A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

Fifteen-year-old Andrew Lu 6d has just won the Senior Division of the US Youth Go Championships, dethroning Calvin Sun 7d, age 16, who has had a lock on this event for the past six years.  Sun seemed almost sure to win again, emerging from the finals with a perfect record, and defeating Lu (at left) in the final round of the qualifiers.  Both boys then started fresh in the four-player double-elimination finals, which began on Jan. 20th.  Sun defeated Andrew Huang 6d in round 1, while Lu defeated talented newcomer Albert Yen 6d, who at just 12 years of age is proving to be a force to be reckoned with.  Round 2 gave Sun another edge, defeating Lu, while Yen knocked Huang out.  Yen then faced Lu a second time, and the victor would go on to face Sun.  Although he fought his best, Yen was not able to prevail and was eliminated.  This left Lu in the uncomfortable position of being out if he lost a game, but needing to defeat Sun twice in a row in order to win.  Despite having lost to Sun in both of their previous matches, Lu was determined to break through.  He opened strongly in round 4, on Feb. 16th, and then waged and won a protracted ko fight to claim a decisive victory.  The final showdown came Feb 23rd, and again featured a strong opening from Lu.  Sun tried to create complications, but in the end was down by komi, and resigned.  The game is attached below.  To get a sense of just how difficult a player Calvin Sun is to beat, check out the members-only Feng Yun commentary on Lu and Sun’s earlier match up in the qualifiers, where Sun turns the tables on Lu.  With this victory under his belt, Lu is now the US National Youth Champion, and has won a free trip to the US Go Congress.  The Junior Division matches are not yet finished, but the E-J will report the results when the final games are played.  Paul Barchilon - E-J Youth Editor.  Photo: Andrew Lu 6d 

March 2: Sacramento, CA
Davis/Sacramento Spring Quarterly
Willard Haynes willard@emeritus.csus.edu 916-929-6112

March 2: Simsbury, CT
Simsbury Open Scholastic Go Championship
Michael Scudder michael.j.scudder@gmail.com 860-738-7350
Gert Hilhorst gert@hilhorst.onmicrosoft.com

March 2-3: Princeton, NJ
New Jersey Open 2013
Rick Mott rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu 609-466-3306
Paul Matthews paul@fengyungoschool.com

March 3: Seattle, WA
Monthly Ratings Tournament
Brian Allen manager@seattlego.org 206-545-1424 206-632-1122

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The New Jersey Open, to be held at Princeton University in New Jersey March 2-3, will be the second of 2013′s NAMT points qualifiers after January’s Jujo Jiang Ing Goe tournament in San Francisco. A large tournament with a great history of more than half a century, the New Jersey Open is often a draw for strong players “and will be a fantastic opportunity for them to earn points,” notes AGA Tournament Coordinator Karoline Burrall. As the first qualifier for the Eastern region, participating strong players will be eligible to earn points towards the North American Masters Tournament at this year’s US Go Congress in Tacoma, Washington. Registration is 9-10A Saturday, March 3. Email co-director Mott for full details at rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu.

Shi Yue 5P took this year’s LG Cup, and his first international title, defeating Won Soengjin 9P in two straight games in the best-of-3 final.

Shi became a Chinese professional player 10 years ago, but an international title has eluded him until now. Per Chinese Go Association rules, he will now be promoted to 9D.

His style has always fared well against Korean pros, like Won. Shi’s record in 2012 was 17-2.

This marks the 5th consecutive year China has taken the LG Cup title, beating Korea’s previous streak of four, giving Korea even more of an incentive to try to take back the Cup next year.

Adapted from a report on Go Game Guru; click for game records and more information. Edited by Ben Williams

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

“I am the go instructor for the Penn State University course mentioned in the article “Penn State Course Studying Go for Insight into Military, Cyber Threats” (2/20 EJ), writes Paul Wright. “The university press release was sent out with some incorrect information regarding myself and the name of the go club I represent. The correct name of the go club is ‘The Schlow Library Go Club’ and my role in the club is that of ‘Coordinator.’ The Schlow Library Go Club meets every Saturday at 1:30 in the Sun Room at Schlow Centre Region Library. For more information about the Schlow Library Go Club, please see our Sensei’s Library page.”

At Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), Stan Aungst is employing the ancient Chinese game of go to help students gain new insight and new methods for countering attacks — cyber and physical, both foreign and domestic — and to hone new cognitive skills for the 21st century.

“We’re using the game as a training ground to think strategically and tactically,” said Aungst, a senior lecturer for security and risk analysis (SRA) and senior research associate for the Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion Center in a Penn State press release February 7.

The course that Aungst is teaching, “Using Serious Games to Promote Strategic Thinking and Analysis,” introduces students to thinking visually about attacks, attack patterns, spatial analysis with individual performance evaluation via interactive virtual scenarios/missions and gaming. Paul Wright, president of the State College Go Club, recently demonstrated the game for the students in the class.

John Hill, a lecturer at the College of IST who is assisting Aungst with the course, said that the class is a “significant departure” from any other courses that the college has offered. “During the course, go is used as the means for analyzing widely divergent problems, and for developing effective tactics and strategies to address those problems by means of conversion rather than elimination,” Hill said.

Joe Cho, a sophomore SRA major who is also in the class, said the objective of the Go game is “more about efficiency” than other board games such as chess, since the goal is to capture territory using as few “stones” as possible. “The lessons are more applicable to today’s military situation,” he said.

