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

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June 16, 2003

In This Edition:
U.S. GO NEWS: Spontaneous Simul In Gaithersburg; Readers Debate Journal Future; Budget Boards Offered By Slate & Shell
WORLD GO NEWS: Yu Changhyeok Sweeps Paewang; Korean KAT Cup Update; Cho Defeats Yamada In Judan; Top 10 European Players; Asai Hideki Wins Hamburg Tourney; Du Jingyu Tops In Amsterdam YOUR MOVE: In Stones of Stones, Clubs and Shusaku MOMENTS IN GO HISTORY: The Notorious Fujisawa Shuko GAME COMMENTARY: Top Japanese Pros Battle in NEC Cup GO ONLINE: Let's Go Shopping! GO CLASSIFIED CALENDAR OF EVENTS


U.S. GO NEWS

SPONTANEOUS SIMUL IN GAITHERSBURG: Chinese professional Yupei Xiong took on half a dozen Washington-area players Sunday in a spontaneous simul organized by Kevin Wang, 4d. Xiong, a 1-dan pro from Jiang Xi province who has been in the U.S. for a year, teaches math at the University of College Park, MD and placed second in last month's Maryland Open open section, dropping only one game, to winner Feng Yun. The simul, held at Lake Forest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland, attracted a number of interested onlookers in the food court, where a local go club shares space with the local chess club.

READERS DEBATE JOURNAL FUTURE: Responses to the proposed switch from the Journal to the E-Journal have elicited dozens of responses in recent weeks, with most supporting the redirection of resources toward online content. "I'm resistant to change," wrote Jean, "but I have to admit that your ideas for changing the two AGA journals are good. You tipped the balance for me when you said you would include a CD of game commentaries from the E Journal along with the new hardcopy Yearbook." Added John, "I like the E-Journal, and would join to have the annual go CD with game records and commentaries." Many responses suggested maintaining the Journal in a PDF format, maintaining it as a quarterly "virtual print" publication without the printing and mailing costs. Those opposing the changes echoed Rick, who pointed out that "I enjoy having something tangible to handle and show to people. I also enjoy the E-Journal, but the quality and ease of reading printed material beats anything el! ectronic so far, even PDF files." Shawn added that "The printed Journal marks the four times a year that I will sit down and do nothing but read the Journal with undivided attention." The consensus thus far is summed up by hard-copy fan Rick, who went on to say that "This is the kind of innovative stride the AGA needs to make in order to grow go to the next level in the US."

BUDGET BOARDS OFFERED BY SLATE & SHELL: Slate & Shell now offers a go set made in Germany that includes full size versions of all three traditional board sizes for only $30. The 9X9 board is on glossy paper and the folding, reversible 13X13/19X19 board is heavy paper stock with a shiny surface. The stones in this set are flat plastic disks the diameter of standard stones, and there is a pamphlet about the rules by William Cobb. Check out this excellent starter set for beginners at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708183&u=http://www.slateandshell.com&g=0&f=84708193


WORLD GO NEWS

YU CHANGHYEOK SWEEPS PAEWANG: Yu Changhyeok 9P, considered the "World's Best Attacker" has defeated Yi Changho 9P in three straight games for the Paewang title in Korea, winning the third game by half a point. You can get the game records at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708179&u=http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/momoyama/news/kr/pw/pw.html&g=0&f=84708193 .

KOREAN KAT CUP UPDATE: The Korean KAT Cup tournament is a team event. The winner in 2003 was the Seoul (South) team, by a score of 3-0 over the Cheonbuk team, which included Yi Changho 9P. Seoul (South) is now playing a match against the winners in 2002, which was the Seoul (North) team. The Seoul (South) team consists of Yi Sanghun 7P (the brother of Yi Setol 6P), Yun Junsang 1P, Park Yeonghun 4P, Yu Haehyeong 6P, and Yu Jaeseong 2P. The Seoul (North team) includes Kim Yeongsam 6P, Won Seonjin 4P, Yu Changhyuk 9P (one of the top Korean pros), Jeong Daesang 8P, and Cho Hanseung 6P. So far, Yi of South has defeated Kim of North. You can get the game record at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708178&u=http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/momoyama/news/kr/kat/kat.html&g=0&f=84708193 .

