AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association July 26, 2004 In This Edition: [U.S. GO NEWS]: 6 DAYS TO GO; YOUTH VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT; WRONG LOSS [WORLD GO NEWS]: BATTLE OF THE LEES EVENS UP; 48TH KUKSU BEGINS; IMAI ELECTED PRESIDENT OF NIHON KIIN; HONINBO PRELIMINARY ROUNDS CONTINUE; JONES WINS IN LETCHWORTH [YOUR MOVE]: Readers Write [GAME COMMENTARY]: Cho Flares Up [GO REVIEW]: Learning from the Stones [GO CLASSIFIED] [CALENDAR OF EVENTS] ATTACHED FILES: 2004.07.26 Go World 94 Commentary.sgf; 2004.07.26.KazLesson 18 [U.S. GO NEWS] 6 DAYS TO GO: With just six days to go, the 2004 U.S. Go Congress is shaping up to set all kinds of records. As of press-time, 419 registrants have signed up, including 164 first-time Congress-goers and 80 youngsters (see story below) as well as 15 professionals and the strongest playing field of the year (click on http://ssl8.pair.com/emptysky/attendees.php for a complete list). The Congress starts this Saturday, July 31 in Rochester, NY, and runs through the following Sunday, August 8. Major events include the six-round U.S. Open, the Self-Paired Handicap Tournament and the North American Ing Cup; also popular are the Lightning Tournament, Pair Go, and of course plenty of lectures and simuls given by visiting professional go players. Rochester has nearby scenic attractions for non-players, as well, and several trips are being organized for the traditional Day Off on Wednesday. There's still time to register: get info and register at http://www.usgo.org/congress/index.asp YOUTH VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT: More than 80 young go players are expected to participate in the Youth Room activities at the upcoming U.S. Go Congress, reports Youth Room Director Todd Heidenreich. "Volunteers are needed each day to help the Youth Room organizers run the tournaments and other activities. Players of all skill levels are welcome," says Heidenreich. "Volunteers will help the young players enhance their go playing skills while having fun at the same time." Each afternoon except Wednesday, from 1:30-5:30P, Youth Room activities include tournaments, problem solving, and team games. In addition, many of the professional players in attendance at the Congress will provide instruction and the opportunity to play in simultaneous games. To volunteer, call Todd 301-922-7996 or email todd@heidenreich.name WRONG LOSS: Ted Ning’s only other loss in this year’s World Amateur Go Championships was to the Canadian player, Xianyu Li, in the 3rd round, not to Laurent Heiser of Luxembourg, as we reported last week (Experience v. Youth Yields A Half-Pointer). [WORLD GO NEWS] BATTLE OF THE LEES EVENS UP: Lee Changho, Wangwi title holder, defeated challenger Lee Sedol 9p by resignation after 184 moves to even up their battle for the 38th Wangwi in Korea at 1 and 1. Sedol won the first game by 3.5 points. The third game of this five game match is scheduled for July 26th. Game records can be found at 48TH KUKSU BEGINS: The first round of the Kuksu, the oldest Korean pro tournament, has been completed. The four winners are Lee Changho 9p, Won Seungjun 5p, Yoo Changhyuk 9p, who defeated Jiang Shujiu (Jujo) 9p, and Yun Junsang 2p, winner over Cho Hunhyun 9p. Game records can be seen at . In the losers bracket, Jujo will next play Yun Seungjun and Cho will play Yun Seonghyeon. In the winners bracket, Lee faces Won and Yoo plays Yun Junsang. This is the title which Rui Naiwei 9p won in 2000, becoming the first woman pro to win an open tournament. IMAI ELECTED PRESIDENT OF NIHON KIIN: Imai Takashi, a member of the Board of Directors of the Nihon Kiin, has been elected President, reports John Powers on the home page of the Nihon Kiin. Imai will be the eighth president of the Nihon Kiin, taking the position left vacant since Asada Shizuo died. Imai is a prominent figure in Japan, the president of New Japan Steel and of the powerful Federation of Economic Organizations. He has been on the Board of Directors of the Nihon Kiin since 2000. HONINBO PRELIMINARY ROUNDS CONTINUE: So Yohkoku 7p, who defeated Michael Redmond 9p in an earlier round of the Honinbo preliminary rounds in Japan, has defeated Yamashita Keigo 9p to move up another step toward joining the final league to determine the challenger against current title holder Cho U 9p. The four preliminary rounds of nine players each are just reaching their final matches. Other players in the finals at this stage are Kobayashi Koichi 9p, who will play Han Zenki 6p, Ueki Yoshio 8p, playing Takao Shinji 8p, and O Meien 9p, playing Ohtake Hideo 9p. So will play Kohno Rin 7p. The winners of these matches will join