A few simple rules ... limitless possibilities
News aggregator
N.A. Go Convention Plans Proceed for Weekend Launch in NJ
Plans for this weekend’s North American Go Convention are proceeding as a winter storm bears down on the region. “Our three professionals have arrived on-site and we’ve arranged for shuttle service from both Newark Penn Station and the Park & Ride in Parsippany-Troy Hills,” says NAGC Commissioner Edward Zhang (at right with Joanne Missingham and her parents, Nan-Ping and Errol). Click here for a short video overview about the NAGC.
Shuttle sign-up is strongly encouraged so the NAGC volunteers can plan accordingly and reduce wait time. Players may also stay at the Days Inn Hotel on Friday if they wish to avoid traveling on Saturday, when the storm is forecast to hit. “Keep in mind that there is a second chapter of the NAGC in DC from February 13-17, with same three Open, Blitz and Pair Go tournaments,” adds Convention Director Yue Zhang 7D.
Maidenhead 2013
Ukrainian Youth Go Championship (under 12) 2013
US Canada Friendship Match Feb. 9
The 5th US-Canada Youth Friendship Tournament will be held Saturday, February 9, at 4pm Eastern time (1pm Pacific) in the AGA Tournaments Room on KGS. Organized by Lawrence Ku, the popular transnational match pits the strongest youth in North America against each other, and often draws large crowds of observers. Canada has won for the past three years in a row, and the US is itching for a win. The current crop of contenders (with US players listed first) features Calvin Sun 7d vs. Bill Lin 8d; Hugh Zhang 7d vs. Jianing Gan 8d; Albert Yen 6d vs. Irene Sha 7d; Andrew Lu 6d vs. Andrew Huang 6d; Vincent Zhuang 6d vs. Oliver Wolf 5d; Aaron Ye 5d vs. David Fan. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
Yasui Santetsu Focus of New Film
Insight Into the Universe is a new film about Yasui Santetsu, a go player and famous Japanese astronomer, better known as Shibukawa Shunkai. The creator of the Japanese Jokyo calendar and the author of many books about astronomy, he also played with his friend and rival, Honinbo Dosaku, in the “castle games.” The famous game between Dosaku and Santetsu, where Santetsu opened on tengen, is depicted in the 2012 film, which was directed by Yojiro Takita and stars Junichi Okada, a Japanese actor, singer, and member of the pop group V6. The heroine in the film, played by Miyazaki Aoi, works at a shrine which still exists today; click here to see Cho U 9p dedicating some of his famous go problems to that shrine. An English-subtitled version of the film does not appear to be available at this time.
- thanks to Go Game Guru
Your Move/Readers Write: Responding to ‘SGFs and iStuff’
“Regarding Roy Laird’s article, ‘SGFs and iStuff’ (2/1 EJ),” writes Eric Anderson. “Please — if you’re going to do a comparative product review, please spend the effort to investigate the features. Otherwise, you’re using your powerful and respected platform to spread casual (and misleading) opinions, and it’s really quite unfair to your readers. Specifically — ‘Seems worth the extra cost unless you really need to import large databases.’ Um, no. SmartGo Kifu is an excellent problem and game collection, combined with a Go playing engine. It includes a form of SGF editor; but that editor is not particularly suitable either for recording games or for constructing problems — at least, not compared to EasyGo, which is specifically (and very well) designed to do … SGF editing. Bulk file import and export is only one of the features you’d want in an SGF editor; other features include tree-editing capabilities (ever tried fixing a recording mistake in SmartGo Kifu?), problem editing (ever tried entering un-numbered initial conditions?), and variation analysis. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s an independent review. Although at first sight EasyGo looks like a close-cousin to SmartGo Kifu, it is not. They share a goal though: analyzing games, exploring variations and solving problems. But they focus on different sets of features, and work very different. That review — only six paragraphs long — is much more insightful and thorough, and helpful to readers, than your ‘Seems worth the extra cost…’”
“All that seemed necessary was to copy the linked-to sgf on the web page onto my desktop,” suggests Kirby Smith. “Then I could use the ‘edit’ mode of the KGS interface (CGoban3) to view it and its commentary. I recall that The Many Faces of Go will also open these. Thanks for your journal’s many interesting articles.”
A number of readers also suggested this solution, which works great for desktops, but Laird’s review was specifically referring to smartphone apps available for Apple products.
Emder Hausboot-Turnier 2013
16. Erdinger Go-Turnier 2013
Czech Youth Championship 2013 - U16 category
Czech Youth Championship 2013 - U20 category
Czech Youth Championship 2013 - U12 category
Winter Tournament 2013
Brunei Cup Deadline Feb. 6
“This is the last chance to sign up for the Brunei Friendship Cup,” reports Andrew Huang, AGHS Tournament Organizer. ”Registration will close Wednesday night at midnight. The team is still short on female players for pair go, so ladies, I urge you to find a partner and try for pair go.” More info can be found on the AGHS website. To register, follow this link. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
This Week’s Go Calendar: Parsippany, Palo Alto, Simsbury, Phoenix
February 8-12: Parsippany, NJ
North American Go Convention
Edward Zhang www.ngol.us@gmail.com 703-888-9240 407-810-4098
February 9: Palo Alto, CA
Bay Area Go Players Association Monthly AGA Ratings Tournament
Roger Schrag rs1249@bayareago.org 510-501-2701
Steve Burrall sburrall@comcast.net 916-688-2858
February 9: Simsbury, CT
Simsbury Open Scholastic Go Championship
Michael Scudder michael.j.scudder@gmail.com 860-738-7350
Gert Hilhorst gert@hilhorst.onmicrosoft.com
February 10: Phoenix, AZ
2013 Phoenix Chinese Week Go Tournament
Quan Li qb081449@gmail.com 602-326-7556
Bill Gundberg bill@azgoclub.org 480-831-5567
Get the latest go events information.
SAGA Credit Points for 2012
German Brothers Team Up to Produce “Fascinating” Go Video
Two German brothers are collaborating to create a free movie trailer to spread the game of go. Sven Walther is a go player and computer scientist, while his brother Lars is an actor and filmmaker. Sven says he’s driven to “inspire people with interesting stuff” while Lars is “wowed by the stories and the drama in a game that appears to be so simple.” The brothers have teamed up to crowd-source $8,000 “to make a short video clip, like a movie trailer, to promote the game of go.” Rather than explaining the rules of the game, the Walthers intend to work with real actors and real movie people to create a professional clip that will create a “fascinating atmosphere to represent the game. The novice will see it and say ‘Whoa, what’s that game? Wanna learn more!’” They’ll make the video available on YouTube, so anyone “can use it to promote the game wherever you want.” With 50 days to go, the duo has already raised just over $2,200 in pledges. With several other professionally-produced shorts – the romantic French go video The Album Leaf Within Dreams (Go Art: Romantic Go Video 12/3/2012 EJ) and the 2012 European Women’s Goe Championship promo (The Red Dress Tesuji 8/26/2012 EJ) – already available, and the feature-length documentary The Surrounding Game now in production, a critical mass of go videos seems to be building.
National Veteran Championship 2013
Cognifide Go Cup #1 2013
Chris wins 1st Quarter Internet Tournament
Choi vs Kang
Choi Chulhan
White: CHOI Chulhan (Korea) 9p
Black: KANG Dongyoon (Korea) 9p
Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock
This is an all-Korean final for the 2012 SAWMG Men’s Individual title. The players are top Korean players who have confidence in their reading abilities, which are on full display in this exciting game…
Click here to start the game viewer.