A test will be used to measure individuals’ ability to predict cyber and physical attacks. About 100 intelligence analysts have taken the test, Aungst said. After the students in the “Go” class take the test, he added, their scores will be compared to the students who took the test last year.
- photo by John Pinkerton; effects by Chris Garlock

Despite the simplicity of its rules, go remains something of an open problem for the game AI community. In Playing Go with Clojure, Bay Area software developer and go player Zach Tellman discusses the inherent difficulties of the problem, provides a survey of current approaches, and explores how they can be efficiently implemented in Clojure, a dialect of the Lisp programming language.
- Thanks to Steve Colburn for passing this along.

The Mexican Youth Go Community drew 31 pairs to their first Pair Go Tourney, held in December in Mexico City. “The kids wanted to play go with their parents but they didn’t know how, so they asked us for workshops and lessons,” reports organizer Siddhartha Avila. “Then we thought, why not make go an activity that can be enjoyed by the whole family, this way each family will spread the game even when their kids grow up and leave elementary school. We had a great response, with pairs including the kids, parents, relatives, or friends,” said Avila.  Winners Report: 1st place Mariana (5th grader) and her mom; 2nd place Melanie (2nd grader) and her dad; 3rd place Diego Armando (1st grader) and his mom. A special thanks goes to the Principal Marcela Zepeda, Go teacher Marcos Arámbula and Israel Rodriguez President of Asociación Mexicana de Go, who helped us with the pairings. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.  Report and Photo by Siddhartha Avila.

February 23: Minneapolis, MN
Twin Cities Go Club Winter Tournament
Aaron Broege broe0034@umn.edu 612-384-8789

February 24: Portland, OR and Mexico City

Portland-Mexico City Friendship Match

peter freedman

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“We’ve just put our new extended trailer on YouTube,” reports The Surrounding Game co-director Cole Pruitt. “Plus, thanks to help from several American go contacts, we’re working with the Nihon Ki-in to schedule a trip to Japan sometime later this summer, hopefully to coincide with a big amateur go festival in August. In March, at the Spring Go Expo, we’ll interview a Japanese 4p who will be coming to the US for a month for promotional purposes.”

The Princeton Go Club will host the 54th annual New Jersey Open the weekend of March 2-3, reports co-director Rick Mott. The 2-day, 5-round event has been running for more than half a century, and on the Princeton campus for 23 years. Registration is 9-10A Saturday, March 3. Email co-director Mott for full details at rickmott@alumni.princeton.edu.

Go has a long history at Princeton. The Princeton club was founded by Professor Ralph J. Fox of the Department of Mathematics in 1945, who continued to promote go in Princeton until his untimely death in 1973. Professor Fox brought a number of Japanese professionals to visit Princeton, and often hosted them at his house. His late wife Cynthia bequeathed some of his books, photographs and papers to the club archives.

Perhaps the most famous association of Princeton with go is an opening scene in the film “A Beautiful Mind”, depicting the life of Nobel laureate John Nash Jr., in which Nash is challenged to a game by a fellow graduate student.

The Princeton club hosted the fifth US Go Congress in 1989. The following year, the long-standing New Jersey Open, one of the earliest regional events in the US, moved to the Princeton campus where it continues to be held. The tournament has drawn up to 120 players from Virginia to Massachusetts, with occasional visitors from as far away as Europe and Asia.

Past NJO winner and former club president Zhaonian (Michael) Chen ’11 (AGA 7D) is the highest-rated player to date to be part of the Princeton community. He was part of the first group of students from the nearby Feng Yun Go School to reach college age. Freshman Zhongxia (Ricky) Zhao ’16, AGA 7D, also studied with Feng Yun (photo). “In recent years, we have had an influx of college club players, notably Stony Brook and Rutgers. This year, Cornell has told us they will be sending a group as well,” Mott tells the E-Journal.
photo: Feng Yun analyzing a top-board game at the 2010 NJO; photo by John Pinkerton 

A new Korean comic book provides a view of Korean corporate life through the eyes of a former go player. In Misaeng, artist/author Yoon Taeho “ describes the claustrophobic interpersonal relations between employees of Korean corporations, focusing on the banality of everyday life and the little struggles and tiny victories of survival in a corporate culture,” writes Emanuel Pastreich on his blog, Korea: Circles and Squares.

“The protagonist of Misaeng is Jang Gurae, a young man who starts out as an apprentice to the national baduk Association. After his father’s sudden death, Jang Gurae finds his family in serious financial straits. When he fails to qualify as a baduk player, he enters the corporate world. Quiet and introspective, baduk is the underlying formula for his survival.” Pastreich calls Misaeng  “a remarkable work of art that deserves to be widely read and analyzed.” Unfortunately, it’s currently only available in Korean.
Thanks to Go Game Guru’s David Ormerod for passing this along.

Robert Jasiek has released Positional Judgement 1 / Territory, designed to help go players accurately assess territories in a given position. It also “answers the fundamentally important questions: who is ahead and by how much, what are the potential strengths and weaknesses in the current position, and which sequence of moves gives the best result?” says Jasiek. Click here to download a sample from the book (EUR 26.5, 272 pp.).

Thirty go players from North America, South America and Africa have already signed up for the Osaka Go Camp (Maeda Osaka Go Camp Details Released 2/8 EJ), June 30-July 20 in Osaka, Japan. Click here for details and to register before the camp fills up.