The American Go E-Journal collaborated with Ranka Online and SportAccord to again provide comprehensive coverage of the 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG), held December 12-18 in Beijing, China. The team included American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock, Ranka Online Editor Ivan Vigano, James Davies, John Richardson, Yuki Shigeno and Michael Redmond 9P. See below for a selection of highlights of the E-Journal coverage, or click here for all of Ranka’s reports.  

Korea Men’s Team & Zhiying Yu Win Gold in World Mind Games
Includes game records/commentaries for Men’s Team Round 5 (finals) and Women’s Individual Round 7 (final).

China Wins World Mind Games Pair Go Tournament; Meeting the Masters; Do Bridge Players Have All The Fun?
Includes game records/commentaries for Pair Go rounds 1-3.

SportAccord World Mind Games Day 4: China & Korea Sweep to Final Showdown in Men’s Team Tourney; Wang Chenxing & Yu Zhiying in All-China Women’s Individual Final; Redmond Audio Game Commentaries
Includes game records/commentaries for Men’s Team Round 4 and Women’s Individual Rounds 5 & 6. 

Ranka SAWMG Highlights: Japan’s National Team; Interview with Park Jieun; The Red-Faced King; Designing a Tournament with Martin Stiassny

SportAccord World Mind Games Day 3 (Saturday, December 14): Wang Chenxing Clinches Medal in Women’s Individual Tourney; China & Korea Continue to Steamroll Men’s Teams, North America Blanked Again; Benjamin Teuber on Playing Michael Redmond 9P and Studying in China; Draughted In: Why Zhao Hanqing Changed Games; Going to the Max
Includes game records/commentaries for Men’s Team Round 3 and Women’s Individual Round 4.

SportAccord World Mind Games Day 2 (Friday, December 13): North America & Japan’s Men’s Teams Winless as China-Korea Final Looms; All-China Final in Women’s Individual; PLUS: Svetlana Shikshina 3P Moves to Canada; What We Can Learn from Chess & Japan’s Yoshida Mika Considers Flamenco
Includes game records/commentaries for Men’s Team Round 2 and Women’s Individual Rounds 2 & 3

Men’s Team & Women’s Individual Events Launch Go Competitions at SportAccord World Mind Games (Thursday, December 12)
Includes game records/commentaries for Men’s Team Round 1 and Women’s Individual Round 1

2013 SportAccord World Mind Games Launch in Beijing
SportAccord World Mind Games North American Player Profiles
SportAccord World Mind Games Japanese Player Profiles
2013 SportAccord Online Tournament Into Final Stage

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/2013-sportaccord-world-mind-games-overview-reports-photos-games-commentaries/

Frequent Go-Spotting contributor Zhiping You came across this amazing go blanket online, which turns out to have a fascinating story behind its creation, which includes a love story, Hikaru No Go, learning how to crochet and instructions on how to make your very own go blanket.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/go-spotting-blanket-love-story/

Guo Juan’s Internet Go School’s next term starts on the weekend of January 11. Group classes include separate groups for dan level, single digit kyu and double digit kyu players. “Join us,” says Guo, a 5-dan professional who’s been teaching in the West for more than twenty years. “You will have fun, meet new friends and improve your game!”
photo: Guo teaching at 2011 North Carolina workshop; photo courtesy Bob Bacon

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/new-term-starts-soon-at-guo-juan-internet-go-school/

China’s Chenxing Wang 5P and Ruiyang Zhou 9P defeated Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham 6P and Yuan-Jyun Wang 6P on Wednesday to win gold in the SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) Pair Go competition. The 3-round event capped the third annual SAWMG competition, which included men’s team and women’s individual events in go, as well as competitions in chess, bridge, draughts and Chinese Chess, and ran December 12-18 in Beijing, China. Click here for full go coverage on Ranka Online, complete event coverage on the SportAccord World Mind Games website – including video commentaries by Michael Redmond 9P on the SAWMG YouTube channel — and of course on the usgo.org website. Coverage this year included audio commentaries by Redmond on KGS; check KGS Plus under Recent Lectures.

Days 5&6 (Tuesday, 12/16 & Wednesday, 12/17) Summary: (winners denoted with links; click on links for game records, uncommented unless otherwise noted)
Round 1 (12/16): Europe (Kovaleva-Fan)-China; Korea-North America; Europe (Shikshin-Shikshina)-Japan; Chinese Taipei-Europe (Burdakova-Lisi).
Round 2 (12/16): Europe (Burdakova-Lisi)- North America; China-Japan (Redmond commentary); Europe (Shikshin-Shikshina)- Europe (Burdakova-Lisi); Chinese Taipei-Korea.
Round 3 (12/17): China-Chinese Taipei;  Japan-Korea; Europe (Burdakova-Lisi)-Europe (Shikshina-Shikshin).

