A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

Jeff Newmiller 1k (right) topped the Davis/Sacramento Go Club tournament last Saturday, March 2, with two wins. There were a total of seven players at the Arden-Dimick library in Sacramento. Cha Tai-An 5k (left), won Division II with a perfect 4 wins.
- Willard Haynes

The American go community lost another longtime friend when Teddy Feldman passed away on Friday, March 1. Feldman — along with her son Micah — has been a familiar sight at go tournaments and events in the Northeast for many years, where she took an obvious delight in sharing the game with friends old and new. The funeral will be in New Jersey on Monday morning.
- photo: Teddy Feldman (l), plays Todd Cesere at the Western Massachusetts Go Club’s Spring 2011 tournament. photo courtesy the MGA

The 2013 Irish Go Congress occurred over the weekend with 38 players attending in sunny Dublin. Csaba Mero, 6d Hungary, won the main tournament, The 2nd Confucius Cup, for the second time with a perfect 5/5 score. In second place was Zebin Du, 4d China, and third was Antoine Fenech, 5d France.

Roger Daniel, 6k UK, and Mikulas Kubita, 15k Czech Republic, won all five of their games, while Thomas Shanahan won four.

The Friday evening Rapid tournament was won by Yuanbo Zhang, 4d China, with five straight wins, while Roman Pszonka, 3d Poland, came second with four.

Full results of the 2nd Confucius Cup are available here and the Rapid here.

iPad/iPod/iPhone user alert: In “SGFs and iStuff” (2/1/13), I looked at some issues related to viewing sgf files on iPods, iPads and other mobile Apple products. I managed to confuse some readers, so please note that I was referring specifically to apps for mobile devices, not desktop-based software. One reader disagreed at some length with my conclusion favoring Smart Go Kifu (SGK) over EasyGo, so I took a closer look at the two apps. The reader raised some specific questions: What about when you’re recording a game and realize you skipped a pair of moves? How do you place un-numbered stones when setting up a problem? I found that both apps have these functions. He also offered a link to a review from last April with information that is, in some cases, incomplete or inaccurate. SGK actually does keep problem statistics, but only for one user (EasyGo can track multiple users.) SGK only imports one file at a time, but that file can contain many games or problems; just concatenate them into one file on your desktop, using software such as the freeware Kombilo.  EasyGo does offer one unique feature — a “time line” type graph that shows where the next comment will be. You can test it in the free version if you like. On the other hand, SGK’s problem collection is better. I’ve been studying a lot of problems lately. I find it is the perfect time filler when you’re waiting in line, riding the train or otherwise briefly idle. If you guess the wrong answer in EasyGo, you get a big red X that tells you to try again. SGK’s response is more thorough. Your wrong move says “1?”, and the other side’s best response appears, so you can play out failed variations and see why they don’t work. (If you don’t even get a “1?”, you know you’re not even close.) When you’re right, your stone says “1!”, but you still have to finish the variation to get credit, and if you go wrong along the way, you’ll get a “?” to let you know, and you can play it out and see why. With so many other features — a playing engine, a collection of 40,000 pro game records and a “Guess Next Move” function , to name a few — SGK still seems clearly worth the higher price. When I’m finished studying SGK’s >2000 problems, I’ll probably pick up EasyGo too, for the problem collection; or I may just get one of the classic problem books that’s available through Smart Go. Or both.
- Roy Laird 

Sixteen university students from five continents assembled in Tokyo's Ginza on February 26 and 27 for the 11th World Students Go Oza Championship. The tournament is sponsored by the All-Japan Students Go Association and the Nikkei newspaper, with the cooperation of the International Go Federation. Also cooperating was Pandanet, which organized the online qualifying tournament.

The first round matched the eight players from the four big powers, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan (one male and one female player from each), against eight players from Australia, Chile, Finland, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.A. (one player from each). All but one of these games were won by the big powers, but in losing, Finland's Antti Tormanen gave Korea's Kim Youwhan what he later described as his toughest match of the tournament. In the one game that the big four lost, Maojie Xia, formerly a student at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China and now studying accounting at the University of Montana in the U.S.A., bested Ouyang Yizhuo, the Chinese female player.

