Aggregatore di feed

This month’s mystery pro question turned out to be much harder than I thought.  I asked you to identify the man in the picture at right, share his importance to Western go and finally, explain why we celebrate him this month.

Well, we only received one correct answer, and that only to the first two parts of the question.  I will let former AGA President, former International Go Federation (IGF) Director and current American Go Foundation (AGF) Treasurer Barbara Calhoun take it away. “I’ll take a stab that it is Yusuke Oeda. Don’t recognize the hair but it could be his face. Oeda was Michael Redmond’s sensei and was a prime mover in establishing the World Amateur Go Championship and the International Go Federation.”

Yusuke Oeda 9 dan, 1935-2010 was a student of Nobuaki Maeda.  In his E-Journal obituary, Barbara further elaborated on her friend’s efforts bringing the Meijin Tournament to New York, remarking “He was an emotional man who could relate to and communicate with people culturally different from him.”  Michael Redmond said that the lessons he learned from Oeda were not just about the game that became his career, adding that “Mr. Oeda was also generous with his knowledge of the fine points of Japanese language and culture, and he gave me a basic understanding of the country I live in” (7/26/2010 EJ).

My fondest memory of Mr. Oeda was watching him play simuls.  If you have had the pleasure of playing a simultaneous game with a professional, you understand the awe of watching their calm strength as they guide the game to a result that tests the amateur player.  They do not resort to strong player tricks but rather slowly wear down each opponent, happily winning or losing based on our performance.

That was not the Oeda way.  He preferred pairing himself with a young female professional, sharing the effort, but also playing moves designed to make his partner laugh, hilarious to watch as the young pro was torn between trying to maintain her professional demeanor and her natural reaction to Oeda’s mischief.

The final answer to this month’s quiz is explained in this picture of Ishida playing Oeda on November 12, 1970.  With his victory in this game, Ishida qualified for the Honinbo League and this game is the first one featured in Iwamoto’s (and Davies’) “The 1971 Honinbo Tournament” book, one of the great early Ishi press masterpieces.  The photo shows the moment where Ishida played move 11 (at the lower right corner of the book) “a new joseki developed at the Kitani Dojo”.  Oeda navigated the surprise move well, but gradually was out-maneuvered in an exciting game. (game record here).

Download SGF File

White: Shin MinJung 9p (Korea)
Black: Tang WeiXing 9P (China)
Commentary: Gansheng Shi 1P
Game editor: Myron Souris
Published in the November 24, 2020 edition of the American Go Journal

In this game from the 2020 Samsung Cup, between top pros from Korea and China, Gansheng gives instructive views of this classic battle of territory vs. thickness. Gansheng has this overview of the players: “Both are extremely young and accomplished. Shin Minjung and Tang Weixing are both known to have a very solid style.“

Already 7-dan at the age of 14, Gansheng Shi won the right to represent Canada at the 2008 World Youth Go Championships, where he competed in Guiyang China. In 2012 Shi fought well in the first AGA/Tygem professional certification tourney, earning promotion to Professional One Dan, along with Andy Liu 1P. Shi is now at the University of Toronto studying Immunology. The E-Journal is delighted to have him doing commentary, and we know our readers will enjoy his insights.

The Capital Go Club is proud to announce the 9th Virginia Open and 2nd VA State Championship Qualifier to be held on OGS and BadukClub on Saturday, December 5th and Sunday, December 6th. Players will compete across four divisions for four rounds: Open (4D+), Expert (1-4D), Intermediate (5-1K), and Novice (6K and below). Prizes will be $100, $50 and $25 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Open Division respectively, and $20 and $10 for 1st and 2nd in all other divisions. Female and youth winners (aged 17 and below) will be awarded additional $10 (minimal 2 wins). Go books are also available as rewards, sponsored by Hinoki Press. Prizes are sponsored by the Honest401k team. The first three rounds of the Open Division will be held Saturday 12/5 with the 4th round on Sunday 12/6. Other divisions will have all 4 rounds on Saturday 12/5.

The top four finishing Virginia residents will be invited to compete for the VA Champion in January of 2021 in a safe format, details to be announced. Last year Joshua Lee 6D defeated Qingbo Zhang 5D in the final and declared the first Virginia State Champion. “We encourage more youth players and more female players,” says organizer Edward Zhang. “Our perpetual trophy will be awarded to not only the VA State Champion, but also to the VA Youth Champion and VA Women’s Champion if more than three contenders compete in each subdivision.”

Pre-registration is required to participate in the tournament. The deadline for pre-registration is 5pm ET Nov. 30. Click here to sign up. The Registration fee is waived for AGA members, and $10 for non-AGA members. Players may pay by PayPal with reference to the player’s name. All games will be played on OGS, with pairing and results information available here. For questions or inquiries, please email Jeff Zhang at AGATD1@gmail.com. For more details and to register, visit the Washington Go Festival website. Thanks go to Jeff Zhang 5D for gathering tournaments history from AGA E-Journal featured on the website, including an Open Division winners list for tournaments of the Greater Washington metro area for the past 13 years.

