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June 15: Portland, OR
Guo Juan Pro Workshop
Peter Freedman peter.freedman@comcast.net 503-242-4203

June 15, Santa Monica, CA
7th Annual Santa Monica Coffee Cup
Andrew Okun bcd@okun.name 310-346-5850

June 15 and 18: Tempe, AZ
AZ June Rating Tournament
Bill Gundberg bill@azgoclub.org 480-831-5567

June 17-21: Mountain View, CA
2013 Summer Go Day Camp
Mingjiu Jiang mingjiu7p@hotmail.com 650-796-1602

Get the latest go events information.

The central region American Go Association board seat remains wide open as no names have been submitted as candidates, reports Arnold Eudell. “Incumbents Paul Celmer and Chris Kirschner remain the sole candidates in the eastern and western regions respectively.” Eudell added. Nominations close Saturday, June 15 and must be sent to elections@usgo.org. Click here for procedures, qualifications and candidate statements. 

14 players braved the 24C heat to battle it out at the Galway Go tournament over the weekend. Justyna Kleczar, 2k won for a second time. She was joined on four wins by Thomas Shanahan, 6k, Anthony Durity, 7k, and Ken Savage, 8k, whom she edged out on SOS. Alex Delogu, 18k also won four games and won the prize as best newcomer. Full results are here.

by John Power,  Japan Correspondent for the American Go E-Journal

Cho U Wins Crucial Game In Meijin League: Thanks to defeating his most formidable opponent, Cho U 9P (right) is a lot closer to ecoming the challenger for the 38th Meijin title. In a game played on June 1, Cho (taking black) defeated Iyama Yuta Honinbo by resignation, improving his record to 6-0 and keeping the sole lead. Iyama had been one of just two players with only one loss, but, with his score now 5-2, the best he can hope for is a tie for first, but that will happen only if Cho loses both his remaining games; his opponents are Takao Shinji 9P and Kono Rin 9P. The other player with one loss is Hane Naoki 9P, who is on 4-1; he has already played Cho, so he has to rely on the above-mentioned pair for help in catching up. Incidentally, Saturday games are quite unusual, but Iyama is extremely busy, what with Honinbo games in successive weeks. On June 6, Sakai Hideyuki 8P (B) defeated Yuki Satoshi Judan by resignation. This was Sakai’s first win in the league, to six losses, while Yuki still has not opened his account. He is now 0-6 and has suffered a dismal 16 losses in a row, spread over three Meijin leagues.

Takao Takes Lead In Honinbo Title Match: All the momentum now seems to be with Takao Shinji 9P (left) in the 68th Honinbo title match. In the third game, played in the Hokkaido city of Kushiro on June 5 & 6, he defeated the defending champion Iyama Yuta and took a 2-1 lead. Playing black, Takao forced a resignation after 167 moves. In its report, Go Weekly was unable to specify a losing move for Iyama; he apparently played no dubious moves after the opening, so Takao must have gained an advantage in the first fight of the game, in which he sacrificed corner stones to set up a squeeze on the outside. Iyama has now lost three important games on the trot; the fourth Honinbo game, scheduled for June 17 & 18, will be a crucial one for his title defense.

Kono To Challenge Iyama For Gosei Title: In the final of the 38th Gosei tournament, Kono Rin 9P (B) defeated Matsumoto Takehisa 7P by 1.5 points, so he will challenge Iyama Yuta Gosei for the title. Kono challenged Iyama for the Tengen title last November, but lost three straight; he will be hoping to improve on this record in what will be his first Gosei challenge. The title match starts on July 6.

New Professional Couple: On June 4, Suzuki Ayumi 6-dan and Rin Kanketsu 7-dan got married at a hotel in Karuizawa. Rin commented: “There’s a perfect balance of supply and demand in our marriage: I like composing life-and-death problems and my wife likes solving them.” As far as I know, this is the 16th marriage among Nihon Ki-in professionals.

This year the Yellow River Cup was held at the Armed Police Sanatorium in the Beidaihe seaside resort district in Qinhuangdao, 300 km due east of Beijing. A total of 288 players ranked 5 dan and up competed for assorted prizes, including 20,000 yuan (about $3200 or €2500) for individual first place. Among the contestants was He Yuhan, the 13-year-old boy wonder who won the Amateur Tianyuan title in February and the Fengcheng Cup earlier in May.

After disposing of his morning and afternoon opponents on the first day of play (May 27), He faced China's number-three-rated amateur Ma Tianfang in the evening round. He had beaten Ma in the Fengcheng Cup, and now he beat him again. Next morning the other three members of China's top amateur quartet (Hu Yuqing, Bai Baoxiang, Wang Chen) joined Ma in the one-loss group while He continued to win, adding four more victories on May 28 and 29 to his opening streak. Here the tournament adjourned for a day. When play resumed on May 31, He was drawn down against Bai in the morning round. Bai suffered his second loss while He remained undefeated.

