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January 26, 2004
In This Edition:
YANG WORKSHOP RETURNS TO MD:
The 9th Annual Maryland Workshop with
Yilun Yang, 7 dan is set for March 18-21 in Baltimore, MD. Sponsored by
the Washington Area Go Clubs (Greater Washington Go Club and the
Baltimore Go Club), the workshop this year will be held in Keith
Arnold's home. The workshop will consist of lectures and game analysis
on games (non-AGA rated) played at the workshop, and starts on Thursday
morning, continuing through Sunday afternoon. Each day the workshop
begins at 9A and ends around 9P, except Sunday, when it ends in the late
afternoon. The number of participants in the workshop will be limited so
register early; reservations will be accepted on a first-come, first
served basis. The cost for the workshop is $180. To register, send your
name, address, strength, phone number, email address and a check made
out to the Greater Washington Go Club to: Gordon Fraser, 20505 Anndyke
Way, Germantown, MD 20874. Info: gordon@wui.net or call 240-498-0235
OZA, IWABC PHOTOS ONLINE:
Photos from the 2004 Toyota/Denso Oza -- both
Seattle and New York City - are now online at
http://www.usgo.org/photos/ You can also check out photos from last
Fall's First International World Amateur Baduk Championship in Korea at
http://banginis.nomagic.com/~donuge/page_01.htm
THIS WEEK'S PHOTO CONTEST:
Who are those folks on the AGA's homepage and why are they smiling?
Be the first to let us know at journal@usgo.org and you'll be this week's
AGA Homepage Photo Contest Winner!
NIHON KIIN HONORS GO PLAYERS:
The Nihon Kiin,
one of Japan's professional go associations, has announced the KIDO winners,
as well as plans for a Go Hall of Fame.
Winners of the 37th KIDO Awards for 2003 include: Most
Outstanding Player Award: Cho U 9p (Honinbo and Oza), Outstanding Player
Award: Yamashita Keigo 9p (Kisei), Yoda Norimoto 9p (Meijin) and Hane
Naoki 9p (Tengen), Most Wins Award: Cho U 9p (56 wins and 21 defeats),
#1 Winning Rate Award: So Yokoku 7p (78.18%, 43 wins and 12 defeats),
Consecutive Wins Award: Yamada Kimio 8p (18 straight wins), Most Games
Played Award: Cho U 9p (77 games), Women's Award: Kobayashi Izumi 5p
(Women Honinbo and Meijin), New Pro Award: So Yokoku 7p, International
Award: Cho Chikun 9p (8th Samsung Cup champion). For many years, KIDO
was the Nihon Kiin's dan-level go magazine, which ceased publication
several years ago. The awards and a "KIDO" yearbook survive today.
And as reported in John Power's column on the Nihon Kiin web site, "The
Nihon Ki-in has announced that as one of the activities to celebrate its
80th anniversary this year it plans to found an Igo Hall of Fame, along
the lines of the Japanese baseball Hall of Fame. It will be set up in
the basement of the Nihon Ki-in headquarters in Ichigaya. There will be
displays and panels illustrating the history of go, and there are also
plans to induct great players, past and present, into the Hall of Fame.
Early candidates are said to be the first Honinbo Sansa and the star of
mid-20th century go Go Seigen. Nonprofessionals who have contributed to
the development of go will also be honoured."
- reported by Dennis Hardman
ANYONE FOR SUMO GO?
If Crazy Go isn't wild and wooly enough for you,
check out the latest chess variant, which puts players in a boxing
ring for chess and boxing, the crowd screaming for blood and piece
sacrifices. No kidding. Story and photos at
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1348
Bonus file #1 is an opening problem, selected with permission from the recently published volume 5 of Janice Kim's Learn to Play Go series (Palace of Memory). You can check out the book at http://www.samarkand.net .
Bonus file #2 is the latest lesson from Kaz Furuyama's series on common amateur mistakes. This week, learn how to defend your corner.
Get the weekly game commentaries! Join the AGA today at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp
My flight into JFK flew straight over a Manhattan chilled to single digits, looking as though it were set in lead type, each narrow block another letter in my story. I was in town for the Toyota Denso North American Oza, along with 241 other go players, including Tournament Director Chuck Robbins 3d, with whom I traded scrawled notes at the Friday night reception.
You shodan yet?I recorded his encouragement in my notebook: "Chuck made me do it!" Terry Benson 1d, who hosted me for the weekend in his Upper West Side apartment, was more sane: "Enter at what you think your rank actually is, so you'll get better feedback on how you're progressing." Trouble was, I still didn't have results from Chicago in Paul Matthews' rank-O-meter and so had no idea what my official AGA rank actually was. I calculated that since I was 5.1 at Houston, had won all four games in Chicago, and had crept up to 3k (just barely) on KGS, 4 kyu was probably reasonable.
