STRONG PLAYING FIELD, RECORD TURNOUT AT NORCAL TOURNEY: Fifty three players participated in the monthly ratings tournament August 22 in Palo Alto, CA, the biggest turnout since Bay Area Go Players Association began running monthly tournaments a year and a half ago. Joey Hung 8d (in striped shirt), Matthew Burrall 7d, and Hugh Zhang 7d and German Woman's Go champion Daniela Trinks 5d (at left in photo) were part of an impressively strong playing field that boasted ten players ranked 4 dan or above. Meanwhile there were plenty of good opponents for beginners, with a dozen players entering at a rank of 20 kyu to 30 kyu. “It is so nice to have so many strong players and so many newer players together at one event,” said tournament organizer Roger Schrag. “I bet we could fit 100 players in this room,” mused Joey Hung 8d. Dan-level players winning three games: Mengmeng Chen 3d, Lucas Baker 2d. Kyu-level players winning four games: Matthew Fu 4k, Leon Hsieh 10k, Larry Qu 23k.
Photos by Roger Schrag: click here for more photos

U.S. DOWN TO LAST PLAYER IN TEAM TOURNEY: Dae Hyuk Ko's lost to Jing Yang makes Huiren Yang the only player left on US team.  There are still two players in team Canada: Jing Yang and Cathy Li.  Huiren Yang will play with Jing Yang after Canadian Open Go Tournament this weekend.

ZHANG YANQI WINS FRENCH CHAMPIONSHIP: "Zhang Yanqi of China won the French Open title August 27-30 in Toulouse. She defeated Motoki Noguchi (Japan) in the final. Thomas Debarre finished third. As best Frenchman, he will represent France during the next World Amateur Championships", wrote Eric Saves on the French site. Saves adds, that young Zhang is a relatively recent resident of France compared to Noguchi). All three finished in the European sub-top during the recent EGC in Groningen with 6 wins: Zhang was 11th and defeated Debarre (12th), while Noguchi was 15th. Here are the final EGC rankings. -Peter Dijkema

MASTER DICKHUT KING OF COLOGNE: Favorite Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d - current European Master and German Champ - swept Cologne’s large tourney August 29-30. Cologne will host the European Go Congress in 2012. Behind the favorite, four finished at 3-2: Barbara Knauf 3d (2nd), Matthias Terwey 4d (3rd), Bernd Radmacher 5d (3rd) and Rudi Verhagen 5d (4th, Holland). Among 121 participants, only Hans Ulrich Frink (10k) and Manuel Kaszub (20k) also won all five games. Click here for results. Elsewhere in Germany, 59 took part in Frankfurt, where Hwang In-Seong 7d lectured. Only Pascal Mueller 4k won all five. Local Chu Weiji 2d (1st) shared the podium with Leon Stauder 2d (2nd) and Anton Grzesniok 3d (3rd), all at 4-1. Click here for the table.

NEW GO BOOKS FROM YUTOPIAN: Several new go books out from Yutopian include Creative Life & Death v. 1 by Cho Hye Yeon -- which includes 48 life and death problems – and Chihyung Nam’s Baduk Made Fun and Easy.

GO PHOTO: Lords of the Samurai
This go board and stones are in the Lords of the Samurai exhibit at the San Francisco Asian Art museum.  The set was owned by Sen no Rikyu, the founder of modern Japanese Tea Ceremony, 1522 - 1591c.e.  Note the irregular shape of the stones; there are 159 black stones and 158 white. There was no notation of why that may have been the case.  It was a 19 x 19 board and the lines are an inlay rather than raised.  This is another interesting connection between Go and Zen as Rikyu was highly admired by Daitokoji monastery and given the honorary title of Koji by the emperor. The exhibition features more than 160 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, and from Kumamoto Castle and the Kumamoto Municipal Museum in Kyushu. The photo is courtesy of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum as photos of the exhibit by visitors are strictly prohibited.  The exhibits are rotating until Sept. 20 and the go board has been rotated out at this time.
- Ernest Brown

CORRECTION: The photo of Jennie Shen in last week’s EJ (US & CANADA TIED IN TEAM GO TOURNAMENT 8/25 EJ) was taken by Portland Go Club President Glenn Peters. Click here for more of his photos from last year’s U.S. Go Congress.

YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
Programs Wanted For Smart Phone: “Some time ago E-Journal readers helped identify a go program for Blackberries,” writes David Whiteside. “Now I’m in the hunt for go programs—primarily to record games for later review—on my Windows Mobile 6 Professional Smart Phone. Any help will be hugely appreciated.” Email suggestions to us at journal@usgo.org

BADUKTOPIA: Step By Step Go For Kids
Teachers and parents who want to introduce go to children have dreamed of colorful, engaging, easy-to-use teaching materials, Now that dream has become a reality, thanks to Baduktopia, a Seoul-based publisher of books in English. A series of Flashmedia animated lessons are also available for download. The heart of their Level Up! series  is a carefully crafted series of easy-to-solve problems, repeating a series of related  fundamental points, then reviewing them. Lee Jae-hwan, the author, developed the "Level Up!" approach by trial and error while teaching Korean children full-time at his go studio for nearly twenty years. Adults can also benefit from the thorough, systematic repetition of fundamentals. After many other teachers asked to use Lee's materials, he decided to publish them, and Yoo Chang-hyuk 9P, one of the world's top players, agreed to supervise the production. Colorful illustrations are interspersed throughout each large-format 168-page book, along with illustrated discussion of rules, concepts, and even manners, all presented in a way specially designed to hold the young student's attention.  "These books are tremendously appealing to kids," reports EJ Youth Editor and U.S. Go Congress Youth Director Paul Barchilon, "the colorful cartoons, fast paced action, and simple diagrams are a winning combination. Baduktopia translator Lee Seong-Keun did a live presentation in the Youth Room and had some 20 kids shooting their hands up, just begging to be called on.  He knows how to make kids excited, and this ability is clearly carried over into the books."  Congress youth described the books as "awesome," "cool," and more directly: "can I use my gift certificates to buy these?" The series has double the problem content of other comparable books - because there are no answers, only problems. Translators Lee Seong-gun and Daniela Trinks explained that most Korean teachers are 5D or better, so they already know the solutions. However, less adept instructors can download the solutions here.The first twelve books are available in English from Yellow Mountain Imports. Click on each book for a detailed description of the contents.  In coming months, two other sets will take up where "Level Up!" left off: "Jump Level Up!" and High Level Up!," for a total of more than thirty systematic workbooks, as well as two other five-volume-plus-review sets for more advanced players -- "Essential Life And Death" and "Joseki Jeongseok Compass." Watch for them soon at YMI and other vendors.
- Roy Laird