In the next round Maojie Xia nearly did it again. His opponent Go Risa, a former Japanese insei of Korean ancestry, won by resignation but she had to come from far behind. 'A miracle' was how she described her victory. Meanwhile. Serbia's Dusan Mitic handed Ouyang Yizhuo her second loss. In the third round Maojie Xia was back in form, beating Japan's Yanagida Tomoya, who had won the Japanese Students Top Ten tournament last November. Go Risa lost to China's Su Guangyue, Kim Youwhan bested his teammate Chae Hyunji, and Antti Tormanen beat Dusan Mitic.

That left only Kim and Su undefeated. Kim won the deciding game between them in the fourth round to take the championship, while Su took second place on tie-breaking points. Antti Tormanen took third place by beating Lin Hung-ping. This was fairly remarkable, because Lin had started the year by winning the Five Kings Cup in Taiwan, thereby becoming only the second woman in the history of go in Taiwan to earn an amateur 7-dan ranking. Go Risa beat Chae Hyunji to take fourth place, and Lo Sheng-chieh, Taiwan's male player, beat Maojie Xia to take fifth.

The new World Student Oza Kim Youwhan is a student at Myongji University, majoring in baduk, that is, in go. He hopes to make a career of promoting the game after he graduates. 'I was suprised at the strength of the players from countries outside the professional zone,' he said. This sentiment was echoed by Go Risa, who added that she had enjoyed the tournament because it gave her a chance to speak Korean. Runner-up Su Guangyue is studying law at the Shanghai International Studies University and hopes to open a go classroom for children in the future.

Complete results are here.

The US has won the Brunei Friendship Cup, which was held Saturday Feb. 16th, on KGS.  Sponsored by the American Go Honor Society, and the Brunei I-Go Society.   “The match revived an earlier tourney last held in 2010, and renewed an international friendship with countries in Southeast Asia,” reports tournament coordinator Andrew Huang. This year’s event featured two teams from Southeast Asia, a team from Canada, and a team from the United States (selected by a qualifying event the prior week). The US team featured Aaron Ye 5d, Jeremy Chiu 5d, Louie Liu 1d, Sathya Singh 1k, Jeremiah Donley 4k, Joshua Song 12k, Eric Liu 3k, Kalin Bradley 6k, and Monsoon Shrestha 8k. In the end, the Americans were victorious after posting a 3-0 record, while SE Asia Team 2 (2-1) got second, SE Asia Team 1(1-2)  got third, and Canada (0-3) got fourth.  ”Most importantly, some international friendships were made,” reports Huang, “and very exciting games were played (including a triple ko in the qualifying event). We look forward to an even more successful event next year.”  Full reports are here. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo of Brunei players from xinwengolife.wordpress.com.

Liu Xiaohan 7D (right) won the Bei Dou Xing Cup, the second leg of the recent North American Go Convention, held February 16-17 in Arlington, VA. Zhang Shujian 5D won the Expert division, Feng Wei 6K the Proficient division, Frederick Bao 13K the Intermediate, and Sarah Crites 20K (below left) the Novice.

Zhou Xinyu and Zheng Xiangnan won the Pair Go championship in DC despite handicap disadvantage. Notably, in the Pair Go semi-final, Yukino Takehara teamed up with Benjamin Coplon and bested her big brother Keiju Takahara and partner Ziyi Ge. The Ge/Takahara and Rongrong Zhang/Nathan Epstein pairs took 3rd place. In the NY/NJ NAGC Pair Go, Amy Wang 2D and Justin Ching 3D from the Feng Yun Go School won the final match against Ziyi Ge 4D and Xinzeng Feng 2D. Ge was extremely excited to play Pair Go, saying “It is so much fun, and you can feel the sweetest moment when your partner plays at the exact spot you want it.” Wuhao Jiao/Xinyu Zhou and Yingzhi Qian/ Michael Zhaonian Chen took 3rd places.

