AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL
World Go News from The American Go Association
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March 2, 2009; Volume 10, #9
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re pleased to include the EJ bonus content in this edition (see MEMBER'S EDITION BONUS CONTENT at right); producing the comprehensive E-Journal each week is a major investment of resources by the American Go Association and we hope you’ll consider joining today to support this important source of world go news. Plus, you’ll get all this great extra content with every EJ!
GU LI SOLIDIFIES GRIP ON #1: Gu Li 9P (l) shook off his February 19th loss to Lee Sedol 9P in the Nongshim Final to notch back-to-back wins against Lee in the LG Cup last week. With ten titles -- five international and five national Chinese -- Gu seems to be solidifying his place at the top of the professional go world. Lee of Korea beat Gu of China in the final game of the Nongshim Cup on February 19th to win the cup for Korea, but Gu came storming back on February 23rd and 25th to sweep Lee 2-0 and win the international LG Cup. He’d defeated Lee Changho 9P by 1.5 points to get into the LG finals. The victory in the LG Cup gives Gu Li five international titles -- the LG Cup, the Fujitsu Cup, the Toyota-Denso World Oza Cup, the Chunlan Cup, and the Japan-China Agon Cup – along with five Chinese national titles.
- Bill Cobb
ANDY LIU WINS NJ OPEN: Andy Liu 7D (below) swept all five rounds -- defeating Eric Lui 7d by half a point in an exciting final round watched by over 450 on KGS -- to win the New Jersey Championship at last weekend's New Jersey Open in Princeton, NJ. 113 players – including contingents from the Feng Yun Go School and Stony Brook University -- turned out for the 50th annual event, held February 28-March 1, with nearly 50 joining or renewing their AGA memberships. RESULTS: 1st: Liu Zhi Yuan (Andy) 7d; 2nd-5th tie: Eric Lui 7d, Tu Xinyu (Carson) 7d, Kevin Huang 7d, Zhao Zhongxia (Ricky) 7d; 5-game winners: Saul Lapidus 2d, Chen Kaishuo 1d, Li Shi 4k, Barbara Huang 9k, Harrison Chiu 12k; 4-game winners: Zhang Feng 2d, Marc Palmer 1d, Peter Nassar 3k, Adam Connell 5k, Zaher Nazif 6k, Ilhee Kim 7k, Joyce Hong 9k, Jessie Chen 18k, Greg Nye 24k. Shirley Liu of Riverhead, NY, won the Bob Ryder Memorial Beginner's Prize, selected at random from the eligible attendees.
- report/photo by Chris Garlock; KGS broadcasting by EJ game recorder John Pinkerton. Click here to check out Carrie Lapidus’ NJO photo album FAN HUI WINS 5TH ING MEMORIAL: Fan Hui 2P (l) swept the Ing Memorial 6-0 in Amsterdam last weekend for a fifth consecutive championship. Guo Juan 5P took second place, losing only to Fan. "I enjoyed myself alot, as all my games were full of fierce fighting," Guo told the E-Journal. Six native Europeans shared third place with four wins each: Aleksandre Dinerchtein 3P (Russia), Catalin Taranu 5P (Romania), Christian Pop 7D (Romania), Ilya Shiksin 7D (Russia) and Cornel Burzo 6D (Romania). The 20th edition of the Ing took place at the European Go Centre in Holland February 26-March 1, and was “the strongest ever," according to TD William Wandel. EGF VP Martin Stiassny announced that although Ing funding for Europe had stopped for the time being, due to low interest rates in Taiwan, next week’s Ing Youth Championships in Banja Luka will go ahead as planned. Rudi Verhagen 5D won the Ing side-event 5-0. Harry Weerheijm of EuroGoTV broadcast three boards simultaneously on EuroGoTv, KGS and IGS. Interviews with all 24 participants will be posted soon on EuroGoTv, which will also broadcast live from Banja Luka next week. Click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema, European EJ correspondent; photo by Ronald Verhagen 1D, click here for more photos
TWO OHS DELIVER ONE-TWO PUNCH IN BARCELONA: Two Ohs, Chi-Min (r in photo below) and Lluis (l), topped the February 21-22 Barcelona tournament, with Chi-Min (Korea) taking first place and Lluis (Korea) second. Though unrelated, both are students of longtime teacher Professor Hahn Sandae. Matthew Cocke 5d (UK) took third place, Li Yue 6d (China) was 4th and Piers Shepperson 3d (UK) 5th. Players repaired to the on-site bar after each round and to a nearby Chinese restaurant – equipped with go boards -- each evening and enjoyed “non-stop Spanish tapas” after the final round. Eighty players turned out from France, Germany, Austria, the UK, Italy and Spain. Click here for more details, full results and pictures.
