YAMASHITA TAKES FIRST GAME IN TENGEN TITLE MATCH: Challenger Yamashita Keigo 9P defeated Tengen title holder Cho U 9P on November 12th to take the first game in their best-of-five-games title match. Cho now holds four of the top seven Japanese titles. He won the Tengen for the first time last year, defeating Kono Rin 9P, who had held it for the preceding three years. Yamashita lost the title to Kono after winning it from Hane Naoki 9P in 2003; he then unsuccessfully challenged for the next three years. Yamashita's main claim to fame is holding the number one title in Japan, the Kisei five times, including the last four years.  - Bill Cobb, Sources: Go News, GoGameWorld

KOREAN MYEONGIN REACHING FINAL STAGES: On November 12-13, Won Sungjin 9P, who had defeated Seo Gunqoo 4P, defeated Hong Sungji 7P by a score of 2-1 (winning his two games by a total of five points) to become the League A final winner in the 37th Myeongin (J: Meijin), which has a complicated structure. This year there are two six-player leagues after the usual preliminary event. The top two players in each league have a best-of-three-games match and the winners of those matches have a final match. Since Lee Sedol 9P, who won this title last year, has taken a leave of absence from the active pro scene, the winner of this final match will be the title winner; this match is a best-of-five-games contest. A further complication arose in one league where a play-off game was needed to determine the second winner. The top two from League B, Lee Changho 9P and Kim Seongje 3P will start their playoff on November 16th. Lee Changho is one of the world's best-known players, but is not as dominant these days. Kim has never taken a title and is still in his teens. Won won the international Chunwon title and the BC Card Cup in 2007. Of these three only Lee currently holds a title, the Korean KBS Cup, which he has held ten times. - Bill Cobb, Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library

HONINBO LEAGUE PROCEEDING SLOWLY: The eight-player round robin to determine the challenger for Hane Naoki 9P's Honinbo title is proceeding at its usual leisurely pace. At this point Iyama Yuta 9P (recently promoted for winning the Meijin) and Yamashita Keigo 9P have the best records at 2-0. Neither of these players have even challenged for this title before, let alone won it. Among the other League participants only Takao Shinji 9P (currently 1-1) and Takemiya Masaki 9P (also 1-1) have ever won the Honinbo title. Takao held it three years, from 2005-2007, and Takemiya was Honinbo six times, including four consecutive years in 1985-1988. Yamada Kimio 9P (0-2) was the challenger in 2006, losing to Takao. Cho U 9P (1-1--he lost to Iyama) challenged twice unsuccessfully, in 2001 and 2005. The remaining two players, Yuki Satoshi 9P and Mimura Tomoyasu 9P have also never been the challenger. - Bill Cobb, from GoGameWorld, Go News, Wikipedia, Wintry Smile

MATSUMOTO WINS SEATTLE IWAMOTO YOUTH TOURNAMENT: Ken Matsumoto won the Iwamoto Youth 13x13 Tournament at the Seattle Go Center on Sunday, Nov. 15 with a 4-0 record. The handicapped tournament had prizes for all, including go equipment, books and fun little items. An enthusiastic player, Matsumoto has been coming to the Go Center twice a week.  Hardworking Henry Cai, who gave large handicaps to all of his opponents, won the high school division with a 3-1 record.  Isabel Anderson, a frequent competitor, won the middle school section. Michael Larson, who has been training with neighbor and AGA volunteer Dennis Wheeler, won the grade 3-5 section.  Kindergartner Oliver Alt won the K-2 section. - report/photo by Brian Allen 

JIE LIANG WINS MASS. TOURNEY: A few die-hard players braved the rain Saturday to attend out this year's Western Mass. Go Club Fall tournament at U. Mass. Amherst.  “Jie Liang 7d made the 3-hour trek from New Hampshire to take apart all four of the Amherst residents we threw at him,” reports Trevor Morris. “ Our visiting faculty member from Japan, Hiroyuki Koguchi, rounded out the small winners circle by losing only to Jie.” Click here for photos.

TRIPPEL TAKES WINTERTHUR: Lorenz Trippel of Zurich was undefeated in the one-day fast-play Swiss Winterthur tourney on November 14, ahead of Mark Wirdnam and Lisa Tao. Click here for results (Peter Dijkema, after a report on swissgo.org) and photos.

