News / Articles

CONGRESS DIRECTOR WINS CONGRESS TUNE-UP: U.S. Go Congress Director Greg Lefler 2d took top honors in last weekend92s NoVa Congress Tune-Up on June 17 in Arlington, VA, shrugging off the pressures of preparing for the more than 400 attendees at the upcoming Congress. Mike Lash ran the event for organizer Alan Abramson and Chuck Robbins directed; there were 28 players in six sections. The full winner92s report: SECTION A: 1st: Greg Lefler, 2d 3-1; 2nd: Greg Rosenblatt, 2d, 3-1; SECTION B: 1st: Andrew Jackson, 1d 3-1; 2nd: David Wong, 1d, 3-1; SECTION C: 1st Bill Cobb, 5k, 3-0; 2nd: John Lancaster, 6k, 2-2; SECTION D: 1st: John Grenier, 8k, 3-1; 2nd: Raymond Yeh, 6k, 3-1; SECTION E: 1st: Chris Sira, 15k , 3-1; 2nd: Ben Bassett, 17k, 2-2; SECTION F: 1st: Takehara Keiju, 25k, 4-0; 2nd Geoff Boyer, 6k, 3-1

JEONG TOPS TOUGH FIELD IN SOCAL: James (Jong In) Jeong 8d took first place in in the Southern California Go Club‘s July Ratings Tournament, besting a tough field that included eight players 5-dan and above, as well as Rui Wang, the winner of the 6-dan division of last year‘s Congress. 93The battles in the upper division were truly awesome to behold,94 reports Chris Hayashida. Winners report: UPPER DIVISION: 1st: James (Jong In) Jeong, 8d; 2nd: (3-way tie): Rui Wang 6d, Tony Emsenhuber 5d, and Anthony Chen 5d; LOWER DIVISION: 1st: Allen Drantyev, 3k; 2nd: Jeff McLellan 5k; 3rd: Tom (Yuji) Tabata, 2d.

LASH APPOINTED AGA PRESIDENT: Mike Lash was appointed President of the American Go Association Sunday night by the AGA92s Board of Directors, reports Board Chair Alan Abramson. Lash will serve a two-year term beginning immediately following the National Assembly meeting at the upcoming U.S. Go Congress, Abramson told the EJ. 93We deeply appreciate the work of the Leadership Development Committee in soliciting and developing candidates, as well as Chris Kirschner92s excellent and hard work on day-to-day operations and laying a solid foundation for the next President,94 Abramson said.
Lash has served on the AGA92s Governance Committee for the last several years, and was tapped as Foreign Go Association liaison late last year and then VP of Strategic Initiatives earlier this year. 93My main focus will be on strengthening the AGA chapters and the chapter representatives,94 Lash told the EJ. 93I also want to work on increasing the AGA92s stature and credibility around the world.94 Lash says that he plans to follow the Board92s suggestion 93to bring on a Vice-President to work closely with me and share the workload.94 Lash has been playing go since 1976, when he learned at Miami University of Ohio. He lived overseas for 10 years and taught and played go in Australia, Samoa, Papua, New Guinea and other countries. Lash92s day job involves handling real-estate transactions around the world for the U.S. State Department.

15 PROS SET FOR CONGRESS: Fifteen professionals are among the more than 400 people who have already registered for the 2004 U.S. Go Congress July 31-August 8 in Rochester, NY. The roster includes familiar names like Noriyuki Nakayama 6P, James Kerwin 1P, YilunYang 7P, Feng Yun 9P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P Guo Juan 5p, Ryo Maeda 6p and HuirenYang 1P, all of whom will be lecturing and playing simuls at the Congress. “There are still plenty of rooms left,” says Congress Director Greg Lefler, “our challenge now is maximizing the playing space!” For a complete list of Congress attendees, including all the professionals, go to http://ssl8.pair. com/emptysky/attendees.php

AP STORY SPARKS CLUB SURGE: The Central New York Go Club brought in a record 23 people at their weekly Monday night meeting last week, reports organizer Anton Ninno, who credits a recent Associated Press story about the growing popularity of 91game nights92 in cafes, bars, and bookstores. 93Ages ranged from 5 to 75, with almost every demographic: kids, teens, college students, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, singles, couples, and retirees.94 Ninno adds that the club is helping organize local players to attend the upcoming Go Congress in nearby Rochester. 93We all want to see the event, meet our Internet Go pals, and buy new go equipment,94 says Ninno. For a photo of some of the Syracuse players last week, click on http://www.usgo.o rg/index.asp or check out the CNY Go Club website at http://games.grou ps.yahoo.com/group/cnygo/