No.
What're you playing as?
4k
Why not 3k?
Uh, I'm not 3k yet?
Try 3k!
Why not-I'll give it a try.
But after staying up until zero-dark-thirty sharing a killer bottle of French wine and long-forgotten memories of college philosophy classes with Ron Snyder 7d and Terry, I wasn't so sure how things would turn out. And in the cold bleary Saturday morning light, when I was introduced to Ethan Baldridge, a 7 kyu who announced he was going to match my feat of making shodan by the Rochester Go Congress, it seemed like nothing could be worse than being a role model with an empty stomach, a hangover, and some serious pre-game jitters.
I pulled off a win in my first game, but it really wasn't my day and I finished Saturday 1-2. I did get to grab a pretzel out on 7th Avenue with Rob Muldowney 2d, Feng Yun's assistant and the brother-in-law of one of my writer pals. A trout-fishing pal of mine once said that anybody willing to stand in a stream all day knowing they might not catch a fish can't be all bad and so he would go fishing with anyone who brought waders and a rod. Rob is the kind of guy who reminds me that's true of go as well, and that much of the joy in this crazy quest of mine is in the little journeys along the way.
A reasonable bed-time Saturday night found me in better shape Sunday morning and I ended the day 2-1, for a 3-3 Oza. The guy I lost to most horribly, David Choi, went 6-0 and won our section, easing some of my pain. I was bummed, though, when I failed to recruit David into the "Rochester shodan showdown" at the Congress in August.
"It's just upstate, pal," I pleaded.With my Midwesterner's sense of long drives and longer horizons, I forget that New York has its own worlds. Flying out Sunday night, however, it was clear that my own personal go world was getting smaller and smaller, and that Rochester was getting uncomfortably close for a guy still teetering precariously between 3 and 4 kyu.
"It's a loooong way for me."
"Where do you live?"
"Queens."
"Where do you play?"
"Queens."
There seem to be two philosophies for writing beginning go books: the 'Thin Way' and the 'Thick Way.' Keeping it thin doesn't frighten off the casual or young reader, but the disadvantage is that one must buy another go book quite soon. I prefer the thick approach (see my new book "Go! More than a Game") and Yang Yu-Chia's book is definitely in this category.
At first glance, Westerners may think "A Scientific Introduction to Go" looks scattered and confused, with lots of puzzling, seemingly irrelevant passages, side excursions and graphics mixed in with some very good analyses of what to do and how to do it. However, Yang, who administers the Taiwan-based Ing Foundation, clarifies that he is writing for young children like his son who had been subjected to the traditional, minimalist Chinese introduction to go -- lots of problems with no theoretical comment. Hence, the use of 'scientific' in the title, the flashy diversions and an approach that talks about territory first and waits until page 90 to discuss life and death shapes. I think this may be a good approach for very young kids who may not be able to progress beyond desires for killing, but the capturing game approach might be more interesting to older kids and adults who can understand the leap to the idea of territory more quickly. In any case, besides its excellent lessons on basic go theory, this book is a feast for those interested in go culture because of the wonderful extended essays on Go Seigen and the modern Korean scene.
WANTED: Teacher for a beginner in the Nassau County area of Long Island (This is negotiable. I can travel to Brooklyn, Queens, and farther out on Long Island if necessary), New York, that I can meet face to face with, that isn't busy on nights or weekends. Email Yan at yan99_2000@yahoo.com
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: Out of print go books, including Enclosure Josekis, All About Thickness, Strategic Concepts of Go, Kato's Attack and Kill, and several others. Please contact with item and price. E-mail 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
February 28: Sacramento, CA
Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament
Fred Hopkins 916-548-8068 cfredhop@msn.com
February 28: Charlotte, NC
2004 Carolina's Open Tournament
Wayne Hansen 704-536-4805 whansen319@yahoo.com
Februay 28: Tacoma, WA
Roy Hayashi Memorial Go Tournament
Mike Malveaux 253-906-0095 mikem@hilltopgo.com
http://www.hilltopgo.com/ev/rhm2004/
February 28 & 29: Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Open
Rick Mott 609-466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu
June 24-27: Hackensack, NJ
2004 New Jersey Yang 7p Go Workshop
John Stephenson 201-612-0852 jcs@wingsgoclub.org
http://www.wingsgoclub.org
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
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AGA CONTACT LIST: For a full list of AGA officers, contacts & their email addresses, go to: http://www.usgo.org/org/index.asp#contactinfo
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