A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities

The Twin Cities Go Club 2014 Summer Tournament was held on Sunday, July 20th, in the clubhouse of the Goodrich Golf Course in St. Paul, MN. The tournament was four rounds using McMahon pairings. 29 individuals participated, 14 of whom registered as 1 dan or stronger. Player strength ranged from 5 dan to 16 kyu. “It’s always a pleasure the play at this venue, which provides a peaceful background to some great games of go,” reports local organizer Aaron Broege. “The weather was warm with a slight breeze, allowing some individuals to play their games outside.” Bongkyun Moon 5D, winner of the Twin Cities 2014 Winter Tournament, came out on top again with four wins. Yi Tong 1D took second place and Josh Larson 3D placed third. Being the only other person to win all four of his games, Shuping Wang 1K “had a fantastic day, placing fourth,” says Broege. After the final game, Bongkyun Moon used the demonstration board to briefly review the game for the other players. Visit the club’s Facebook page for more pictures of the event and information about the Twin Cities Go Club.
photo: Matt Mackall 4K (left) and Paul Canfield 6K (right) were among those electing to play outside. 

BadukTV has hired Shawn Ray 4d, better known as Clossius to his YouTube and KGS fans, to do a series of lessons in English for the network. “Thanks to the success of my YouTube channeI, I was offered a job at BadukTV – on the condition that I relocate to Korea,” Ray told the E-Journal. “I took this opportunity to move to Seoul and study baduk  (go in Korean) seriously. I am planning to stay until I become 9D and then I want to come back to America to become a Pro player in the AGA.” Ray’s first video for BadukTV, which includes a fun animated opening, is available here.

“I chose Blackie’s International Baduk Academy (BIBA), as it was the only baduk school that I knew of that spoke English,” said Ray. “Since arriving, I have learned how to truly study baduk, and how many hours you really have to put into this game to become strong. I am sure many are interested in my training schedule so I will break it down.  We wake up and get to BIBA around 11 or noon, and stay until 9 pm. Once we arrive it is self-study until about 2pm, then we play league games with players stronger and weaker than ourselves. In between games we do more self-study, until about 5 or 6 pm and then go eat dinner. We get back around 7 pm and Blackie (9p) reviews our games, or goes over pro games with us and helps us understand them. It is nice when a 9P helps you review pro games, because then you can see that they are human too and also make mistakes. Just mistakes you would never notice being an amateur!  Once 9 pm hits, we all go home together. Once we get home, some of us do more studying, or we can relax until we go to sleep.”

“Our self-study consists of reviewing at least 4 pro games a day, doing at least 1 hour, or more, of life and death problems. Problems at your level can take anywhere from 1-5 min. Usually we go through nearly 100 problems per week. We also study Baduk books and analyze positions and new openings or joseki. It is a very intensive schedule to maintain and can mentally exhaust you very quickly. It took me a whole week before I was fully able to deal with the training regimen,” said Ray.

“My dream is to become a Pro player and start a go school in the U.S. and find a way to make a living teaching go. It is my hope that I can help raise the level in the U.S. so that one day we can compete internationally with the top Asian players. I have to thank all my friends and followers for their support, otherwise I would have never made it this far. In addition I would like to thank Jennie Shen 2P, who has been my teacher ever since I started playing go. Lastly, the inspiration to think I can still become pro is due to Andy Liu 1P, who is around the same age as me, yet is one of the top players in our country. It is my hope to rise to his level, and he showed me it was possible even at my age,” said Ray. Interested readers can join Clossius’s Go Group on Facebook, where he will be posting about his adventures, and even offering discounts on go books. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Image courtesy of BadukTV.

July 26-27: Berkeley, CA
Bay Area Go Summer Tournament
Steve Burrall sburrall@comcast.net 916-688-2858
Jay Chan jay@bayareago.org

Get the latest go events information.

With the first Australian Go Congress set for January 2015 in Sydney, look for more activity Down Under in the months ahead. There’s a new Melbourne City Go Club, complementing the University and Victorian clubs, meeting on Wednesday evenings. The Perth Go Club has settled down to a fixed location at Tzu Chi Australia, 247 Fitzgerald Street, West Perth, meeting on Saturday afternoons from 1pm. Contact clivehunt@bigpond.com if you’re in the city and you want to play some go. The Armidale Go Club in northern New South Wales meets every Wednesday at 6pm – more details at the flash new web site. Complete club listings here. And mark your calendars for these upcoming tournaments: July 26-27: 2014 Australian Capital Territory Championships, Australian National University, Canberra; August 17: 10th Korean Ambassador’s Cup, Sydney, New South Wales; October 5: 4th Gold Coast Classic, Helensvale, Queensland; December 6-7: 37th Australian Championships, Eastwood (Sydney), New South Wales. Latest events calendar posted here http://www.australiango.asn.au/Events.php. Australia also has an active online scene: David Mitchell 5d of Sydney City Go Club has set up an Australian room on the Online Go Server, and there’s an Australian ladder in the OGS Australia Room, as well as on the KGS Go Server. And finally, 13-year-old Aaron Chen has been selected as this year’s Australian representative to the Korean Prime Ministers Cup, racking up the largest representative points total after his performance in the 2013 Korean Ambassador’s Cup in Sydney. All else being equal, he will be the youngest player ever to represent Australia internationally in a world championship.
- Horatio Davis, Australia Correspondent to the E-Journal

