HANE RETAKES LEAD IN HONINBO: After losing the second game in the Honinbo title match to challenger Takao Shinji 9P, Hane Naoki 9P won the third game on June 11th to make the score in the best-of-seven-games match 2-1. Hane won this title for the first time last year, taking it from Takao, who had held it the previous three years. Takao holds no titles at the moment, while Hane also is the most recent winner of both the NEC Cup and the regionally based Okan. Game 4 is scheduled for June 18-19.

CALVIN SUN WINS RECORD-BREAKING COFFEE CUP: Calvin Sun 7d took first place in the Espresso Division of the 3rd Annual Santa Monica Coffee Cup June 13 in Santa Monica, California. A record 42 players attended, including a top section of eight players from 5d to 7d. The vibrantly decorated interior of the UnUrban Coffeehouse easily held the larger crowd without getting stuffy, helped by June’s usual cool weather. “We could get to 50 people next year without spilling out onto the sidewalk,” says organizer Andrew Okun. Winners of each division won a hand-painted cup and a choice of donated gifts such as a lesson with Yilun Yang 7P and subscriptions to Go4Go.net. Top three or four finishers in each division also won dark roast coffee beans. As an innovation, two of the top board games were broadcast via KGS, garnering more than a hundred observers each. Winner’s Results: Espresso Division (5d-7d, even games) 1st Calvin Sun 7d, 2nd  Wenhua Tang 7d, 3rd Yixian Zhou 6d, 4th Kevin Zhao 6d. Cappuccino Division (3k-2d, handicap) 1st Jerry Shen 1k, 2nd Andrew Okun 1k, 3rd Tyler Oyakawa 1d, 4th Ross Wolf 2k. Java Division (4k-6k, handicap) 1st Albert Hu 6k, 2nd Lisha Li 4k, 3rd Ted Terpstra 5k, 4th Jeff McLellan 5k. Mocha Division (8k-12k, Handicap) 1st Scott Nichols 12k, 2nd Yanchen Sun 8k, 3rd Cyris Sargon 10k, 4th Lance Hsu 10k. Latte Division ( 13k-30k) 1st Susanna Pfeffer 17k, 2nd Jerry Lu 16k, 3rd Sean Pederson 22k.

WORLD OZA CANCELATION CONFIRMED: The Nihon Kiin has confirmed that the Toyota & Denso Cup World Go Oza has been canceled by the sponsors. In related news, the TOM news website reports that JP Morgan is discontinuing sponsorship of the Zhonghuan Cup and GoGameWorld.net reports that the Chinese NEC Cup has been canceled. The bi-annual World Go Oza started in 2001 and featured major cash prizes in qualifiers around the world that were open to both professional and top amateur players. "While we're very sorry to hear this news," said American Go Association President Allan Abramson, "we join the Nihon Kiin in expressing our deep appreciation to sponsors Toyota Motor Corporation and Denso Corporation as well as to the special cooperation of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc."In North America, the event evolved into one of the biggest tournaments run by the AGA, with events drawing huge fields running simultaneously on both coasts and with top boards broadcast live to hundreds more online. "The World Oza not only attracted many new and experienced players to the game, but provided a unique opportunity to publicize the game worldwide," Abramson added. The event was a 32-player knockout tournament, leading up to a best-of-three final match; click here for details and winners.

KONG JI TAKES ASIAN TV CUP: Kong Jie 7P of China dethroned Lee Sedol 9P of Korea in the Asian TV Cup final on June 12. Lee had won this cup – which pits the winners and runners-up of each of the national TV  tournaments, along with last year's winner of the international event against each other -- the two previous years. In his twenties, Kong doesn't have a record matching that of his fellow countryman Gu Li 9P, but he has won a number of national events, including the Chang-ki Cup twice. Lee is definitely a bit off his game at the moment, holding only one international and two national titles.

KOREANS DOMINATE FUJITSU: Korean players are dominating another international event, the Fujitsu Cup. Two Japanese, two Chinese, and four Korean representatives made it to the third round of the 22nd Fujitsu, but no Japanese players and only one Chinese made the semifinals, with Koreans taking the other three slots. The lone Chinese player is Chang Hao 9P who defeated Lee Sedol 9P. The three Koreans are Park Yeonghun 9P, who knocked out Japan's Kono Rin 9P, Kang Dongyun 9P, who eliminated China's Piao Wenyao 5P, and Lee Changho 9P, who defeated Japan's Yamashita Keigo 9P. The semifinals are scheduled for July 4th in Tokyo, with the finals on July 6th. Gu Li 9P of China won this event last year, and the Koreans won it the previous ten years in a row. The last Japanese win was by Kobayashi Koichi 9P in 1997. Since then the best the Japanese have been able to do is Yoda Norimoto 9P taking second place in 2004. Koreans Park and Lee have both won the Fujitsu twice. Lee is the old man of the group, being in his middle thirties, a year older than Chang.

US-CANADA TEAM GO TOURNAMENT UPDATE: Andy Liu easily beat William Shi in the first game of the ongoing US-Canada Team Go Tournament, reports organizer Ke Lu. Liu then lost to Tiger Gong by resignation in the second game. The third game -- between Trevor Morris and Tiger Gong – will be played soon. Click here for the schedule and game records. The US-Canada Tourney will be played online over the next month or so, not just last weekend, as reported previously (2ND US-CANADA TOURNEY THIS WEEKEND 6/9/09). Team Canada has been confirmed: William Shi, Xiandong Zhang, Jun Fan, Tiger Gong, Jing Yang, Yongfei Ge, Hank Xie, Xianyu Li, James Sedgwick, Juyong Koh.

