AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association Click here to send this to a friend : http://postsnet.com/r.html?c=291625&r=291075&t=46044451&l=4&g=0&f=85098808 March 1, 2004 In This Edition: U.S. GO NEWS: Ke Huang Champ In New Jersey; Changlong Wu Tops In Charlotte; Edward Kim Wins Hayashi Memorial; Ing Invitational Seeks New Talent; Yang Hackensack Workshop Set For June; Proving Go Is Harder; No Time In "24" For Go?; Rysdam Wins Photo Contest A MILLION-DOLLAR BUDGET: Alan Abramson's Big Vision WORLD GO NEWS: Yamashita Hangs In For Half-Pointer; JP Morgan Chase To Sponsor Major Go Tournament; Ch'ang Ho One Closer To 9th Kuksu Title; Cho'e Can't Get Enough; Server v. Server in KGS-DASHN Friendship Match; Other Asian Go News In Brief GAME COMMENTARY: Oza Challenger's Match BEGINNER'S MIND GO REVIEW: Go++ and Many Faces of Go GO CLASSIFIED CALENDAR OF EVENTS ATTACHED FILES: 2004.03.01 Cho U-Yamashiro Hiroshi, www.gogameworld.sgf; 2004.03.01 Nakayama NS-4.PDF U.S. GO NEWS KE HUANG CHAMP IN NEW JERSEY: Ke Huang 8d is this year's New Jersey State Champion after winning the annual New Jersey Open, held February 28-29 in Princeton, NJ. A record-breaking 119 players participated, including many from the Feng Yun go school (sporting their distinctive bright yellow shirts). Winners: 1st: Ke Huang 8d; equal 2nd 5th-place winners: Carson Tu 7d, Yuan Zhou 7d, Zhaonian Chen 6d, Weiyuan Yang 7d. Other winners: 5 game winners: Ethan Baldridge 6k, Jared Beck 7k, Nicholas Trieu 23k, Daniel Zhu 24k; 4 game winners: Yong Chen 6d, Xiaoying Huang 5d, Xue Han 5d, Mawshien Chen 3d, Peng Li 2d, Ronghao Chen 1d, Dinghao Wu 1d, Yuchen Feng 3k, Lionel Zhang 3k, Sam Zimmerman 4k, Nelson Hua 7k, Scott Agnew 11k, Aquinas Hobor 14k, Kevin Wang 15k, Guo An Zhang 21k; 3 of 4 game winners: Ximeng Tian 16k. Organized by the Princeton Go Society; TDs: Rick Mott, Paul Matthews. CHANGLONG WU TOPS IN CHARLOTTE: Changlong Wu took top honors in the February 28 tournament in Charlotte, NC. Eighteen people braved the snow and bad roads to play, reports Tournament Director Wayne Hansen. Winners: Group A: 1st: Changlong Wu; 2nd: Haijang Peng; Group B: 1st: Peter Armenia; 2nd: Adam Bridges; Group C: 1st: Fred Argenio; 2nd: Greg McCall; Group D: 1st: Scott Ellis. Also receiving prizes for playing the most games were Josh Coker, Scott Ellis and Rodney Keaton. EDWARD KIM WINS HAYASHI MEMORIAL: Edward Kim won the Open section at a tournament February 28 to commemorate Roy Hayashi, the beloved go elder who passed away last summer. "We're honored that the Tacoma go community has asked us to host this tournament in remembrance of a man whose passion for life was seen in his love of go," said Tyler Sellon, President of the University of Puget Sound Go Club, which hosted 34 players from the Tacoma Go Club and from all over western Washington and Oregon. Although the tournament was delayed an hour by computer glitches, Mike Malveaux reports that "Once things were underway, Jeff Horn executed his TD duties with aplomb, especially since he also played so no odd players would have to take a bye." WINNERS: 3 games: Edward Kim 6d, Frank Brown 11k, Robert Solovay 23k, Dennis Wheeler 17k. 2 games: Ma Dong 6d, Om Ki 3d, Scott Arnold 1d, Richard Bustamante 1d, Tyler Sellon 3k, Mike Malveaux 7k, Luke Allen 9k, Greg Hatayama 13k, Gordon Castaza 20k, Gio Bailo 19k, Jeff Boscole 2k, Duane Kanz 3k. Full results will be posted at in a few days at http://www.hilltopgo.com/ev/rhm2004/ Cash prizes from the Hayashi family and tournament entry fees were presented by Roy's grand daughter, Masumi, along with go sets, books, Hikaru no Go trinktets, and go themed bumper stickers. "Thanks to Jon Boley of the Seattle Go Center for the loan of clocks and go sets!" adds Malveaux. "Thanks to all the PNW go players who made the journey and helped us honor Roy's memory in the way he would have loved so much." For details about Roy's life, see http://www.seattlegocenter.org/RoyHayashi.html ING INVITATIONAL SEEKS NEW TALENT: A new tournament will qualify a top-level player for this year's Ing Invitational. The Ing Redmond Cup will be held over the internet and the winner will be awarded a place in the Ing Invitational at this years U.S. Go Congress in Rochester, NY. Entrants must be 5d or stronger in the CGA or AGA, a citizen of the US, Canada or Mexico, and under the age of 31. Registration