SMALL VARIATIONS: A new CD is now available of composer, pianist and go player Haskell Small 3d performing the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach. This is the work which Haskell performed following the opening ceremony of the Go Congress last year in Houston, Texas. The CD also includes a re-issue of Haskell Small92s own composition, 9325 Preludes94, which is structurally related to the Goldberg Variations. The CD is released on the 4-Tay label, and the total time is 79:09. Yutopian Enterprises will be including the CD in their catalog, and will have it available at the Go Congress in Rochester.

EXCHANGES ONLINE: Charles Matthews has begun posting “Exchanges” on the Internet; his series of articles was originally published in the American Go Journal in 2000-2001. You can read them at http://gobase.org /studying/articles/matthews/exchanges/

E-TEAM VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT: The American Go E-Journal will expand its coverage of the annual U.S. Go Congress this year to include commentary on top games and Congress photos along with the usual tournament reports and features. If you can92t actually be at the Congress, we92ll do our best to bring you as much of the experience as possible! We have a few slots left for volunteers to join the E-Team; those interested should email Managing Editor Chris Garlock at journal@usgo.org

FURUYAMA & ERRATA: A number of readers have written to tell us they92re really enjoying Kazunari 93Kaz94 Furuyama92s lessons and wondering if they92re collected anywhere: we92re pleased to assure Kaz92 fans that all the year92s attached games and problems files, including Kaz92 lessons, will be collected and organized in the 2004 American Go Yearbook, due out at the end of the year. Full members receive the Yearbook as a benefit of membership. To join, click on http://www.usgo.o rg/org/application.asp
The British Go Association92s (BGA) Youth Grand Prix runs during the calendar year, not the academic year, as reported in last week92s EJ (Brooks Leads BGA Youth Grand Prix, 7.12.04); we regret the error.

WORLD GO NEWS

JAPAN‘S TOYOTA-DENSO OZA CUP LINE-UP SETTLED: So Yokoku 7p will join Sakai Hideyuki 6p and Mizokami Tomochika 7p as the three non-seeded players on Japan‘s team for the Toyota-Denso Oza Cup, John Power reports on the Nihon Kiin‘s home page. So, the winner of the New Stars title last year, defeated Nakano Hironari 9p to gain the position. The seeded players are Yoda Norimoto 9p, Yamashita Keigo 9p, Cho U 9p, and Takao Shinji 8p. The North American representatives to this international tournament are Feng Yun 9p and Mingjiu Jiang 7p. The tournament will be held next month in Tokyo.

CHO CHIKUN SALVAGES DIGNITY: Cho Chikun 9p managed to win his next to the last game in the current Meijin Challenger‘s League, defeating O Rissei 9p by resignation on July 8th. This won‘t save Cho‘s seeded position in the league, but it does avoid the embarrassment of losing all eight games in league competition. Cho Chikun‘s last game will be against Cho U 9p next month. If U wins, he will be tied with Kobayashi Satoru 9p for the challenger‘s position.

YODA HOLDING ON IN 3RD TITLE TRY: Yoda Norimoto 9p has beaten challenger Yamada Kimio 8p in the second game of the Gosei title match in Japan to even the score of the five game match at 1-1. Yoda is struggling to win his first title match this year after falling short in both the Fujitsu Cup and the Honinbo. He lost his challenge against Cho U 9p for the Honinbo title 4-2 earlier this year, and was defeated in the final of the Fujitsu Cup on July 5th by Park Yeonghun 6p of Korea, losing by 1.5 points. You can find all of these games in the Collection on Alexandre Dinerchtein‘s web site at http://www.go4go. net Yoda also holds the Meijin title he successfully defended against Yamashita Keigo 9p last year. He will face either Cho U or Kobayashi Satoru 9p as the challenger for that title later this year.

SEDOL WINS FIRST GAME IN BATTLE OF THE LEES: Lee Sedol 9p, the challenger in the 38th Wangwi title match in Korea, defeated the title holder Lee Changho 9p in the first game by 3.5 points playing White. You can download or play through the game at http://www.go4go. net/english/bytournament2.jsp?id3D10 . Sedol won the challenger‘s league by a convincing score of 7-0 and now has taken the early lead in a very interesting match-up. Changho has held this very prestigious title continuously since 1995.

