XIE PADS CANADIAN LEAD IN TEAM TOURNEY: Hank Xie stretched the Canadian lead to 6-2 in the ongoing online US-Canada team tournament. Xie defeated Yue Zhang and Jie Liang last weekend. Next up for the US team is Michael (ZhaoNian) Chen; the U.S. is down to just X players; (names). Click here to download the most recent game records.

PETERSON WINS MINNESOTA TOURNAMENT: Max Peterson 4d (far right) went 4-0 to win the Minnesota Go Tournament a second time, narrowly defeating Josh Larson 3d (second from right) who went 3-1 to take second place. Players from Minnesota and Iowa gathered in Maplewood at the Goodrich Golf Course on Sunday, June 28 for the 2009 Minnesota Go Tournament.  The other players who managed three wins to earn prizes include, from left to right, Jeff Putney 6k, Richard Schuster 5k, Tyson Williams 9k, and George Hovey 1d. photo courtesy Peter Hansmeier.

GO BBQ: Figuring that barbecue is great food and go is a great game, combining the two seemed like a sure winner for Metro Washington-area go players. Nearly two dozen gathered in Rockville, MD on the afternoon of July 3 for a “Go Potluck” featuring Jie Li 7d's review of his recent World Fujitsu Cup game against Hane Naoki 9P and two rounds of 4-on-1 simultaneous games as well as good food. Players ranging from beginners to high dan level and from as far as Baltimore, MD and Fairfax, VA stayed until nearly midnight. Edward (Zhiyuan) Zhang 7d hosted and provided the BBQ, and tells the E-Journal that “the event was so successful that we’ve decided to meet monthly.” He’ll host another Potluck on Saturday, July 25, a week before the US Go Congress. Anyone interested in attending can email Zhang. Click here for more photos. Photo by Edward Zhang

TAYLOR ELECTED PRESIDENT OF GO HONOR SOCIETY: The American Go Honor Society (AGHS) has elected a new board and officers, with high school student Kris Taylor of the Plano Senior High Go Club named President. "I hope to see many good changes grow from my election," Taylor told the Journal, "I definitely see the AGHS reaching out to youth clubs to help them grow and start annual fundraisers." A total of thirty-three middle, high school, and university students representing four nations will be formally inducted next month. "Over 70 people applied, and the selection process was very rigorous," reports outgoing President Matthew Mallory." The top-tier officials were elected by individuals who had previously participated in AGHS events, while supporting ranks were chosen through an examination. Notable names include the youngest-ever national officer, Nicholas Wentworth (NC) who was elected as Recorder at 11 years old, and two civil service officers who are 13, Maher Qandil (IL) and Erica Hwang (TX). The AGHS leadership initiative does not bar candidates by age, but selects outstanding individuals based on their contribution to society and passion in promoting go in their community. Click here http://aghs.cc for the full list of passing candidates.
-Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor

SENIOR MEN TAKE BIG LEAD IN GG AUCTION CUP: The women are down to their last two players in the GG Auction Cup, a win-and-continue tournament between twelve senior (over 50) male Korean pros and twelve women Korean pros. Park Yeongchan 3P – one of the seven male players remaining -- defeated Rui Naiwei 9P on July 6th. The last two women are strong players: Park Jieun 9P and Cho Hyeyeon 8P. The remaining male players include Cho Hunhyun 9P and Seo Bongsoo 9P, both top players in their day. When Cho was winning most of the Korean titles, Seo was his main rival. This is the third GG Auction Cup. The women won the first when Park Jieun defeated Cho Hunhyun in the final game. The men took the second with Cho Hunhyun defeating Cho Hyeyeon in the final game, and it looks likely they’ll take the third Cup as well.

ALL-KOREAN FUJITSU FINAL: Lee Changho 9P is in the final of the 22nd international Fujitsu Cup for the third consecutive year. Although he lost in 2007 and 2008, Lee won this title in 1996 and 1998. In the semifinals on July 4th Lee defeated the lone non-Korean in the field by that time, Chang Hao 9P of China. Lee's opponent in the final -- scheduled for July 6th in Tokyo -- will be Kang Dongyun 9P, who defeated Park Yeonghun 9P of Korea in the semifinals. Park won the Fujitsu Cup in both 2004 and 2006. Kang, who turned twenty this year, defeated Lee Changho to take the Korean King of Kings title in 2007, won five games in the international Nongshim Cup in 2008, and defeated Lee Sedol 9P to take the Korean Chunwon title earlier this year. 

DOGANAY TOPS TURKEY TOURNEY: Kivanc Doganay 2d topped the fourth annual Izmir tourney July 4-5 in Turkey. Local strongman Emre Polat 3d took second place, Huksat Usrut 1d (Ankara) third and fourth was Kerem Karaerkek, who was the first Turkish participant in an European Go Congress, back in Tuchola in 1995. Eighty six players participated in four separate tournaments at the Izmir event, with prizes awarded in each tourney. In the 4th category (20k+) all four winners were locals. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema

DICKHUT MASTERS MESCHEDE: Current German Champion Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d (center) showed why he was the clear favorite in the 4th Meschede tourney June 27-28 in south-west Germany, winning with a clean sweep, two wins ahead of Lukas Kraemer 3d (r) and Bernd Radmacher 5d (l). Jutta Vagedes 8k won a fan as best woman with a plus-score; 39 players participated. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema
NB: photo with all winners available here