Meeting the Masters: Students at the Huajiadi Experimental Primary School in Beijing got a chance to meet some of the SportAccord World Mind Games’ top go players and officials on Tuesday. The school is known for its cutting-edge approach to teaching and boasts nearly a thousand junior grade go players. The guests were greeted by two rooms of children buzzing with excitement. In the first classroom, a hands-on lesson on nakade grabbed the children’s attention, and in the second the pupils quickly settled down and answered questions about the history and rules of the game. The guests were then taken downstairs to the gymnasium, where boards had been set out for the 40 kids who would take on top professionals in nine-stone handicap games….click here for complete report.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/china-wins-world-mind-games-pair-go-tournament/

Mingjiu Jiang 7P (center), Stephanie (Mingming) Yin 1P and Zhaonian (Michael) Chen 8D will make up a U.S. team at the upcoming Zhu Gang Cup World Team Go Championship. The brand-new event for both professionals and amateurs features a significant prize-money pool and runs December 19-26 in Guangzhou, China. It’s hosted by the Chinese Weiqi Association  and the Guangzhou All-Sport Federation.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/u-s-team-to-play-in-1st-zhu-gang-cup-world-team-go-championship/

While others were out fighting the holiday crowds at local malls in Northern Virginia, some 20 area go players had a better plan. “Win books to give as holiday gifts!” report Slate and Shell Open local organizers Gurujeet Khalsa and Gary Smith. Sponsor Slate and Shell supplied the prizes, which were won by Kelsey Dyer 1D and Quinn Baranoski 9K – who topped the event – along with other first place finishers, including Edward Zhang 6D, John Gipson 5K, and Mulan Liu 17K.  Second place finishers included Allan Abramson 2D, Mohan Sud 4K, Anderson Barreal 9K and Timothy Koh 22K.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/kelsey-dyer-1d-quinn-baranoski-9k-sweep-slate-and-shell-open/

“Study life and death problems.” We’ve all heard that advice on how to get stronger at go, but it turns out that there’s a missing word that’s key to improving. The word is easy. Literally. Michael Redmond 9P revealed the missing word during one of his KGS audio commentaries on SAWMG games last weekend: “Study easy life and death problems.” Hard problems, “especially really complicated ones,” tend to be discouraging, “and they rarely come up in actual games,” Redmond said. Studying easy problems — “at least 15 minutes a day” — trains your eye to quickly see shapes and patterns and solving problems provides positive reinforcement that makes studying more likely, he adds. And since everyone’s definition of “easy” will necessarily be different, look for problems you can solve in two minutes or less.
– Chris Garlock

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/redmond-easy-does-it/

The US Pro Qualification Tournament, which will be held in Los Angeles  Jan. 2-8, is adding a youth tournament for all ranks, to be held Jan 4-5, announced Myungwan Kim 9P, chair of the AGA’s pro system committee.  The event will be called the Milton N. Bradley Youth Go Championship, in honor of the late Bradley, who was devoted to youth go.  Players must be under the age of 17 (born on or after Jan. 5th 1996).  ”I think it’s a good idea to hold a youth go tournament in LA area every year,” Kim told the Journal.  ”We already have a great location, the Hotel Normandie, and kids can see professionals, the professional system and very serious games. It will help to stimulate kids to learn go, watching all these top players and their games.  I will play 13×13 simul games as well.”  Orange County organizer Kevin Chao will be the Tournament Director, and will handle registration.  He plans two four round tournaments, both 19×19 and13x13, for a total of eight games in two days.  19×19 games will be AGA-rated.  To register e-mail pogychao@yahoo.com. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.  Image: a page from Bradley’s Go for Kids, illustration by Seho Kim. Bradley’s cartoon form is seated at right.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/us-pro-final-adds-youth-tourney/

Japan’s National Team: Members of Japan’s brand-new national team — nicknamed ‘Go-Go Japan’ — talk about their practice sessions and how being on the team has changed their approach to the game… Interview with Park Jieun: The bronze medalist in the women’s individual event says go in Korea has changed from an enriching cultural activity to a sport that’s “only about winning”…The Red-Faced King: Inspired to aim for the top by Mikhael Gorbachev, the former President of the Soviet Union, who also has a prominent “port-wine stain” birthmark, Chou Chun-Hsun 9P (right), known as the ‘Red-Faced King’, talks about why teaching is an important responsibility and why go players need to maintain good physical fitness… Designing a Tournament with Martin Stiassny: The European Go Federation President discusses possible format changes for next year’s World Mind Games and the need for an internationally standardized ratings system…
photo at left by Ivan Vigano; Chou Chun-Hsun photo courtesy Pandanet 

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/ranka-sawmg-highlights-japans-national-team-interview-with-park-jieun-the-red-faced-king-designing-a-tournament-with-martin-stiassny/

Romania: Cristian Pop 7d (left) took the Cupa Romaniei Finala in Sinaia on December 8. Behind him were Dragos Bajenaru 6d and Mihai Valentin Serban 5d. Spain: Also on December 8, Ignacio Cernuda 3d bested Oscar Anguila 4d at the Spanish Championship Finals in Barcelona while Pau Carles 3d placed third. Poland: The Polish Championship League finished December 8 in Olsztyn with Marcin Majka 3d in first, Majus Misiak 2d in second, and Sebastian Pawlaczyk 3d 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

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/12/eurogotv-update-romania-spain-poland/