Ruxu Cao 7D showed his mastery of Blitz Go, topping the competition in both NAGC chapters. With his star performance and solid support from other teammates, Team Beijing, consisting of just nine visiting players from mainland China, took the NAGC Team champion title. Yuan Zhou directed the DC event; Zhiyuan ‘Edward’ Zhang was “Commissioner and Chief Judge” of the NAGC.
- photos by Joshua Guarino (except top right, by Liang Yu); Pair Go photos: Rongrong Zhang-Nathan Epstein (top left); Xiangnan Zheng-Xinyu Zhou (top right); Yukino Takehara-Benjamin Coplon (bottom left); Keijiu Takehara-Ziyi Ge (bottom right)

Kiseido Digital has begun publishing a new line of interactive go e-books. The first two books cover the eighth and tenth Kisei Title Matches, in 1984 and 1986, and include Go World’s comprehensive commentaries on Cho Chikun’s exciting matches against Rin Kaiho and Koichi Kobayashi.

“Our books differ from other digital go materials in that they can be downloaded from many ebookstores and read on various ebook readers,” says Kiseido Digital’s Bob Myers. Currently, they are available on Apple’s iBookStore, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Kobo bookstores.

The Apple versions are fully interactive, meaning that sequences described in the narrative can be animated on the figures and diagrams by tapping them. The Kindle, Nook and Kobo versions are not interactive.

“Kiseido Digital plans to make available additional great content in this format,” Myers adds, “including additional commentaries, problem sets, and tutorials, from both its own library and other publishers.”

Click here for the Apple versions of the books: Tenth Kisei Title Match and Eighth Kisei Title Match. Other versions can be found with a Google search for “Kindle Kisei”; both Apple and Kindle support download of free samples of the books.

by None Redmond: My memories of Don Wiener are filled with his kindness, a tenderness which was rarely seen. I especially remember some years ago when he was one of those in the go community who persuaded me to attend the annual U.S. Go Congress even though my husband Peter — who initiated our family’s involvement with go — had died a few months before and I would be alone. When I arrived in Santa Fe, Don reassured me, got me through the registration line quickly and shepherded me through the maze of buildings to where the children would be playing. It was a wonderful set up for the young people and I was pleased for them. Don became my constant companion during that Congress and I remember that while Michael was playing a simul with the four Redmond Cup finalists, I suddenly thought I saw my husband, young, healthy and vigorous coming in through the door to watch. Don quickly took my arm and led me out to the patio where he stayed and comforted me until I recovered. I remember his own sorrow when a friend of his died and I believe this tenderness of heart may be something that very few of you saw, obscured perhaps by his legendary prowess at the go board. Don was a mensch, an entire man and a good friend. I hope his example brings a gentler side to those of you who compete in this absorbing game. And perhaps a gentler side to all of us. I shall always remember him.

Phil Straus: Don was the last person I allowed to smoke cigarettes in my house. That was probably in the late nineties. I brought out my Chinese swan ashtray, and we played endless handicap games in my office. We’d play one-game kadobans, and he consistently pushed me to embarrassingly high number of stones.

Steven Jamar: One full-board game I played with Don was about a 7-stone handicap. He made an impossible invasion and when I said “You can’t do that!” he replied “if I can’t the handicap is too large.” That one comment taught me a whole new level of detachment to the game and any one result.

Chris Garlock: My favorite and most enduring memory of Don is of those summer evenings at The Woodlands in the Catskills, when Don, after a long day playing game after game on the wrap-around porch out front, would take his seat at the piano inside and play long into the night. His vast repertoire included every Tom Paxton, Harry Chapin and Phil Ochs song and we could stump him with an obscure song request about as often as we could beat him on the go board. Which is to say, almost never.
- photos by Phil Straus 

Wenhao Liu 5d (right) topped a 32-player field to win the Twin Cities Winter Go Tournament on February 23. Players ranging from 5-dan to 20-kyu participated in the event, which was cosponsored by the Twin Cities Go Club and the University of Minnesota Go Club. The tentative date for the Twin Cities spring AGA ratings tournament is Saturday, April 20th.
- report/photos by Aaron Broege

Place :College Tunku Abdul Rahman

Date : 8th June 2013(Saturday) and 9th June 2013 (Sunday)

Entry Fee : Dan Level = RM 60 Kyu Level = RM 40

P/s: For non-MWA member and non-student will have extra RM 10 surcharge for registration.

Contact : Jimmy 012-2009396

P/s: Meal and T-shirt will be included for registration before 15th May 2013

Go to Malaysia Weiqi Association facebook to download registration form.

