AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association

April 12, 2004

In This Edition:

U.S. GO NEWS: Pacific Go, Updated; Kyu Players Shut Down Seattle Hotel; Homepage Photo
WORLD GO NEWS: Korean Players Do Well In Fujitsu First Round; Defending Judan Fights Back In Third Game; Youngster Continues To Challenge The Master; British Go Congress Tournament Results; Other World Go News In Brief
GAME COMMENTARY: Two 3 Dans, Three Solutions and a Tesuji
YOUR MOVE: Missing Hard Times; Improving Players Wanted
THE TRAVELING BOARD: Report from Shikoku
REMEMBERING BOB HIGH
GO CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
ATTACHED FILES: 2004.04.12 Amateur 3 Dan Game, Liping Huang Commentary.sgf; 2004.04.12 Go Review Problem.sgf; 2004.04.12 Yang April Beginner Solution.sgf; 2004.04.12 Yang April Intermediate Solution.sgf; 2004.04.12 Yang April Advanced Solution.sgf


U.S. GO NEWS

PACIFIC GO, UPDATED: The latest issue of the Pacific GO Monthly by Bob O'Malley is available at http://home.comcast.net/~rtomalley/Pacific.GO.Monthly/ This issue has lots of new material, including commented games, reports on recent West coast tournaments, a section on Go Haiku and lots more.

KYU PLAYERS SHUT DOWN SEATTLE HOTEL: The Seattle Times reported February 2 that the University Plaza Hotel would be shut down and converted to apartments and retail space. The kyu section of the Toyota Denzo Oza West Tournament was one of the last events held at the 40 year-old hotel, which is close to the Seattle Go Center. Jon Boley, Seattle Go Center manager, was hopeful about the changes. "Maybe more dan level players will move into the neighborhood," he said.
- reported by Brian Allen

HOMEPAGE PHOTO: There were no winners for last week’s contest but you won’t want to miss this week’s Homepage Photo, a shot by Phil Straus of an unusual board made by Bill Saltman from beachfront storm fencing, with sea-smoothed black and white stones. This collector’s item is owned by Bill Richards. Check it out at http://www.usgo.org/index.asp

WORLD GO NEWS

KOREAN PLAYERS DO WELL IN FUJITSU FIRST ROUND: All four Korean players (Cho Hunhyun 9p, Jo HanSeung 7p, Ch'oe Ch'eol han 7p and Park YuongHoon 5p) won their matches and advanced to the second round on April 10th in Tokyo in the first round of the 17th Fujitsu Cup. Two of the five Chinese players (Kong Jie 7p and Wang Lei 8p) and one of the three Japanese players (O Meien 9p) advanced as well. North American representative Yang Huiren 1p lost to Wang Lei 8p of China. The European Union (Svetlana Shikshina 1p) and South American (Wang Senfeng 6d) players also did not advance. Additional players from Japan and Korea will be seeded into the second round which is scheduled to be played on April 12th in Tokyo, and thereafter will be a straight knockout tournament. The Fujitsu Cup World Go Championship is sponsored by Fujitsu/The Yomiuri Newspaper of Japan and it is the oldest fully international event. Tournament results and players lists can be found at http://igo-kisen.hp.infoseek.co.jp
-reported by Dennis Hardman

DEFENDING JUDAN FIGHTS BACK IN THIRD GAME: Trying to win his fourth consecutive Judan title, O Rissei 9p defeated challenger and current Honinbo and Oza title holder, Cho U 9p, in Game Three of the best-of-five 42nd Judan title match. This puts the score at 2:1 in favor of O Rissei. This game, which was held at the Kuroyon Royal Hotel in Omachi City in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, ended in resignation after more than 10 hours and 250 moves, with both players down to their final minute of byo-yomi. Game Four will be held at Dogo Hot Spring in Shikoku on April 15th. Game records can be found at http://www.go4go.net.
-reported by Dennis Hardman

YOUNGSTER CONTINUES TO CHALLENGE THE MASTER: Eighteen-year-old Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 7p continues to challenge Yi (Lee) Ch'ang-ho 9p as one of the best in world by winning Game Three of the 15th Kiseong title by resignation, making the overall score 2:1 in favor of Ch'oe. This best-of-five series is the second major Korean tournament in which Ch'oe and Yi have met. Earlier this year, Ch'oe, who is also the current Chunwon title holder, stopped Yi from winning his fourth consecutive Kuksu title with a score of 3:2. Yi is just coming off of his 6th LG Cup championship which he won against Mok Chin-seok 7p last week. Game Four of the Kiseong will be held on April 16th. Game records can be found at http://www.go4go.net.
-reported by Dennis Hardman

