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AGA News!
UPDATED 11/5/2007 10P (report news to journal@usgo.org) U.S. GO NEWS: Jang Bi Tops Portland Tourney; Andy Olsen Wins Austin; Hugh Zhang Wins Jujo Youth Tourney; U.S. Defeats Canada In Online Team Tourney; Cotsen Offers Strong Field, Big Prizes WORLD GO NEWS: Meijin Goes To Decisive Game 7; Lee Sedol Sweeps Korean Myeongin; Rui Naiwei And Park Jieun In Finals Of Yuanyang Cup; S. Korea Dominates Hangzhou Tourney GO CALENDAR: NYC, LA & Baltimore IN MEMORIAM: Craig Hutchinson GO PHOTOS: Feng Yun 9P’s Summer Go Camp KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: Part Six, The Center JANG BI TOPS PORTLAND TOURNEY: Jang Bi took top honors in the Portland Tournament, topping a field of 43 players. Results: Dan: 1st: Jang Bi; 2nd: Chang Yu; 3rd: Zhao Yan. 1-9 kyu: 1st: Lucas Carlson; 2nd: Jeremiah Burley; 3rd: Frank Brown. 10+ kyu: 1st: Richard Steinfeld; 2nd: Gordon Costanza; 3rd: Robert Solovay. Youth: Mike Tobias. Female: Akane Negishi. New: Chang Yu. The next Oregon tournament will be in Salem on Jan 12, 2008 - reported by Peter Drake ANDY OLSEN WINS AUSTIN: Andy Olsen won the November 3 Austin Go Club fall tournament. The 3-round event attracted 13 players, including 5 new members; Joe Eaton was TD. Results: 1st: Andy Olsen 3-0; 2nd: Bart Jacob; 3rd: Mike Heinich; 4th: Lorenzo Sadun.  - reported by Joe EatonHUGH ZHANG WINS JUJO YOUTH TOURNEY: Hugh Zhang – “a rising star in American go” -- won the October 28 Jujo Jiang Youth Tournament, reports Ernest Brown. Held in Sunnyvale, California, 116 youngsters participated in the 10th annual event. Winner’s Report: first place finishers in each division: Hugh Zhang, Eric Su, Corey Huang, Ethan Chao, Alex Shieh, Joey Chou, Justin Fang, Kevin Fang, Alvin Kao, Justin Wu, Jonathan Ta. For complete tournament results click here http://www.gomasters.com/index.php?id=512&first_item=0&id=517 photo: Mingjiu Jiang and Kris Wang (Mayor of Cupertino, CA), present the trophy for the top section to Hugh Zhang. U.S. DEFEATS CANADA IN ONLINE TEAM TOURNEY: The U.S. team won the October 27-29 U.S.- Canada tournament by a score of 7-4 after Huiren Yang 8d defeated Yongfei Ge 9d and Eric Lui 8d beat Jun Fan in the final rounds of the online event on October 29 (the U.S. had led 5-4, as previously reported). In other U.S. team news, Lionel Zhang turned in the best U.S. result yet in the Hangzhou International City Go Tournament. Click here for details. - reported by Ke Lu COTSEN OFFERS STRONG FIELD, BIG PRIZES: Over $5,000 in prizes and a free lunch buffet attracts one of the largest and strongest fields to the annual Cotsen Open http://web.mac.com/thelec/iWeb/G02007/Index.html, scheduled for this weekend in Los Angeles, CA. Pre-registration is required for the free buffet; email casie@thelec.com or click here http://web.mac.com/thelec/iWeb/G02007/Index.html The E-Journal will broadcast top games live on KGS, as well as a pro-pro game between Yilun Yang 7P and another professional. Sponsored by Eric Cotsen and the American Go Association, the tournament also features “two masseuses (who) will be making the rounds to ease the tensions that arise in your shoulders” as well as $1,500 prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Go clubs. MOON CHA DEADLINE SATURDAY: Pre-registration is required for the upcoming Moon Cha Memorial Go Tournament in Rockville, MD. Registration deadline is Saturday, November 10; the tournament is on November 17. "Players at all levels are welcome and prizes will be awarded at all levels," says organizer Yuan Zhou. Organized by the XYZ Private Go Group and sponsored by Slate and Shell, this is an official AGA-rated tournament.  MEIJIN GOES TO DECISIVE GAME 7: This year’s Meijin all comes down to one game now. After being down by a score of 1-3 at the end of the fourth game in the defense of his Meijin http://senseis.xmp.net/?Meijin title, Takao Shinji 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?TakaoShinji came back to win games five and six by margins of a two and a half points and a half point to tie up the match before this week’s decisive final game against challenger Cho U 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?ChoU. Game 7 is set for November 8th and 9th. Takao took this title last year from Cho, who had held it for two years. Takao's only other title is the Honinbo http://senseis.xmp.net/?Honinbo , which he also took from Cho. He has held the Honinbo for three terms now, defeating challenger Yoda Norimoto 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?YodaNorimoto earlier this year. Cho holds the Gosei http://senseis.xmp.net/?Gosei title, one of the top seven Japanese national titles, and also won the Agon Cup http://senseis.xmp.net/?AgonCup , the Ryusei http://senseis.xmp.net/?Ryusei , and the NEC Cup http://senseis.xmp.net/?NECCup . He is also to play Cho Chikun 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?ChoChikun for the right to be this year's challenger for the Kisei http://senseis.xmp.net/?Kisei . [pic of Takao at http://senseis.xmp.net/?TakaoShinji ] TO HYPERLINK OR NOT: Are the hyperlinks to foreign players and events useful or not? Click here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=z5YilCwvxKEgcti5sVt7Iw_3d_3d to let us know what you think!  