> E-Journal トップ

AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association

Click here to send this to a friend : http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=4&g=0&f=84625060

April 14, 2003

In This Edition:
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
SCOREBOARD: Tacoma, WA; San Francisco, CA; College Park, MD; Boston, MA U.S. GO NEWS: LEE WINS 1ST ROUND IN FUJITSU; MEMBERSHIP TOPS 1,700 FOR 1ST TIME; HIKARU NO GO FANSUBS; THICKNESS AND INFLUENCE AT FENG YUN GO SCHOOL; ON-LINE GAME DIRECTORS (STILL) NEEDED WORLD GO NEWS: REDMOND IN GOSEI SEMI-FINALS; SEDOL NOTCHES 4TH CONSECUTIVE WIN AGAINST LEE CHANGHO; PERFECT RECORD FOR BRIT; HUNGARIANS WIN EURO PAIR GO GAME COMMENTARY: Huang v. Zhou at Feng Yun Tourney Bonus Game: Moments in Go History, Youth vs. Age The Go Player's Guide to Japan: Snow, Moon and Flower GO CLASSIFIED AGA CONTACT LIST

CALENDAR OF EVENTS (U.S.)

April 19: Middlebury, VT
George Sporzynski Memorial Go Tournament
Peter Schumer 388-3934 schumer@middlebury.edu

April 26: Houston, TX
2003 Houston Spring Tournament
University of Houston
George Wang 713-780-8282 imshy@wt.net

May 3rd: Denver, CO
The Rocky Mountain Open
Eric Kim, 303 671-8533; J.H. Lee, 303 766-4977
Eric Wainwright, 303 626-0103 ewainwright@decisioneering.com

May 3: Corvallis, Oregon
Corvallis Spring Tournament
Robert O'Malley 541-738-1690 omalley@coas.oregonstate.edu

May 3-4: Los Angeles, CA
2003 Cotsen Open and Handicap Tournaments
310-473-5873 GoTournament@thelec.com

May 10: Arlington, VA
May Madness Self Paired
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net

May 10: Dearborn, MI
Spring Go tournament
Danny Walters dtwalter@umd.umich.edu

May 10-11: Rochester, NY
Empty Sky Spring Tournament
Gregory L Lefler 585-442-1428 glacticjoke@hotmail.com

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 http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625057&u=http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.html&g=0&f=84625060
For the European Go Calendar see http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625058&u=http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/go/tourn.html&g=0&f=84625060


SCOREBOARD: Tacoma, WA; San Francisco, CA; College Park, MD; Boston, MA

Tacoma, WA: Tacoma/UPS Go Clubs Inaugural Tournament
March 29, 2003
3 rounds (plus an optional round that drew only 4 players)
30 players; Director: Steve Stringfellow
3-game winners: WANG, Jeffrey, 6d; SAFFELL, Matt, 4k; HATAYAMA, Greg, 16k. (Greg also won his optional game, so he's really a 4-game winner.); 2-game winners: MA, Dong, 6d; BOLEY, Jon, 6d; HU, Richard, 3d; HUANG, Steve, 3d; LETTS, Peter, 2d; HAYASHI, Roy, 1d; MCKEE, James, 3k; PETERS, Glenn, 4k; MALVEAUX, Mike, 7k; NEW, Gordon, 8k.
We had an unusually strong field: 20% of the players were 6-dans. Thanks for the strong support at Tacoma's first AGA tournament by players from other clubs, near (Seattle Go Center / Seattle Chinese Go Club) and far (Matt Saffell, Peter Letts, and Glenn Peters drove up from Oregon)! For complete results and a few photos, go to
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625053&u=http://www.hilltopgo.com/evrep/tac0303/&g=0&f=84625060

San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament
April 5-6
40 players.
4d-6d: 1st: Dong Zhang 6d; 2nd: Gina Shi 4d; 3rd: Jouyoung Kim 6d
2k-2d: 1st: Brian Leahy 1d; 2nd: Robert Oto 2d; 3rd: Carlo Nitsch, 2d
9k-4k: 1st: Yi-Seob Byeon 4k; 2nd: Charles Slater 8k; 3rd: Paul Bensen 4k
10k+: 1st: Patrick Varda 15k; 2nd: Karoline Burrall 17k; 3rd: Kevin
10k+Murakoshi 15k

College Park, MD: University of Maryland Tournament
April 5-6
31 players
Organizer: Steve Mount; Director: Chuck Robbins
Dan Division: 1st: ($150) LI, Ning 5d; 2nd: ($50) LIU, Andy 5d; 3rd: ($50) GUO, Haiming 5d Kyu Division: 1st: MCILHARGEY, James 13k; 2nd: MOORE, Michael 25k Both kyu winners won a free membership to go4go.net donated by the owner of go4go.

