AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association
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February 4, 2003
In This Edition:
YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
GAME COMMENTARY: Murderous Intentions
GO NEWS: January Membership Thaw; E-Journal Archives Online WORLD GO: Korea,
Japan GO CLUBS: Piscataway, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA THE EMPTY BOARD: Playing with
Demons GO REVIEW: Galactic Go, Vol. 1
GO CLASSIFIED
AGA CONTACT LIST
CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.)
February 9: Lancaster, PA
Self-Paired Tournament
Sam Zimmerman szimmerman@wareunl.com 717-892?1249
February 22: Chicago, IL
"Axe Me No Questions"
Bob Barber 773-467-0423 komoku@earthlink.net
February 22: Toronto, Canada
Toronto Go Tournament
Monks@pmonks@look.ca 416-591-6414
March 1-2: Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Open
Rick Mott 609-466-1602 rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu
March 2: Sunnyvale, CA
7th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament
Mingjiu Jiang 650-969-2857
March 13-16: Germantown, MD
Greater Washington Go Club's Yang Workshop
Anand Modak 301-513-8233 amodak@mcps.k12.md.us
March 22: Arlington, VA
Cherry Blossom
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net
NOTE: this listing is not all-inclusive, featuring only upcoming tournaments in
the next month or events which require early registration. For a complete U.S.
listings, go to
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For the European Go Calendar see
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YOUR MOVE: Readers Write
Redmond Correction: "Your info about my opponents in the Gosei tournament was
incorrect," writes Michael Redmond, 9P, referring to our report on go news from
Japan in last week's E-Journal. "My 1st round opponent was Kataoka Satoshi 9P.
Second round was Ishii Kunio 9d (not Yamashita, as reported), who beat Ri
ChangHo in Fujitsu 2001. My potential 3rd round opponents were correct." We
apologize for the error.
No Vacuum: "Your recent issues of the E-Journal have been just great!," writes
Michael Quintero. "I appreciate the links and reviews. I shall not tell you to
keep up the good work, because you're already doing that, but I thought you
might like to know you are not working in a vacuum and that your hard effort is
appreciated. Not only do I look forward to the arrival of the E-Journal each
week, of late I have been hoping that you would have more tips like you have
been publishing."
The E-Journal all-volunteer staff appreciates these words of encouragement: it's
always good to hear from happy readers and to know that our work is effective,
useful and appreciated! We'll keep it up and continue to look for ways to do
even better. Readers can help by passing along the E-Journal to all your
go-playing friends with email: with over 5,000 readers worldwide we hope to hit
10,000 by the end of the year. Also, a lot of our news items or new features
come from our readers, so don't hesitate to let us know if you have an idea or
suggestion.
GAME COMMENTARY: Murderous Intentions
Today's game comes to us courtesy of GoGameWorld.com, an excellent source for
very recent pro games with pro commentary. They put up several games a week and
a year's subscription is just $20; check it out at
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In today's game, Chang Hao 9p takes on Lee Changho 9p in a game played on
December 28, 2002. The game features plenty of fascinating commentary, including
a seldom-seen counter pincer by Black that Hua Yigang 8P jokingly calls "Zude
Style", because this move was often adopted in fast games between Chen Zude 9P
and Hua Yigang. Most interesting of all, though, is the game-losing play at B15
and White's "ordinary" move at 30 that is actually "full of murderous
intentions."
BONUS: Also included this week are the solutions to last week's set of life and
death problems from master tsume-go creator Yilun Yang, 7P.
Don't miss another exciting game commentary! The weekly Games Edition is a just
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GO NEWS
January Membership Thaw
AGA membership took another leap in January, reaching a new record high of 1,680
and including 67 new members, the biggest single-month increase in nearly five
years. January's increase extends to eight the AGA's string of consecutive
monthly increases, which began last June. Membership is up a spectacular 15%
over a year ago, putting the AGA on track to pass the 1,700-member mark this
month. Youth membership was also up significantly, thanks to Feng Yun's special
Youth Tournament in January, which brought in more than 40 new youth members.
E-Journal Archives Online
A complete set of back issues of the American Go E-Journal are now available
online at
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=173885&r=173486&t=88498618&l=1&d=65583216&u=http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/&g=0&f=65583227
Samples of the attached game commentaries can be found at
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=173885&r=173486&t=88498618&l=1&d=65583218&u=http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/games.html&g=0&f=65583227
AGA organizational news reports are archived at
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=173885&r=173486&t=88498618&l=1&d=65583217&u=http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/boardnotes.html&g=0&f=65583227
Our thanks and appreciation to Mike Malveaux for his terrific work building and
maintaining this archive!
WORLD GO: Korea
The KAT Cup is a team tournament among Korean pros sponsored by Baduk TV. Naiwei
Rui 9P and Jujo Jiang 9P are part of a four player team (the Cheju Team) that
has just won their match in the first round, 3-1. Both Naiwei and Jujo won by
resignation playing White. You can download the games from
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=173885&r=173486&t=88498618&l=1&d=65583219&u=http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/momoyama/news/kr/kat/kat.html&g=0&f=65583227
.
- William Cobb, AGJ Assistant Editor
WORLD GO: Japan
By the end of 2002 Michael Redmond 9P had played 670 professional games, winning
412 of them, while losing just 256 (2 were ties), for an overall winning
percentage of 61%.
GO CLUBS: Piscataway, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA
Feng Yun, a 9-dan professional and former World Women's Champion will teach
every Saturday afternoon at Feng Yun Go school at Piscataway, New Jersey. Bring
your game records and questions. For details, go to
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The Pittsburgh Go Association meets Tuesday nights, 7P at Carnegie Mellon's
University Center. For directions see
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THE EMPTY BOARD: Playing with Demons
By William Cobb
I've been reading a delightful mystery story set in Tibet, in which one of their
famous demons plays a big role (The Skull Mantra, by Eliot Patison). Tibetan
Buddhism is quite different from the Zen tradition in many ways, not the least
of which is their panoply of demons. The Tibetan demons are always extremely
scary and usually given to very violent interactions with humans.
The key point to remember is that they always go after the bad guys. The demons
are actually on the side of those who are struggling to live in accordance with
the Buddha's teachings and are there to help you overcome negative influences.
This suggests a useful, if rather different, way to think about your opponent in
go.
Naturally, you usually feel a little nervous when you start a game, especially
if it's in a tournament, where outcome may affect your rating. So your opponent
is a little scary. Why not let him become very scary? Think of him as a
terrifying demon, giving off enormous negative energy, threatening tremendous
damage.
Then remember that all that negative energy is directed at those bad habits and
careless slips that keep marring your games and look forward to your demon
blowing them away. Maybe being a little worried about the ferocious reactions of
our demonic opponents could help us maintain the focus necessary to play our
best. So, before you play your first stone, look at your opponent and visualize
him ripping off your arm if you make a slack play. Can't hurt.
GO REVIEW: Galactic Go, Vol. 1
by Sangit Chatterjee and Yang Huiren
Published by Yutopian
Reviewed by Steve Fawthrop
The aim of Galactic Go isn't clear. The title certainly gives no indication --
what exactly is "Galactic Go"?