CHO DEFEATS YAMADA IN JUDAN: In the continuing challenger tournament of the Judan in Japan, which Kobayashi Izumi 5P is the first woman to play in, Cho Chikun 9P has defeated Yamada Kimio 8P. Yamada will now be Kobayashi's opponent in the loser's round. Kobayashi lost to O Meien 9P in the first round. Other first round winners are Yoda Norimoto 9P, Hashimoto Yujiro 9P, and Yokota Shigeaki 9P.Find out more about Cho at:
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708180&u=http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/special/nkotb/nkotb6.html&g=0&f=84708193

TOP 10 EUROPEAN PLAYERS: In the latest list of European players the top ten are Taranu Catalin 5P of Romania, Fan Hui 7d of France, Alexandre Dinerchtein 1P of Russia, Du Jingyu 7d of Germany, Lee Hyuk 7d of Russia, Guo Juan 7d of the Netherlands, Pop Cristian of Romania, Shigeno Yuki 2P of Italy, Shikshina Svetlana 1P of Russia, and Miyakawa Wataru of France. You can see the complete list at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708176&u=http://www.european-go.org/&g=0&f=84708193

ASAI HIDEKI WINS HAMBURG TOURNEY: One hundred and thirty six players participated in the three day tournament in Hamburg that is the German event on the Toyota-Pandanet Tour in Europe. The winner this year was Asai Hideki 6 dan, a Japanese resident. Du Jingyu 7 dan, a Chinese resident, was second with 5 wins in 6 games. The next three players with 4 wins were Radek Nechanicky 6 dan and Vladimir Danek 6 dan, both from the Czech Republic, and Bernd Schuetze 4 dan of Germany.

DU JINGYU TOPS IN AMSTERDAM: The 32nd Amsterdam Tournament on May 29th to June 1st attracted 128 players to the European Go Culture Centre. The winner with 6 wins and no loses was Du Jingyu 7d from Germany. Two players had 5 wins: Emil Nijhuis and Geert Groenen, both 6 dans from the Netherlands. Winning four games were Pie Zhao 6d, Frank Janssen 6d, Robert Rehm 5d, Guo Juan 7d, David Wu 5d, and Carsten Liebold 5d. There were also children's and pair's events, a lightning, and a one day rapid play for those not playing in the main event.

YOUR MOVE: In Stones of Stones, Clubs and Shusaku

"Where can I buy the best quality stones? asks Juan. "Also, if there are any GO clubs in Los Angeles?" Check out Roy Laird's excellent equipment survey in this week's "Go Online" column (below). For a full list of U.S. go clubs, go to http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708188&u=http://www.usgo.org/usa/chapclub.asp&g=0&f=84708193

"I'm traveling to Japan on June 24th in the hopes of playing lots of go and seeing some of the go related history available, including Shusaku's grave," writes Dave in Canada.
Shusaku Honinbo, genius go master "Gosei" in the end of the Edo period, was born in Innoshima, where the Shusaku Honinbo Memorial Hall features his favorite go board and the master is buried nearby. Find out more at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708182&u=http://www.shimanami.or.jp/council/en/town/innno4.html&g=0&f=84708193

MOMENTS IN GO HISTORY: The Notorious Fujisawa Shuko
Fujisawa Shuko 9P of Japan is renowned for his playing ability, especially in the opening, but he is also famous for other reasons. Born in 1925, Shuko has won many titles, most dramatically the Kisei when it was first created in 1977. He went on to defend the title successfully five times in a row and was named Honorary Kisei. Shuko was notorious for his drinking at that time, and the story was that he only sobered up each year to defend the Kisei. This regimen was surprisingly effective: in the six best-of-seven games title matches he only lost nine games. He was finally defeated by Cho Chikun in 1983. Another outstanding moment in Shuko's playing career was in 1992, when he held on to the Oza title he had won the previous year, setting a record at the age of 67 as the oldest player to successfully defend a title. A year after his retirement in 1998, he began selling dan certificates on his own, claiming that the Nihon Kiin charged too much for them. The Kiin expelled him! in response and refuses to allow his famous Encyclopedia of Tesuji to be reprinted.
- Bill Cobb

GAME COMMENTARY: Top Japanese Pros Battle in NEC Cup

Two top current Japanese pros battle it out in today's commented game as Yamashita Keigo, Kisei takes on Yoda Norimoto, Meijin in the 23rd Japanese NEC Cup, played on May 26. The NEC Cup is a fast play, knockout tournament among the top Japanese prize money winners. The playing time is 30 seconds per move, plus each player has 10 minutes of thinking time to be used any time in 1 minute units. The games are broadcast on TV. Commentary for today's game is by Alexandre Dinerchtein, from his subscription service for commented games at www.go4go.net.

