AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association January 13, 2003 In This Edition: CALENDAR OF EVENTS SCOREBOARD: Piscataway, NJ YOUR MOVE, Readers Write: The Big Switch; Credit Where It's Due GAME COMMENTARY: Fujitsu Redux GO NEWS: 6th Annual Kid's Summer Go Camp; International Go Players Meetup Day; Go Software Upgrades X2 GO CLUBS: Capitol Hill, Washington, DC WORLD GO: China GO ONLINE: The Magic Of Ko MY CORNER: Notes from the President GO CLASSIFIED AGA CONTACT LIST CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.) January 18: Baltimore, MD Fujitsu Finals & Amateur Tournament Keith Arnold 410-788-3520 hlime@earthlink.net January 18-20: Evanston, IL 4th Annual Winter Workshop with Guo Juan 5P Mark Rubenstein 847-869-6020 mark@easyaspi.com January 19: Boston, MA MGA Winter Handicap Tournament Don Wiener 617-734-6316 donwiener@earthlink.net NOTE: this listing is not all-inclusive, featuring only upcoming tournaments in the next month or events which require early registration. For a complete U.S. listings, go to http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.html For the European Go Calendar see http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/go/tourn.html SCOREBOARD: Piscataway, NJ January 11: Piscataway, NJ Feng Yun Go Tournament 62 Players (27 dan players, 35 kyu players) Sponsor: Ing Foundation Organizer: Feng Yun Assistant Organizer: Larry Rusche Director: Chuck Robbins Assistant Director: Robert Muldowney Open Section (10 players): 1st: HUANG, KE 7d; 2nd: GUAN, Mozheng, 7d; 3rd: ZHOU, Yansong 6d Dan Division: 1?6d (17 players): 1st: CHEN, Wei 1d; 2nd: CHEN, Zhaonian 4d; 3rd: LIU, Andy 4d. Upper Kyu Division: 1-6k (21 players): 1st ZHANG, Yinghe 3k; 2nd: CHEN, Yu 4k; 3rd: PALMER, Marc 1k. Lower Kyu Division: 7-22k (14 players): 1st: SIMMONS, Joshua 16k; 2nd: ROSENBLATT, Gregory 20; 3rd: MCCOWAN, Ian 7k. January 11: Piscataway, NJ Feng Yun Youth Tournament 42 players; ranging from 5 to 15 years old. Sponsor: Ing Foundation Organizer: Feng Yun Assistant Organizer: Larry Rusche Director: Chuck Robbins Assistant Director: Robert Muldowney 19x19 Older Group (12 players): 1st: GU, Jason 15k; 2nd: LIN, Ken 20k; 3rd: HSU,Eric 20 19x19 Younger Group (17 players): 1st: SHANG, Kevin 20; 2nd: YAN, Jasmine 20k; 3rd: DAI, Anna 20k 13x13 Older Group (8 players): 1st: ZHONG, Peter 25k; 2nd: HSU, Sophia 25k; 3rd: AN, Terrence 25 13x13 Younger Group (12 players); 1st: XU, Yang 25k; 2nd: SHANG, Andrew 25k; 3rd: ZHAO, Bonng 25k. YOUR MOVE: Readers Write The Big Switch "Within the last week I finally joined the AGA (yeah!) after receiving the free E-Journal for some time now," writes Dave Aronhalt and other new members. "Unfortunately, now I seem to be getting both a copy the free version and the 'games' version. My question is how to get rid of the free subscription without affecting the other one (or any other member-related mailings for that matter)." Just unsubscribe the free version via the link/instructions at the bottom of the E-Journal; we'll keep sending you the Member's Edition with attached games. And welcome to the AGA! Credit Where It's Due "As one of those responsible for the English adaptation of the Hikaru no Go manga," writes AGA member Mike Kiefl, "it gave me great pleasure to see the E-Journal conversations on Hikaru no Go replicated in the print Fall 2002/Winter 2003 issue. I was blown out of the water, however, when I saw my site, Toriyama's World, www.toriyamaworld.com mentioned. While honored by the mention, I was dismayed to see that the original authors, writer Hotta Yumi and artist Obata Takeshi were not mentioned at all. It is typical in America for the animated adaptation of a series from Japan to receive more notice than its original manga (comic) version, but in the future I would like to see the original version and authors given more credit for their achievements." GAME COMMENTARY: Fujitsu Redux With the U.S. Fujitsu playoffs set for this weekend in Baltimore, Guo Juan takes a look at a recent game from the European Fujitsu in today's timely commentary in which Romania's Catalin Taranu, 5P takes on Russia's Svetlana Shikshina, 1P. Also included this week is the answer to last week's brain-bending 2003 life and death problem by tsume-go master Yi-lun Yang. We're very pleased and proud to announce that Mr. Yang's popular problems will become a monthly feature in the