AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association Click here to send this to a friend : http://postsnet.com/r.html?c=285786&r=285236&t=46044451&l=4&g=0&f=85069606 February 16, 2004 In This Edition: U.S. GO NEWS: Vu Tops Four Seasons Tourney; Brooklyn Go Club Offers T-Shirts & Guo Juan; New Link For Hoboken; Go Classifieds Work; Close, But No Cigar; Tak Cheng Photo Contest Winner WORLD GO NEWS: Yi Ch'ang-Ho Anchors Young Korean Team To Nong Shim Cup Win; Kulkov Wins European Toyota-Denso Oza; Li Tops In Oxford; John Power Reports; Other Asian Go News In Brief GAME COMMENTARY: The Wunderkind And The Pro BEGINNER'S MIND MOMENTS IN GO HISTORY: A Famous Game of Mirror Go GO CLASSIFIED CALENDAR OF EVENTS ATTACHED FILES: 2004.02.16 Jie Li-Mingjiu, Mingjiu Commentary.sgf; 2004.02.16 Go-Kitani, Moments 11.sgf [only with Games Edition] U.S. GO NEWS VU TOPS FOUR SEASONS TOURNEY: Christopher Vu, who did double duty as Tournament Director, topped the 2004 Four Seasons Champion Series Winter Qualifying Tournament, held January 23-24 at Clear Lake High School in Houston, Texas. Other top winners: ORCHID Division: 1 VU Christopher, Cac Thanh Thu Dao; 2: CHIANG Justin, Clear Lake High School; 3: CHAN Hoi, Clear Lake High School. PLUM Division: 1: CHAN Jeff, Clear Lake High School; 2: VU David, Cac Thanh Thu Dao; 3: WANG Frank, Clear Lake High School. CHRYSANTHEMUM Division: 1: TRAN, Huong-Vi, Cac Thanh Thu Dao; 2: PATLOVANY Nick, Clear Lake High School; 3: PATLOVANY Alex, Clear Lake High School BEGINNERS Division: 1: MAO Mary, Clear Lake High School; 2: LE Thi-Hiep, Cac Thanh Thu Dao; 3: PINJALA Ravi, Clear Lake High School. BROOKLYN GO CLUB OFFERS T-SHIRTS & GUO JUAN: The fabled Brooklyn Go Club has a brand-new t-shirt out, designed by graphic designer (and BGC member) Mike Samuel, reports organizer J.C. Chetrit. They're $12 each from JC; email him at jc@brooklyngoclub.org for details. The BGC is also planning two more workshops with Netherlands-based professional Guo Juan at The Woodlands this year, JC reports, "the weekend after Memorial Day (starting Thursday) and Columbus Day." Find out more at http://www.brooklyngoclub.org/bgc/ NEW LINK FOR HOBOKEN: The Hoboken (NJ) Go Club has a new homepage link, reports organizer Larry Russ. Find out all about the Hoboken club (plus see some pretty cool pictures of go greats Go Seigen, Kitani and Shusai) at http://personal.stevens.edu/~lruss/HobokenGoClub.htm GO CLASSIFIEDS WORK! Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Looking for go players in your area? Post your want ad in the E-Journal and reach nearly 7,000 Go players worldwide every week! We've helped readers sell their old go books and find new go friends and it's all free! Send your posting to us at journal@usgo.org CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: "Congratulations on the 2003 Go Yearbook!" writes Erwin Gerstorfer. "As a keen collector of go books and Ukiyo-e related to go, I like it very much. Out of this appreciation, I would like to point out a small mistake on Page 16, where you say '(James) Kerwin, the first Westerner to achieve professional shodan in Japan...' The USA undoubtedly can claim to have sent the first man to the moon, but please leave the honour of the first Westerner to achieve professional shodan in Japan to tiny little Austria," Gerstorfer insists. "Fact is (see e.g. "The Go Player's Almanc 2001"), that Manfred Wimmer was promoted on January 26th, 1978 and James Kerwin on February 14th, 1978. I know it's only a few days, but sometimes a few days can make the difference." TAK CHENG PHOTO CONTEST WINNER: Beating out the competition by mere minutes, this week's Photo Contest winner is Tak Cheng, who correctly identified our homepage photo of students from the Feng Yun go school. Tak also noted that the photo was from the NYC Oza at the Pennsylvania Hotel and that the yellow t-shirts sported "an under the stones tsumego on the back." Runners-up: our very own Joel Turnipseed (so close!), Gordon Ho, Max Peterson and Pete Schumer. THIS WEEK'S CONTEST: This week we have a bit of a challenge for you: we're looking for the most creative caption for this week's photo. For example, suggests homepage Photo Editor, Laurie Crammond, "Is he playing Black or White?" Check out the photo at http://www.usgo.org/index.asp and then send your suggestion (just one per reader, please!) to us at journal@usgo.org As always, winner gets bragging rights and a $10 go vendor gift certificate. WORLD GO YI CH'ANG-HO ANCHORS YOUNG KOREAN TEAM TO NONG SHIM CUP WIN: By handily defeating Japan's last two players (Kato Masao 9p and Rin Kaiho 9p) in games 13 and 14 respectively, Yi (Lee) Ch'ang-ho 9p of Korea was the last player standing in the 5th Nong Shim Cup tournament, securing yet another win for a Korean team whose average age is just over 20 years. Korea has dominated this event since its inception in 1999, continuing the winning streak from 1993 when the tournament was sponsored by and named after the Jinro Brewing Company. The Nong Shim Cup is a "ring" contest in which five-player teams from Japan, Korea, and China compete