AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association

August 16, 2004

In This Issue:
U.S. GO NEWS: Congresses (Almost) As Far As The Eye Can See; Congress Memories
WORLD GO NEWS: Yoda Storms Back In Gosei; Gu Li Wins China-Korea Tengen; Sakai Hideyuki A Rising Star; Yuki's Go News; Deadline For 9th Internet World Amateur Go Tournament
GAME COMMENTARY: Fujitsu Final & More Tragic Than Hamlet
THE TRAVELING BOARD: Weiqi in Taiwan
GO REVIEW: Essential Joseki
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
ATTACHED FILE(S): 2004.08.16. Fujitsu Final, go4go.net.sgf; 2004.08.16. Furuyama Lesson #19.pdf

U.S. GO NEWS

CONGRESSES (ALMOST) AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE: New Congress Liaison Bob Barber reports that verbal agreements are in place for the next five Congresses: 2005 Tacoma, 2006 North Carolina, 2007 Columbus, OH, 2008 Lancaster, PA, 2009 Washington DC. “While I am very pleased with this accomplishment, I see that after Tacoma, we never get further West than Detroit,” notes Barber. “There's lots of states and lots of go players out there: please consider hosting a Congress in the future.” Contact Barber at komoku@earthlink.net

CONGRESS MEMORIES: Bob Felice has posted photos from this year’s U.S. Go Congress online at http://users.waymark.net/LIPH-DL0839/2K4GoCongress/ One of them has particular revelance to the E-Journal: which one and why? Email us at journal@usgo.org if you think you know! PLUS: check out the AGA homepage Congress photos at http://www.usgo.org/photos/



WORLD GO NEWS

YODA STORMS BACK IN GOSEI: After losing the first game by a half point to challenger Yamada Kimio 8p (see http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/special/nkotb/nkotb6.html for an interesting article on him by John Fairbairn), Yoda Norimoto 9p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=6 for pictures and bio) came roaring back to win the next three games and successfully defend the title he won last year from Kobayashi Koichi 9p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=8 for pictures and bio). Yoda next faces a serious challenge for his Meijin title from Cho U 9p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=19 for pictures and bio), who defeated Kobayashi Satoru 9p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=31 for picture and bio) in a play-off for the shot at the title. Earlier this year, Yoda was unsuccessful in a challenge against Cho U for the Honinbo title.

GU LI WINS CHINA-KOREA TENGEN: In the 8th China-Korea Tengen Match, Gu Li 7p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=79 for pictures and bio), current number one player in China, and at twenty-one among the strongest of younger players, defeated Korean Choi Cheolhan 8p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=157 for pictures and bio), who is still in his teens and currently holds three Korean titles. Gu dominated in the first game and for most of the second, but Choi was able to catch up at the end of game two to tie the match at one each. In the third game, Choi was very close to victory following middlegame ko fighting, but he surprisingly ignored a threat by Gu against one of his large dragons, which Gu proceeded to capture to win the game and the match. Gu also won this match last year against Song Taekon 7p (see http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=88 for pictures and bio). The game records can be downloaded from http://www.go4go.net/english/bytournament2.jsp?id=47

SAKAI HIDEYUKI A RISING STAR: Sakai Hideyuki 6p, former World Amateur Go Champion, (see http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Sakai%20Hideyuki for picture and bio) defeated Suzuki Yoshimichi 6p (see http://gobase.org/information/players/?pp=Suzuki%20Yoshimichi for picture and bio) on August 12th to gain the finals of the New Stars tournament in Japan. Sakai is a member of the Kansai Kiin. He was studying to be a physician at Kyoto University before he won the WAGC and decided to turn pro. He received the first amateur 8 dan certificate ever awarded by the Nihon Kiin.

YUKI'S GO NEWS: The highly popular Nihon Kiin pro, Yuki Shigeno 2p, who lives in Milan, Italy, and promotes go all around Europe now posts her stories about her go activities at http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/members/shigeno/ Check them out for charming local color as well as go news, pictures, and instruction.

DEADLINE FOR 9TH INTERNET WORLD AMATEUR GO TOURNAMENT: The deadline for signing up for the 9th Internet World Amateur Go Tournament on IGS, the PandaNet Cup, is August 24th. Details can be found at http://www.pandanet.co.jp/event/iwag2004/e/ Pros are not allowed to play in this tournament.