is open until March 15th; register on-line at http://www.seattlegocenter.org/ingredmond . YANG HACKENSACK WORKSHOP SET FOR JUNE: The 2004 NJ Yang 7p Go Workshop is set for June 24-27, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Go author and teacher Yang Yi Lun "has an uncanny knack to help players of all rankings, is able to pull profound lessons out of amateur games of any level, and will show you through an amazing analysis of your own games," promises organizer John Stephenson. "His style is both gentle and insightful, with advice expressed through clear and immediately applicable concepts, sprinkled with a sense of humor. Yet at the same time, it's intense. Attending this workshop will deepen your game and dramatically add to your enjoyment of go." Find out more and register at http://www.wingsgoclub.org/YangWorkshop2004.asp PROVING GO IS HARDER: Last week Online Go columnist Roy Laird asked about measuring the relative difficulty of go compared to other games. "Here is the math I've used to support this argument myself when comparing the two games," responds Rick Mott, who has worked closely with AGA ratings Statistician Paul Matthews over the years. "According to 'Inside the AGA Rating System' (download from http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/aga-rating.pdf), when Player A is one stone stronger than Player B, Player A will win five out of every six even games. Ratings in the AGA database run roughly from 40 to +9, with no ratings between 1 and 1, so the number of stacked "5 out of 6" win probability levels of playing strength in go is about 47. Beginners are more variable, and we have less data below 30 kyu, so the system may overestimate the spread among beginners to some degree. But even if a true beginner starts at 30K instead of 40K, there are still nearly forty degrees of difficulty. "To derive a comparable number of levels for chess, look at the US Chess Federation's algorithm at http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/ratings/rs/node5.html . From the formula for WE (winning expectancy), we find that if chess player A beats chess player B five out of six times, their ratings differ by 280 points. Since chess ratings top out near 2800, there are 10 such levels. The USCF compresses the top of the scale to keep the strongest players' ratings from increasing without bound, so perhaps there a few more levels in chess that it might appear at first glance. Still, by one specific measure of complexity, the playing strength spectrum in go appears to be about the cube of that in chess." NO TIME IN "24" FOR GO? "Last week on Fox's '24', hero Jack Bauer breaks into a disreputable Los Angeles club in search of a terrorist," reports a sharp-eyed Keith Arnold. "He finds the terrorist and interrogates him in a room where a go game has just been interrupted. No clear shots of the board position -- we will have to wait for the DVD to be certain -- but in one of Jack's classic moments of frustration he snarls 'We don't have time for this!' and swipes his hand over the board, scattering the stones." The next episode of "24" won't be shown for a couple of weeks but "Jack is still in the room so we may see more of the board" says Keith hopefully. A MILLION-DOLLAR BUDGET: Alan Abramson's Big Vision "My dream is a million-dollar budget for the American Go Association," says Alan Abramson, new Chair of the AGA's Board of Directors. In an exclusive interview with the E-Journal, Abramson outlined his vision for American go. "I envision we'll have 10,000 members in a few years. We'll have a larger group of volunteers doing great things to promote go. Once we reach 10,000 members, 20,000 isn't far away. Then, we'll have the critical mass to really get to the public's attention for activities like school curricula, scholastic tournaments, and generally inspiring kids to learn the game. We need to do so much more to promote go in the US. It's a long journey but the first steps start now. "Increasing our membership is the major challenge for all of us," Abramson says. "For the clubs, over the next year we need to talk about more and more coordinated tournaments. In the long run, we need to find sponsors to provide money dedicated to getting pros around the circuits to various clubs, with associated local publicity efforts. We need to work better with the pros to help support and benefit them