A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

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 

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.