Today's bonus problem file is a fuseki test created by Sakata Eio 9P and originally published in Go Review XI, 12 (December 1971).

GET THE WEEKLY GAME COMMENTARIES & original life and death problems for just $20 a year! Sign up today for the Games Edition at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708185&u=http://www.usgo.org/org/application.asp&g=0&f=84708193 and start receiving your game files next week!

GO ONLINE: Let's Go Shopping!
By Roy Laird

My editor tells me we have many new readers, and some of you have been wondering about equipment. This is a deep subject, and since the best equipment is more readily available online than in most local stores, let's go shopping! Your enjoyment will depend in part on having the best equipment you can get. The smooth, golden surface of the board; the soothing coolness of the stone in your hand; the satisfying click as it takes up its post on the board; these things are as much a part of go as the game itself.

How can you get a good basic set? For starters, forget anything produced by the big Western commercial game manufacturers. Boards are too hard, too soft, the wrong proportion. Stones are often too small for the intersection, so a line of stone looks like birds on a wire. They've been making go equipment in China, Korea and Japan for hundreds, even thousands of years. Those folks have it all figured out. Four US-based companies -- Ishi Press, Kiseido, Samarkand and Yutopian -- import Asian equipment. Each maintains a detailed website and an extensive inventory of boards, stones, bowls, clocks, books and accessories. You can link to them from our distributor page at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708187&u=http://www.usgo.org/resources/distributors.asp,&g=0&f=84708193 where you will also find several other sources for interesting Go-related merchandise.

For the cost of a decent computer game, you can own equipment that will add to your enjoyment every time you play. Samarkand offers complete sets starting at $30. Ishi Press has a decent basic set for $40. At Yutopian and Kiseido, it's more a la carte, nut you can come away good basic equipment for $50 or less.

What to think about when selecting your set:

Board: Look for a wooden board, which gives the stones a nice resonance when they strike. The grid stands out well on a light-colored, fine-grained surface. Some boards have a 19x19 on one side and 13x13 on the other, if you enjoy "fast go." One-piece boards can be rather unwieldy so some boards fold in half. Others fit together with slots. Slotted boards are a little better -- you don't have the hinge making a hump in the middle of the board -- and more expensive (of course). Vinyl roll-up boards are good for storage and travel, but playing on them is like tap dancing in a swamp. Ishi press used to sell the ultimate budget board -- it was made of contact paper. The idea was, cut plywood to size and glue on, for about $3.

Some do-it-yourselfers take the most economical route and make their own boards, but take note: Go boards are not supposed to be square! The grid should be slightly longer than it is wide, so that it seems square from the player's point of view. It's worth having a "real" board around, especially if you're just starting out as a player.

Stones: The best Go stones are wonderful objects. Holding one, or a handful, is a remarkably soothing experience -- Go stones were the inspiration for the "worry stones" sold in some personal-improvement catalogs. The bad news is, they cost hundreds of dollars, so let's skip them for now. We'll get there in a future column. Most reasonably priced stones you will see are either plastic or glass. Plastic stones are cheap -- sometimes less than $10 -- and unlike glass stones, they don't break. Glass stones have more heft, which helps them to stay put during the game better. Glass stones can cost anywhere from $20 to $65 and more. The difference is the quality of glass. Reflected highlights can seem wavy on cheaper glass stones -- on the best stones, they trace each stone's smooth contour beautifully. The best glass stones have a "soothability quotient" close to that of shell and slate.

Bowls: Here you can really economize. All you need are a couple of snap-top plastic storage containers from Chinese takeout, or the grocery store, but custom-made storage bowls are nicer, and they come in a wide range of prices. Square bowls are great for clubs, especially if you have to pack up and unpack your equipment a lot. Most traditional bowls are round. Molded plastic bowls are a cheap, attractive alternative. Yutopian offers nice square bowls for $7 at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708191&u=https://www.yutopian.com/yutop/cat%3fproduct=BK340%26category=B.&g=0&f=84708193 I also like Samarkand's "alien carapace" bowls. http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708181&u=http://www.samarkand.net/Web_store/web_store.cgi%3fpage=B01BC.html%26cart_id=4641849_58620&g=0&f=84708193 The best bowls are made of wood. You can also spend over $1000 for huge mulberry bowls, large enough to hold stones that look like marbles, !
but then you'd have to invest a couple thou in the stones too.