and the AGA. We have more pros in the USA now, which I think makes this a possible goal. "I would like to see us focus on clubs, kids, and growth. An important tool for this is paying more attention to our internet presence. The AGA site should be a portal to the world of go, a one-stop shopping place for information about go. We should have an AGA server for all members, and use it to promote our pros, provide instant ratings information, conduct on-line tournaments, and much much more. Commenting on the E-Journal's role in the go community, Abramson says "The E-Journal is fabulous, combining news of the international scene with advertising for tournaments all over, musings on the world of go, a trading post, game reviews and book reviews. As it expands, the interest in it expands to a 'must read!' It has a bright future -- we need to keep adding to the E-Journal." - Interview by Joe Carl; edited by Chris Garlock RYSDAM WINS PHOTO CONTEST: Congratulations to David Rysdam, who was first out of the gate with pro Ishida Yoshio's nickname "The Computer" (for his legendary endgame skills) in last week's Photo Contest. Runners Up: S. G. Fawthrop, Roy Schmidt, Tak Cheng, Robert McGuigan, Yuan Zhou, Larry Russ and Steve Bretherick. Extra points to James Bonomo, who sent along a link to GoBase's interesting write-up on Ishida: http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Ishida%20Yoshio NEXT WEEK'S CONTEST: Best caption wins this week's contest: check out the photo at http://www.usgo.org and email us your caption suggestion at journal@usgo.org WORLD GO YAMASHITA HANGS IN FOR HALF-POINTER: In a game that could not have been closer, defending title holder Yamashita Keigo 9p narrowly defeated challenger Hane Naoki 9p by 0.5 points in the fourth game of the best of seven 28th Kisei title match. Yamashita played Black and won this game after 266 moves, bringing the overall score to 3:1 in favor of Hane. Yamashita will have to win all of the next three games to successfully defend his title. Game records for Game Four can be found at www.go4go.net. - reported by Dennis Hardman JP MORGAN CHASE TO SPONSOR MAJOR GO TOURNAMENT: As reported at www.gogameworld.com, American financial company JP Morgan Chase & Co. will sponsor the 1st JP Morgan Chase Cup World Go Championship starting in September in Taipei, China. The first two rounds will be held on September 14th through the 19th, and the semi final and final rounds will take place in December. This invitational event pits 16 players against each other in a single elimination format that allows 3 hours each side and a 6.5 point komi. Players include 3 each from China, Japan, and Korea, 5 from Taipei China, and 2 special guests, all vying for 2 million Taiwan dollars (about $60,000 US). The special guests for this year have already been announced -- Honinbo Cho U 9p and Pak Chi eun 4p (winner of the 2nd Jeongganjang Cup Women's Go Championship) but next year they will be replaced with this year's champion and runner up. - reported by Dennis Hardman CH'ANG HO ONE CLOSER TO 9TH KUKSU TITLE: Korean go great Yi (Lee) Ch'ang ho 9p, current Kuksu and Kiseong title holder, decisively won Game Three of the best of five 47th Kuksu by 9.5 points against rising star Ch'oe Ch'eol han 6p. This relatively bloody battle (25 prisoners taken by Yi and 16 by Ch'oe) ended after 285 moves, putting the overall standing at 2:1 in favor of Ch'ang ho. If Ch'eol han, who is the current Chunwon title holder, can battle back in the next two games, he will prevent Ch'ang ho from winning his fourth Kuksu in a row and his ninth overall. The Kuksu has been dominated by Ch'ang ho over the last decade. Game records can be found at www.go4go.net. - reported by Dennis Hardman CHO'E CAN'T GET ENOUGH: In a game that left nearly half the board empty (only 131 moves!), Ch'oe Ch'eol han 6p defeated Yu Chae hyeong 6p in game three of the best of three 15th Kiseong challenger decision match to advance to the Kiseong title match against, you guessed it, Yi (Lee) Ch'ang ho. The first game of the title match was scheduled for February 27th. The Kiseong is sponsored by Korea's World Daily News / Hyundae Motors. Cho'e is now the number one Korean go professional according to gobase.com. - reported by Dennis Hardman SERVER V. SERVER IN KGS-DASHN FRIENDSHIP MATCH: KGS played a friendship match with the DASHN go server on