BRITISH GO CONGRESS TOURNAMENT RESULTS: As reported at http://www.britgo.org, the 37th British Go Congress was held April 2nd through the 4th in Milton Keynes. The Congress featured the British Lightning Tournament on Friday and finished up with a 6-round McMahon tournament on Saturday and Sunday. The top finishers with 4/5 in the Lightning Tournament were Steve Bailey (3k, West Surrey), Michael Charles (2d, St Albans), Jonathan Chin (1d, Cambridge) and David M. King (1k, Swindon). David ultimately won the tie-break. In the main tournament (which had 67 players competing), T. Mark Hall (4d, London) won it for the second year running with five wins out of six. Second on tie-break was Dan Gilder (3d, Manchester) with 4/6.
-reported by Dennis Hardman

OTHER WORLD GO NEWS IN BRIEF
(compiled from various sources)
- International: 2nd Toyota & Denso Cup - World Go OZA - O Meien 9p advances.
- China: 2004 CCTV Cup - Gu Li and Yu Bin to face off in final on May 2nd.
- Korea: 9th Chunwon - Kim Seungjun 8p advances to first round.
- Korea: 9th LG Seiyu Cup - Lee Heesung 5p advances to first round.
- Korea: 4th Pro Senior - Jang Sooyoung(9p) to play Kim Ilwhan(9p) for final starting on April 23rd.
- Taiwan: 5th Chukan - 5th Chukan Cup; Zhou Junxun (Tiawan Kiin Cup title holder) defeats Huang Xianren 3p for the title.
- Japan: 29th Kisei-sen (challenger tournament) - Ryu Shikun 9p wins second group.
- Japan: 29th Meijin-sen (challenger tournament) - Cho U 9p leads in league play.
- Japan: 29th Gosei-sen (challenger tournament) - Quarter final matchups set. They are: Yamashita Keigo 9p plays Cho U 9p, and O Rissei 9p plays Yamada Kimio 8p.
- Japan: Yoda Norimoto, current Meijin, beats Mimura Tomoyasu in the 59th Honinbo league play-off to win the right to challenge Cho U, current Honinbo.
- Lithuania: 11th Lithuanian Go Summer Camp 2004 - scheduled for July and will feature two Japanese professionals as guests (Tozawa Akinobu 9p and Yuki Shigeno 2p). See http://lga.w3.lt/LSGC2004/index.html for more information.
-reported by Dennis Hardman


GAME COMMENTARY: Two 3 Dans, Three Solutions and a Tesuji
An exciting battle between two amateur 3 dans ends after just 120 moves in today’s game commentary. The game between was played on www.dragongoservernet , the "turn-based go server" and the commentary is by Liping Huang 4p, a Chinese pro who lives and teaches in the Chicago area.
This week’s bonus file is a clever tesuji problem from the very first issue of Go Review (January 1961), the English language go magazine published by the Nihon Kiin until 1977.
Also attached are the solution files for last week’s life-and-death problems by Yilun Yang.
        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

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
MISSING HARD TIMES: “I'm missing Mr Turnipseed,” writes Michael Gordon-Smith. “On the strength of his Hard Times columns, I ordered a copy of his book (Baghdad Express). I've looked forward to the next installment, and I'm hoping his journeys towards shodan and towards a book have not hit problems.” EDITOR’S NOTE: Joel’s been off completing other assignments but we hope to have him back in the saddle soon; stay tuned!
IMPROVING PLAYERS WANTED: “The Players Wanted classified section would be far more interesting to read if the state and city were listed first instead of ‘wanted.’” suggests David Bogie. EDITOR’S NOTE: This was such a terrific suggestion we implemented it last week; thanks, David!

THE TRAVELING BOARD: Report from Shikoku
By Solomon Smilack
Whenever I play go with Yokoyama-sensei in his home, Mrs. Yokoyama attends us with food and drink. She gives us each a cup of coffee during our first game, and endless cupfuls of green tea for the remainder of my visit. She usually plies us with small snacks -- crackers, biscuits, hard candy -- as well as traditional foods such as mochi (sticky rice cakes), anko-filled muffins (anko is a sweet bean paste), buntan and mikan (citrus fruits).
Each time that I arrive, I make an effort to talk to Mrs. Yokoyama. It is easy to simply launch into a game with her husband, but doing so seems almost rude. At first I was afraid that she and I would have little to talk about, but I recently found that we both enjoy choral singing. During my last visit I entered the living room and found her seated at the kotatsu (a table with a heater on the underside). She was sewing large, pink flowers, and she explained that they would adorn the choir robes at her next concert. When I asked for details about the concert, she gave me a complimentary ticket and a flyer. Mr. Yokoyama asked why I would want to listen to a choir of old women. I’m not sure if he was joking or not. My friends have mentioned that Japanese men insult their wives, but it is still hard for me to not be put off by his comment. I have trouble reconciling such harshness with his regular, gentle nature.
My handicap against Yokoyama-sensei shrank to two stones. It was a brief advancement, because I subsequently lost three games in a row, but I felt stronger nevertheless. My handicap shifts after each best-of-five match, and my progress feels tangible. After each of our games we talk about the winning and losing moves – without fail, I smack myself in the forehead for having known a proper move but having played a poor one. I do not always have to wait until after the game to be told where I failed. Sometimes I know the losing move when I make it, and sometimes Yokoyama-sensei feigns indigestion. I thought, at first, that his groans meant that I had gained an advantage or found a tesuji; I quickly discovered that they were the laments of a teacher with an inept pupil. Now I fear them more than I fear losing.

