AGA News!
Updated 2/8/2010
FENG YUN/JIE LI WIN N.A. PAIR GO 1ST ROUND: Feng Yun and Jie Li defeated Wan Chen and Curtis Tang Sunday night in the first round of the North American World Pair Go Qualifier, played on IGS. Feng Yun and Jie Li will have a bye for the second round, and play the final game on Thursday night. Jing Yang and Jin Yu will play White vs Yuan Zhou and Yinli Wang on Tuesday night – also on IGS, in Round Two.
 USYGC SEASON OPENS: The 2010 United States Youth Go Championship is kicking into gear, with qualifiers now scheduled across the country. First up is the Orange County Go Club, in Los Angeles, on Feb. 21-22. New Qualifier locations have been added as well, with Boston, New Jersey, Colorado, and San Francisco all hosting events. There will also be an online qualifier, hosted by the AGHS. This year, the AGA is also adding National Single Digit Kyu (SDK) and Double Digit Kyu (DDK) championships to the event. The winners will receive trophies, and prizes will be awarded in the following brackets: 1-4 kyu, 5-9 kyu, 10-15 kyu, 16-20 kyu, 21-25 kyu, 26 and up kyu. In the dan brackets, the strongest kids in the country will be competing for the right to represent the US at the World Youth Go Championships this summer. Low dan youth will have a chance at prizes and trophies too, with prizes for 1-5 dan as well. The event is sponsored by the AGA and the AGF, and Guo Juan has donated audio go lessons as bonus prizes for youth in all categories. For more information, visit the tournament webpage.
-Paul Barchilon; photo: young players study at the 2009 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Chris Garlock
KIRBY SWEEPS NORCAL TOURNEY: Brian Kirby topped February's monthly ratings tournament in Northern California, February 6 in Menlo Park, CA. There were 25 players, ranging from 25 kyu to 7 dan, and two played in their first tournament ever. The next monthly ratings tournament will be March 6 in Palo Alto, CA. Winners report: Four game winner: Brian Kirby 2k 4-0. Three game winners: Lucas Baker 2d 3-1, Samuel Gross 1d 3-0, Roger Schrag 7k 3-0, Larry Qu 15k 3-1.
- Roger Schrag
 SMARTGO IN SOUTH KOREA AND COMING SOON TO IPAD: SmartGo Pro for the iPhone/iPod touch is now available in South Korea under the name "Smartgo Pro Baduk," reports SmartGo author Anders Kierulf. “It comes with over 15,000 professional games and 2,000 problems.” Search for Baduk in the iTunes App Store. Kierulf also tells the EJ that “I'm working on a version of SmartGo optimized for Apple's upcoming iPad.”
 RUI NAIWEI RETAINS FEMALE MYEONGIN TITLE, AGAIN: Rui Naiwei 9P defeated Cho Hyeyeon 8P by resignation in the third and final round of the 11th Female Myeongin (Meijin) on February 8. Rui and Cho Hyeyeon have faced each other for the Female Myeongin title three years in a row now, and Rui has come out ahead each time. She has held this title for six straight years and won 9 out of the 11 Myeongin title matches.
- Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library, JustPlayGo
 CHO U 3-0 IN KISEI: Cho U 9P defeated Yamashita Keigo http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=45 by a whopping 8.5 points in the third round of the 34th Kisei title match on February 3-4. Cho U leads the series 3-0. This is the first time Cho has played in the Kisei title match and the Kisei is the only one of the top seven Japanese titles he has never held. Yamashita has held this title five of the last seven years, including the last four in a row. The fourth round in the best-of-seven match will be played on February 18-19.
- Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library, JustPlayGo
JAPAN KNOCKED OUT OF BC CUP: Japan’s Iyama Yuta and Yamada Kimio were both eliminated in the second round of the BC Card Cup, ending any hopes of Japan entering into the finals. China’s Niu Yutian 7P defeated Iyama Yuta 9P by resignation and Korea’s Yoo Changhyuk 9P defeated Yamada Kimio 9P by resignation as well.
Game Record (Niu Yutian vs. Iyama Yuta B+R)
Game Record (Yoo Changhyuk vs. Yamada Kimio B+R)
- JustPlayGo
 KOREA TAKES WOMEN'S TEAM MATCH CUP: Korea’s Park Jieun 9P swept the 3rd stage of the Jeongganjang Cup, winning all four rounds and giving Korea their win on February 4. Park Jieun defeated China’s Li He 2P by resignation in the final round. Korea has now won five of the eight Jeongganjang Cup titles. The Jeongganjang Cup is a win-and-continue tournament between five member women teams from China, Japan, and Korea. Last year the Chinese won for the third time, and it looked like they would repeat this year when the third stage started with one Japanese representative, one Korean, and three Chinese. However, the Korean rep was Park Jieun 9P and she won four games in a row to give Korea its fifth win of this Cup. The Japanese won one game this year (Mukai Chiaki 3P beat Kim Hyeoimin 5P of Korea), which was better than last year and allowed them to at least appear in the third round.
- Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library, JustPlayGo
IYAMA YUTA HOLDS LEAD IN HONINBO LEAGUE: Iyama Yuta 9P, current Meijin, holds the lead in the Honinbo League with a 4-0 record. The challenger for the Japanese Honinbo title is determined by an eight-player round robin league, which is about half over at this point. Everyone else has lost at least one game. In second place are Takao Shinji 9P and Yamashita Keigo 9P, both at 3-1. Iyama's next game is against Yamashita on February 11th.
- Go News, GoGameWorld, Sensei's Library, JustPlayGo
 YOUNGEST-EVER PRO IS FEMALE: The youngest ever pro 1-dan is about to emerge in Japan and she is female. On April 1, Fujisawa Rina will be inducted at the age of 11 years 6 months, three months younger than Cho Chikun when he became 1-dan, and far ahead of Xie Yimin who was the previous youngest female 1-dan at 14 years 4 months. Rina is the daughter of Fujisawa Kazunari 8-dan, and thus the granddaughter of Fujisawa Hideyuki. She says her style is quite different from grandad’s, she likes territory and he liked thickness. Her teacher was Hong Mal-keun Saem, a Korean long time resident in Japan who himself qualified as a pro just last year. Rina qualified in the women’s section of the Nihon Ki-in’s qualification system, which is not quite as tough as the open section, but women in the Nihon Ki-in have been posting some good results lately; Mukai Chiaki beat Kudo Norio 9-dan in the Oza a fortnight ago.
- John Fairbairn, on godiscussions.com
 DINERCHTEIN TO FUJITSU FINALS: Alexander Dinerchtein 3P will represent Europe at this year’s Fujitsu World Go Championship. Dinerchtein won a 4-player online knock-out tourney held on KGS at the end of January, first defeating Christian Pop 7d of Romania and then, in the finals, Csaba Mero 6d of Hungary. Mero had eliminated Catalin Taranu 5P; click here for the game. The Fujitsu will be held in Japan in April.
.jpg) TÖRMÄNEN TAKES TAKAPOTKU: Antti Törmänen 5d from Oulu took the Takapotku tournament, sweeping the Pandanet event 5-0 in Helsinki, Finland last weekend. Viktor Lin 5d from Vienna only loss was to Törmänen, while Janne Määttä 4d took home bronze, also to Oulu. Surprisingly, Su Yang 6d (Jeff Chang 9d on KGS) won only three games to finish fifth. Lone Estonian Alo Jöekalda 1k from Tallinn won three games as well. Click here for results.
METTA CELEBRATES TENTH TORTELLINO: Carlo Metta 1d from Pisa won all five rounds of the Tortellino Tournament in Vignola (Modena province), Italy to celebrate the first decennium of Tortellina Go Club. Paolo Montrasio 1k (Milano) was second, while Mirco Fanti 2k (Bologna) took bronze. In 28-player field, only local Modena player Jacopo Silingardi 15k also won all his games. Click here for results and here for a gallery of photos.
- Peter Dijkema
ANGUILA SWEEPS SPANISH TITLE: Oscar Anguila 3d swept the tournament for the 'Campeón de Espana' title in mid-January in Barcelona. Anguila was undefeated in a mostly 3-dans. Antonio Egea won silver and Ignacio Cernuda took bronze.
The final was played over five rounds with eight players. For the table, click here. - Peter Dijkema and Krzysztof Bozek
DANIGABI TAKES EARLY LEAD IN KGS LEAGUE: Danigabi from Argentina sprinted to an early lead in the top-division in the first week of the second Korean Insei League on KGS. Danigabi notched three wins against second-place Arlequ1 from France and leads 9-0. January’s A League winner Artem92 is tied with ha – also of France – in third place. Click here for latest results.
TOP PLAYERS FLOCK TO AMSTERDAM: Top-ranked players are heading to the 39th annual Amsterdam International Go Tournament, set for May 13–16. Early entrants include current French Champion Yanqi Zhang 6d, former Dutch Champion Merlijn Kuin 6d, current co-winner of the Dutch finals Peter Brouwer 5d and former Amsterdam Open winner – and first Senior Champion of Holland -- Robert Rehm 5d.
- Peter Dijkema
 GO SPOTTING: The Taste of Tea: Go figures prominently in Katsuhito Ishii’s 2004 film, The Taste of Tea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taste_of_Tea (Cha no Aji). “Although go is not the only focus of the film, it is one of its essential ingredients and appears more often than in other films like Pi and A Beautiful Mind,” reports Pete Schumer. “It's worth checking out!” According to Wikipedia, “The film is concerned with the lives of the Haruno family, who live in rural Tochigi prefecture, the countryside north of Tokyo. Nobuo is a hypnotherapist who teaches his son, Hajime, to play go. Hajime becomes an excellent go player, but he has a rough time with girls and puberty. Nobuo’s wife, Yoshiko refuses to be an average housewife, and works on animated film projects at home. She uses assistance from Grandfather Akira, an eccentric old man who is a former animator and occasional model. Uncle Ayano, a sound engineer and record producer, moves in with the family. He is looking to restart his life again after living in Tokyo for several years. Meanwhile, Yoshiko's daughter Sachiko, believes that she is followed around everywhere by a giant version of herself, and searches for ways to rid herself of it.” “Katsuhito also directed the film Promises of August (1995) and The Shark Skin Man and the Peach Hip Girl (1999) as well as providing some animation in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill vol. I,” adds Schumer.
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