Time is running out to register for the American Go Honor Society’s 14th annual School Team Tournament. On March 16th and 23rd, go clubs from across North America will compete online for glory and prizes.  Each school may enter up to three teams, consisting of three players of any levels from the same K-12 school. There are multiple divisions, so teams of any level will be able to compete.  A total of $3,000 in prizes will be awarded, with prizes in each division, but also to every team that has a high participation rate. Visit www.aghs.cc to register and to read important information about the new rules and prizes. The registration deadline has been extended to March 6th, so gather a team from your school and enter before it’s too late. -Julian Erville, AGHS Vice President.

A group of 12 American players, including AGA President Andy Okun, visited Cuba on February 16th-17th for a friendship match with local players. Follows a report in Spanish by Rafael Miranda of the Cuban Academy of Go.

El sábado 16 y domingo 17 pasado; se celebró en la Academia Cubana de Go, el 2do Intercambio Cuba-EUA, el primero fue en el año 2000,organizado por Peter Shotwell, en ese entonces 28 norteamericanos viajaron a la isla y el intercambio fue solo amistoso no competitivo como en esta oportunidad, donde 12 jugadores organizados esta vez por Robert Gilman, se entusiasmaron en conocer la Academia Cubana de Go y sus jugadores, el torneo se organizo en tres grupos, Grupo Dan, Grupo Kyu fuerte y Grupo Kyu débil, en un sistema de 3 partidos diarios, dos en la mañana y uno en la tarde, a una hora finish con Komi de 6 1/2 puntos. El equipo norteamericano fue el mismo para los dos días de competencias; hubo dos equipos Cuba para diferentes días. El sábado 16 ganó el equipo norteño 24 por 9 donde Cuba solo supero en el Grupo Kyu Débil y el domingo 17 repitió la victoria los del norte esta vez 20 a 13 siendo Cuba superior en los Kyu Fuertes. En el grupo norteamericano integraba la nómina Andy Okun 1 Dan, presidente de la Asociación Americana de Go. Los partidos fueron muy buenos y en oportunidades bien reñidos. Durante la semana se estuvieron realizando partidos amistosos y entablándose una relación de amistad muy bonita entre visitantes y nacionales. Este intercambio dejó la perspectiva de seguir desarrollándose en próximas ediciones.

Lets start with some positive news! The first ladder game of the year was played this Monday, in Dublin’s venue of choice, Larry Murphy’s. Marek Gutowski won against Arthur Cater, thereby moving himself up to 6th place, and inside the Korea Points positions.

By contrast, the Irish team were failing dismally in the international arena. Gavin Rooney, so far undefeated in the team competition, finally lost a game in our match with Turkey. The rest of the team, sadly used to him leading by example, followed suit, and a difficult result of 0-4 followed. Hopefully next time, the match strategy will have been explained more carefully by the coach.

Finally, just in case you missed it, the Irish Go Congress is this weekend. Don’t miss out on this important event, we’ve already had many strong players from Europe register to play.

Fifteen-year-old Andrew Lu 6d has just won the Senior Division of the US Youth Go Championships, dethroning Calvin Sun 7d, age 16, who has had a lock on this event for the past six years.  Sun seemed almost sure to win again, emerging from the finals with a perfect record, and defeating Lu (at left) in the final round of the qualifiers.  Both boys then started fresh in the four-player double-elimination finals, which began on Jan. 20th.  Sun defeated Andrew Huang 6d in round 1, while Lu defeated talented newcomer Albert Yen 6d, who at just 12 years of age is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.  Round 2 gave Sun another edge, defeating Lu, while Yen knocked Huang out.  Yen then faced Lu a second time, and the victor would go on to face Sun.  Although he fought his best, Yen was not able to prevail and was eliminated.  This left Lu in the uncomfortable position of being out if he lost a game, but needing to defeat Sun twice in a row in order to win.  Despite having lost to Sun in both of their previous matches, Lu was determined to break through.  He opened strongly in round 4, on Feb. 16th, and then waged and won a protracted ko fight to claim a decisive victory.  The final showdown came Feb 23rd, and again featured a strong opening from Lu.  Sun tried to create complications, but in the end was down by komi, and resigned.  The game is attached below.  To get a sense of just how difficult a player Calvin Sun is to beat, check out the members-only Feng Yun commentary on Lu and Sun’s earlier match up in the qualifiers, where Sun turns the tables on Lu.  With this victory under his belt, Lu is now the US National Youth Champion, and has won a free trip to the US Go Congress.  The Junior Division matches are not yet finished, but the E-J will report the results when the final games are played.  Paul Barchilon - E-J Youth Editor.  Photo: Andrew Lu 6d 