- based on reports by Julio Martinez and Marc Gonzalez-Carnicer; photo by Frederic Dericke
ZHANG & LEAHY TOP NORCAL TOURNEY: Hugh Zhang 6D and Brian Leahy 3D topped the Bay Area monthly ratings tourney’s Dan Division February 21 in Palo Alto, CA, scoring three wins apiece. Samuel Gross 2k and John Lai 25k went 4-0 to win the Kyu Division. Thirty nine players participated. “While many of the players are regulars at these monthly tournaments held at various locations around the San Francisco Bay Area, nine adults and children were playing in their first ever rated tournament,” reports organizer Roger Schrag. “We encourage players at all levels to play, and the community seems to be responding well,” Schrag says. “At this tournament we had ten players in the Dan division, with four players 5d or above. Meanwhile, there were also five players in the 20k to 30k range,” and eight players joined the AGA. The next Northern California event is set for March 21 in Menlo Park. Click here for details and registration.
“CHEESE MIDGETS” & OSU TURN OUT FOR CORVALLIS TOURNEY: The February 21 Corvallis Go Club tournament featured four first-time players from Fritz Balowitz’s burgeoning "cheese midgets" club, which now boasts more than 60 Portland-area students. Yigal Toister also brought four first-timers from Oregon State University in Corvallis. “Nationalities represented at the tournament included Japan, China, Thailand, Great Britain and Germany,” reports organizer Cynthia Gaty. Ranks ranged from 7dan to 16 kyu. The following players had perfect 3-0 records Jinno Shohei 5D, Vincent Zhuang 3D, Joshua Hoak 4k, Ogden Kellogg 9k.
SALIGNON WINS FRENCH QUALIE FOR KAC: Jerome Salignon [at right in photo, left] defeated fellow teen Thomas Debarre to win the French qualifier for the Korean Ambassador’s Cup, held February 14-15 in Cannes. In other French go news, La Maison du Go -- The House of Go – opened last November and is open daily (except Tuesdays) from 3-11P. Regular Wednesday lessons are given by Motoki Noguchi 7D, Zhao Pei 6D or Weidong Xie 5D. The Maison is located at 11 Passage Dubail, Paris X, 10th arr; entrance fee, which includes a drink, is 2 euros for youth and 3.50 for others.
- Peter Dijkema
ZOU WINS DRESDEN: Favorite Jin Zou 6D won the 22nd Dresden February 21-22, winning all five games and besting fellow Leipzig resident Yi Zhang 4D (4-1). Thomas Ludwig 2D was third with 3-2, while Thilo Burkhart 8k won 4-1; both are from Dresden, as is Mandy Hilbert 1k, who again won the youth event. At the 18th San-Ren-Sei tournament, held a week earlier in the ancient university town of Goettingen, Malte Weiss 2D from Dortmund won the A-group 5-0, with Juergen Breuer 1D (Hannover) taking 2nd, and Joachim Beggerow 3D in 3rd. Local heroes dominated the B-group: Julius Mordant 4k won 5-2 for 1st place, while Lars Bohl 5k took 2nd with an undefeated 4-0. Other top performers were Frederk Meysel 15k, who won against 9k and only lost once for a 6-1 record to Conny Pohle 7k, who scored second best with 5-1. On February 7&8, 128 people took part in the 12th Erdinger in Bavaria, with Jun Tarumi 5D (Munich) winning all five games. Viktor Lin 5D (Vienna) won 2nd and Franz Micha 3D was 3rd with 4-1. Only Ralf Ludwig 8k won all five games in the lower section.
- Peter Dijkema
TERWEY TAKES PONNUKI IN PADERBORN: Matthias Terwey 4d (r) from Muenster took the 11th Paderborner Ponnuki with five wins, ahead of Juergen Breuer 1D of Hanover at 4-1; Alexander Luecking 2d was 3rd. Over 50 players took part; click here for full results.