Boston, MA: MGA Spring Tournament
April 13
TD: Roland Crowl
1st: Jinsung You, 1k; tie for 2nd: Jeffrey Miller, 8k & John Kraemer, 13k

U.S. GO NEWS

LEE WINS 1ST ROUND IN FUJITSU: John J-S Lee, the North American representative to the 16th Fujitsu tournament, has won his first game, defeating Catalin Taranu 5p by resignation with Black. Taranu is from Romania and is a member of the Kansai Kiin in Japan. The game record can be found at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625049&u=http://ad.fujitsu.com/igo/16/applet/pre05.html&g=0&f=84625060 . John's next opponent will be Yi Changho (Lee Changho) 9p of Korea.
- cobb

MEMBERSHIP TOPS 1,700 FOR 1ST TIME: Membership in the American Go Association topped 1,700 for the first time ever last month, following closely on the heels of reaching 1,600 for the first time just six months ago. The new record also extended to 10 months the unbroken string of membership increases that began in June last year. "We're very pleased to welcome our new members to the many benefits of the AGA," said AGA President Chris Kirschner. "We're also happy to see so many of our existing members renewing their memberships and helping us continue to provide those benefits to the American go scene."

HIKARU NO GO FANSUBS: Some months ago we published an ftp site where "fansubs" in English of this popular anime series could be downloaded. However, that site seems to be out of date -- the last six episodes have not yet been posted there. To download all 69 currently available episodes, go to
ftp://ftp.hikago.flirble.org/pub/Hikaru/
As we noted before, these are big files, mostly 150-180 MB. With a high-speed connection you can download an episode in about twenty minutes, but 56K won't do at all. Starting with episode 65, the "fansubs" are in XVid format, which may stump your media player. You may be able to overcome this problem by downloading the download the "codec" from http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625051&u=http://www.dawnload.net/video_software/codecs_and_filters/xvid.cfm&g=0&f=84625060
- Roy Laird

THICKNESS AND INFLUENCE AT FENG YUN GO SCHOOL: In a few short months, the Feng Yun Go School has compiled an impressive record of accomplishments and generated a significant number of new AGA members. Feng Yun, one of only two women 9-dans in the world opened the school in New Jersey last October; the school includes an official AGA Chapter Go Club. Among the school's stellar pupils is 15-year-old Mozheng Guan, 6 dan, who started playing go less than three years ago. Last year he won the Redmond Cup and earned the right to represent the U.S. in the World Youth Tournament where he placed 5th place in a large field. He followed this with a first place win at the Mid-Atlantic Go Championship in November, and a second place finish in the 1st Feng Yun Go Tournament this year. Mozheng receives weekly lessons from Feng Yun who attributes his rapid progress to his great love for the game. Close behind are Andy Liu and Lionel Zhang. Just 11 years old, Andy is already a tough 4-dan wh! o won the Redmond Cup Junior Group last year. Lionel is even younger: 7 and half years old, and a 4 kyu. Lionel's Feng Yun Go School training helped him to win the League King title this year in the Wing's League tournament. Feng Yun says that both students have the potential to become outstanding go players. In addition to finding and guiding these future stars, the Feng Yun Go School has actively encouraged its students, both young and old alike, to join the AGA and to embrace the rapidly expanding community of American go players. An amazing 62 students from the Feng Yun Go School have already registered as full or youth members, and another 14 applications are in-process. It is significant that most of the Feng Yun students are young children between the ages of 6-15 who are essentially newcomers to go. The Feng Yun Go School is deeply committed to attracting new people with fresh ideas and enthusiasm into the go community, and to supporting the AGA. To learn more about! the Feng Yun Go School, visit http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625050&u=http://mywebpages.comcast.net/fengyun/FY_Go_Center/FYGC.htm&g=0&f=84625060 or contact Feng Yun at fengyun_9p@yahoo.com.

ON-LINE GAME DIRECTORS (STILL) NEEDED: The AGA welcomes volunteers to assist running top-amateur and professional Internet games. Volunteers should be familiar with Internet play, comfortable typing real-time conversations, and willing to devote some time to learning to sensitive issues that can arise with serious competition. Opportunities include Tournament Directors, Game Directors, Referees and Scribes. For more details, email Jeff Shaevel at jeff@shaevel.com

WORLD GO NEWS

REDMOND IN GOSEI SEMI-FINALS: Michael Redmond 9P has reached the semi-finals of the 28th Gosei Tournament in Japan by defeating Cho Chikun 9P by 3.5 points with Black. His next opponent will be Yoda Yorimoto 9P, the current Meijin. If he defeats Yoda, he will be in the finals of the match to determine the challenger for the Gosei title.