GO INTELLECT DOMINATES COMPUTER GO TOURNAMENT: K-H. Chen‘s Go Intellect won both the 9x9 and the 19x19 competitions in the 9th Computer Olympiad in Ramat-Gan, Israel. In 19x19, David Fotland‘s Many Faces of Go was a close second, losing only to Go Intellect. Indigo by B. Bouzy was third and GnuGo was fourth. In 9x9, the Free Software Foundation‘s GnuGo was second after a playoff with Go Intellect, while Magog by E. van der Werf was third. Complete results and all the game records can be found at http://www.cs.uni maas.nl/olympiad2004/

GAME COMMENTARY: Experience v. Youth Yields A Half-Pointer
Ted Ning 7d, the US representative to the 25th World Amateur Go Championships in Japan last month, lost his fifth round game to Diana Kosegi 6d of Hungary by a half point; we92re very pleased to present the game this week with commentary by Yilun Yang 7p.
Ted is 51 and Diana is 20. Ted lost only one other game in the eight-round tournament, to Laurent Heiser of Luxembourg, a 36 year old 6 dan, and came in eighth overall, which is a very impressive achievement. Kosegi lost two other games and came in 12th. There were 64 participants in the WAGC. Thanks to the Nihon Kiin and JAL for providing a hard copy of the record of this game.
Today92s bonus file is another of Nakayama Noriyuki92s investigations into 93What92s Wrong With That Move.94
To view the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen‘s http://gobase.org /sgfeditors.html

THE EMPTY BOARD: The Burden of Winning
by William Cobb
It is definitely fun to win. Recently I won all of my games in a tournament and I have to admit it was a lark. There92s a danger in winning, though. It92s a moment in go when you can easily get caught up in yourself and your own feelings and forget that there92s more to this game than just your own winning and losing. Go naturally creates a wonderful community of cooperative and supportive players, which is one of its main attractions. But when you get excited about a win you can lose sight of the importance of the community and forget about the person you were just playing with. There92s an ancient tradition in go that the winner owes the loser a lesson, which the loser is eager to receive. This practice aims at helping both the winner and the loser continue to have a positive attitude toward and involvement in the interactive community that is the go world. So as the winner you have a burden. You can92t just indulge your glee and dance around happily. Your job is to help the loser find a positive dimension in the experience. Be generous as well as helpful. Focus on lifting the loser92s spirits as well as improving his or her understanding. If you remember that the community of players is what makes go such a marvelous game, you92ll know what to do. This is what Buddhists mean when they say that understanding produces compassion.
The Empty Board #3; Past columns are archived at http://www.slatea ndshell.com/billcobb.asp


BEGINNER92S MIND
by Aria von Elbe
Konnichiwa, genki desu ka? Ever since I found kids at Japanese camp who actually play go and who are willing to learn I‘ve been in heaven. I don‘t think I‘ve stopped talking about go since last week. I finally got around to signing up for the Go Congress, decided that my final camp presentation will definitely be on go, and now my cabin mate is ready to strangle me for not having enough time to teach her more about life and death. Honestly, I‘m just floating on Cloud 9 out here in the middle of nowhere.
Having go as my final presentation gives me an excuse to read about go during class, and I‘ve borrowed all the books the library owns that even mention the game though The Game of Go by Arthur Smith from 1908 seems to be about the best they can do. Even the dean of the camp now knows about my addiction but I don‘t think my suggestion about having a go club in which all the counselor would have to do is sit there was taken as seriously as I would have wished, but who knows, maybe I‘m about to become Tsutsui all over again. Not that that would be so bad. Go Club Pioneers of the World UNITE!
Anyways, I think all this pent up energy is from being forced to wait another endless week for the Congress. It92s going to fabulous. I92ll get to see the people I met in Seattle again, not to mention hear some commentary that I might actually understand a little bit now. I might have some slight trouble keeping up. But that doesn‘t matter! Only a week. Only a week. I swear, that‘s going to become my mantra for meditation in Aikido Club. See you all in Rochester!
-16-year-old Aria von Elbe will start 11th grade this September in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; she92ll be attending this year92s U.S. Go Congress as a player and part of the Journal92s 93E-Team94 providing daily coverage for EJ readers.


