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AGA News!
Update May 28, 2009 HONG KONG DEFEATS JAPAN IN WAGC IGF MAKING BIG MOVES IN WORLD GO WAGC SNAPSHOT: Live from The Ecopa GO QUIZ: Best WAGC Euro Place THE TRAVELING BOARD: The Sunshine Go Club .jpg) HONG KONG DEFEATS JAPAN IN WAGC: Japan was the first of the top go powers to suffer a defeat in this year’s World Amateur Go Championship, losing to Hong Kong in Round 4 on Thursday. Top-eight results: KOREA defeated The Netherlands and Taipei; CHINA beat Czechia and Singapore; HONG KONG defeated Canada and Japan; JAPAN beat Luxembourg and lost to Hong Kong; ROMANIA lost to Taipei and defeated Bosnia; the U.S. lost to Hungary and defeated Ireland; HUNGARY defeated the U.S. and the Russian Federation, while TAIPEI defeated Romania and lost to Korea. Click here for complete results through Round 4.- Chris Garlock, photo by John Pinkerton  IGF MAKING BIG MOVES IN WORLD GO: The International Go Federation this week elected a new President, expanded the organization’s financial support base and moved ahead on plans to hold next year’s World Amateur Go Championships in China. China and Korea have agreed to join Japan in financially supporting the IGF, “a major step that bodes well for the Federation and for world go,” IGF Director – and newly-appointed Vice President -- Thomas Hsiang (3rd from r) of the U.S. told the E-Journal. The IGF had a very successful year in 2008, adding the World Mind Sports Games to a roster of major events that now includes the World Amateur Go Championships, the Prime Minister’s Cup, and the Pair Go Championship. The 2010 WAGC will be held in Hangzhou, China, marking only the second time the 30-year event has ever been held outside Japan. While declining sponsorships will prevent the IGF from covering WAGC player airfares in 2010, all other player expenses will continue to be covered. The next WMSG is tentatively scheduled for 2013, with several cities – including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Adelaide and Moscow -- expressing interest in hosting the event. The IGF also announced that for the first time, go will be part of the 2010 Asia Games, an important development as this is an Olympic event. In a related report, Hsiang provided an update on the IGF’s work with the World Anti-Doping Agency, noting that WADA has classified go as a sport with a “low-risk” of doping, which Hsiang says “greatly simplifies testing” issues. In addition to admitting Macau as a member of the IGF, the Iberoamerican Go Federation and the World Pair Go Association were welcomed as members at Tuesday’s IGF meeting, where Nihon Kiin President Hideo Otake was elected to head up the federation, while Russia’s Victor Bogdanov was elected as a new Director, Maria Dolores Puerta was re-elected as a Director, and Thomas Hsiang of the U.S. was appointed Vice President. WAGC SNAPSHOT: Live from The Ecopa .jpg) The Ecopa Arena, site of this year’s World Amateur Go Championship, is part of the Ogasayama Sports Park, which extends from Fukuroi City into neighbouring Kakegawa. Set amid lush green hills dotted with fields of the tea bushes the region is famous for, the facility opened in 2001 and is now the primary venue for major sporting events in Shizuoka Prefecture. Shizuoka Stadium hosted some of the 2002 World Cup soccer games, including the quarter-final match between Brazil and England. The floor of the Ecopa’s vast indoor arena is now split between the playing area for the WAGC contestants and an area for interested amateurs to play simuls with professionals and watch game lectures by pros. The cavernous space is a quiet beehive of go activity all day, as spectators float between observing the competition, taking in lectures and trying out their own moves against pros. GO QUIZ: Best WAGC Euro Place The highest place attained by the U.S. rep at the WAGC is 5th place, achieved by four players: Charlie Huh (7th WAGC), John Lee (16th), Jong Moon Lee (17th), and Thomas Faul Ko (18th). TODAY’S QUIZ: What’s the highest place a European representative has achieved at the WAGC? Bonus points: What was the player’s name, country and the year? Click here to submit your answer. THE TRAVELING BOARD: The Sunshine Go Club By Chris Garlock   If the Sunshine Go Club has none of the disreputable charm of classic smoky go dives like the Shusaku, it does have at least one thing those clubs increasingly lack: members. Over 450 belong to the club, located on the 9th floor of the Sunshine Building in Tokyo’s east Ikebukuro neighborhood. Once the site of the infamous Sugamo Prison, the Sunshine Building now draws throngs of shoppers and tourists to its indoor mall and other attractions like Namjatown, a rooftop aquarium, shops, a food court, and weekly displays of foods and goods from around Japan and the world. Flooded with natural light from a wall of windows overlooking the complex of buildings owned and managed by the Sunshine real estate company, the club has been open a dozen years and manager Seizo Nakazono 8d credits low membership fees, a non-smoking policy and regular lessons with pros and top amateurs as top draws for the healthy membership. Nakazono is a former  insei who didn’t make pro and went to work for Sunshine, which eventually asked him to open and manage the club as part of their range of cultural attractions in the complex. He’s proud that the club is home for an unusual number of female and young players, as well as foreigners, which has helped to mitigate the drop-off in membership and attendance many clubs in Japan have seen as the overall population of go players has declined in recent years. Fridays and Saturdays are especially busy at the club, as local university players come to train, and pros give regular lessons. Precise and serious in his immaculate suit, Nakazono is quietly passionate about the game. “It’s fine to play go as a hobby,” he told me Sunday. “But if you want to get strong it must be more than just playing for fun.” After quitting playing for five years after his insei training ended, Nakazono returned to amateur play and won a number of top Japanese amateur titles, including the amateur Meijin and Honinbo, and placed 5th in the 2004 WAGC. “To climb Mount Fuji you must go at your own pace,” he told me Sunday. “If you try to run up the mountain, you’re only going to get in trouble.” - Garlock is in Japan this week to cover the 30th World Amateur Go Championships. Photos by John Pinkerton. Thanks to Kazunari Furuyama and Jeremy Banzhaf for translation assistance. | |
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