AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go
Association
April 5, 2004
In This Edition:
U.S. GO NEWS: Go World Hits 100; Still Room At Yang
Hackensack Workshop; You Could Look It Up; February Board Minutes Posted;
Corrections; Bretherick Loses Games, Wins Contest
WORLD GO NEWS: Ch'ang Ho
Proves He’s The Best In The World (Again); Gu Li Defends Tianyuan With Straight
Wins; Naiwei Comes Back Strong To Win Maxim; 37th British Go Congress In Milton
Keynes; Other World Go News In Brief
CLOSE-UP: China
“B” Team Wins Upset in CSK Powerhouse
GAME
COMMENTARY: Steady Play, First Monday and Keeping Kaz Awake
THE TWO FUJISAWAS, PART 1
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
ATTACHED FILES: 2004.04.05
Yu-Kato, www.gogameworld.sgf;
2004.04.05 Yang April Beginner Problem.sgf; 2004.04.05 Yang April Intermediate
Problem.sgf; 2004.04.05 Yang April Advanced Problem.sgf; 2004.04.05
Furuyama--Tesuji 204-L10.pdf; 2004.04.05 Two Fujisawas, Mirror Go.sgf
U.S. GO NEWS
GO WORLD HITS 100: Go World, the
successor to Go Review started by Ishi Press and John Power in 1977 and
continued by Kiseido and Richard Bozulich has just published its 100th issue.
This special 100 page issue contains an extended commentary on all six games of
the recent Honinbo title match between Kato Masao and Cho U, as well as a report
on the game in which the teenage Cho Hye-yeon defeated Rui Naiwei for the
Women's Kuksu title. There's also an article on recent Korean joseki
innovations, and lots more, including a brand-new comprehensive searchable
online Go World Index at http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~kiseido/GWINDEX/gwi.html
STILL ROOM AT YANG HACKENSACK WORKSHOP: There’s still time to register
for the 2004 NJ Yang 7p Go Workshop, reports organizer John Stephenson. Set for
June 24-27 in Hackensack, New Jersey, the workshop features go author and
teacher Yilun Yang, who Stephenson says “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.” Find
out more and register at http://www.wingsgoclub.org/YangWorkshop2004.asp
YOU
COULD LOOK IT UP: What’s a two-letter word for a Japanese game for two, played
on a board ruled with 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines? You can look it up in
the College Edition of PocketLingo, a PDA dictionary available at http://www.pocketlingo.com/
- Phil Straus
FEBRUARY BOARD MINUTES POSTED: Readers who are
interested in AGA politics will want to check out
http://www.usgo.org/Board/ApprovedMinutes/index.asp,
where the minutes of the February 2004 Board meeting have just been posted.
Minutes are also available from the Board's other meetings since the new by laws
were implemented last year.
CORRECTIONS
* “’The Master of Go’ did not
with the Nobel Prize,” (Go Review, EJ 3/29/04) writes David Erbach, “because the
prize is not awarded for individual works. It's awarded for lifetime oeuvre.
‘Meijin’ is just one of Yasunari Kawabata's marvelous and evocative novels,
albeit the one best-known among go players. My personal favorite among the
others is ‘Snow Country,’ but they are all worth reading.”
* The Cherry
Blossom Section K winner (EJ, 3/29) was Jonathan Markowitz (not Markiwitz); we
regret the error.
BRETHERICK LOSES GAMES, WINS CONTEST: Steve Bretherick
correctly identified our homepage heroes as Roy Laird and Joe Carl, claiming
that “Roy's greatest achievement in American go was doubtless making off with a
corner's worth of my stones in round 2 of the 2004 NJ Open. Joe's major
contribution was to kill one of my big groups in Round 3. The white blur in the
corner of the photo is the back of my hunched up, tension gripped shoulder.”
Both are also E-Team members; Roy writes the Online Go column and serves as our
webmaster, while Joe’s one of our intrepid reporters.
THIS WEEK’S PHOTO
CONTEST: Speaking of the 2004 New Jersey Open, this week’s AGA Homepage photo of
a line-up of proud (and nervous?) go parents is just crying out for a clever
caption. Check it out at http://www.usgo.org/index.asp
and send us your best caption suggestion (one per person, please!) at
journal@usgo.org Winner gets the usual go vendor gift certificate and braggin’
rights.