E-Journal this year, with three brand-new problems each month, ranging in difficulty from beginner to intermediate and advanced. To view the attached files ( 2003.01.13 Taranu-Shikshina, Guo Juan.sgf & 2003.01.13 YangProblemSOLUTION.sgf ) , simply save them to your computer and then open them using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html GO NEWS 6th Annual Kid's Summer Go Camp Kids can register now for the world's only summer go camp! For the last five summers, dozens of youngsters age 8 through 18 have met for a week to study go, explore and have fun with their go playing friends from all over the USA and abroad, The AGA Summer Go Camp encourages go clubs, organizations, and parents to send kids to the Summer Go Camp this year in Oakland, California, June 28 through July 5 at beautiful Mills College. Everything is organized to the last detail, from pickup at the airport to send-off for the home-bound flight. Download the registration forms at http://www.usgo.org/gocamp/index.html or contact us at: AGA Go Camp, Attn: James Chien, 12 Sutter Creek Lane, Mountain View, CA 94043; 415-860-3926; AGAGoCamp@yahoo.com International Go Players Meetup Day An International Go Players Meetup Day has been scheduled for the second Saturday of each month. This is a chance for go players worldwide to meet each other locally to talk about the game, teach, and organize games. Meetup creates real-world group gatherings about anything anywhere, using technology and a network of venues (cafes, bars, etc.) that can help any interest group easily organize local monthly Meetups in over 530 cities across 27 countries. Check out details of the upcoming Meetups at http://go.meetup.com/ Go Software Upgrades X2 SmartGo 1.1.1 SmartGo 1.1.1 has just been released, with two new features: Open Folder allows you to open all the SGF files in a whole folder with a single command. You can then apply SmartGo's powerful search or diagram features to that collection of games. Or use it to reduce SGF file clutter. And if 19x19 isn't big enough for your fuseki, you can also now play on a large scale: SmartGo:Board now allows board sizes up to 29x29! The upgrade is free to registered users. SmartGo:Player (the full version) is available for $59; SmartGo:Board (without computer play) is $29. Check http://www.smartgo.com web site for details. MasterGo 2.2 The latest release of MasterGo has 16,068 games by 993 professional players. MasterGo 2.2 also fixes a number of bugs and adds new features, including the ability to import SGF files by dragging and dropping the files onto either the board window or game list window. Users can now start MasterGo with a specific game collection by dragging and dropping the MGD file onto the MasterGo Executable or the short cut to MasterGo. Upgrade, order or download a free trial version at http://MasterGo.com GO CLUBS: Capitol Hill, Washington, DC The proposed Capitol Hill Go Club will be holding an organizing meeting on Feb. 22 at the Northeast Branch Public Library (corner of Maryland and 7th) at 3P. At that meeting a more permanent day and time of the week for meetings will be set. Info: Bob Lindsey, 202-543-8752 NOTE TO CLUB ORGANIZERS: This space is available for YOUR club announcements and news! Spread the word to over 5,000 go players worldwide about what your club is up to! Email us at journal@usgo.org WORLD GO: China The 1st World Student Oza wrapped up January 8 and featured sixteen players from around the world, including Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Europe, North America, South and Central America and Thailand. Chinese players took 1st and 2nd places. USA representative Jie Li finished 11th. Final standings: 1: Ye Lingyun (China); 2: Zhu Daming (China); 3: Kang Na Yeon (Korea, female); 4: Asa Takumi (Japan); 5: Shin Yi Cheng (Taiwan); 6: Csaba Mero (Hungary); 7: Son Chang Ho (Korea); 8: Liu Yao Wen (Taiwan); 9: Ishii Akane (Japan, female); 10: Nagao Kentaro (Japan); 11: Li Jie (USA); 12: Dong Qin (China, female); 13: Diana Kosgezi (Hungary, female); 14: Andrey Kulkov (Russia); 15: Nitipone Aroonphaichitra (Thailand); 16: Santiago Laplagne (Argentina). U.S. representative Jie Li went 2-2 in the Student Oza: Round 1: Jie Li (B) d. Nitipone Aroonphaichitra (Thailand); Round 2: Son Chang Ho (Korea) (B) d. Jie Li; Round 3: Ishii Akane (Japan) (B) d. Jie Li; Round 4: Jie Li (W) d. Diana Kosgezi (Hungary). In other news, Zhou Heyang 9p is the challenger for the 15th Mingren title, defeating Yu Bin 9p 2-0 in the best-of-three challenger decision match. The current title holder is Ma Xiaochun 9p, who has held this title for 13 consecutive years. As this is Ma's only remaining title, and with no titles for #2-ranked Zhou at this point, this match has assumed major importance for both players. - Reported by Yuan Zhou GO ONLINE: The Magic Of Ko By Roy Laird, AGA Webmaster The "ko" rule, which ensures a result in nearly every game by avoiding endlessly repetitive situations on the board, leads to situations of fascinating complexity: double and triple kos, multi-stage and multi-step kos, "hot" and "cold" kos, flower-viewing kos, thousand-year kos, "super-ko" and thousands of other peculiar positions, including the mind-bending "molasses ko." In truth, few if any of us truly understand the depth of those complications. Ko fights often decide games, especially if one player is afraid. Life and death problems often center on the question of finding, or avoiding, ko. Ko is the only rule to be the subject of an entire book (Fighting Ko by Jin Jiang, available from Yutopian Enterprises.) Nonetheless, we were surprised to discover dozens of web pages devoted exclusively to this topic. We were looking at Rob Van Ziejst's wonderful column, "The Magic of Go," which appears in the online English language Yomiuri newspaper. A discussion of pon-nuki, the four-leaf-clover shape that captures a stone, gradually evolved into a discussion of ko, which is created when two ponnukis of opposing colors overlap. Column #192 at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/igo_e/ is a good place to jump in. Better yet, go back and read all 192 in order. They're great, especially for new players. Sensei's Library, a set of user-maintained pages, contains two separate collections of pages on the subject. Learn the basics at http://senseis.xmp.net/?KoFighting, then move on to "The Second Course of Ko" at http://senseis.xmp.net/?SecondCourseOnKo. where you can learn about such arcane subjects as "Moonshine Life," the earliest known rules dispute, which arose during a game played in Japan in the 13th century. We thought we had completely exhausted the subject, until we discovered a series of ten lengthy essays by Britis author Charles Matthews at http://gobase.org/studying/articles/matthews/ko/. Here you can learn even more about how to calculate the value of a ko fight, how and when to start a fight, how to understand "bulge ko" and "apex ko", how to block with implied ko, how to take a ko's "temperature," and other subjects. Sensei's Library (above) also contains a number of "party-trick" positions, more perplexing than plausible setups such as "Molasses Ko" and "Pinwheel Ko". If these entertainment's strike your fancy, you won't want to miss Harry Fearnley's "Bestiary" at http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/go/bestiary/zippersetc.html. You may never see a "zipper", a "loop" or a "train" in a real game, but they're fun in their own way. You'll also want to check out Matthew Macfadyen's collection at http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/go/bestiary/molasses_ko.html Animated versions of some of these positions can be viewed at http://www.britgo.org/rules/molasses.html and http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/achim/goloopy.html For a different perspective, check out Robert Jasiek's extensive discussion of the subject at http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/korules.html. Jasiek is particularly interested in classifying and comparing various rule sets according to their handling of ko, a subject he discusses thoroughly at http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/koclass.html. It seems that ko, like go itself, is so vast as to defy complete description. MY CORNER: Notes from the President by Chris Kirscher In this column, I'll keep you aware of the national organizing activity by the American Go Association, with the goal of increasing member interest and participation in the AGA. First, my deepest thanks go to outgoing President Roy Laird for facilitating an incredibly smooth transition. Roy not only left the house in good order, but he's provided terrific guidance in understanding how things work. And even though he's now served the AGA in one capacity