A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

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.

Don Wiener was the fourth person I ever met who played go, but he was my first go player, the first person who truly inhabited the game – he played, he studied, he taught and he organized.

I had learned the game from a professor at college, and I knew of two other students who played. One January, back in 1980, the professor taught a month long course on the game. While I did not take the class, I showed up for Don’s visit. After only experiencing the very laid back style of the prof, Don was a seismic shift. His energy was amazing and his laughter infectious. I recall he played the entire class 9×9 games with handicaps. I lacked 9×9 experience, so I was not one of the few winners, but I recall him complimenting my willingness to try to kill him. I failed, but he did not kill me either – I recall the final score was 5 to 2.

Later I would learn that he was one of the strongest players on the East Coast. He was a mainstay of the American Go Journal staff back in those days. I know he was extremely proud of his work on the “Keshi and Uchikomi” series in the Journal, which was later published by Slate and Shell. Like Sam Zimmerman and Chris Kirschner, he was one of those guys who simply showed up at the Go Congress and went to work setting up and helping out wherever he could.

You could call Don the “father of the AGA 7dan”. The US Open — until the second Denver Congress in 2000, I believe — had always had a 5 dan section, and an open section above that, therefore, the AGA’s highest rank was 6 dan. Don argued for years that he was a 6 dan, but that he could not compete with those other 6 dans, and that we should have a 6 dan section, implicitly recognizing a 7 dan rank. My recollection is he got his wish, promptly won the first-ever 6 dan section, and had to play in the Open section the next year anyway.

But my fondest, and given his death from cancer, bittersweet, memories of him were playing games, usually on picnic tables outside at the Go Congresses. Unlike many strong players, Don would play absolutely anyone just so long as they were willing to share his smoker’s exile and put up with his running commentary on the game. Laughing with him in the summer sun are truly some of my brightest Congress memories.

august afternoons
heavy eyebrows laugh and smoke
joyful go exile

- by Keith Arnold; photo by Phil Straus 

“Is it possible to sign up for one email per week that has all the msgs concatenated together from the previous week?” wonders Bill Chiles.
Absolutely; just go to “UPDATE YOUR PROFILE” at the bottom of your E-Journal and select the frequency you prefer.

U.S. pro Andy Liu 1P will play Lee Sedol 9P this Sunday, Feb. 24 (10a EST) in the latest round of the 10-game series between the AGA-Europe pro team and Lee, sponsored by go9dan.com.
- photo: Andy Liu (right) receives his 1-dan professional certificate from Myung-wan Kim 9P at the 2012 AGA-Tygem Pro Tournament; photo by Steve Colburn

The second round of the Pandanet AGA City Leaguewill be held this Sunday, February 24. Round 1 winners in the A League were Greater Washington (d. Boston), Los Angeles (d. New York City) and Vancouver (d. Seattle). In B League, winners were Washington DC 1, San Francisco and Toronto. In the
C League, winners were Washington DC 2, Memphis, Chicago and Pittsburgh. D League winners were Quebec, Southern California 2, Kentucky and Brentwood TN. Click here for Sunday’s pairings (check schedules for times for each league): A League; B League; C League; D League.

Long-time go organizer and mentor Don Wiener passed away on February 21 after a struggle with lung cancer. “We will miss one of American go’s true spirits,” said American Go Association President Andy Okun. Wiener (left), a 6-dan player, was one of the stalwarts of the Massachusetts Go Association, and an organizer of countless tournaments over a span of more than 30 years. At the beginning of each tournament, he always announced – with a straight face – the “special MGA rule” that “if you touch a stone you must play that stone.” Wiener taught so many players with so many high-handicap games that he often said “I don’t know how to play an even game.” He was also an important member of the New York group which powered the growth of the AGA in the late 70s and 80s. Beside his speed go and quick wit, Wiener’s speed typing was a huge asset as an Assistant Editor of the American Go Journal from 1977 to 1987 when all of the text was done on an IBM Selectric typewriter. Wiener is survived by his mother and a sister in California. No memorial service is planned, but donations may be made to the American Cancer Society.
- Bill Saltman; photo: Wiener at the 1987 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Phil Straus