Yoda Norimoto 9p, Mimura Tomoyasu 9p, O Rissei 9p, and Cho Sonjin 9p in the final challenger's league of eight players. JONES WINS IN LETCHWORTH: Andrew Jones 3d of Wanstead was the winner of the third Letchworth tournament in Great Britain. There were 39 participants. Jones defeated Young Kim 5d of London in the last round to win the tournament. Matthew Reid 1k of Cambridge also had three wins. The continuous 9x9 was won by William Brooks 1k of Cambridge; Phil Beck 1d of Cambridge was runner up. - reported by BGA News [YOUR MOVE]: Readers Write “How and where can people become pro go players; is there anywhere in the U.S. to take the test?” asks Paul Swanson. Currently, official professional credentials can only be obtained from one of the Asian professional organizations in Korea, China, Japan, or Taiwan. Several Westerners have received pro status from the Nihon Kiin in Japan and from the Korean Go Association. This normally requires spending a significant amount of time in professional training in those countries. Hopefully, the American Professional Go Association will begin awarding pro status before too long, but at this time there is no way to become a pro in the US. [GAME COMMENTARY]: Cho Flares Up "A candle light flashes up before vanishing,” Cho Hun-hyeon, 9P told reporters when they asked his secret for staying at the top for so long. Players usually start to get weaker after the age of 40 and Cho was born in 1953, but at the time of today’s 2001 game, he was maintaining a high winning percentage against the fearsome Korean youngsters. Unlike a candle, however, Cho said “I'd like to prolong that flash" and his brilliance is on full display in this game, Round 2 of the 6th Samsung Cup Finals, as Cho takes on Chang Hao, 9P. Today’s game commentary is from Go World #94 (Spring 2002) and is used by permission. Go World is the English language quarterly go magazine published by Kiseido: http://www.kiseido.com. It contains world pro news, pro game commentaries, and instructional materials. There were big expectations for the young Korean players in that year's Samsung Cup. An Tal-hun 4p and Pak Cheong-sang 2p did especially well, but both were eventually eliminated in the quarterfinals. So it was back to business as usual in the semifinals, with Cho Hun-hyeon playing Ma Xiaochun and Chang Hao facing his nemesis Lee Changho. In the "senior's section", Cho beat Ma two games straight, but the surprise came in the showdown between the two younger players. Contrary to all expectations, Chang Hao, who, up to this tournament, trailed far behind Lee by 2-14 in individual encounters, was finally able to demonstrate his real power and beat Lee Changho 2-1. So the final came down to a "match between two generations", Cho Hun-hyeon, the teacher of Lee Changho, and Chang Hao, Ma Xiaochun's successor as China's number one player. This week's bonus file is the latest lesson from Kaz Furuyama. To view the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open 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 To receive the game commentaries each week, join the AGA at http://www.usgo.org [GO REVIEW]: Learning from the Stones by Dr. David Lai Reviewed by Roy Laird According to an old Chinese proverb, "Stones from other hills can help us polish the jade on this one." I came across this proverb while reading "Learning from the Stones," by Dr. David Lai, a professor at the US Military College in Carlisle. (Go to http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ssi/pdffiles/00368.pdf to view or download Dr. Lai's article.) If the proverb is true, then we can use books and articles from other fields to enrich our understanding, and help our non-playing friends and acquaintances see the beauty of the game. Occasionally, they may even help us to better understand the world through our understanding of go. Dr. Lai's article, published by the Army's Strategic Studies Institute, is such a piece of writing. The Western way of war and diplomacy, according to Dr. Lai, contains elements that reflect four common American pastimes -- football, boxing, poker, and chess. The NFL has failed to find a worldwide audience for American football, despite many attempts, because of the popularity of the game known in the rest of the world as "football" -- soccer, which "relies on skills and maneuvers than that force on force play. . . . Soccer is a paradigm of Sun Tzu's way of war. It does not seek annihilation of the opponent." The author finds a similar contrast between boxing, viewed by many around the world as a cockfight-like aberration, and tai chi. "Boxers meet incoming punches with punches. . . . Tai chi practitioners . . . deflect incoming