WORLD GO
CH'ANG HO PROVES HE’S THE BEST IN THE WORLD
(AGAIN): On April 1st, defending champion Yi (Lee) Ch'ang ho 9p so thoroughly
dominated his opponent, Mok Chin seok 7p, in game four of the 8th LG Cup
championship match, that Mok resigned after only 107 moves, making the final
score in the best of five match 3:1 and giving Yi his fourth consecutive LG Cup
championship. One corner was completely empty except for Mok's white star point!
This is Yi's sixth LG Cup and his sixteenth international championship since
1992 when he won the 3rd Tongyang Cup. Even though Mok finishes in second place,
his performance in this and recent tournaments has allowed him to be promoted to
8p. This last game of the LG Cup was played on the Korean resort island Cheju
Do. Game records can be found at http://www.go4go.net.
- reported by Dennis Hardman
GU LI DEFENDS TIANYUAN WITH STRAIGHT
WINS: Chinese professional Gu Li 7p, defeated not quite 20 year old Xie He 5p by
3.5 points in game two of the 18th Tianyuan (Tengen) title match to win the
overall title with a score of 2:0. Li, who will represent China in most
international events this year, appears to be taking his place among other
Chinese go greats Nie Weiping, Ma Xiaochun, and Chang Hao who have all won the
Tianyuan multiple times. The Tianyuan is sponsored by the Xinmin Wanbao she
Newspaper, the China Go Association, and the magazine Xinmin Weiqi.
-
reported by Dennis Hardman
NAIWEI COMES BACK STRONG TO WIN MAXIM: Rui
"Iron Lady" Naiwei 9p played Black and defeated Yu Ch'ang hyeok 9p by 4.5 points
in game three of the best of three 5th Maxim Cup to win overall with a score of
2:1. Rui, who is one of the few women pros who has won tournaments not
restricted to women, lost several of her titles this last year (i.e., Myeongin,
Kuksu, and Jeongganjang Cup). However, according to http://www.go4go.net,
Rui's win/loss record so far in 2004 is 16:3, a sign that she is coming on
strong once again.
- reported by Dennis Hardman
37TH BRITISH GO
CONGRESS IN MILTON KEYNES: The 37th British Go Congress was set to occur last
weekend in Milton Keynes, UK, starting with the British Lightning Tournament on
Friday and finishing up with a 6 round McMahon tournament on Saturday and
Sunday. Stay tuned for a full report next week.
- reported by Dennis Hardman
from the British Go Journal at http://www.britgo.org
OTHER
WORLD GO NEWS IN BRIEF
(compiled from various sources)
- ITALY: Tortellino
Go Tournament; 1st place Francesco Marigo 4d (Pisa), 2nd place Atsushi Omoji 3d
(Padova), and 3rd place Dragos Mihai Tanasescu 5d (Modena).
- AUSTRALIA: 8th
NEC Open Handicap Tournament; To be held in Melbourne, April 24th and 25th
2004.
- JAPAN: 43rd Judan sen (preliminary tournament); Kataoka Satoshi 9d
advances. Michael Redmond 9d to play Kobayashi Izumi (Women's Honinbo).
-
KOREA: 14th BC Card Cup (New Star); An Choyeong 8p to play Lee Yeongku 3p
starting on April 7th.
- KOREA: 23rd KBS Cup; Choi Cheolhan advances to 3rd
round.
- TAIWAN: 5th Chukan Cup; Huang Xianren 3p to play Zhou Junxun (Tiawan
Kiin Cup title holder) on April 6th for title.
- reported by Dennis
Hardman
CLOSE-UP: China “B” Team Wins Upset in CSK
Powerhouse
by Zhiiping You
China’s upset victory in the recent Power
House Team Match has been the occasion for much celebrating in the Chinese weiqi
(go) community. Competition was fierce: Japan, which swept the Match last year,
wanted to hold onto the title, while South Korea was determined to win the top
honors that eluded them last time around.
While Japan, South Korea and
Taiwan all sent teams made up of top players, including some title-holders,
China sent what many jokingly referred to as the “B team.” Instead of sending
the "top" players, China not only held qualifying rounds to select players, but
made them one-game elimination rounds, thus dramatically increasing chance as a
factor. Since only two of the five top-ranked Chinese players made the team,
nobody harbored high hopes for China’s chances this year.