If you already have good equipment, give a nice set to your favorite opponent who doesn't own one. It could keep your friend interested, so you keep having more games -- "the gift that keeps on giving!" In the next few installments of this column, we'll look at some other stuff you'll want for yourself.

NOTE: The opinions expressed are those of the author do not reflect the views of the American Go Association.


GO CLASSIFIED

FOR SALE: Very high quality go board belonging to my father: check out photos at http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708174&u=http://mycgiserver.com/~suyuri/&g=0&f=84708193
Paul Celmer: pcelmer@earthlink.net (6/16)

WANTED: Gifted, dedicated volunteers to help with exciting, ground-breaking html E-Journal project. (6/9) Chris Garlock, journal@usgo.org

WANTED: Will trade go lessons for English lessons; Philadelphia (36th & Powelton Ave): Dayong Yu, yuxiao1970@hotmail.com (6/2)

WANTED: Copy of "All about Thickness" by Ishida Yoshio and "The Power of the Star-Point" by Takagawa Shukaku in any condition.
weiqi@earthlink.net (posted 5/19)

WANTED: Students, 30k - 2d. IGS 5d offers online lessons.
http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708175&u=http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/icarii&g=0&f=84708193 (posted 5/19)

WANTED: Plans for building go boards. BardKile@cs.com
P Kile (posted 5/12)


GO PLAYERS

LAS VEGAS, NV: Trying to drum up club interest here: contact Ray Kukol at rkukol@lvcm.com (6/16)

NANTUCKET, MA. Eager 9-kyu who will be on Nantucket all summer is looking for other eager players who might be there for a few face-to-face games. Please contact Andy at aokun@glowwormpub.com (6/2)

IOWA: I am a go player stuck in Ames, Iowa with apparently no other go players. Anyone out there want to play? Email: Kirk Moloney at kmoloney@mchsi.com (6/2)

ALABAMA: amateur Go player looking for someone to play with locally in the Birmingham area. Email Ro at lasro@earthlink.net (6/2)

ALASKA: I have known about go for over 20 years but playing just the last four and am looking for players in Alaska, particularly the Anchorage area. Ed Sawyer, eddieballgame@yahoo.com (posted 5/12)

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


CALENDAR OF EVENTS

June 26-29: Hackensack, NJ
2003 NJ Yang 7p Go Workshop
John Stephenson 203-396-7808 jcs@wingsgoclub.org

June 28: Richmond, VA
VA Open
William Cobb 800-653-7640 wmscobb@attbi.com

June 28: Austin, TX
Pre Congress Ratings Rally
Jeff Shaevel jeff@shaevel.com 512-733-0027

July 5-6: Orlando, FL
1st Annual Florida State Go Championships
Brian J. Olive 407-595-8405 oliveb@ocps.k12.fl.us

July 12: Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Tournament
Harold Lloyd 216-382-0752 hlloyd@core.com

July 12,19,26: Piscataway NJ
AGA rated games
GoLesson@yahoo.com

July 13: Boston, MA
MGA Summer Handicap Tournament
(Skip Ascheim Memorial)
Don Wiener 617-734-6316 donwiener@earthlink.net

July 19-August 2: St. Petersburg, Russia
47th European Go Congress
egc2003@mail.wplus.net

August 2-10: Houston, TX
U.S. GO CONGRESS http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708177&u=http://www.houstongoclub.org/USGC2003/intro.html&g=0&f=84708193


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=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708189&u=http://www.usgo.org/usa/tournaments.html&g=0&f=84708193
For the European Go Calendar see http://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708190&u=http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/go/tourn.html&g=0&f=84708193

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=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708184&u=http://www.usgo.org&g=0&f=84708193 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://gm14.com/r.html?c=209591&r=209170&t=88498618&l=1&d=84708186&u=http://www.usgo.org/org/index.asp#contactinfo&g=0&f=84708193

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
mailto:journal@usgo.org

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