://www.go4go.net/forum"

GO CLASSIFIED

WANTED: Looking to buy copies of "The Breakthrough to Shodan" by Miyamoto Naoki and "Strategic Concepts of Go" by Nagahara. Email Bong Joon Yoon at yoon@binghamton.edu

WANTED: Go players in Clarksville, Indiana/Louisville, Kentucky interested in starting a go club. ChrsGilkey@aol.com

WANTED: Looking for some out-of-print English language go books (Enclosure Josekis, All About Thickness and a few others). Jeff Vogel; rberger6@nyc.rr.com

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

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

January 23-24: Houston, TX
1st Four Seasons Championship Series (Winter Tournament)
Christopher Vu 713-446-0518 wasonlyyesterday@yahoo.com

January 31: Gainesville, FL
Team Tournament
Devin Casadey 617-497-1232 igoclubuf@yahoo.com

February 28-29: Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Open
Rick Mott 609-466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu

February 28: Sacramento, CA
Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament
Fred Hopkins 916-548-8068 cfredhop@msn.com

For the European Go Calendar see http://www.european-go.org/TOURNAMENTS/TListbyDate.htm

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


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 the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.

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


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