The email contact for Robert Cordingley in Go Clubs Online Offering Free Memberships to Celebrate AGA Pairings Software Certification (6/19 EJ) was incorrect; the  correct email address is rjcord1@gmail.com.

GoClubsOnline (GCOL) is offering six unlimited club memberships to celebrate GCOL’s status as the first pairings software to be certified as AGA compliant. To qualify, go clubs must be holding — or plan to hold — tournaments in the near future, says GCOL’s Robert Cordingley. The memberships will be free for the first six months. Visit GCOL’s Overview web page to learn more about their comprehensive web-based system, including membership management, on-line tournament registration and check-in capabilities. Contact Cordingley at rjcord1@gmail.com to apply or for more information.  “When applying, please include some details about the club and tournament plan,” adds Cordingley.

The AGA is seeking volunteers to help develop and implement a regular process for pairings certification to expand beyond this first certification. Any interested players or programmers should contact Tournament Coordinator Karoline Burrall Li at karoline.burrall@usgo.org.

People play go all over the world every day, but Saturday, September 13 will be different. That’s the day Go Game Guru is inviting local go organizers to participate in the launch of the first-ever Learn Go Week. “Every Go player knows that stones work better when they work together,” says GGG’s David Ormerud. “Right now we’re all doing our own things, within our own communities. We’re spread out thinly, all over the world. But if we work together, we can all be part of something bigger.” And while September 13 is the focus of the event, local organizers can also plan an event during the following week. Go Game Guru will support local efforts with adaptable go brochures, posters, checklists and information for running an event, including logistical support, inexpensive go sets, and printable go boards for organizers. While not an official IGF activity, IGF board members expressed support for the idea at last Saturday’s IGF meeting. “I think it’s a tremendously exciting idea and could be a great publicity opportunity for local chapters and clubs across the United States,” said American Go Association president Andy Okun at the World Amateur Go Championship in Korea. World Day events for a wide range of causes and activities have enjoyed various levels of popularity in recent years, generating public and media interest. “The AGA urges participation in Learn Go Week and will support our chapters in their efforts, as well as publicizing participation.”

Croatia: Zoran Mutabzija 5d took the 2014 Croatian Open Go Championship on July 13 in Gorica. Daniel Zrno 2k was second and Mladen Smud 1k placed third. Germany: Also on July 13, the Deutsche Damen-Go-Meisterschaft finished in Kassel with Manja Marz 3d (left) in first, Kirsten Hartmann 1k in second, and Vivian Scheuplein 1k in third. Czech Republic: Ondrej Silt 6d bested Mateusz Surma 6d at the 13th Moyo Open Tournament in Pardubice while Remi Campagnie 5d came in third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news; photo courtesy of EuroGoTV

The European Go Federation, French Go Federation, and Go Seigen Club of Toulouse will host the 2014 European Student Go Championship on September 27 and 28 in Balma, France. Any university student under age 30 that is a citizen of an EGF country is welcome to enter free of charge. The champion will receive EGF sponsorship to participate in the Ing Foundation 2015 Student event at Shanghai including travel (750 EU for plane tickets) and all local costs. Players who register will also enjoy talks by 2013 European Go Champion Fan Hui 2d. To register or for more information including a full schedule and accommodations, visit the official European Student Go Championship website.
—Annalia Linnan; for complete listings, check out the European Tournament Calendar

“I said for decades that I did not think I would ever be beaten by a computer playing go,” writes Phil Straus 2D in response to Go Spotting: IEEE Spectrum 7/16 EJ. “I was wrong. I was first beaten by a computer program on KGS sometime in the last two years. Laurence Sigmond and I watched Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at the Philadelphia Convention Center in 1997. To pass the time between moves we, of course, brought a go board. I showed the go board to Hans Berliner, one of the iconic chess programmers. He looked at it, and just shook his head. He said ‘maybe in 20 years.’ I was even more pessimistic. Go looked impossible in 1997. We were both wrong.”
Straus is a former president of the American Go Association. photo: Rémi Coulom and Crazy Stone. Photo: Takashi Osato/WIRED