CAPITAL TEAM KEEPS TITLE IN SLOVENIA: Gregor Butala 5d led his team from the capital city of Ljubljana to another Slovenian national title in Kranj on May 16, topping a field of four teams. Butala, who incurred the team’s only loss, led another team to victory last year as well, when six teams played. Click here for results.  
- Peter Dijkema

FRANKE MEISTER IN HAMBURG: Lutz Franke won the Hamburg title with a clean sweep, 2 points clear of five other top contenders. 35 took part in the tournament, which lasted from March 23 till June 15. Only Kai Hoelscher 14k also won all five games. Click here for results.
- Peter Dijkema

NEW EJ STAFFERS; COPY-EDITOR SOUGHT: We're very pleased to add several new E-Journal contributors to our team: Myron Souris has come on board as our Games Editor, while Nicholas Roussos is our Cyprus correspondent and Horatio Davis our Australia/New Zealand correspondent. We still have an opening for a reliable copy editor; if you're interested, email us.

REDMOND ON COMPUTER GO: Although he hasn’t been following recent developments in computer go closely, Michael Redmond 9P recently told the EJ that he thinks “it’ll change the game; I’m hoping it will lead to new developments, perhaps new openings, where so much of the game is still guesswork.”  While “it might take some fun out of the game, at this point I don’t feel threatened. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.”photo: Redmond (l) reviewing games at the recent World Amateur Go Championships with EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock; photo by John Pinkerton

TOP GAMES ON GO SENSATIONS: Most pros and top players play online regularly these days and now, thanks to GoSensations you can replay such games from five popular servers. Noting that "not all go servers have game archives available," GoSensations is collecting and posting pro and top amateur games from KGS, Oro, Tygem, PandaNet's IGS, DashBaduk and Drago. "You can be sure that if a game draws more than 300 observers, you will soon find it in our database," says GoSensation's Alex Dinerchtein, who also provides some of the commentaries. "We will work to make sure that our experts show you the most interesting games," Dinerchtein adds. "They will introduce the players to you and explain why these games are so wonderful and so important to review. It is our hope that this will allow every go player a chance to see many of the important games that are being played by great players today."

MORE TIME FOR FREE GO STONES: The deadline for the Shodan Imports drawing of free shell and slate go stones -- open only to full members of the AGA – has been extended to July 29th. Click here for entry form and rules.

ODDS & ENDS: Here are some items we either missed or just haven’t had a chance to get into the EJ in recent months:

HOWARD COUNTY GO IN THE NEWS: “The Michael Phelps of the game of Go attended a meeting of the Go Club of Howard County and I missed him!” wrote Lane Page in “Gotta Go!”, her March 12 report in the Howard County (MD) Times.

RUSSIAN GO MUSEUM OPENS: Igor Grishin has opened the first Russian Go museum in Moscow, reports Goama’s Alex Dinerchtein; click here for photos and a report (in Russian).

NEW IN PRINT: For New Players
by Roy Laird
Last time we summarized recent developments for stronger players in the world of go publishing. There’s good news for beginners as well.  In fact just this month, two new books appeared, written specifically for double-digit kyus. Learn Go and Games of Go, by British 2K Neil Moffatt, use a large, legal-size format to explain the basics in complete detail. Moffatt writes that as he was learning go in the1990's, "I kept on the lookout for books that had the fewest moves per diagram, since I struggled to mentally remove and replace the stones. I kept looking for twenty years, and finally decided that the only way I would find one is to write one." In fact, Moffat wrote two: Learn Go explains the basics, while Games of Go gives detailed analysis of twelve games at varying strength levels, with one move per diagram and accompanying text for each move. Click the names of books above for sample pages, or click here to view a complete game analysis on the LearnGo website. Other interesting resources on the website include an extensive set of "joseki trees" with move-by-move presentation of common opening sequences. Many other resources for aspiring newcomers have appeared as well in the past few years. Oromedia’s nine-volume Speed Baduk series starts from the most basic fundamentals in a large format, problem-oriented approach. Don’t forget to get the answer book too. In Baduk Made Fun And Easy, a three volume series, Myungi-ji University Dept. of Baduk Studies Professor Nam Chi-hyung approaches the subject as “a harmony, a construction and an art.” Each volume contains more than fifty brief 500-word essays, beautifully produced with full color diagrams.  These essays originally appeared in The Korea Times Daily; search for Ms. Nam’s name find to find many of them there. On this side of the Pacific, Tuttle Publishing, whose mission is to publish “books that span the East and West,” took over publication of Arthur Smith’s The Game Of Go, soon after their inception in 1948.  Now out of print but still widely available, Smith’s book stayed on bookshelves for more than forty years. In 2003, recognizing the need for a more up-to-date approach, they turned to go journalist Peter Shotwell, whose 2003 Go: More Than A Game is now in its third printing. Shotwell followed with Go Basics, featuring small-board based instruction, and then this year with Beginning Go, where he continues the small-board approach. A fourth installment is due out later this year. Whatever your level, from beginner to accomplished master, there’s plenty of new, interesting material out there for you, including some free downloads we’ll talk about in the next installment. To learn more about everything in print, visit the AGA’s annotated bibliography of go books.