China’s defending champion Tang Weixing 9p faced off against Korea’s secret weapon Kim Jiseok 9p (left) at the 2014 Samsung Cup finals on December 9 and 10 in Xi’an. Though Tang had a previous win and the home field advantage, Kim’s individual performance this year in international tournaments has been almost flawless with 15 wins and only 1 defeat. The result? Kim delighted Korean fans by defeating Tang 2-0 and giving Korea its first major international title since Lee Sedol 9p won the Samsung Cup in 2012. For more information about this year’s tournament including photos, game records, and preliminary commentary by An Younggil 8d, please visit Go Game Guru.
–Younggil An,  from a longer article on Go Game Guru; photo courtesy Go Game Guru. Edited by Annalia Linnan.

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Russia: The Championship of Karelia finished on December 7 in Petrozavodsk with Vladimir Shvecov 3d in first, Dimitrij Kornev 4d in second, and Dmitrij Konovalov 2d in third. Romania: Mircea Nitu 11k (left) took the 2nd VolGo Cup on December 6 in Voluntary. Behind him were Sebastian State 11k in second and George Gigoi 14k in third. Lithuania: Also on December 7, Giedrius Tumelis 2d bested Andrius Petrauskas 3d at the Lithuanian Go Championship in Vilnius while Ernestas Romeika 1d 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

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The first round of go competition at the 4th SportAccord World Mind Games on December 11 featured an epic encounter between the Korean and Japanese men’s teams, and a historic victory for a Russian woman.

The Japan-Korea men’s match was close on all three boards. After shutting out the Japanese team last year, the Koreans had not expected to have any trouble with the older team that Japan fielded this year, but 42-year-old Yuki Satoshi (right) of Japan set them straight by defeating Park Younghun in a prolonged struggle on board one. Park Younghun was a last-minute replacement for last year’s standout Park Jeonghwan. Compared with Yuki he is both younger and has the better overall record in international competition, but as referee Michael Redmond said, when Yuki is in good form he can beat anyone. Park resigned during a ko fight late in the endgame. ‘I don’t know how far ahead I was,’ Yuki remarked nonchalantly afterward, ‘but I could tell from the way he was playing that he was on the verge of giving up.’

While Yuki was winning on board one, it appeared that Japan would also win the battle between two young players that was taking place on board two. Japan’s Ida Atsushi, 20, is a fighter who is good at killing stones, and that is what he did to a white group at the bottom of the board in this game. Facing what looked like certain defeat, Korea’s Na Hyun, 19, temporarily abandoned his stricken group, and this turned out to be the right decision. Later in the middle game Ida overplayed his advantage by starting an unnecessary ko fight, in the course of which Na was able to revive his dead group. Pressing on through a further exchange of groups, Na evened the score in the match at 1-1.

All now depended on the outcome of the game between Seto Taiki of Japan (at right in photo at left) and Korea’s Kang Dongyoon (left) on board three. Kang, winner of the individual gold medal at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games, the Fujitsu Cup in 2009, and a SportAccord silver medal in 2012, brought the better credentials to the game, but Seto kept it close from beginning to end. The people following the action on the monitor screens in the adjoining room were held in suspense down to practically the last move, but after a grueling five and a half hours, at about six o’clock, the referee counted Kang the winner by 2-1/4 stones (equivalent to 4-1/2 points by Japanese counting).

Meanwhile, the Chinese team of Shi Yue, Mi Yuting, and Tuo Jiaxi was dealing unmercifully with the European team of Fan Hui, Aleksandr Dinershteyn, and Ilya Shikshin. European stones died en masse on all three boards. The team from Chinese Taipei also blanked the North American team 3-0, although the game between Chen Shih-Iuan and Jiang Mingjiu on board one was quite close. None of the losing players appeared upset by their losses, however, and one Russian player looked positively joyful about his defeat. That was Ilya Shikshin (right), who had held the lead for awhile against Tuo Jiaxi, as the latter admitted after the game. This was a gratifying contrast to the complete thrashing Ilya had suffered at the hands of the same opponent in 2012.

Even happier was Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva, who defeated Chinese Taipei’s Cathy Chang in the women’s individual competition. The game was unusual for its lack of fighting. Natalia won this exercise in harmony by the same margin by which Kang had beaten Seto. This was not the first time she had defeated a professional opponent – she had also done that in Beijing in 2008 – but it was the first time any European woman had beaten a player from the Far East at the SportAccord World Mind Games. Her reward will be a game against a stronger Far Eastern opponent in the second round: Choi Jeong, the bronze medalist in 2012 and more recently the victor in the Bingsheng Cup.
– James Davies, Ranka Online; photos by Ivan Vigano