The only other undefeated player at this point was Dai Zhitian, a 17-year-old from Shanxi Province who learned go at the age of seven, trained at the Ma Xiaochun Daochang and now trains at the Ge Yuhong Daochang in Beijing, won the Shanxi Championship in 2011, and took eighth place in the national Evening News Cup in January. He and Dai were paired against each other on the top board in the afternoon round, and here He's winning streak ended. Dai, playing white, gradually pulled ahead in the middle game. He, unable to shake his opponent's lead, had to resign.

Four rounds still remained, but as it turned out, the winner of the cup had already been decided. Dai and He continued to beat all comers. Their closest challenger was Li Weiqing, another 13-year-old, who lost to He in the evening round on May 31 and faced Dai in the last round on June 2. In that final match, Dai (black) played a free-wheeling galactic-style game, surrounded a huge area in the center, and won by resignation in 139 moves. Li came in third, He came in second, and Dai finished first with a perfect 13-0 score.

In addition to the cup, Dai received an immediate promotion to 7 dan, the highest amateur rank awarded in China. Asked about future plans, Dai said that his dream is to play go professionally, but if he does not make pro this year, he will proceed with higher education.

Dai was not the only winner. There were also team prizes (the team from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics took first place) and prizes for the best youth, female, and senior players. Even those who do not understand Chinese will enjoy seeing Dai, He, Li, and other winners and contestants in Sports-Sina's slide show.

Less than 10 days remain before nominations close for the 2013 AGA board elections. Incumbents Peter Celmer and Chris Kirschner are running to retain their seats in the Eastern and Western regions respectively. Nominations, including self-nominations are being accepted through June 15 and should be sent to elections@usgo.org

The new Rocket City Go Club in the Huntsville, AL area has been founded “in the hope that we could lure some of the many NASA rocket scientists in the area into trying one of the world’s most ancient and fun board games” reports Adam LeCroy. “Non rocket scientists are also welcome of course!” The club’s inaugural meeting will be June 17th at noon, at the Sinsaegae restuarant, 2701 Patton Rd SW, Huntsville, AL.
Got go club news? Get the word out! Email reports to us at journal@usgo.org 

A new captain has been appointed to head up the British team for the online Pandanet Go European Team Championship 2013 following the UK’s demotion to the C League, after they failed to win a single game last season (A League Finalists Set in European Team Championship 5/10 EJ).

Chris Bryant 1d (pictured), a 23-year-old software engineer from Bury, who plays at St Albans Go Club, has been charged with reversing the team’s fortunes and his personal go history speaks of a man with the resolve to achieve his goals. Bryant learned go in February 2011 and early on made a commitment to try and reach dan grade within a year, signing up for the British Go Association (BGA)’s Shodan Challenge, where ambitious players are supported in a formal attempt to reach a specified higher grade within one year.

The puzzle-loving Bryant attributes his go success to solving an estimated 10,000 tsumego problems in a year — including about 1,000 in the first week alone, bringing him to 13-kyu — and in fact has only played about 300 actual games.

Bryant not only took the Challenge and met it, but also displayed his organizational flair by running the Shodan Challenge in 2011 – 2012 for the BGA. At that time there was an individual mentoring system, but this was difficult logistically and as Bryant explains, “The way [it] works at the moment is that there is a forum/Google group where people can post up games to be reviewed”. The BGA has also held closed teaching events for stronger players to improve. Bryant has already identified and made contact with more than the maximum pool of twelve (minimum six) strong players from which four will be selected for each round .

Outgoing captain Andrew Simons 4d continues to play a part in strengthening British go talent by giving lectures most Thursdays at 8pm in the British Room on the KGS go server. Bryant said of the lectures,  “These have helped a lot of people; it’s the kind of thing that I’d love to see more of. I give lectures myself, though mostly on Second Life – we have a go playing location there called Kido Province “

As for future ambitions, Bryant said, “I’d like to become British Champion one day – going to need lots more tsumego for that though ;). I’ve never had a dedicated teacher but there have been a few people who I’ve got advice from and I’m really appreciative of that. One of the things I like most about go is that strong people seem eager to teach others, and so the trend continues as those players themselves become stronger!”

This year’s Championship starts in September.

- Tony Collman

Preliminaries for the 10th Changqi Cup finished May 31 after three days of fierce matches. When the smoke cleared, Tan Xiao 7P, Liu Xing 7P, Shi Yue 9P, and Lian Xio 4P stood above the rest, including last year’s defending champions Chen Yaoye 9P and Tuo Jiaxi 3P. The finalist’s circle was especially sweet for Liu as he competed in 2007, 2008, and 2011 to no avail. However, this year he bested his two-time conqueror Gu Li 9P. No date has been set for the semifinals, although the finals have been scheduled for late October 2013.

Known as one of China’s “most generously sponsored tournaments” with a grand prize of over $73,000 USD, the Changqi Cup always draws China’s top players. Pros who made an appearance this year were Chang Hao 9P, Fan Tingyu 9P, Kong Jie 9P, and Jiang Weijie 9P, to name a few. Joint-hosts the Chinese Go Association and the Ing Foundation (Shanghai Branch) originally came together in 2004 to honor Ing Chang-ki. For more information about this year’s tournament including photos and game records, please visit Go Game Guru.
- Annalia S. Linnan, based on reporting on Go Game Guru