GO CLASSIFIED

RIDER(S) WANTED Driving to the Go Congress from Washington, DC and have 2 comfortable seats available to share. Leaving DC the morning of Saturday, July 31, and departing Rochester the morning of Sunday, August 8. Only 2 seats available. CALL NOW! Mike Lash; 703-850-6270 or mhl13@aol.com (7/19)

RIDE WANTED: Young Congress attendee looking for a ride from Maine or Boston area; willing to help pay for gas and tolls. Please email jaymefosa@yahoo.com (7/12)


BOOKS, EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, ETC:

WANTED: Go Reviews and old go books: looking for issues of Go Review, primarily the first year; AGA Journals before Vol. 9; Ishi press #9, first ed. of #4, paperback 1st pr. of #5; copy with dust jacket OR EVEN JACKET ONLY of pecorini & shu‘s Game of Wei-Chi; de havilland‘s go book; any other long out of print books. I‘m also always and primarily interested in out of print or hard to find fiction mentioning the game of go ESP. A BRITISH PAPERBACK OR CANADIAN COPY OF MARRIAGE OF THE LIVING DARK BY DAVID WINGROVE. I also buy foreign translations of any English go books, or foreign originals from which the English books were translated. chiwito@alamedanet.net (7/12)

WANTED: A version of “How To Play Go” specifically designed for American fans of Hikaru No Go manga and anime. We‘re doing a fan con in August and need a tailored and canned prezo to fill half of a one-hour slot. (6/22) dbogie@idahopower.com

WANTED : Looking for a copy of “The Breakthrough to Shodan”, by Naoki
Miyamoto. Please contact Maurice at maurice033@hotmail.com (6/7)

TEACHERS & STUDENTS:

AVAILABLE: Lessons online with Cornel Burzo, 7d AGA, 6d EGF and IGS 6d*, for details http://www.goless ons.com (6/21)

WANTED: Go teacher. Prefer in person in NYC area, will consider online. Currently 9 kyu on KGS. Please contact rberger6@nyc.rr.com with rates and experience. (6/7)


GO PLAYERS WANTED:
FL: Jacksonville; Gohan6412000@yahoo.com (6/14)
FL: Jacksonville; regular, live game sessions. Contact BjornTFoss@comcast.net (5/31)
GA: Augusta; for playing and possible chapter; email Wesley Stewart at ICANSEEYOU7687@comcast.net (5/31)
IL: Downers Grove; 23k willing to play with anyone who wants a friendly game or will teach those in the area who want to learn. e-mail Kevin Steinbach at elpollomariachi@comcast.net (5/31)
KS: Looking for players in Kansas (especially the Wichita area); contact Ted Dover at tsgtdover@carrollsweb.com (6/28)
TX: Go club meeting at InfiniTea, located on the SW intersection of Coit and Cambell in Richardson, Wednesdays from 7P until midnight. If you have boards of your own, please bring them; any rank welcome. Jeff Heckman, acedetone@yahoo.com

Got go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach over 7,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Listing are free and run 4 weeks; send to us at journal@usgo.org


CALENDAR OF EVENTS

July 24: San Francisco, CA
Northern California Open Go Tournament
Danny Swarzman 415-221-7194 northern@stowlake.com
http://www.sfgocl ub.com
AGTC Event

August 1-7: Rochester, NY
20th US Go Congress
Greg Lefler 585-278-0705 congress@usgo.org

September 4 & 5: Toronto, CANADA
Canadian Open
Young Kim 416-846-3024 kim3024@rogers.com
http://www.go-can ada.org/

This is a digest of events for the next month only; for a complete
listing see the Tournament Calendar on the AGA website:
http://www.usgo.o rg/usa/tournaments.asp

For the European Go Calendar see
http://www.europe an-go.org/TOURNAMENTS/TListbyDate.htm

GET LISTED & BOOST TURN OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 6,000 readers every week! List your Go event/news In the E Journal: email details to us at MAILTO:journal@usgo.org


Ratings are on the web! Check the website; http://www.usgo.o rg for the full list.

GET YOUR TOURNAMENT RATED! Send your tournament data to MAILTO:ratings@usgo.org

AGA CONTACT LIST: For a full list of AGA officers, contacts & their email addresses, go to:
http://www.usgo.o rg/org/index.asp#contactinfo

Published by the American Go Association

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.

To make name or address corrections, notify us at the email address below. Story suggestions, event announcements, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space, and should be directed to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
mailto:journal@usgo.org