February 29. Up to 100 games with up to 100 people from each server were set to be played, with half of the games played on each server. The match was refereed by Alexandre Dinerstein 1p. http://breakfast.go4go.net/?id=8 for more information OTHER ASIAN GO NEWS IN BRIEF (compiled from igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp/news.html) - Japan: 30th Tengen sen (challenger tournament) -- Kim Shuhshun 7d defeats O Rissei to advance to 2nd round. Michael Redmond loses to Komatsu Hideki 9d in 1st round play. - China: 4th Ricoh Cup -- Liu Xing 6d, Wang Yao 5d, Chang Hao 9d, Hu Yaoyu 7d all advance to the third round and make up the final four. - Taiwan: 3rd New Star Match -- Lin Zhihan 5d wins first game of best of three championship match against Xia Daming 2d. - Korea: 5th Maxim Cup -- Yoo Changhyuk defeats Im Sungeung 9d to go to semi finals. Rui Naiwei 9d has survived to the 3rd round and was set to play Cho Daeyun 9d on February 26 to see who plays Yoo. - Japan: 51st NHK Cup -- Cho Chikun 9d defeats Yamada Kimio 8d to advance to quarter finals. - reported by Dennis Hardman GAME COMMENTARY: Oza Challenger's Match Today's game commentary is on the third round (semi-finals) game in the challenger's match of the 51st Oza tournament in Japan, in which Cho U 9p defeats Yamashiro Hiroshi 9p. Cho went on to win the challenger's match and to take the Oza title from O Meien, adding it to his Honinbo title. The game was played on August 14, 2003. The commentary, which is by various pros, is taken by permission from www.gogameworld.com, a subscription service that provides commented pro games along with other useful features, such as brief biographies and pictures of virtually all pro players, many of which are available without subscription. In today's bonus file, Nakayama Noriyuki takes a look at improper moves that look like joseki and shows how to take advantage of them. The feature, "What's Wrong With That Move?" originally ran in the American Go Journal. 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 BEGINNER'S MIND By Aria von Elbe Geometry, Computer Science, Biology, Spanish, English, US History: my school courses, and this week, my exams. February is always the busiest month of the entire year, with exam review and the school musical making that a written-in-stone fact that's forced me to forego playing go for two long weeks. I swear, if Diet Coke isn't the death of me ("It causes cancer!" according to my friends), then school definitely will be. It seems like my teachers have only just realized that we have exams at the end of every trimester and decided to subject us to test upon test and assignment upon assignment to prove it. Tie that in with musical practice which made me miss classes for an entire week and I'm officially going to die during exams. But between Internet go and my school's "laptops for all" policy you'd think I'd at least have some time to play those people I meet in Seattle. Think again. But I haven't let the enforced layoff get me down. I've still had some time to go online and review the latest game from the Kisei or review a few problems here and there. And it's not like I've just let my club sit in limbo. The Constitution and Petition have been handed in: 23 (!) people in all, and they weren't forced to join (though I did start to think about it) and they all know go! I'll even have enough supplies, thanks to the AGA and a certain kind soul. School club and Miami Club, music and exams. I just keep telling myself "only 3 more months", and then I'll be able to finally sit down and study a subject I really care about. -15-year-old Aria von Elbe is a 10th-grader in Miami, Florida. GO REVIEW: Go++ and Many Faces of Go Reviewed by David Mechner, 7d Go programs have improved slowly but steadily in the last several years. I recently played two of the leading programs, Go++ and Many Faces of Go (version 11) to catch up with the state of the art. Go++, by Mick Reiss, offers 5 levels of strength, and handicaps through 9 stones. As a former go programmer myself, I love being able to look at the computer's view of the world -- what it thinks is alive, dead, weak, strong, territory, and so forth. The lack of these features was a little disappointing for me. Go++'s interface is somewhat spartan, but what it lacks in features, it makes up for in raw strength. The first time I played it at 13 