LEE SEDOL SWEEPS KOREAN MYEONGIN: Lee Sedol 9P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=10 defeated Cho Hanseung 9P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=60 by a score of 3-0 to win the Korean Myeongin http://senseis.xmp.net/?Myeongin (Meijin). In this event there is a ten-member round-robin league. The top two finishers then play a best-of-five-game match for the title. At the end of the league play Lee was number one with a 7-2 record, but Cho was tied with Mok Jinseok 9P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?name=Mok%20Jinseok at 6-6, so they had a play-off won by Cho. Interestingly, during the league Mok defeated both Lee and Cho, but went down by resignation in the play-off with Cho. Lee is one of the most successful current pros; many see him as a serious challenge to Lee Changho 9P's http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=11 status as number one in Korea and the world. This is the first time Lee Sedol has won this event, which was won by Lee Changho twelve times in the previous thirteen terms.  RUI NAIWEI AND PARK JIEUN IN FINALS OF YUANYANG CUP: The Yuanyang Cup is a brand new international women's tournament that includes a preresentative from both North America and Europe, along with six each from Korea and Japan, and ten players from China. The event is sponsored by a Chinese company and played in Baejing. The Western reps, Feng Yun 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?FengYun and Zhao Pei (Cho Bae) 6d, both lost in the first round. The semifinals on November 1st included a Japanese rep (Yashiro Kumiko 5P http://senseis.xmp.net/?YashiroKumiko ), a Chinese (Zhang Xiang 8P), and the two Koreans who came out on top, Rui Naiwei 9P http://senseis.xmp.net/?RuiNaiwei and Park Jieun 8P http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=86 . Rui beat Zhang, and Park defeated Yashiro. The finals will be a best-of-three-game match and is scheduled for January 2008. S. KOREA DOMINATES HANGZHOU TOURNEY: Nearly 30 teams participated in this year’s Hangzhou International City Go Tournament, held in October 25-29 in Hangzhou, China. Lionel Zhang and Jack Shih represented the U.S., and Zhang’s 5-4 result was the best performance yet in the three years the U.S. has participated. A total of 87 players participated, playing nine rounds over four days. South Korea’s four teams -- three from Seoul and one from Chun-Lo-Dao – comprise the events biggest and strongest group. The oldest players was a 71-year-old from Japan and youngest a 9-year-old from China. The Republic of Mongolia sent a team for the first time this year. Many famous China professional players also joined the 6th annual event, including Nie Weiping 9P, Ma Hsiao-Tsun 9P, Hua I-Kang 9P, Zhang Weng-Tung 9P, Tsao Da-Yen 9p, and Lo Jeang-wen 7P, who played friendship games against each other. Results: Team section: 1st: Seoul #3; 2nd: Seoul #2 team; 3rd: Chun-Lo-Dao team. Individual section: 1st: Kim, Shun-Zen (S. Korea 3); 2nd: Kim, Da-Ho (S. Korea 1) 3rd: Jiang, Zen-Pei (S. Korea 2), 4th: Lee, Shun-Hau (China, Zhung-Chin), 5th Hong, Shou-I ( Chun-Lo-Dao), 6th: Hu, Yu-Chin (China, Hangzhou; Hu was the Hangzhou champion for last three years and is also a former World Amateur Tournament champion). - reported by Jack Shih IN MEMORIAM: Craig Hutchinson 1d, a longtime player and AGA volunteer, passed away Tuesday, October 30. For many years the AGA Archivist, Hutchinson, a  well-known go editor and writer, was deeply involved with go and promoting it in the United States for many years, including working closely with Yutopian Enterprises, editing and typesetting many of their books and helping to publish their journal "Go Winds." After a career as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps, Hutchinson became a prominent swing dance organizer and eventually a judge of national swing dance competitions. As AGA Archivist, Hutchinson single-handedly amassed the more than 100 boxes of books, newsletters, photographs and other materials that now constitute the AGA Historical Archive http://www.usgo.org/archive/agagobib.html, and created a complete catalog that makes these items available to anyone interested in the AGA's history. “Craig was a giant of his go generation,” said AGA President Mike Lash. “I was deeply moved by the strength of his discipline and dedication to