Download SGF File

Commentary: Yuan Zhou 7d
Game editors: Bill Cobb, Myron Souris
Published in the Novemeber 17, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

In this no komi game between low dan players, Yuan Zhou covers examples of the importance of when to play and protect cuts. But the main focus of the game is how to split and attack White’s groups, after White invades Black’s upper framework.

Yuan Zhou 7 dan is one of the strongest players in the US. He has won many titles. Zhou is also a popular teacher, lecturer, and author. He lives in Germantown, MD, and can be reached at yuan.zhou@zhouyuan.com . This commentary is typical for Zhou, who has published several books, including such thorough commentaries of pro games at Slate & Shell (www.slateandshell.com).

During this holiday season you’re going to do a lot of online shopping. While you’re on Amazon help American Go by donating a portion to the AGF. Amazon Smile helps by donating a portion of purchases through their Smile website. Please set your charity to “US GO FOUNDATION, dba American Go Foundation”. There are browser extensions (Chrome – Firefox) that will help redirect your browser to always support the Smile Program. Most purchases give back to this program and support Go in the US. Sign up today!

Seventy six players from across the country participated in the National Go Center’s first online tournament on Saturday, November 14, competing via Zoom and KGS. Tony Yang 5D was the overall tournament champion with a perfect 4-0 score. All three- and four-game winners are being sent an NGC t-shirt in the style and color of their choice as a prize. Co-TD’s Gurujeet Khalsa and Garrett Smith kept the rounds running on time. “It helped a lot,” reports Smith, “to have an optional training session on Zoom the night before the tournament so everyone knew how to use the technology. We learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t and will use that in future online tournaments.”

The tournament was also the pilot of the online ratings system that Josh Lee and the NGC have developed. Says Khalsa, “After reviewing the numbers with Josh, we will publish the results online for community comment.”

Winner Report
4 Game winners: Tony Yang (5D), Jared Nishikawa (2D), Mario Espinoza (6K), David Rohlfing (9K)
3 Game winners: Soren Jaffe (5D), Rujun Ding (5D), Sophie Lin (2D), Alan Yang (1D), Jerry Jaffe (1D), Jeroen Meijer (1K), Peter Schumer (2K), Austin Robinson (2K), Michael Sherman (2K), Gordon Fraser (3K), Eric Yang (3K), John Gipson (5K), Ragnarr Markssen (5K), Theodore Terpstra (5K), Caleb Lesher (6K), Bradley Johnston (10K), Howard Cornett (10K), Juliet Zhang (11K), Adam King (13K), Lewis Reining (13K), Vaughn Hannon (14K), Nicholas Liddington (17K), Patrick Blackstone (18K)

After two months of successful operation, the Osaka Go School staff is excited to welcome new teacher Michael Redmond 9P, who joined the school in November. The Osaka Go School opened in September with 25 students, including 10 American players. Redmond joins teachers Ryo Maeda 6P, Francis Meyer 1P, and Ting Li 1P of the Kansai-Kiin. “Mr. Redmond will play special teaching games every month,” reports Ryo Maeda 6P, who founded the school and is one of the primary organizers. The school offers players teaching games, game reviews, and professional lectures all online every month, giving players a chance to continue to study and have fun with Go during a time when much activity is restricted due to COVID-19. Mr. Maeda invites all interested players to the International Osaka Go School website for more information. “Please come join us!”

Michael Redmond 9P’s next live game commentary will be on his recent game with O Meien (right), known for his quick fuseki and fighting ability. He became a pro in 1977, two years after moving to Japan, and advanced to 9 dan in 1992. A very determined fighter, with plenty of kiai, in February 25 2010, O Meien hit the 900 landmark by beating Ko Iso in the final prelim of the 35th Kisei. O won the Honinbo title in 2000 and held it the following year before losing it to Kato Masao in 2002. O took the Oza title from Cho Chikun in December 2002. In July 2012, O Meien won his sixth title, the 2nd Igo Masters Cup, beating Cho Chikun.

The live commentary is set for this Sunday, November 15, 7p EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel, and will be hosted by American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock.

by Keith L. Arnold, hka with Patrick Bannister

Fujisawa Shuko Meijin followed up on his victory with another title final. However, perhaps exhausted by his effort against youthful Rin Kaiho, he was defeated by his longtime rival, Sakata Eio, who returned to the world of titleholders with the Oza. Sakata won the first game in a mere 65 moves on November 5, and won the best-of-three match on November 19 (picture, game records).

A Go expo was held on November 6 at the Tokyo Department Store. It included a fourth match between the Koyukai ladies and the “Western” team, which was victorious including players Richard Bozulich, James Davies and Stuart Horowitz.

Go History Quiz! Pictured on the right in this GoWeekly ad is a professional go player – Who is he? if you know the answer, part two of this quiz will be easy – what is his significance to Western go? And finally, and a bit harder, why do we ask about him this month? We will share your responses in a follow up column later this month.

