Registration continues for the 2014-2015 Pandanet-AGA City League. “We’re looking for more teams” in expanded A and B Leagues, reports TD Steve Colburn. Those leagues are expanding to eight teams each. Teams have until Sunday September 28th to send in registrations. Colburn is also looking for a League Manager to help during the year. All teams should contact Steve.Colburn@usgo.org for more information.

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An even dozen players participated in the Davis/Sacramento Go Club’s Fall Tournament, held at the Arden-Dimick Library in Sacramento on September 6th. Jeff Horn 1D (right) won the upper division on tie breaks, while Roger Schrag 4K (left) won the lower division with a perfect four wins.
– Willard Haynes, TD

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by John Power, EJ Japan Correspondent

Yamashita Wins Kisei A League: There are no play-offs in the Kisei Leagues, so there is an built-in bias towards upholding the status quo. When Yamashita Keigo 9P (right) scored his fourth win in the fourth round of the A League, he won the league. In theory, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P and Kono Rin 9P could both draw level with him on 4-1 after the fifth round if Yamashita loses, but Yamashita is ranked higher, so they can’t catch him.
In the B League, the top-ranked player, Murakawa Daisuke 7P, on 3-0, is the only undefeated player; he also needs only one more win to win the league, so a repeat of the play-off between him and Yamashita to decide the Kisei challenger looks quite possible.(August 28) (A League) Yamashita Keigo 9P (B) beat Hane Naoki 9P by resig. (B League) Yuki Satoshi 9P beat Cho Riyu 8P by resig.
(September 4) (A League) Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P (B) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P by 2.5 points.

Iyama Defends Gosei Title: For the second year in a row, the Gosei went the full distance, though the course of the match was a little different. Last year, Kono Rin won the first two games and Iyama Yuta the next three. This year, in the 39th Gosei, Kono won the opening game again, but Iyama (left) won the next two before Kono evened the score in the fourth game. The fifth game was played at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on August 29. When the players drew for colors (nigiri), Kono drew black. Kono took the early lead, but he played too tightly at crucial points in the middle game and allowed Iyama to get back into the game. Immediately after this, however, Iyama made one of his rare blunders, a mistake in timing that allowed Kono to win outright a capturing race that should have become a sente seki for Iyama. After the game, Iyama commented that he could well have resigned at this point, but ironically Kono slipped up soon afterwards, making a number of mistakes in what was some very complicated fighting with both players out of time. Iyama took the lead again and this time held on to it. Kono resigned after 220 moves. After the game, it was hard to tell from the players’ expressions who was the winner. Kono recovered his composure very quickly whereas Iyama looked unhappy for quite a while about his bad play. He commented that he had been outplayed by Kono in both this and the previous year’s matches and that he would have to do better in the upcoming Meijin title match. However, a win is a win, and Iyama has not only maintained his sextuple crown but also kept alive the dream of a grand slam next year.

Iyama Makes Good Start in Meijin Defense: The first game of the 39th Meijin title match was held at the Hotel Chinzanso in Tokyo on September 4 and 5. Taking white, Iyama Yuta Meijin won by resignation after 212 moves. Both he and the challenger Kono Rin 9P (right) were down to their final minute of byo-yomi. Kono, fresh from his narrow loss to Iyama in the Gosei title match, played positively in the opening, and Iyama admitted later that he had been a little dissatisfied with his position after the opening fight. To make up his lost ground, he launched an aggressive invasion of Kono’s moyo that brought the game back to even. Iyama then took the lead in the middle game when Kono made some moves that were not quite the best. In desperation, Kono set up a ko but did not have enough ko threats to win it, so he had to resign. This game shows how sharp Iyama’s perception is in the middle game: if the opponent slips up even a little, he will take advantage of it. The second game will be played on September 18 and 19.

