AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association Click here to send this to a friend : http://postsnet.com/r.html?c=277845&r=277309&t=46044451&l=4&g=0&f=85036943 January 26, 2004 In This Edition: U.S. GO NEWS: Feng Yun Lessons For Beginners; Yang Workshop Returns To MD; Oza, IWABC Photos Online; This Week's Photo Contest WORLD GO NEWS: Choi Wins First Kisei Game; Nihon Kiin Honors Go Players; Anyone For Sumo Go?; Other Asian Go News In Brief GAME COMMENTARY: Interesting Plans At The Oza YOUR MOVE: Readers Write HARD TIMES AT THE GOBAN GO REVIEW: A Scientific Introduction to Go GO CLASSIFIED CALENDAR OF EVENTS ATTACHED FILES: [Games Edition only] 2004.01.26 FengYun-JohnLee, 2004 Oza.sgf; 2004.01.26 Learn to Play Go, V, 1-26-03.sgf; 2004.01.26 Mistakes 132.pdf U.S. GO NEWS FENG YUN LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS: The Princeton (NJ) YWCA is offering a series of lessons for beginners with Feng Yun, 9 Dan professional, Wednesday afternoons from 4:45 to 5:45. The series of 10 lessons costs $125, plus membership in the Y ($25 for kids, $40 for adults). This is substantially less time commitment (and less cost) than the longer lessons at the Wednesday evening club meetings, which are aimed at higher-level players. For info: Susan Kubota, 497-2100 ext 317 or skubota@ywcaprinceton.org 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! WORLD GO CHOI WINS FIRST KISEI GAME: Apparently deciding very early that the game was lost, Yu Chae-hyeong 6p resigned to Choi Ch'eol-han 5p after only 121 moves in the first game of the best-of-three 15th Kiseong (Kisei) title match. Eighteen year old Ch'eol-han is looking to win his second major Korean tournament after winning the Chunwon late last year. He is also currently challenging Yi (Lee) Ch'ang-ho 9p for the Kuksu in which he lost the first game. While Yu Chae-hyeong 6p has been on the professional go scene for nearly a decade, he has yet to win a major title. The 15th Kiseong title is sponsored by World Daily News and Hyundae Motors. Game records can be downloaded from http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ks.html . - reported by Dennis Hardman 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 OTHER ASIAN GO NEWS IN BRIEF - Japan: Challenger match participants have been determined for the 42nd Judan. O Meien 9p and Cho U 9p will meet on Feb 5th to determine who will challenge current title holder O Rissei 9p. - Japan: Kobayashi Izumi 5p and Inori Yoko 5p won their first round matches in the 29th Shinjin O (New Stars). - Japan: Inori Yoko 5p defeated Yashiro Kumiko 5p (by 0.5 points) to become challenger for 15th Women's Meijin. Title holder is Kobayashi Izumi 5p. First game to take place in late February in Tokyo. - Japan: Mimura Tomoyasu 9p, Kamimura Kunio 9p, Kobayashi Koichi 9p, among others, all advanced in the 3rd Preliminary tournament for 52th Oza Tournament. - International: Hane Naoki 9p won the final of 1st Group against O Rissei in the 17th Fujitsu Cup preliminary and qualifying tournament. Winners of groups 2, 3, and 4 are yet to be decided. - reported by Dennis Hardman GAME COMMENTARY: Interesting Plans At The Oza Today's game is "A close, fighting game," between Feng Yun 9P and John Lee 8d amateur, from last weekend's Toyota/Denso Oza in New York City. "John Lee had a lot of interesting plans, with lots of creativity on the board," says Feng Yun in her detailed commentary of the 131-move game. "I was very impressed with how different he is from two years ago. He is a tough player for anybody, and he is getting tougher and tougher." 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 YOUR MOVE: Readers Write GO, GIRL: "I liked Aria's story in 'Beginner's Mind' in today's E-journal (1/19/04 EJ)," writes Doug Auclair. "Please pass on my encouragement to her. My daughters are 2 years old and 4 months old, so it'll be a little while, if they so choose, before she'll have some playing partners from my family. When that happens I hope they may meet her at a Congress someday." HARD TIMES AT THE GOBAN by Joel Turnipseed 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? 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. 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. 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. "It's a loooong way for me." "Where do you live?" "Queens." "Where do you play?" "Queens." 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. GO REVIEW: A Scientific Introduction to Go By Yang Yu-Chia Yutopian 288 pages; $19.95 reviewed by Peter Shotwell 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. GO CLASSIFIED WANTED: Go players in the Clemson/Anderson/Greenville area of South Carolina. Contact joshuac@clemson.edu 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 CALENDAR OF EVENTS January 31: Gainesville, FL Team Tournament Devin Casadey 617-497-1232 igoclubuf@yahoo.com 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 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 ===== This is archived at http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/2004/2004-01-26.txt The 2004 index page is at http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/2004/