SEDOL NOTCHES 4TH CONSECUTIVE WIN AGAINST LEE CHANGHO: Yi Setol (Lee Sedol) 6P got his fourth win in a row against Yi Changho (Lee Changho) 9P in the second round of the 22nd KBS Cup. These two have met 26 times in tournament play and the result is now 13 wins each.

PERFECT RECORD FOR BRIT: The British Open on April 5th and 6th was won by T Mark Hall 4d, with a 6 and 0 record. In second place with 5 wins was Quentin Mills 3d, followed by Francis Roads 4d, David M. King 1k, and Gerry Mills 1d.

HUNGARIANS WIN EURO PAIR GO: The European Pair Go Championships were held in Wodzislaw, Poland on April 5th and 6th with 14 official pairs competing. The winners were Rita and Tibor Pocsai from Hungary. In second place was the pair from Russia (Natalia Kovaleva and Alexei Lazarev) and third was Poland A (Alexandra Luba and Leszek Soldan).


GAME COMMENTARY: Huang v. Zhou at Feng Yun Tourney

Two top American amateurs battle it out in today's commented game. Ke Huang, 8d plays Yansong Zhou, 7d in a game from the 1st Feng Yun Go Tournament, played on January 11, 2003. The commentary is by Mr. Zhou, who learned go
at the age of 13 in Beijing, China and won 3rd place in the New Jersey Open in 2002 and 2003.

THIS WEEK'S BONUS: Moments in Go History: Youth vs. Age Probably the greatest age difference between players in a professional tournament occurred in February 1971. The youth was Cho Chikun, at that time a professional 4 dan at the age of 14. His first serious tournament game came in the annual Nihon Kiin Championship that year. After surviving the preliminary rounds, there was a final knock-out round to determine the winner. Cho's first opponent was the venerable pro, Hayashi Yutaro 9 dan, then 70. The difference in their ages was 56 years! Hayashi won the game, which we're pleased to present this week, by a half point. Hayashi continued to play in professional tournaments into his 80's, dying after playing a game in a preliminary round of the Honinbo tournament at the age of 83.
[Sources: Go Review XI, 5 (May 1971) and Go Player's Almanac 2001]

Don't miss another great game commentary! Get the Games Edition with attached game files for just $20 a year! Sign up today at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625056&u=http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp&g=0&f=84625060

The Go Player's Guide to Japan: Snow, Moon and Flower
By Chris Garlock

Andou Tadashi's calloused hands are as sensitive as a surgeon's. For the last forty years the master craftsman has hand-shaped go stones in Hyuga City in Miyzaki Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. The famed Hyuga clamshells that yield top-grade go stones prized for their fine grain and warm glow are now as rare as the old-growth kaya trees in Miyzaki Prefecture's nearby Aya Forestry Reserve, where go-board maker Kenichi Kumasu (who I wrote about last time) gets his wood. Just 1% of white go stones come from Hyuga, where go stone factories like Kuroki Goishiten, which I visited last November, now must employ ships to search ever farther offshore and deeper into the waters of the Kuroshio current where the exceptional hamaguri clams grow shells thick and lustrous. While most clamshell stones now come from Mexico (although, as in Japan, over-fishing is now threatening the supply there as well) and are machine-made, Hyuga clamshells must be hand-crafted because they l! ack the sensitivity and finesse of the human hand. "A half-millimeter difference can cut the value of a stone by 50%," Kuroki Goishiten President Hirotaka Kuroki told me as we watched Andou Tadashi expertly polish a clamshell "slug" on a whetstone. The shell stones begin their new life as go stones as unremarkable round disks chiseled from the thickest part of an ordinary-looking clamshell. The edges are roughly ground down before coming to a craftsman like Tadashi, who uses fingers and eyes trained by a lifetime of experience to quickly but carefully polish each piece of shell to a uniform thickness, using simple hand-tools that haven't changed in generations. Shell stones are graded by the quality and thickness of the piece: Hyuga comes in three grades, from 'snow,' the highest, to 'moon' and 'flower,' in descending order. The grain in the snow stone is straight and fine, curved and coarser in moon and almost invisible in the flower grade. The thickest stones with the stra! ightest grain are the rarest and thus most valuable: not only are there few hamaguri clams left, but it takes 15 years for them to grow shells thick enough for the best stones, which can command over a hundred thousand yen for a set. In the showroom after the workshop tour, I was permitted to handle a top-grade set of "snow" stones on a professional-level Miyazaki kaya. The shell stones were indeed remarkable, the straight, true grain shimmering in the light and the thick stones amazingly light yet powerful in my hand. They were cool to the touch and yet at the same time they warmed instantly in my hand. The top-grade slate stones, jet black and cool as a cellar, still come from Kumano City near Osaka. The sound both made when placed on the kaya board was authoritative and resonant, and the stunning combination of glowing golden wood, clear-grained shell and crisp slate made it clearer than ever that the beauty of go is as much pure aesthetic pleasure as it is intellectual c! hallenge.
(Thanks once again to Kiseido's indispensable "Go Player's Almanac 2001" for reference material. You can see Kuroki Goishiten's go stones, including rare purple and 'butterfly' shell stones, and boards at http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/english/index.html)