In the Power
House Team Match, each 5-member plays every other team in a round-robin format;
whichever team wins three or more games wins that round. Surprising everyone
(except maybe themselves), the Chinese “B-team” team did exceptionally well,
edging out Japan 3:2 and beating Taiwan 4:1 before facing Number 1 contender
South Korea, which had only lost one game in the first two days, shutting out
Taiwan 5:0 and trouncing Japan 4:1. With this convincing 9-1 record, South
Korea’s dream team seemed unstoppable but the Chinese underdogs were
unimpressed, allowing South Korea just one win on their way to a 4:1 rout. Japan
lost to Taiwan 2:3 in the final round; final standings were China, South Korea,
Taiwan, and Japan.
The whole Chinese weiqi community has been giddy with
the joy of victory since their team’s Powerhouse Team Match win, with the leader
of the China WeiQi Institute jokingly claiming they can form four such “B”
teams. Interestingly, the only player from South Korea's team who won all his
games was Lee Chang-Ho and my own personal view is that he is still a little
above everybody. The rest of the players are about equal in strength, and China
clearly has many strong players.
- Zhiiping You 5d lives in the Boston area,
where he teaches a weiqi class in a local Chinese school.
GAME COMMENTARY: Steady Play, First Monday and
Keeping Kaz Awake
This week’s game commentary
features steady play between two top-level pros, Kato Masao, 9p and Yu Bin, 9p,
facing off in the 3rd Nong Shim Cup Ring Contest in a game played December 1,
2001. Running commentary throughout the game is by various Chinese pros; the
game is provided by permission from http://www.gogameworld.com,
a subscription service for commented pro games.
If it’s the first Monday of the month, it’s
time for another original set of life and death problems from Yilun Yang: enjoy
these brain-teasers and look for the solutions next
week!
“Seeing you make this shape would keep me
awake at night,” says “Kaz” Furuyama in our bonus file this week, Kaz’ latest
lesson, this one on attachments. Be sure to check it out; we don’t want Kaz to
lose sleep!
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
THE TWO FUJISAWAS, PART 1
By William
Cobb
Many students of modern go are confused by the presence of two prominent
Japanese 9 dans with the same family name: Fujisawa. In fact, they are related;
the older, Hosai, who died in 1992, is the nephew of the younger, Shuko.
One
of Hosai’s most famous achievements was besting Go Seigen in a ten-game match
(jubango) in 1944. He was the only player to defeat Go Seigen in a jubango,
though he did it with a handicap of playing Black in every game, while others
alternated between Black and White. Hosai tried twice in the early ‘50s at the
even handicap, when he and Go were the only 9 dans in the world, but lost both
times. After the second loss, Hosai temporarily resigned from the Nihon Kiin and
changed his original given name of Kuranosuke to Hosai.
Hosai played at the
top level, but did not capture many titles. He won the Oza in 1958 and the Judan
in 1964, as well as the Igo Championship in 1962 and 1965. He was the first
player to reach 9 dan under the Oteai system, in which promotion was won through
competition with other pros in the Nihon Kiin in regularly scheduled games, and
was the only 9 dan for almost a year.
Adding to the confusion is the fact
that Shuko, like Hosai, is also known by more than one given name, in a sense.
He prefers Hideyuki, the alternate pronunciation of his given name, rather than
Shuko, but the Shuko pronunciation is more popular in both Japan and the West.
(His original given name was Tamotsu.)
Hosai was noted for his fondness for
playing mirror or mimic go when he had White. A game between the two Fujisawas
in which Hosai plays mirror go is attached for your amusement. Would you have
continued the mirroring, or stopped sooner? Hosai loses the game.
(Sources:
The Go Player’s Almanac 2001, go.base.org, Sensei’s Library.)
GO CLASSIFIED: BOOKS, EQUIPMENT, ETC
FOR SALE:
Eighteen pre owned go books. Complete info at:
http://members.aolcom/bhaber/gopage/books/books.html
(4/5)
WANTED: Go Reviews older complete years 60's & 70's send info
on condition and price to flynp1@comcast.net (3/29)
AVAILABLE: A few very
nice Japanese kaya table gobans (thickness varies from 33mm to 69mm) and one 7
inch japanese kaya goban with legs. Also I have kaya bowls. jade stones, marble
stones, agate stones and double convex yunzi best stone in China. photos are
available at http://cat.isi.edu/~ruiwang/gobanpic/
click fullsize for 2048x1536 photos and regularsize for 640x480 photos. Please
contact ruiwang@isi.edu (3/22)
WANTED: The Treasure Chest Enigma Noriyuki
Nakayama; new or used in very good condition. Contact Shavit at info@go-mind.com
(3/22)
FOR SALE: the book "Enclosure Josekis" by Masaki Takemiya and
published by the Ishi Press. Now out of print, it was purchased years ago by the
Canadian Go Association and then forgotten so it is in new, unopened condition.