“The AGHS Young Lion’s tournament is just a few weeks away,” says Promotion Head Jenny Li, “This is one of AGHS’ longest running events and will be held on November 22nd and 29th this year. All eligible participants must be 18 years of age or younger, or currently enrolled in high school, and are citizens/permanent residents of North America.”

The Young Lions Tournament is funded by the American Go Foundation.
Registration deadline is 11/15/2020 at 11:59 pm PST.

For rules and regulations, click here
For registration, click here

Download SGF File

Published in the November 10, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

In this game between 3 kyu players, Kaz confines the commentary to the fuseki, while emphasizing how knowing basics and striving to maximize the efficiency of your stones can help to carry you into the dan levels.

WANTED: Kaz is asking his readers for help with his website. See http://kazsensei.com/.
“I’m looking for a go player and a website specialist, who can take care of my website when I need some help. I usually ask for help once a year or two years. I also need to ask him/her to find a server for me, for managing or changing my website easily when needed. In exchange I’ll teach go.”

A longtime contributor to the American Go E-Journal, former insei Kazunari Furuyama has returned with his popular EJ column, now in sgf files and re-named “Lessons with Kaz”. Visit his newly improved website, including the advice column and example problems. Kaz also has room for offline teaching.

Download SGF File

Black to play. With weak stones, killing White isn’t easy.
Published in the November 10, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. You can reach him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

This is the final week to register for the Pandanet AGA City League . Check  the rules for the tournament. Talk to your club this week.  Register by November 15th to get your team in this year competition. Be a part of the strongest tournament in North America. Looking forward to see your team play this season!.

With the hiatus in over-the board tournament play due to Covid-19, there has been a lot of interest in online tournaments. The online US Open at this year’s e-Go Congress was hugely successful with hundreds of players participating from around the world. 

At its upcoming Fall Tournament on November 14, the National Go Center will test a new project to rate online tournaments. “We wanted to do something to make online tournaments more attractive while also advancing the state of the art for ratings,” said project coordinator Josh Lee. The project uses the Glicko2 algorithm, which is used by the OGS go server, Chess.com and other sports.

Current AGA membership is required to play in the NGC tournament, and the online rating will be initialized from a player’s current AGA rating. Testing of the algorithm is being done with two earlier online tournaments from this year, with sample results posted here (Note that these are just a sample and the numbers are still changing as the calculations and parameters are being finalized).

A couple more weeks remain to register for the Pandanet AGA City League Year 9. Read the rules for this team tournament. Register by November 15th to get your team in this year competition. Be a part of the strongest tournament in North America. Contact the TD with any questions.

Download SGF File

Black to play. To attack White, Black must save that weak stone.
Published in the November 3, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal.

Yilun Yang 7P is one of the most popular go teachers in the US. You can reach him at yly_go@yahoo.com.

Download SGF File

Commentary: Guo Juan 5P
Game Editor: Myron Souris
Published in the November 3, 2020 edition of the American Go E-Journal

In this ranked league game game between single digit kyu players, Guo Juan 5P’s commentary focuses on 3 things:
– Hane at the head of 2 stones is very powerful.
– Stop the “river flood”.
– Learn a couple common corner shapes.

Guo Juan 5P is a popular go teacher based in Amsterdam. Check out her online go school, featuring recorded lectures and problems presented in a Spaced Repetition System. Here you will learn and remember correct play. And there’s a one month free trial!

Michael Redmond 9P returns with more live commentary, this time on AlphaGo vs AlphaGo Game 49, tonight at 7p EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel. His review of the relatively peaceful Game 48 was released Friday night and the latest in the AlphaGo vs. The World series features AlphaGo Master vs. Meng Tailing 9P.

Download SGF File

At first glance you might think this game is between weak amateurs, who often start a very early fight that encompasses the entire game until a big group dies. But Albert’s commentary enlightens readers about this highly entertaining game: “This game was taken from an online game between Nakamura Sumire and Ikemoto Ryota, who are both Japanese 1p. The game caught my attention, because the first corner features a complicated variation of the komoku one space high pincer that decides the game. Because I have have discussed the komoku one space high pincer at length before, I want to break down what happened in the first corner of this game. The game variation is one of the most complex joseki in modern go, perhaps only second to the Mi Yuting 3-3 joseki.”

Albert Yen is an 8 dan player from Chicago. He first started playing go at the age of five after watching Hikaru no Go on television, and became 6 dan in Taiwan when he was 7. Albert continued to compete in America after he moved to Chicago in fifth grade and studied under Jiang Mingjiu 7p. To date, he has made several showings in national and international tournaments, including winning representation to the World Youth Goe Championship in 2014, 1st place in the Redmond Cup in 2015, and 4th place at the 2019 World Amateur Go Championship. Albert is currently a second year undergraduate student in UIC’s GPPA BS/MD program in Chicago. Outside of go, Albert enjoys running and ping pong.

Bart Lipofsky reports that on a recent episode of Jeopardy, aired on October 16, 2020, featured Go about two minutes into the segment. “‘Category: 2 letter words – The name of the game seen here,’ with a nice view of a stone being placed on the board,” says Lipofsky.