Tomorrow: Members of the New Honinbo League; Korean Teen Wins Bingsheng Cup; Takao Becomes Tengen Challenger; Obituary: Hoshikawa Nobuaki 9P; Sasaski Promoted to 9P

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Xu Jiayang 2P and Huang Mingyu 5d, both of China, won the 31st World Youth Goe Championship, held in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia from August 13th to 19th. The US players were chosen by the Ing Foundation, and included Albert Yen 6d in the senior division (under 16 years old) and Brandon Zhou 4d in the junior division (under 12 years old). Eric Liu 1d was also invited to compete as a special representative. “I have learned a lot from this tournament,” Yen told the E-Journal, “especially from the games that I was defeated. I lost to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Fortunately, our team leader, Mingjiu Jiang 7p reviewed several of my games so I could learn from my mistakes. Although I wanted to do better than 8th place, I have tried my best. Overall, the 31st World Youth Goe Championship gave me an opportunity to make friends and compete with the top youth players in the world.” Fourteen countries participated, with twelve players in each division. Yen placed 8th in the Senior, while Zhou and Liu placed 6th and 8th in the Junior. The runner up of the Senior was Lee Eodeokdung 5d from Korea, and the runner up in the Junior was Shih Ching Yao 6d from Taiwan.  Complete results, plus photos of the event can be found on the 31st WYGC website. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor, with Albert Yen. Photo: Albert Yen (l) of the US vs. Low Rea Qiu of Malaysia.

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September 13: Raleigh, NC
Educational Event with Yuan Zhou
Bob Bacon bobbacon@earthlink.net 919-732-5184
Paul Celmer pcelmer@earthlink.net

September 13: San Diego, CA
Learn Go Week
Ted Terpstra ted.terpstra@gmail.com 619-384-3454

September 14: Columbus, OH
2014 Chinese Moon Festival The 2nd OCS Cup Go Tournament
Dajiang He dajiangh@gmail.com

Get the latest go events information.

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Few charts deserve a page one feature article in The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, but pop sociologist Russell Lymes’ classic 1949 delineation of “highbrow,” “middlebrow” and “lowbrow” tastes has been “reproduced and imitated countless times,” the Times reports (see Go Spotting: The “High-Brow” Game and An Unlikely Place 6/19/2014 EJ). Russell suggest typical preferences for each group in various categories, such as clothing, reading, favorite causes — and games. To see how go placed, click here.
– Roy Laird

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Syracuse go organizer Richard Moseson’s cousin Bill Flarsheim saw this go-themed mosaic at a temple in Zhuhai, China, where he’s living and working.

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Those interested in studying go in Korea can now get a discount of $100 off per person when they come to study at Blackie’s International Baduk Academy (BIBA). Shawn Ray, a student at BIBA who recently moved to Korea to do a series of lessons on BadukTV, has arranged with the BIBA instructors for this special deal. “BIBA is a school dedicated to giving international go – or baduk, as it’s known here in Korea — players a place to play and study in a dojo-like setting,” Ray tells the EJ. “Right next door to BIBA is a class of Younguseng (insei, or students) who are around 7-9-dan amateur level and BIBA students get to play league games with them. After playing League games, we get our games reviewed by Mr. Kim 9P, or Blackie as we call him, and get an in-depth analysis of our games.” In order to get this discount individuals must come as a group, so those interested should contact Ray at clossius.ShawnRay@gmail.com before coming “to see if we can coordinate students to come around the same time to be eligible for a group discount. Looking forward to seeing everyone in Korea!”

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Correcting the Games Database: “I checked out the AGA game database from a recent E-Journal (AGA Game Database Test Version Online 8/12 EJ) and really liked it!” wrote Shawn Ligocki. “But I noticed that a tournament I participated in seems to be double counted. I went 4-0, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.” We got a number of emails like this, pointing out various errors in the database. Thanks for flagging these; the programmers are working to update and correct the American Go Association Game Database (AGAGD). Comments and corrections should be sent to journal@usgo.org

Looking for Japan Go Tips: “I will be traveling to Japan next spring,” writes Ben Bernstein. “Do you have any advice, or can you point me to a source of information (about where to play go)?” He’s specifically interested in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto; email your tips to journal@usgo.org

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