GO CLASSIFIED

WANTED: The Springs Go Club is looking for Go players in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area. All strengths welcome. (Currently we have players from about 20k to 3 dan.) Contact Jim Michali (jmichali@adelphia.net) or Tom Obenchain (tobenchain@pcisys.net).

WANTED: Giant go set, like the one in Milan, Italy, as seen in "Go Promotion in Piazza Duomo" Milano, 7th May 2000: http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625052&u=http://www.goclubmilano.org/foto/duomo2000/inglese.html&g=0&f=84625060
aninno@cnyric.org

WANTED: Players in central Kentucky: Frankfort near Lexington and Louisville.
wlmacintire@msn.com

WANTED: "I have suddenly come across go and would love to get started," writes Harold. "I'm hoping someone out there would love a student now residing in Port St Lucie, FL; the brain needs a work out." harrlin @juno.com or call 772-466-1212. (posted 4/7)

WANTED: "A friend and I are starting a new club in St. Louis City (there's already a good one in the suburbs but we're trying to get one closer to home)," writes Chris Cyr. "While we've got plenty of interest from beginners, we'd like to reach some experienced players too." chris@chriscyr.com (posted 4/7)

WANTED: players in the Toledo (Ohio) area. Contact David43515@hotmail.com


Got Go stuff to sell, swap or want to buy? Do it here and reach more than 5,000 Go players worldwide every week at Go Classified! Send to us at journal@usgo.org


GET LISTED & BOOST TURN-OUT! Got an upcoming event? Reach over 5,000 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://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=1&d=84625055&u=http://www.usgo.org&g=0&f=84625060 for the full list.

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

AGA CONTACT LIST:
President: Chris Kirschner: president@usgo.org
Secretary Susan Weir: Secretary@usgo.org
Treasurer Ben Bernstein: Treasurer@usgo.org
VP - Communications: Chris Garlock Journal@usgo.org
Archivist Craig Hutchinson: Archives@usgo.org
Chapter Management: Paul Celmer chapterservices@usgo.org
Nicole Casanta: Chapters@usgo.org
Community Outreach: John Goon Outreach@usgo.org
Congress Liaison: Judy Debel Congress@usgo.org
Education Coordinator: Lee Anne Bowie Education@usgo.org
Equipment Distribution: Paul Celmer Equipment@usgo.org
HR & Recruitment: Terry Assael Hr@usgo.org
Membership Services: Tom Hodges, Joel Gabelman membership@usgo.org
Policy & Governance: Keith Arnold Governance@usgo.org
General Counsel: Michael T. Brockbank legal@usgo.org Professional Players' Representative: Zhu-jiu (Jujo) Jiang Professionals@usgo.org
Ranking Issues: Jeff Shaevel Rank@usgo.org
Ratings Coordinator: Paul Matthews Ratings@usgo.org
Tournament Coordinator: Chuck Robbins Tournaments@usgo.org
Tournament Regulations: Duane Burns Regulations@usgo.org
Webmaster: Roy Laird: webmaster@usgo.org
Youth Coordinator: Non？Redmond youth@usgo.org
American Go Foundation: Terry Benson terrybenson@nyc.rr.com Database Manager: Sam Zimmerman database@usgo.org AGA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dave Weimer (Chair): weimer@lafollette.wisc.edu Chen-dao Lin: cdlin5@yahoo.com John Stephenson: Jcs@wingsgoclub.org
David Dinhofer: David.dinhofer@alum.mit.edu
Harold Lloyd: Hlloyd@core.com
Bob O'Malley: omalley@coas.oregonstate.edu
Jon Boley: Jon@airsltd.com

Published by the American Go Association
Text material published in " AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL" may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that attached files, including game records, MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the Journal.

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
email: journal@usgo.org
Voice: 202-857-3410
Fax: 202-857-3420

Click here: http://gm14.com/r.html?c=192938&r=192526&t=88498618&l=6&ea=igosoft@sun-inet.or.jp to unsubscribe from our mailing list. Or reply to this message with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.