MARIGO MASTERS ITALIAN OPEN: Francesco Marigo 4d of Milan swept the 30th Italian Open field of 52 in Bologna, November 7-8. Only Massimiliano Spallanzi 12k from Modena also won all five rounds. Click here for results and photos. - Peter Dijkema (winners' photo on top)

METTA SWEEPS LUCCA: Carlo Metta 1k of Pisa swept the Tai Kai Japan Palace tourney 5-0 in Lucca, Italy on October 31 and November 1. He finished ahead of Fausto Predieri (2nd) and Pasquale De Lucia (3rd). A week later, Metta surprised with silver at the 30th Italian Championship, as reported last week. Click here for results (Peter Dijkema, after a link on agi.go.it)

FRENCH YOUTH CONGRESS AND HIKARU CUP: The French "Congres National des Jeunes" – or Youth Congress -- took place in a castle near Lens en Vercours in the Isere region of the French Alps October 24-31. After four days of study with the team of teachers led by Fan Hui, students vied for the Hikaru Cups. French-American Thomas Debarre 5d once again won the top category "Lycée" while Florian Melcer won the "College" title and Mélissa Héaulme successfully defended her "Primaire" title, proving one can become a "Championne" starting simply by learning 'atari-go.' Héaulme’s father Alain is an active promotor of this teaching style in France. The report on the French site contains links to 5 YouTube videos. - Peter Dijkema, after a report by Motoki Noguchi

GOGOD HITS 60K-GAME MARK: GoGoD’s database of professional tournaments now exceeds 60,000 games, reports T Mark Hall. “This is the most accurate, consistent and exact database in existence in the West, backed by John Fairbairn’s Names Dictionary and his Tournament Database,” Hall tells the E-Journal. “While we always add all the games from the current tournament scene, we have been busy in the last six months adding games from the 1950s and 1980s, including previously unknown games by Go Seigen and other games by famous players, not in their collected games,” says Hall. “We pride ourselves on providing games no-one else can easily get, but of course, as always, we are bang up to date.” The Winter 2009 edition is due out on December 7 and the celebrate the 60,000-game milestone, GoGoD is being offered at a discounted rate of $30 for a single copy and $40 for a copy plus an update in a year’s time. Contact Hall at tmark@gogod.demon.co.uk to order or for details.

KISEIDO RELEASES 1ST 3 VOLUMES OF “GRADED GO PROBLEMS” SERIES: Kiseido has just published the first three books of a seven-volume series, reports publisher Richard Bozulich. Graded Go Problems for Dan Players “is a translation of a 14-volume series put out by the Nihon Ki-in, compressed into seven volumes,” Bozulich tells the E-Journal. Targeted at aspiring dan players, the series is designed to provide low-kyu and low-dan players with the essential grounding in the basics of life-and-death, tesuji, and joseki needed to develop deeper and more accurate reading and the knowledge they need to compete as dan players. In “300 Life-and-Death Problems,” “300 Tesuji Problems,” and “300 Joseki Problems,” the level of the problems starts at around 5-kyu and works up to 3-dan, with the majority in the 1- to 3-dan bracket. The series will continue with volumes four to six, containing life-and-death, tesuji, and joseki problems for 3-dan players and stronger. Volumes seven will cover the opening (fuseki) and the middle game. Expected publication date for Volumes Four to Six is Spring 2010 and Summer 2010 for Volume Seven.

KOREAN GO SCHOOL ACCEPTING FOREIGN STUDENTS: Foreign students have until November 31 to apply at the department of Baduk Studies, Myongji University in Yongin, Korea. Check the pages of the admission office as well as the department's homepage for details, or email Daniela Trinks (daniela.trinks@gmx.de)

GO SPOTTING: Gaming Doctor 'Caused Baby Death': A five-month-old Chinese baby died in a hospital because his doctor was busy playing go online while his condition worsened, reports say. Officials from the Jiangsu provincial health department said that Dr Mao Xiaojun -- admitted he was playing an online game of go -- would be sacked from Nanjing Children's Hospital, according to a November 13 report by the BBC. Parents have been angered by a series of major health blunders in China; more than 10,000 lawsuits relating to medical disputes have been filed in Chinese courts every year since 2002, the Xinhua news agency reported. Gates On His Failure At Go: Billionaire Bill Gates cites go as one of his personal failures. "When I was young . . . I wanted to be the world's best chess player and, of course, I didn’t succeed. I wanted to be the world’s best Go player, too…so I’ve had plenty of disappointments," Gates said in his 1997 book, Bill Gates Speaks: Insight from the world's greatest entrepreneur. Click here to view the book online; the quote appears on page 227. - Roy Laird & David Drexler

GO PHOTO: “Yes, We Can” Play Go: This month’s German Go Journal cover features a photo of President Obama ostensibly playing go with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Board 1 at the U.S. Go Congress; the original photo was taken by Pete Souza and adapted by German Go Journal Editor Tobias Berben.