March 2: Sacramento, CA
Davis/Sacramento Spring Quarterly
Willard Haynes willard@emeritus.csus.edu 916-929-6112

March 2: Simsbury, CT
Simsbury Open Scholastic Go Championship
Michael Scudder michael.j.scudder@gmail.com 860-738-7350
Gert Hilhorst gert@hilhorst.onmicrosoft.com

March 2-3: Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Open 2013
Rick Mott rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu 609-466-3306
Paul Matthews paul@fengyungoschool.com

March 3: Seattle, WA
Monthly Ratings Tournament
Brian Allen manager@seattlego.org 206-545-1424 206-632-1122

Get the latest go events information.

Last February 10th, the Mexican Go Association together with the Chess National School held their first Under 15 Youth Tournament. We had participants from Lancaster School, Chess National School and Pipiolo Art School accompanied by their respective teachers: Emil García, Iván Olguin and Siddhartha Ávila. It was a great event were the children got the chance to play with kids from different schools, backgrounds and styles. The event was mainly dominated by the students from Pipiolo school which also belong to the Mexican Go Community and have more experience competing. The surprise was given by Chess School student Angel Calvo, whom with little experience finished second. “This is the first of many steps to come in the road of linking the different sectors that are promoting youth Go in Mexico”, Mexican Go Association organizer and teacher Emil García reports.

The winners:

1st - Leonardo P. - Valdovinos Pipiolo Art School
2nd - Angel Calvo - Chess National School
3rd - Samuel Suaustegui - Pipiolo Art School

The New Jersey Open, to be held at Princeton University in New Jersey March 2-3, will be the second of 2013′s NAMT points qualifiers after January’s Jujo Jiang Ing Goe tournament in San Francisco. A large tournament with a great history of more than half a century, the New Jersey Open is often a draw for strong players “and will be a fantastic opportunity for them to earn points,” notes AGA Tournament Coordinator Karoline Burrall. As the first qualifier for the Eastern region, participating strong players will be eligible to earn points towards the North American Masters Tournament at this year’s US Go Congress in Tacoma, Washington. Registration is 9-10A Saturday, March 3. Email co-director Mott for full details at rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu.

Shi Yue 5P took this year’s LG Cup, and his first international title, defeating Won Soengjin 9P in two straight games in the best-of-3 final.

Shi became a Chinese professional player 10 years ago, but an international title has eluded him until now. Per Chinese Go Association rules, he will now be promoted to 9D.

His style has always fared well against Korean pros, like Won. Shi’s record in 2012 was 17-2.

This marks the 5th consecutive year China has taken the LG Cup title, beating Korea’s previous streak of four, giving Korea even more of an incentive to try to take back the Cup next year.

Adapted from a report on Go Game Guru; click for game records and more information. Edited by Ben Williams

The Ing Foundation has announced its qualifier tournament for the World Youth Go Championships (WYGC), to be held March 9th and 10th.  The new tournament has changed many of the requirements, added new prizes, and created a two step process.  The qualifiers will be open to youth under 21, of any strength, and will be held on KGS.  Two winners in each age bracket (under 16 and under 12) will be invited to compete live in Menlo Park, CA, for finals on March 22 and 23.  The winner will then be invited to compete at the WYGC, which will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, this August.  Another addition is the inclusion of a “special recommendation” player, who can be any youth player 3k or stronger, who  is recommended by their go club, teacher, or other organization.  Details on the tournament, including registration information, can be found in the attached PDF file here: WYGC.  The deadline to register is March 3rd.  Information on the WYGC tourney in Prague can be found here: WYGC_flyer. - Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Tyn Church in Prague.