News from the American Go Association

December 8, 2006

Volume 7, #104 (Member's Edition)

MASTERS FINALS SET
JIE LI LECTURES IN DC FRIDAY
AGA OFFERS BIG DISCOUNTS ON GREAT GO STUFF
LEE & CHANG WIN IN SAMSUNG SEMIS FIRST ROUND
KNELLER WINS IN WEST SURREY
CHO SEOK-BIN HAS COMMANDING LEAD IN EURO TOUR
WEEKEND ACTION: Sacramento, Chicago, Middlebury & Philadelphia
YOUR MOVE: Imperfect Communication
THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: From Honinbo To Meijin
GAME COMMENTARY: Winning a Won Game Plus Yang & Haruyama
ATTACHED FILE(S): 2006.12.08 Schoenacher-kide, Challenge, Hung.sgf; 2006.12.08 Yang December Puzzle.sgf; 2006.12.08 McGuigan Series #24.pdf

MASTERS FINALS SET: The Masters Tournament finals have been scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, December 18, 19 in Seattle, WA, reports AGA Executive VP Chris Kirschner. Jie Li 9d will defend his 2005 title against Feng Yun 9P in two rounds on the 18th and a third round - if necessary - on the 19th. The games will be broadcast on both IGS and KGS, as well as perhaps a Korean server with Korean pro commentary. Stay tuned for further updates.

JIE LI LECTURES IN DC FRIDAY: Jie Li 9d will lecture on one of his recent Master's games at the regular meeting of the Greater Washington Go Club this Friday, December 8. The free event begins at 8P sharp at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, 9601 Cedar Lane in Bethesda MD. For more details on the DC lecture, email Small at haskellsmall@starpower.net

AGA OFFERS BIG DISCOUNTS ON GREAT GO STUFF: Have we got a deal for you! The AGA has acquired some terrific go materials at deeply discounted prices and is passing the savings along to our members. Whether you're a beginning or experienced player - or somewhere in-between - here's a chance to grab some great go stuff! Cho Chikun's "GO: A COMPLETE INTRODUCTION" is a perfect introduction to the game and at our special price of just $5/copy -- less than half of retail! -- it's a great stocking stuffer. "GRADED GO PROBLEMS FOR BEGINNERS" ($5) fills the bill for that serious novice who needs practice applying basic concepts -- and you'll be surprised, some are not so basic! Best of all, we've more than doubled our inventory of selected back issues of GO WORLD for just $3 each, which is just pennies per page for the must-have quarterly magazine for serious players since 1977. PLUS: order a complete set of 25 back issues (including #74-90 and special commemorative issue #100, as well other assorted issues listed in complete detail on the order form) - that's 1600 pages of outstanding games analysis and instruction -- for just $60, and your per-copy cost drops to less than $2.50! Supplies won't last long at these great prices, so click here now to order! http://www.usgo.org/usa/GoWorld.htm

LEE & CHANG WIN IN SAMSUNG SEMIS FIRST ROUND: Lee Changho 9P of Korea and Chang Hao 9P of China have defeated Paek Hongsuk 5P of Korea and Seo Bongsoo 9P of Korea respectively in the best-of-three-game semifinals of the international Samsung Cup now underway. Details Monday.

KNELLER WINS IN WEST SURREY: Ken Kneller 11k came out on top in the West Surrey Tournament in Britain, which was fully handicapped, in a departure from the norm for European tournaments. Details Monday.

CHO SEOK-BIN HAS COMMANDING LEAD IN EURO TOUR: With only four of the twelve events in the year-long Toyota-IGS-PandaNet European Go Tour left, Cho Seok-Bin 7d, the Korean living in Germany, has more than double his nearest competitor's points. Details Monday.

WEEKEND ACTION: Sacramento, Chicago, Middlebury & Philadelphia
- December 9: Sacramento, CA
D/SGC Winter Tournament
Willard Haynes willard@saclink.csus.edu 916.929.6112
- December 9: Chicago , IL
Brer Foxx Memorial
Bob Barber komoku@earthlink.net 773.467.0423
- December 9: Middlebury, VT
Suberi in Vermont
Peter Schumer schumer@middlebury.edu 802.388.3934
- December 10: Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Fall Open
http://chapters.usgo.org/penngo/tournaments.html
Peter Nassar pnassar@vet.upenn.edu 215.898.6271
Matthew Bengtson mattbengtson@earthlink.net 215.704.4600

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write

IMPERFECT COMMUNICATION: "I'm not a native Japanese speaker but maybe I can shed some light on the terms of resignation question, ("Terms Of Resignation 12/1 EJ)" writes longtime translator Bob McGuigan. "First, chuu oshi (not naka oshi) is used, say in a game record or by a commentator, to describe the result of the game, for example kuro chuu oshi kachi (Black wins by resignation). It is not an expression a player would use to resign. It does not depend on the difference in score at the time of resignation. Makemashita (I have lost) is an expression commonly used by a player in order to resign."
     EDITOR'S NOTE: The original Go Quiz question concerned the literal translation of the Japanese term for resignation, as printed in Japanese go materials; the letters last week refer to what players say when they resign. There can often be significant differences between the written and spoken use of words, and, as this example makes clear, there can also be significant - though often quite subtle - differences in attempts at translating an accurate sense of those uses. Although language is an imperfect method of communication - like go itself - it's ultimately the effort to communicate that's most important. We apologize for any confusion we've unwittingly sown and thank our thoughtful correspondents for their insights.

THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: From Honinbo To Meijin
       Congrats to Peter Weinberg of Schenectady, NY, whose name was selected at random from those who correctly selected 10 as the number of Cho Chikun's successful Honinbo title defenses. Your quizmaster was hoping to trick some of you - Cho has won the title 12 times, but he has only won - IN DEFENSE - 10 times, but you all (4/4) were too smart for me!
       This week's challenge is to tell us who was the 14th and 1st Meijin title holder - in that order? Was it Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo, Rin Kaiho, or Ishida Yoshio? Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=330212370809 and enter your choice, and please offer us a comment or a question idea as well.
- Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold, hka

GAME COMMENTARY: Winning a Won Game Plus Yang & Haruyama
       The theme for today's game commentary is converting a winning game into an actual win. In this game between two 5 kyus, Black, who was ahead for most of the game, lost his lead at the end. Joey Hung 8d, one of the strongest amateurs in the US - and the 2006 US representative to the World Amateur Go Championship in Japan -- shows just how it happened.
       Our first bonus file is Yilun Yang 7P's "December" life and death problem in his original E-Journal series of life and death problems based on the months of the year. Be sure to turn off the "next move" function before opening the file. The second bonus file is # 24 Haruyama Isamu 9P's Questions from Actual Play series, translated by Robert McGuigan.
       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

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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