or another for over 20 years, Roy will continue to serve, now as AGA webmaster as well as being available for background information and advice when needed. I will be continuously grateful and the AGA is forever in his debt. One of the first acts of the new AGA Board of Directors was to propose our very first organization chart, which is posted at www.usgo.org on the "About the AGA" page. What's notable about the chart is that it recognizes that the workload of organizing and coordinating a national go organization requires a lot more people than are currently active national level organizers. Thus, recruiting has become a major activity and I'm pleased to report that we are making good progress finding people to tackle the work. While it's very gratifying to see new blood coming in, we need still more. If you think you might have something to contribute to spreading go in the United States, please contact Terry Assael, our new HR and Recruiting volunteer, at hrandrecruiting@usgo.org to explore the possibilities. GO CLASSIFIED WANTED: Looking for step-by-step directions on how to equip a Palm Pilot to record (and hopefully improve!) my go games. marcwillhite@hotmail.com FOR SALE: Sets of old "Go World" magazines: 1-48 and 1-15; 17-25; 50-56 and individual copies #22, #40, #43, and #51. Check them out at http://www.eskimo.com/~dobe/Dobe_ForSale_GO_Worlds01.htm Or email dobe.doinat@verizon.net FOR SALE: Refrigerator Go sets for displaying (or playing) the game on the large laminated board attached to the metallic surface (for example, a refrigerator - see http://www.promptpublishing.com); $45 from Michal Lebl, storyspyder@aol.com FOR SALE: Go boards made of 2.5" mahogany or pine, about 17X19", with 19X19 grid (cut with small saw, not drawn) and a 9X9 or 13X13 grid on the back. Sanded and waxed, without feet. $260 ea or $170 ea for 10 or more. Jim Thomas; waldomesa@cybermesa.com WANTED: Copy of the go novel "First Kyu." Mark Lybrand; maryesme@shore.net WANTED: MasterGo Team volunteer to enter data into a player biography database. No pay but get your name on the MasterGo website and, possibly, get a free copy of the program. Charles G. Robbins, crobbins@ctipc.com WANTED: "All About Life and Death, Volume 1," by Cho Chikun; "The Breakthrough to Shodan," by Naoki Miyamoto. John Pinkerton, john.pinkerton@watsonwyatt.com WANTED: Issues of 'Go World' from the past couple of years. Prefer someone who has several issues to offer. sfragman@netvision.net.il Got Go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach more than 5,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 5,000 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: President: Chris Kirschner: president@usgo.org Secretary Susan Weir: Secretary@usgo.org Treasurer Ben Bernstein: Treasurer@usgo.org VP - Communications: Chris Garlock Journal@usgo.org Archivist Craig Hutchinson: Archives@usgo.org Chapter Management: Paul Celmer chapterservices@usgo.org Nicole Casanta: Chapters@usgo.org Community Outreach: John Goon Outreach@usgo.org Congress Liaison: Judy Debel Congress@usgo.org Education Coordinator: Lee Ann Bowie Education@usgo.org Equipment Distribution: Paul Celmer Equipment@usgo.org HR & Recruitment: Terry Assael Hr@usgo.org Membership Services: John Goon membership@usgo.org Policy & Governance: Keith Arnold Governance@usgo.org Professional Players' Representative: Zhu-jiu (Jujo) Jiang Professionals@usgo.org Ranking Issues: Jeff Shaevel Rank@usgo.org Ratings Coordinator: Paul Matthews Ratings@usgo.org Tournament Coordinator: Chuck Robbins Tournaments@usgo.org Tournament Regulations: Duane Burns Regulations@usgo.org Webmaster: Roy Laird: webmaster@usgo.org Youth Coordinator: Noné Redmond youth@usgo.org American Go Foundation: Terry Benson terrybenson@nyc.rr.com Database Manager: Sam Zimmerman database@usgo.org AGA Board of Directors Dave Weimer (Chair): Shusaku@charter.net Chen-dao Lin: cdlin5@yahoo.com John Stephenson: Jcs@wingsgoclub.org David Dinhofer: David.dinhofer@alum.mit.edu Harold Lloyd: Hlloyd@core.com Bob O'Malley: Omalley@OCE.ORST.EDU Jon Boley: Jon@airsltd.com Published by the American Go Association Material published in " AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL" may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. 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 email: journal@usgo.org Voice: 202-857-3410 Fax: 202-857-3420