stones [Calibration note: I handicap as a US 7d], it kept tenuki-ing, and I was wrapping up large scale captures of stones it had abandoned, smugly thinking how at least I'd commend it for taking the initiative. But interspersed with what seemed to be dazed capering and wild swings were some devastating K.O. punches. Suddenly, I noticed I was in trouble. Go++ actually killed a huge group of mine. That is a rare experience in a high handicap game, especially against a computer. I estimate Go++'s strength at a solid 7 or 8 kyu. Many Faces of Go, by David Fotland, has a richer set of features. It has a more attractively rendered board, it will display its view of group strength and territory, has an on-line tutorial, and even provides hints and explanations for its moves, which may be particularly useful for learners. For all this refinement, and its price tag at more than double that of Go++, MFOG is not quite as strong as Go++, perhaps 8 or 9 kyu. These programs are fun to play, and would make great opponents for kyu players. I recommend them both. Go++ costs $39.95 and is available from http://www.goplusplus.com/, and Many Faces of Go costs $89.95, and is available from http://www.smart-games.com/retail.html. GO CLASSIFIED AVAILABLE: Cornel Burzo, a top European 6dan player is now teaching online on IGS. For details check out http://www.golessons.com or contact him via email at cornelburzo@yahoo.com (3/1) WANTED: Go players in the Warren/Detroit area of Michigan. Contact jkolasa@ameritech.net (3/1) WANTED: Go players in the Ventura County, California area (Ventura/Oxnard/Camario/Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village/Port Hueneme/etc.) Contact David Whiteside at dewhiteside@earthlink.net (2/23) WANTED: Looking for old go trash; old boards, game records, broken equipment, books (any language), newspapers, magazines. If you have anything to sell or give up to a youth player striving to learn more, email samuraipanda5@hotmail.com (2/23) WANTED: Looking for a portable Go set; email Snyder4410@hotamil.com (2/23) WANTED: Go Reviews; older complete years, 60's & 70's. Send info on condition and price to flynp1@comcast.net (2/23) WANTED: 1993 Ranka Year Book. Contact Clay@Smith.name (2/23) WANTED: Go players in Raleigh, NC. The Wolf Go Club is a new registered student organization at NC State University and part of the Triangle Go Group. We meet Thursday nights in the Talley Student Center and welcome both students and non students to join us. For more information contact laroyce@ncsu.edu (2/23) AVAILABLE: Anyone is interested in lessons with an igs 5dan, contact icarii@zoominternet.net to schedule a free evaluation lesson, (2/23) 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) 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! Listing are free and run 4 weeks; send to us at journal@usgo.org CALENDAR OF EVENTS March 5: Bethesda, MD Yuan Zhou 7d Teaching Session 8:30P, Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda. Bring game records to participate ($5), or observe for free. Don't have a game?- Come early (official opening time 7:00) to play and record a game. Haskell Small haskellsmall@starpower.net March 7: Sunnyvale, CA 8th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament Mingjiu Jiang 650-969-2857 mingjiuj@hotmail.com March 13: Chicago, IL Learn the Jack Benny Bob Barber 773-467-0423 komoku@earthlink.net March 27: Denver, CO Rocky Mountain Spring Go Tournament Eric Wainwright 303-626-0103 ewainwright@crystalball.com April 3: Raleigh, NC The Spring Fuseki Tournament Troy Hurteau 919-515-3318 jthurtea@unity.ncsu.edu http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/jthurtea/springtournament/ April 10 & 11: San Francisco, CA San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament Steve Burrall 916-688-2858 sburrall@comcast.net (away 2/19-3/1; please be patient for reply) April 17 & 18: Toronto, ON, CANADA Victoria Education Centre Toronto Open Frank Monks 416-591-6414 pmonks@look.ca http://www.go-canada.org/ April 17 & 18: College Park, MD 2004 John Groesch Memorial Tournament Steve Mount 301-405-6934 smount@umd.edu April 24: Middlebury, VT Spring Tournament Peter Schumer 802-388-3934 schumer@middlebury.edu 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/2004/2004-03-01.txt The 2004 index page is at http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/2004/