CARLSON AND ZALESAK WINNERS AT NC RATINGS TOURNAMENT. Tom Carlson 12k and Andrew Zalesak 16k were the prize-winners at a self-paired ratings tournament held in Hillsborough, NC, on June 13th. A dozen players ranging from 27k through 3d participated in the day-long event. Winners received gift certificates for audio go lessons at Guo Juan's Internet Go School.

CHI WONG 4K BEATS 4D TO WIN FORT MYERS “IGO TO THE PARK” TOURNEY: Four-kyu Chi Wong nudged out 2008 Fort Myers Open Champ Karsten Henckell 4d in the June 6 Fort Myers “Igo to the Park” handicap tournament. Fifty players from Miami, Sarasota, Orlando, Fort Myers, and Tallahassee competed for over $600 in cash prizes. “ It’s nice to see there is a real go presence here in the state of Florida,” said Fort Myers Go member Chuck Saint. “Just three years ago there were no go tournaments in the state, and now go players from all over have several to participate in!”

ROEVER LEADS IRISH TOP-8: Claas Roever defeated Ian Davis on June 12 in the John Hewitt pub in Belfast. “Claas (Black) tried very hard to lose in yose, but was unsuccesful, winning by 5.5 points," reports the Irish Go Association. Click here 

SWISS PAIR DEFENDS OPEN TITLE: Silvia Koch and Adi Wagner from the capital city of Bern defended their Swiss Pair Go title successfully in Ascona on June 13 and Locarno on June 14, losing only to the team of Dominik Mueller and Lorenz Trippel, who won silver. Click here http://www.swissgo.org/results/pairgo09.html for full results. This was the second year the tourney was held in Switzerland’s southern canton of Ticino, on the Italian border.
- Peter Dijkema

CHMIELEWSKI 6K WINS IN SZCZECIN: Artur Chmielewski 6k of Starogard topped a field of just a half-dozen to win the 4th Szczecin tourney on June 13 in Szczecin, a Baltic Sea harbor city in the N-W of Poland.Poland. Click here for complete results. - Peter Dijkema

NAKAYAMA TO TEACH IN TIROL ALPS: Nakayama Noriyuki 6P will again this year teach at the Tirol Go Sessions in Austria. The annual event – organized by Helmut Witschek 6d and his Japanese wife Joschi – has been running since 1995 and this year takes place in Ischgl in the Austrian Tirol Alps from July 18-25. Playing and teaching is planned for the evenings, as mountain walks have priority for the veteran participants, though sources say some participants start to play before breakfast. - Peter Dijkema

MELENCO MASTER OF CORMONS: Claudiu Melenco 1k (Brescia) won the Pandanet tourney June 6-7 in Cormons, Italy, winning all five rounds, ahead of Mirco Fanti 2k (4-1, Bologna) and Luka Camernic 2k (Ljubljana, Slovenia) 3-2. Cormons is at the Italian-Slovenian border and play took place in an old cellar, the place is mostly known for its wine. Paolo Driussi 10k and Georgio Gargari 13k (both Udine) won 4-1 each. Twenty players participated; click here for full results.- Peter Dijkema

TEAM EVENT BUILDS FUTURE LEADERS: The recently concluded Ing School Teams Championship drew record numbers again this year, with 216 youth competing in 72 teams. The event has been running online for the past several months and is organized and managed by the American Go Honor Society (AGHS) with the support of the AGA and the AGF. Across the country, schools and youth clubs have been competing for prizes and glory. Vincent Eisman's Fair Oaks Elementary scored a feature story in the May 27th issue of the Oakdale Leader. The AGHS website has final standings for all of the team and individual finals, and full reports on all AGHS activities. Also of note are their current elections. The AGHS is run almost entirely by youth, with only a few adults who were former executives helping keep things on track. The current candidates have posted statements, and youth and team advisors who competed in the team tournament are eligible to vote. "I envision a cycle: If we can teach a better player, he can create a player out of someone new," says Kris Taylor of the Jasper High School Go Club in Texas, a candidate for President. "That player will become stronger and continue the cycle. The six points of separation theory should be applied to go, and spread using the existing players in the go community," Taylor adds. Diana Yang, of the Highlands Ranch Library club in Colorado says: "I wish to inspire youth in the US to take up the challenging game of go, and bring the US onto the stage of go competitors who are equals with the professionals within the Orient today." Yang is a candidate for Treasurer. In all, 16 candidates are running for 7 positions, their full statements are available online.
- Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor

GO SPOTTING: Go Author’s Baseball Tour: “Regular Tuesday night meeting of the Lakeview Go Club in Chicago,” reports Bob Barber. “Guy wanders in, asks if this is the club, and introduces himself as (longtime go author) John Fairbairn! Says he's in town for the baseball (club is located about one fastball from Wrigley Field). Says he's going on the Milwaukee. For the baseball. Who am I to doubt the word of John Fairbairn? Had him play Mr. Araya, sometime 5-dan, who's waiting for his cataract operation. John's got jetlag: fair match. Ends up a two-point game. (We wonder just how strong Mr. Araya will be when he can actually SEE the board). Thank you, Mr. Fairbairn, for all your wonderful go writing over the years. And thanks for gracing our club.”

CORRECTIONS: ROMANIAN YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS, NOT EUROPEAN: The Romania’s National Youth Championships (not the European National Youth Championships, as erroneously reported) are coming up June 15-21 in Poiana Zinelor, Romania. The European Youth Goe Championships were held March 5-8 in Banja Luka.