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The fourth SportAccord World Mind Games officially opened at an evening ceremony held on December 10 in the banquet hall of the  V-Continent Beijing Parkview Wuzhou hotel near the Beijing International Conference Center, which is the competition venue. Thirty go players representing the best of China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, North America, Japan, and Korea will compete with each other December 11-17, rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best bridge, chess, draughts, and xiangqi players. Counting all five disciplines, there are 150 contestants, drawn from nearly forty countries and territories on six continents. Click here for Ranka Online’s reports on the SAWMG’s Opening ceremony and draw and Players Converge on Beijing for the 4th SportAccord WorldMind Games.

download SGF file

Michael Redmond 9P’s gives a commentary (right) on the Round 1 game between France’s Fan Hui 9P and China’s Shi Yue 9P. “Shi Yue showed powerful fighting, starting with a center-oriented opening that developed into a big fight,” says Redmond. “Two early mistakes on Fan Hui’s part made this fight difficult for him.” Redmond also noted that “In the 1st round for women, Europe played well, got only one win out of it.”

Click below for other first-round games:
DainelKo-ChangCheHao.sgf
Dinershteyn-MiYuting.sgf
IlyaS-Tuo.sgf
LinLi-Huiren.sgf
Mingjiu-ChenShihIuan.sgf
NaHyun-Ida.sgf
Seto-KangDongYoon.sgf
Yuki-Park.sgf
DinaB-KimChaeYoung.sgf
NataliaK-ChangKaiHsin.sgf
Okuda-SvetlanaShikshina.sgf

photo: EGF President Martin Stiassny (above right) drawing for the European team
– based on reporting by James Davies on Ranka Online; edited by Chris Garlock with technical assistance by Myron Souris

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Andrew Kay Holds British Championship: November 29, Andrew Kay defeated Alex Kent to retain the British Championship by three games to nil. The game will be made available shortly, with commentary from Matthew Macfadyen.

Local Winner at Warwick: The Coventry Tournament at the University of Warwick had a local winner for the second year in a row. Philip Leung (5d) took first at the tournament organized by former winner Bruno Poltronieri. Second was Wu Ruizhu (5d) also from Warwick and third was Alison Bexfield from Letchworth. 32 players took part.

UK Youth Go team triumphs over Italy: The UK Youth Go team is one of 13 teams signed up to the European Youth Go Team Championship 2014/15. In the second round of matches, the UK team beat Italy on Sat. 29th November. Congratulations to the team for their 4-1 win, which places the UK currently 6th out of the 13 teams taking part. The next round is scheduled for Saturday 13 December.

Race for 2014 Youth Grand Prix reaches final month: December – the final month of the 2014 Youth Grand Prix. The three winners, who will receive cash prizes of either £50, £30 and £20, are predicted to be among four talented youths. There are still 3 tournaments in UK, with plenty of opportunities for other players to rise to the top.
– compiled/edited by Amy Su, based on reports on the BGA website 



Sincerely,
Amy Su

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“I just received a request from the American Go Foundation for a contribution towards their work,” writes Portland Go Chapter Organizer Peter Freedman. “I will again this year donate $100, and urge everyone who reads this to donate something. While about 130 donors are listed on this year’s request, there’s no reason why we cannot double that number this year!  There are lots of you out there, and, what go player does not appreciate the AGF’s efforts to bring go to children?  Please celebrate the holidays this year with a gift to the AGF…and while you are at it, thank the AGF people for all their efforts to bring go to children and youth.”

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The inventor of a physical go board that records moves and enables online play on an actual board is looking for North American partners to market it in the West. According to Sihong Zhou, the board, which lights up to show where your opponent has played, is compatible with some go servers, like Tygem/eWeiqi or Sina. Additional features, Zhou says, include joseki and tesuji training, games against a computer program up to 4d, and a built-in game clock. More details are available, in Chinese, on the RuiQi Tech website. Those interested may email Zhou in Shenzhen China at 1838349552@qq.com.

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The Davis/Sacramento Go Club held its Winter Tournament on December 6th at the Arden-Dimick library in Sacramento. There were 14 players, including three who were playing in their first AGA tournament: Clete Reader, Laura Sparks, and Barry Stiefel. Jeff Horn 1D (left) won the upper division and Tai-An Cha 5k (right) won the lower division, both with 3-1 scores.
– Willard Haynes

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Anyone who joins, renews or extends their membership with the AGA between now and New Year’s Day will receive two months of free access to BadukTV English, AGA President Andy Okun announced. “We’re grateful to GoGameGuru, David Ormerod and the folks at BadukTV for this generous offer,” Okun said.  People who are already BadukTV English subscribers can opt instead for a free go book (US shipping address only, limited choice of titles). AGA life members who request it can take advantage of the two months without doing anything, as it would be tricky to extend their memberships, Okun said.  Baduk TV English takes the best of the 24-hour Korean cable channel Baduk TV, with lessons, game commentary and problems analyzed by professionals, and adds English subtitles.  There are several hundred hours of material in the library already and new material all the time. After joining or renewing, click here to take advantage of the offer.

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