Contact Frank Monks at pmonks@look.ca (3/22)
AVAILABLE: beautiful
t-shirts for the Brooklyn Go Club, designed by Michael Samuel and about to be
made. $12. Jean Claude Chetrit 718-638-2266 zorglub@brooklyngoclub.org
http://brooklyngoclub.org/
(3/15)
WANTED: Someone with a Macintosh computer running system 10.3,
Panther, who has successfully downloaded sgf software to read the games in this
newsletter who is patient and willing to provide assistance so I can
successfully download such software and read the games. Contact Andrew Whitmont
at Yakpsyche@yahoo.com Please identify your purpose in the header of the email
so I don't think its spam. (3/15)
WANTED: Materials showing steps in
traditional go stone manufacture. Needed for children's classes and outreach
programs. Would like a shell and piece of slate with holes from stone blank
removal and possibly some unshaped blanks as well. A few sample finished stones
would also be appreciated. Willing to compensate. Any leads on proper contacts
would be very helpful. Please e-mail johneckelkamp@yahoo.com
(3/8/04)
WANTED: Logo for the new Cyprus Go Association: http://cyprus.european-go.org
Contact Nicholas Roussos at roussos@alum.rit.edu (3/8/04)
GO
CLASSIFIED: GO PLAYERS WANTED
CARLSBAD, CA: mschlee@yahoo.com
(3/22)
FT. COLLINS, CO: Our club is currently looking for more members,
beginner to dan level. Feel free to contact Steve for more information at
liquidpophybrid@aol.com (3/8/04)
CHICAGO, IL (south suburbs): Jeff,
tompygo@comcast.net (3/22)
ASHEVILLE, NC:
ichliebedeinunderhosen@yahoo.com
(3/22)
NEW JERSEY SHORE: Contact
Iangershman@hotmail.com (3/29)
SANTA FE, NM: 7-12 grade players in the
area to join our Santa Fe Preparatory School Go Club. We are also looking for a
strong local player willing to mentor the members from time to time. Contact:
James Taylor (jtaylor@sfprep.org). Our club website is http://www.sfprep.org/clubs/SFPrepGo/index.htm,
and we meet Thursday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:00. (3/15)
Harrison NY:
Mauricio Aguirre; maguirrel@hotmail.com (3/29)
STATE COLLEGE/CENTRE COUNTY,
PA: (Penn State University, UP Campus). A small unofficial club has started with
only five or so members, looking for more people to expand the club. Contact
djs443@psu.edu for more information. (3/29)
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
GO CLASSIFIED: TEACHERS
5-DAN TEACHES ONLINE:
Free evaluation lesson with a 5 dan on any server; if you would like to know
more email icarii@zoominternet.net
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
April 10 & 11:
Rochester, NY
Kerwin Workshop
Lee; LF004K@mail.rochester.edu
April
10 & 11: San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Go Club Spring
Tournament
Steve Burrall 916.688.2858 sburrall@comcast.net
April 17:
Seattle, WA
Seattle Cherry Blossom Tournament
Jon Boley 206.545.1424
jon@seattlegocenter.org
http://www.seattlegocenter.org/
April
18: Seattle, WA
Seattle Cherry Blossom Youth Lightning Tournament
Jon
Boley 206.545.1424 jon@seattlegocenter.org
http://www.seattlegocenter.org/
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
http://www.wam.umdedu/~smount/umdmain.html
April
18: Boston, MA
MGA Spring Handicap Tournament
Zack Grossbart 617.497.1232
zack@grossbart.com
April 24: Middlebury, VT
Spring Tournament
Peter
Schumer 802.388.3934 schumer@middlebury.edu
April 24: Fort Wayne,
IN
1st Indiana Go Tournament
Jim Kiraly 260.710.3644
jim@fwgc.net
April 25: Menlo Park, CA
First California High School Goe
Tornament
Mingjiu Jiang 650.969.2857 mingjiu7p@hotmail.com
http://www.gomasters.com/
May
2: Seattle, WA
Monthly Ratings Tournament
Jon Boley 206.545.1424
jon@seattlegocenter.org
http://www.seattlegocenter.org/
June
3 6: Round Top, NY
Guo Juan Workshop at The Woodlands
Jean Claude Chetrit
718.638.2266 zorglub@brooklyngoclub.org
http://brooklyngoclub.org/cgi
bin/disp_topic.iphtml?topic_id=188
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
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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
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Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the
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