king-of-the-mountain style. That is, a player competes against alternating players from the other teams until he or she loses and is eliminated from the tournament. Typically, teams start with their weaker players, saving their strongest players for later rounds. But sometimes a team will play stronger players first hoping for one or more wins to eliminate potential threats early on. Tournament highlights: Stage One, held in Beijing in October, saw two Chinese players, one Korean player, and one Japanese player eliminated, although Japan's Cho U 9p won two games before being beaten by Wang Lei 8p of China. In Stage Two in November (Pusan, Korea), Wang Lei fell, as did Korea's only woman player (and first woman to play in this event) Pak Chi-eun 4p, to Japan's Kobayashi Koichi, who won a special prize of ten million Korean won (about $8500 US) for winning three in a row. His winning streak was ended by Weon Seong-chin 5p of Korea. China was the first team to be eliminated in Stage Three when their final "bullet", Gu Li 7p, was beaten by Japan's Kato "Killer" Masao 9p. However, Kato and Rin Kaiho were no match for Korea's Yi Ch'ang-ho, who has proven virtually unbeatable in this tournament over the years. The game order, pair-offs, and game results can be found at igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/news.html. Game records can be found at http://www.go4go.net. - reported by Dennis Hardman KULKOV WINS EUROPEAN TOYOTA-DENSO OZA: Andrei Kulkov 6 dan defeated his fellow Russian Alexandre Dinerchtein 1p to win the Toyota-Denso Cup in Europe. Since three players get to participate in the next stage in Japan, there was a play-off for third place in which Frank Janssen 6 dan of the Netherlands defeated Ion Florescu 6 dan of Romania. You can access the game records at http://www.go-centre.nl/index.php?page=tournaments/oza/2004/results.html . LI TOPS IN OXFORD: Wenhao Li 5 dan was the overall winner in the tournament in Oxford, England on February 14th, which drew seventy players. The Chinese player from Cardiff defeated two 5 dans, Young Kim and J. K. Shim, along with Alistair Wall. Winning all three of their games were Niall Cardin 1 dan Oxford, David M King 1 kyu Swindon, Elinor Borrks 6 kyu Swindon, and Richard Scholefield 14 kyu Milton Keynes. William Brooks 2 kyu Cambridge won the 9x9 side event with 3 out of 4. Prizes were sponsored by Hoyles Games Shop. - from BGA News at http://www.britgo.org/news/enews1.html . JOHN POWER REPORTS: Another summary of go journalist John Power's column at www.nihonkiin.or.jp/topics2004/brandnew-e.htm. YODA WINS SHUSAI PRIZE: The 41st Shusai Prize, honoring the most outstanding player of the previous year, was awarded to Yoda Norimoto Meijin, who won the Meijin title for the fourth year in a row. 29TH MEIJIN LEAGUE: Yamada Kimio 8p (W) beat Cho Chikun, 25th Honinbo, by half a point. Kobayashi Satoru 9p (W) defeated Imamura Toshiya 9p by resignation. Undefeated players in the league are Cho U Honinbo and O Rissei Judan. 59TH HONINBO LEAGUE: Yoda Norimoto Meijin (W) defeated Cho Sonjin 9p by resignation. Joint leaders, at 3-1 are Kobayashi Koichi 9p and Mimura Tomoyasu 9p. MOST GAMES BETWEEN TWO PLAYERS: Cho Chikun and Kobayashi Koichi who have played 125 games. Cho has 63 wins to Kobayashi's 62. - reported by Dennis Hardman OTHER ASIAN GO NEWS IN BRIEF (compiled from igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/news.html): - Japan: 17th Fujitsu Cup: With the win of Yuhki Satoshi 9p on the 12th, the final four of the Japanese portion of the preliminary and qualifying tournament have been decided. They are Yuhki Satoshi 9p, Takao Shinji 8p, O Meien 9p, and Hane Naoki 9p. They will join the seeded players (Yamashita Keigo, Yoda Norimoto, Cho U) to round out the Japanese team. - Korea: 23rd KBS Cup - Yu Chae-hyeong 6p and Choi Ch'eol-han 5p have advanced. - Japan: 29th Gosei - Cho U 9p wins his second round match against Ryu Shikun 9p to advance to the quarter finals. - Japan: 51st NHK Cup - Komatsu Hideki 9p defeats Yuhki Satoshi 9p to advance to quarter finals. GAME COMMENTARY: The Wunderkind And The Pro Young go wunderkind Jie Li 9d faced off against professional Mingjiu Jiang, 7p at the Seattle Toyota/Denso Oza a few weeks ago. Although Li tries some interesting and new ideas, Jiang, who played White and provides analysis in today's game commentary, gets to a critical point first and "After White 74, the game feels easy for White." This game is notable also as the debut of a new member of the E-Team, for Canadian Go Association President Philip Waldron 6d, who has joined us as a game editor. Today's bonus file is the famous Mirror Game played in 1929 by Go Seigen, 3p and Kitani Minoru, 4p (see Moments In Go History below for full details). DON'T MISS ANOTHER WEEK OF GAME COMMENTARIES! Join the AGA today for just $30 and get the attached game commentary files next week! Join now at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp BEGINNER'S MIND by Aria von Elbe Remember the good old days when starting a school club just meant getting a few friends together after school, borrowing your favorite