his passion as an archivist, even after he officially passed the torch to the new AGA archvist. His contributions to establishing the permanency and recording the history of go in America continued right up to the end. He was a strong presence in our community and will be deeply missed by us all." Adds AGA Board Chair Roy Laird, "Everyone who knew Craig knew of his passion for go. Fewer knew his humorous side, perhaps best illustrated in the whimsical " Go Origin" http://users.erols.com/crhutch/go/goo.html legend that he created. I am really sad to see him go." Despite serious health problems in recent years, Hutchinson remained active, showing up at go events as recently as the 2005 U.S. Go Congress – where, in addition to directing the 9x9 tournament (a longtime tradition), he taught Chinese counting for the Day Off tournament, won the 2 dan section in the U.S. Open, and won the Lasker award -- and published a go website http://users.erols.com/crhutch/go.html in late 2006 with a long subtitle ending with Hutchinson’s trademark motto, “Enjoy Your Good Premises.” Chuck Robbins, who helped Hutchinson travel to several events in recent years, says “He was upbeat about life and go and did not allow his medical condition to deter him. I’m not sure who helped who the most. He taught me about grace in the face of adversity.” photo: Phil Straus.jpg) GO PHOTOS Photos from Feng Yun 9P’s Summer Go Camp in Hangzhou, China are now available online http://www.fygc.com/workshops/hangzhou2007/hangzhou2007.htm The 2nd annual camp ran from June 23 through July 29 and offers students the experience of studying go with local Chinese go players of the same age. In addition to go activities, workshop participants are exposed to Chinese culture, and have opportunities to visit local sights. KERWIN'S ROAD MAP FOR BEGINNERS: Part Six, The Center by James Kerwin 1P Despite all that beckoning wide-open space, the center of the go board is generally not a productive place to try for territory. The real significance of the center is that it is the place of safety. All killing attempts begin with enclosing the target group. When a group runs into the center it becomes virtually impossible to enclose it, and thus the group can’t be killed. I realize this may not be very reassuring when your eyeless group is wandering across the board, but you must trust the logic and when your group can’t quickly make life on the side you should run it into the center right away. Why are center groups so hard to kill? The fundamental reason is that each move creates multiple new possibilities. The would-be killer can block one or two of  them, but not all. Diagram 1 illustrates the principle (but do not consider it a model for actual play): while Black 1 has four obvious follow-ups -- one-space jumps in four directions -- White can only block one. Black 3 then creates three more follow-ups – more one-space jumps, the failsafe center move -- in three directions, and again white can only block one. Black 5 shows another good shape, the ‘dogs neck’, and white can only block one of three good follow-up moves. By Black 3 the group is virtually alive, and black has not used any threats to link up to existing stones or to cut off and kill blocking white stones.All well and good, but you’re still worried about safety and eyes. Beginners think that being alive means having eyes, but this is too simple, as well as inaccurate. If a group can’t be killed, it is alive, even if it doesn’t have eyes. How is this possible? To kill a group, three things must happen: deny it eyes, cut off all connections, and be able to withstand a counter-attack. Without all three of these conditions, a group may be vulnerable, but it cannot definitely be killed. For most of the game, most groups do not have eyes but are not killable. However, the addition of one or more stones at key locations may well turn them into killable groups. One skill in go is to find these key locations in areas near a no-eye but not-killable group which simultaneously threaten the group and create profit in the nearby area. Thinking defensively, one can never assume that a group that the opponent is ignoring can never be attacked. One must keep checking the safety of “strong” groups, as well as “weak groups.” There are two situations when potential center territory becomes significant. The first is in a large structure game when the center potential is added to an existing corner and side structure. The second situation is roughly the second half of a game when the corners and sides are pretty much played out. Kerwin, a longtime go teacher, is a regular contributor to the E-Journal and American Go Yearbook. If you have questions on the material in this column, or on how to get stronger, email him at journal@usgo.org | |
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