- Peter Dijkema
“WAY TO GO” AUTHOR BAKER PASSES: "The Way to Go" author Karl Baker passed away on February 16. Likely the most-published book on go ever written in English, over 70,000 copies of “The Way To Go” -- first issued by the American Go Foundation in 1986 -- are now in print. Baker (in blue shirt, with Terry Benson at the 2008 U.S. Go Congress) completed extensive revisions to the seventh edition just last year, updating it to feature AGA rules. "Karl was a mainstay of the go community in Ashland, Oregon," writes 2008 Congress Director Peter Freedman. "He was an organic gardener, a ping pong and tennis player, taught for the Oregon Commission for the Blind, was an avid motorcycle rider, and just a helluva sweet guy." His wife Ann tells the E-Journal that Baker "endured, mostly with humor and always with patience, a five-month medical nightmare following a diagnosis of colon cancer. His passing was peaceful. He knew that he was dying and he was happy and unafraid. Until he slipped out of consciousness he was lucid, present and clear. He asked me to write a letter to send out to all of you. When I asked what he wanted me to say, he said 'Tell everyone that I just loved knowing them.'” A memorial service for Baker will be held later in the year. The print edition of The Way to Go is available for free from AGA Chapter Services. Click here to download the online edition.
- Paul Barchilon; photo by Roy Laird
TAKEMIYA STILL MAKING WAVES: Closing in on sixty, Takemiya Masaki 9P (r) recently demonstrated that he’s still a force to be reckoned with in the pro world. In January he beat Yoda Norimoto 9P by a half point to reach the third round of the Gosei tournament, and in February he defeated Yuki Satoshi 9P by 1.5 points to reach the final round of the preliminary qualification tournament for the Oza. Takemiya lost in the first round of the Tengen, but did make the final tournament. He has also made it to the semifinals of the NHK Cup, and he ended up in the top twenty on the list of Japanese pros winning the most games in 2008. Takemiya seems to be following his own advice to "just play wherever you want to," which won him a lot of new fans at the last US Go Congress.
- Bill Cobb; photo by Steve Colburn
MYONGJI U GO PROGRAM GRADUATES MORE WESTERNERS: Two more Westerners have graduated from Myongji University’s Baduk program, Apidet Jirasophin of Thailand and Diana Koszegi of Hungary, who received their honors on February 18. They’re the first to complete the school’s 4-year program: the two other Western grads -- Svetlana Shikshina and Daniela Trinks – finished sooner because of other training. The program has attracted increasing numbers of students from outside Korea, some of whom want to become Korean professionals, while others are prepare to develop go in their home countries and still others are using the game as an opportunity to experience a foreign culture. “I am not yet strong enough,” Kosegi, 25, told the E-Journal. “I want to study more to be stronger as a professional and go back to Europe to spread baduk.” Jirasophin, 24, plans to return to Thailand and work for the Thai Go Association.
- Jens Henker, Korean Correspondent for the E-Journal. Photo: Boris Bernadsky, Simon Schwanhauser, Apidet Jirasophin (front left, in cap and gown), Diana Koszegi (center in cap and gown), Nandor Gyerman, Lee DoYun & Jens Henker.
LIBRARY GO PROGRAMS SPIKE: "The support that the American Go Foundation (AGF) has given us has been invaluable," Teen Services Librarian Stephanie Squicciarini, from the Fairport, NY, Public Library tells the E-Journal. "With library budgets being hit hard, we might not otherwise be able to offer go as a programming option for our teen patrons and their families, and seeing teens and parents learning, playing, and enjoying the game together would be so missed," says Squicciarini. Adds Sandy Moltz of the Swampscott, MA, Public Library, "the American Library Association has a division specifically for Young Adult Librarians, and our online discussions lists are very active and include many savvy librarians who know the best way to stretch meager budgets. One of them mentioned the AGF and a lot of us jumped on that information and requested free starter sets." Immediately after the listing in the ALA discussion list, the AGF received 15 new library programs, and has set up a special page for librarians interested in launching go clubs. Local go clubs are encouraged to support these new programs, and AGA members who would like to help a new club are encouraged to volunteer. Contact the AGF at agf@usgo.org for more information. The AGF continues to rely entirely on donations from the go community, and remains committed to fostering youth go regardless of the economic slump. Readers who would like to support these efforts may donate to the AGF.
- Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor
GO CALENDAR: Philly & Boulder
- March 7-8: Philadelphia, PA: Yuan Zhou Go Workshop
Matt Bengtson 215.704.4600 matt@mattbengtson.com
- March 7: Boulder, CO: USYGC Qualifier - central region Youth Tournament
Paul Barchilon 303.440.7124 shimari@comcast.net
Photo: Kids at the 2009 New Jersey Open; photo by John Pinkerton
GO QUIZ: Your Aim Is True
Most of you correctly spotted the Elvis Costello compilation album "Taking Liberties" as the clear go reference in his discography. Many of you liked this question, but I cannot take credit, as it came from EJ editor – and longtime Costello fan -- Chris Garlock. Indeed, my own rather hasty guess was "Punch the Clock." Chris Sira commented that "Brutal Youth" reminded him of his many games with Feng Yun's students, while physicist Phil Waldron lobbied poetically for "All this Useless Beauty," and several of you noted that "Taking Liberties" features the obviously go-inspired song "Black and White World." Interest in the quiz is high this year: we still have 9 folks with perfect and complete records. Congrats to Casey Alexander, this week's winner, selected at random from those answering correctly.
THIS WEEK’S QUIZ: This year’s U.S. Go Congress will be the 25th. Last year we revealed that every U.S. Go Congress except the first has had a commemorative t-shirt. The second most frequent Congress souvenir has been the pin: how many of the first 24 Congresses have been commemorated by a pin? Click here to vote for 18, 19, 20 or 21. It’s not cheating to ask Congress veterans; while you’re doing so, find out how much fun they had, and make plans to get yours in Virginia this year!
- Keith Arnold; photo by Phil Straus
GO CLASSIFIED
SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with nearly 13,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org
PLAYERS WANTED: China: Beijing Go Club; info at http://www.beijinggoclub.com (3/2)
FOR SALE: Set of like-new 9.0mm double-convex Yunzi stones in original boxes, $40. Chestnut bowls, $30. Combined, $60. Add $15 shipping. Email to Anton at antonninno@yahoo.com (3/2)
HELP WANTED: AGA Go Camp Staff: The AGA Go Camp West is looking for a Coordinator for the summer 2009 Camp. A small stipend may be available for this position. For more information, contact Brian Allen at: agagocampwest@usgo.org The AGA Go Camp East is looking for an Assistant Coordinator for the summer of 2009. For more information, contact Karen Jordon at: agagocampeast@usgo.org (2/23)
PLAYERS & STUDENTS WANTED: Englewood, NJ: Donghwa Cultural Foundation looking for go players who can volunteer to help students out and also seeking more students for the Korean Style of Go class in all levels at Donghwa. (2/23)
PLAYERS WANTED: Comox Valley, B.C.: Contact George Beck,
george.beck@gmail.com (2/23)
PLAYERS WANTED: Warminster, PA. E-mail jstarr75@gmail.com (2/23)
PLAYERS WANTED: Monterey, CA. Looking for players within 30 mins drive or reasonable distance to play go or start a club. Contact Mark at kurama56@yahoo.com (2/16)
MEMBERS WANTED: South Florida: New go club in South Florida meets the last Thursday of each month at the University of Miami Student Union after 7P. Find out more at www.mscg-goclub.org (2/9)
PLAYERS WANTED: Independence, MO: The club is free (unless you want to buy a drink; unlimited refills for $2.50). Any questions on location, participants etc, email: The_emo_kyd@yahoo.com or http://www.myspace.com/
PLAYERS WANTED: Virginia Hampton Roads area: scole.gamer@gmail.com (2/2)
PLAYERS WANTED: Seneca Falls, NY: Contact Richard Kim: korearichardkim@yahoo.com (2/2)
PLAYERS WANTED: Glendale, Arizona: Prefer to meet at Glendale Public Library on Brown Ave. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday availability. I am new to the game but eager to learn. Contact Byron Woolley at woolleymammoth@cox.net (2/2)
PLAYERS WANTED: Rockford, IL: New go club has eight regular attendees so far. All skill levels welcome. Contact Michael Hopkins at michael.hopkins@gmail.com (2/2)
Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
Professionals: Yilun Yang 7P; Alexandr Dinerchtein 3P; Fan Hui 2P
Contributors: Paul Barchilon (Youth Editor); Lawrence Ku (U.S. West Coast Reporter); Brian Allen (U.S. West Coast Photographer); Keith Arnold (Go Quiz); Peter Dijkema (Dutch/European Correspondent); Marilena Bara (Romania/European Correspondent); Ian Davis (Ireland Correspondent); Jens Henker (Korea Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Zeijst; Roy Laird; Peter Shotwell
Translations: Chris Donner (Japan); Bob McGuigan (Japan); Matt Luce (China)
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.
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