teacher's room and only leaving when the janitors came around and you finally realized that it was already 6? Ever since returning from Seattle, where my dedication to go finally became permanent, I've been working towards establishing a go club at my high school, where chess is already frowned down on as "The Geek Club." Some of my best friends are in the chess club and even they laugh at my go club idea. That hasn't slowed me down but the paperwork has. The constitution and petition have to be passed by the school's Judiciary Council, I have to lay down the club rules and find a sponsor, get a regular meeting schedule started, and after all that, we still have to go through a four month trial period before they'll even recognize us. Well, slap me silly and call me Tsutsui, what have I gotten myself into?! Like my Hikaru no Go counterpart, I was having trouble getting the word out and explaining to people just what go is, settling finally on "It looks like Othello but is played like four games of chess." Slowly, very slowly, I've got a following and maybe Tsutsui-san would be proud of how many people I've interested, some of whom even already knew what an atari was. So, with my players and petition, sponsor and constitution, I'm just waiting for the Council to convene. All I need now is enough go equipment for more than twenty people. That's right, more than twenty! The Hikaru no Go fansub CDs I've given my friends have made their way to who knows where, the word's finally gotten out, and I'm suddenly on my way. Let's just hope that this path I'm walking down doesn't suddenly end. Alright, I'm out. I think my English teacher's asking me about Thoreau or something. MOMENTS IN GO HISTORY: A Famous Game of Mirror Go by William Cobb Mirror or mimic go (mane-go in Japanese) is not often played, but it is an intriguing approach. One player imitates the other's plays in the diagonally opposite portion of the board. Black can start by playing on the center point (tengen) and then mimicking White. One would think that this would work in Black's favor for as long as he can continue it. It's also possible for White to be the mimic, but Black can easily disrupt this by playing on the tengen. There have been famous cases of this tactic, and Fujisawa Hosai 9p (1919-1992) was fond of mane-go. One of the most famous games involved Go Seigen. When Go was fifteen and had been in Japan only a short time, he was given an opportunity to play Kitani Minoru, then a twenty year old 4 dan. This was in 1929. Go startled everyone by beginning on the center point and continuing to play mirror go for over sixty moves. It is amusing to speculate about what he and Kitani were thinking. Perhaps Kitani thought it was a joke. No doubt both were concerned at every move as to how to end the mirroring so as to gain an advantage. Go finally deviated at move 65, and Kitani ended up winning by three points. The game record with some comments supplied by Dave Sigaty from Japanese sources is attached. [Sources: Go Review December 1971, gobase.org, and Dave Sigaty's entries in Sensei's Library] GO CLASSIFIED WANTED: Old issues of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean magazines. Also wanted: old books of game collections. Contact Gordon Fraser at gordon@wui.net (2/16) WANTED: Go players in the Dayton, Ohio area. Contact camismyname@msn.com (2/16) WANTED: Go players in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Contact Alex at alexgenaud@yahoo.com (2/16) WANTED: Copy of "First Kyu" by Dr. Sung-Hwa Hong. Contact Krstic Dejan at dkrstic@verat.net (2/16) WANTED: Go players in the Asheville, NC area. Please contact ichliebedeinunderhosen@yahoo.com (2/16) WANTED: Go players in Verde Valley (Arizona) area; contact perudodudo@yahoo.com (2/2) WANTED: K 12 teachers who want to start a school go club, add go to their classroom activities, or explore the concept of using go to integrate math, social studies and language arts. Join the Scholastic Go Project on our Blackboard website. Free. Contact Anton Ninno at aninno@cnyric.org (2/2) WANTED: Looking for "Enclosure Josekis" by Takemiya Masaki. Please e-mail price and condition to rberger6@nyc.rr.com (2/2) WANTED: Go players in the Clemson/Anderson/Greenville area of South Carolina. Contact joshuac@clemson.edu (1/23) Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach nearly 7,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org CALENDAR OF EVENTS 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 http://www.home.earthlink.net/~transwri/ February 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 March 7: Sunnyvale, CA 8th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament Mingjiu Jiang 650-969-2857 mingjiuj@hotmail.com March 13: Chicago, IL Spring Tournament Bob Barber 773-467-0423 komoku@earthlink.net June 24-27: Hackensack, NJ 2004 New Jersey Yang 7p Go Workshop John Stephenson 201-612-0852 jcs@wingsgoclub.org http://www.wingsgoclub.org/Yangworkshop.asp 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/2004/2004-02-16.txt The 2004 index page is at http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/2004/