hits and then return with a seemingly soft but powerful push. Tai chi is perhaps the best example of the Chinese philosophy of yi-rou-ke-gang (use the soft and gentle to overcome the hard and strong)." Poker has no obvious Asian counterpart, but Dr. Lai finds key elements of poker thinking in American foreign strategy. "Poker players have no control over what appears in their hands. Risk-taking and bluffing therefore are the best strategies. . . . Typical manifestations of poker-type foreign policy are threats and ultimatums." Like most attempts to describe go by comparison to the familiar, Dr. Lai's most extended comparison is with chess, illustrating the fundamental difference with examples from foreign policy. He finds that South Korea takes a go-like yosu-miru, or probing, approach to North Korea with its "Sunshine" policy, while the US is all saber-rattling and dire threats. But I leave it to you to discover other interesting tidbits. For those who enjoy "go-as-it-applies-to-life" thinking, it's an interesting read, with a few valuable stones to add to our bowls of wisdom. [GO CLASSIFIED] RIDER(S) WANTED Driving to the Go Congress from Washington, DC and have 2 comfortable seats available to share. Leaving DC the morning of Saturday, July 31, and departing Rochester the morning of Sunday, August 8. Only 2 seats available. CALL NOW! Mike Lash; 703-850-6270 or mhl13@aol.com (7/19) RIDE WANTED: Young Congress attendee looking for a ride from Maine or Boston area; willing to help pay for gas and tolls. Please email jaymefosa@yahoo.com (7/12) BOOKS, EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, ETC: WANTED: Copy of Handicap Go, the seventh, out-of-print book of the Elementary Go Series. Willing to pay reasonable price; please contact hilarne@netscape.net WANTED: Go Reviews and old go books: looking for issues of Go Review, primarily the first year; AGA Journals before Vol. 9; Ishi press #9, first ed. of #4, paperback 1st pr. of #5; copy with dust jacket [or even jacket only] of pecorini & shu's Game of Wei-Chi; de havilland's go book; any other long out of print books. I'm also always and primarily interested in out of print or hard to find fiction mentioning the game of go [esp. a British paperback or Canadian copy of Marriage of the Living Dark by David Wingrove]. I also buy foreign translations of any English go books, or foreign originals from which the English books were translated. chiwito@alamedanet.net (7/12) WANTED: A version of "How To Play Go" specifically designed for American fans of Hikaru No Go manga and anime. We're doing a fan con in August and need a tailored and canned prezo to fill half of a one-hour slot. dbogie@idahopower.com (6/22) WANTED : Looking for a copy of "The Breakthrough to Shodan", by Naoki Miyamoto. Please contact Maurice at maurice033@hotmail.com (6/7) TEACHERS & STUDENTS: AVAILABLE: Lessons online with Cornel Burzo, 7d AGA, 6d EGF and IGS 6d*, for details http://www.golessons.com (6/21) WANTED: Go teacher. Prefer in person in NYC area, will consider online. Currently 9 kyu on KGS. Please contact rberger6@nyc.rr.com with rates and experience. (6/7) GO PLAYERS WANTED: FL: Jacksonville; Gohan6412000@yahoo.com (6/14) FL: Jacksonville; regular, live game sessions. Contact BjornTFoss@comcast.net (5/31) GA: Augusta; for playing and possible chapter; email Wesley Stewart at ICANSEEYOU7687@comcast.net (5/31) IL: Downers Grove; 23k willing to play with anyone who wants a friendly game or will teach those in the area who want to learn. e-mail Kevin Steinbach at elpollomariachi@comcast.net (5/31) KS: Looking for players in Kansas (especially the Wichita area); contact Ted Dover at tsgtdover@carrollsweb.com (6/28) MA: North Shore (Hamilton); for playing and possible chapter. Email glen@organicdesign.org TX: Go club meeting at InfiniTea, located on the SW intersection of Coit and Cambell in Richardson, Wednesdays from 7P until midnight. If you have boards of your own, please bring them; any rank welcome. Jeff Heckman, acedetone@yahoo.com Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach over 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] August 1-7: Rochester, NY 20th US Go Congress Greg Lefler 585-278-0705 congress@usgo.org September 4 & 5: Toronto, CANADA Canadian Open Young Kim 416-846-3024 kim3024@rogers.com http://www.go-canada.org/ This is a digest of events for the next month only; for a complete listing see the Tournament Calendar on the AGA website: http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.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! 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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