REMEMBERING BOB HIGH
By Roy Laird
EDITOR’S NOTE: A LONGTIME PERSONAL FRIEND OF BOB HIGH’S, ROY WROTE THE FOLLOWING NOTE IN RESPONSE TO A RECENT QUERY BY A FORMER SCHOOLMATE OF BOB’S. WE FOUND IT A TIMELY REMINDER OF AN OLD FRIEND AND LEADER IN THE GO COMMUNITY AND THANK ROY FOR AGREEING TO SHARE IT WITH E-JOURNAL READERS.

Bob High drowned in a rafting accident in Chile in January 1993. He had just taken office as President of the American Go Association eight days previously, and had many plans for the future of American go.
After studying mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, Bob became a statistical analyst and computer programmer, part of the team that created electronic stock transfer technology for Wall Street. He also wrote articles and submitted math problems to The Scientific American and other such magazines. But I think the events that really defined Bob as a person occurred in the decade between the Berkeley days and the start of that career.
Sometime in the late 60's, Bob was one of two doctoral candidates approaching completion of their doctorates at Berkeley. Only one was able to graduate -- Bob had taken note of a program where Americans went abroad to teach math, kind of a Peace Corps for math teachers – and Bob decided to let the other guy graduate while he went to Chile to teach
math. Bob was in Santiago on September 11, 1973, when Pinochet seized power in a military coup, with the assistance of the US government. After several harrowing days, Bob was able to make his way out, but his friend Charlie Horman was not so lucky.
Charlie, a writer for The New York Times, had gone for a weekend holiday to the coast that happened to be where thousands of American troops were secretly landing. A US military officer learned of his presence, and informed Pinochet's team about an American journalist who knew too much. The next day they rounded Charlie up, tortured him for a few days, and then killed him. This incident was immortalized by Costa Gavras in the film “Missing,” which Bob consulted on and which went on to win several Oscars in the early 1980's.
Bob was outraged by Charlie's death, as well as the deaths and torture of many other Chileans he knew. He became one of the founding organizers of NICH (Non Intervention in Chile), which for many years was the only voice of Pinochet's opposition. When Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador, was assassinated in Washington in 1976, it became clear that Bob's life was in danger. He lived underground for years, continuing to expose Pinochet's repressive practices. One of his more ingenious schemes involved the arrival of a Chilean tall ship in San Francisco, a ship that had been used as a floating torture chamber. Bob organized a flotilla of prostitutes to meet them in the harbor with protest signs. His creative twist on the Lysistrata theme gained national attention.
After NICH had done its job, Bob got involved with the AGA, which is how I came to know him. He brought an intensity and urgency to the work that took our organization to the next level in many ways, and we all looked forward to his leadership as President. Bob also had a whimsical side: have a look at the AGA's "Bob High Memorial Library" at http://www.usgo.org/bobhighlibrary/, which includes several articles he wrote about the nature of go. The AGA Songbook also contains many witty song parodies, including a fairly complete parody of the Mikado.
I looked forward to staying in touch with Bob's intelligent, witty take on things over the years. It didn't work out that way, but he does continue to pop up every so often. When he died, I promised myself that I would look for opportunities to do things he might have done as time went on. I think he would have told you all about Pinochet, so I did it for him.


GO CLASSIFIED: BOOKS, EQUIPMENT, ETC

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)


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)


GO CLASSIFIED: GO PLAYERS WANTED

CARLSBAD, CA: mschlee@yahoo.com (3/22)

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 (3/4)


CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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 Tournament
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/

May 8: Grand Rapids, MI
Grand Rapids Go Club Tournament
David Hast 616-791-8929 djhast@yahoo.com

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

June, July, August: KGS or Yahoo
2004 3rd RSC Team Youth Go Cup
Christopher Vu wasonlyyesterday@yahoo.com
www.geocities.com/seaottergoclub/RSC.html
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 31

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! 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


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