GAME COMMENTARY: Fujitsu Final & More Tragic Than Hamlet
Today’s commentary is on the July 5 final game of the 17th Fujitsu Cup between Park Yeonghun 6p of Korea and Yoda Norimoto 9p of Japan. The commentary on the 1.5 point game is by Alexandre Dinerchtein 1p, and is taken from his web site at http://www.go4go.net by permission. The web site contains a great number of both pro and amateur game records as well as go news and more. Commented games are available by subscription.
Our bonus file this week is the latest lesson from the ever-popular Kaz Furuyama: this week he takes on Hitting at the Head of Two Stones. Don’t miss Diagram 19, where you’ll learn one of the worst ten mistakes, “more tragic than Hamlet.”
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 TRAVELING BOARD: Weiqi in Taiwan
By Zeke Tamayo
Taiwan is full of go conundrums. Although weiqi isn't on every street corner here, practically everyone here knows what it is. Places to actually play are hard to find but nearly every bookstore has a small section of weiqi books. The one thing I found for sure during a recent visit is that everyone is willing to help.
        The Taiwan Weiqi Association’s excellent web page (in Chinese: http://taiwango.org.tw) guided me to a weiqi place not too far from my hotel, where another conundrum appeared, when it turned out to be a children's school of weiqi. They weren't interested in having me stick around, so the search continued.
Meanwhile, one of my Taiwanese hosts invited me to visit his family for tea and dinner. He was a big help showing me around and getting me the best deals at the Jade market (there were no Jade weiqi stones). It turned out that his nephew had just started weiqi school, and he made me take black, even though he was only "24" (I'm still not sure what "kyu" translates to, but later I heard a lot of "danshi" equating to "dan"). I'm afraid I can't play the best teaching-go (and the 16 rank difference didn't help), but the second game was a bit closer.
        Then my translator friend found me a place in Taipei that was open Sunday and just $5 for the day. It took me several tries to locate the club, after the building attendants at the front and side directed me with gestures to go around to the back of the building. When I finally made it to the second floor, I knew I’d arrived by the sign with the Japanese kanji for weiqi.
        At first I was afraid it was another children's weiqi school because of the number of 8-12 year olds, but this must just be the effect of Hikaru no Go, which is titled "King of Go" in Chinese. Although I speak practically no Chinese, I was able to show the symbol for 8 ("kyu" was assumed) and it wasn't long before I was playing. I managed to win most of the handicap games and got to play a couple of even games against some kids, one of whom said he'd been playing for 1 year as well. I hope I find as nice a place on my next trip when I go to Tai-chung in central Taiwan.


GO REVIEW: Essential Joseki
By Rui Naiwei
Yutopian Publishing Co.; $17.50
Reviewed by Patrick G. Bridges
There are many joseki-related books available, from introductory volumes to encyclopedic reference dictionaries to whole-board joseki discusssions. "Essential Joseki" by Rui Naiwei doesn't fit easily into one of these categories, but is instead a middle ground book. As a result, though it doesn't fill any one of these roles as well as the more specialized books, I find myself using it more than the specialized joseki volumes I own.
Like most joseki books, Essential Joseki is arranged into categories by the initial corner move (3-4/4-4/etc.), and then by the type of approach and response that follow. One of the real strengths of this book is how recent it is; older books like the Ishida dictionary spend lots of pages on things like the taisha and large avalanche joseki but don't even include modern lines (e.g., outer attachment after 4-4/knight's approach/extension/slide). This book on the other hand includes relativey little on the taisha and large avalanche, but does include these more modern lines.
Ultimately, I think Essential Joskei is an excellent joseki book. It's not great for sitting and reading through (unlike Great Joseki Debates), but I use it frequently after a game if I got a corner result that I didn't like. It's compactness and broadness of coverage of modern joseki make it very useful in that regard. For broader study, I'd suggest supplementing it with both a reference (Kogo's online Joseki Dictionary or Ishida) and a way to see how its played in real games (I use uligo along with a large collection of pro games).

GO CLASSIFIED

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 (8/8)

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)

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
NY: Go players in New York City. Our club is currently looking for more members. The "Village Go Club" meets in Manhattan on Wednesday
nights. Our club is largely beginning players, but all levels are welcome. Feel free to contact Kerry for more information at kerry@nyu.edu
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 28: Davis, CA
Davis/Sacramento Quarterly Tournament
Fred Hopkins 916-548-8068 cfredhop@msn.com
http://www.dcn.davis.caus/~jdnewmil/go/

September 4 & 5: Toronto, CANADA
Canadian Open
Young Kim 416-846-3024 kim3024@rogers.com
http://www.go-canada.org/

September 4 & 5: San Francisco, CA
Dote Sensei Memorial Tournament
Danny Swarzman 415-221-7194 dote04@stowlake.com
http://www.sfgoclub.com

September 11: Livermore, CA
Vintage Go Event
Steve Herrick 925-516-2617 (evenings) herrick4@llnl.gov

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

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Published by the American Go Association

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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




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