For Sale: Treasure Chest Enigma

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With personal inscription by author Noriyuki Nakayama on flyleaf. Near new condition, 191 pages, with colorful book cover. Many remember Mr Nakayama, because of his great love for spreading understanding and communications with others around the world, about the value and beauty in go. For sale, $95 or best offer by July 15. Free shipping via priority mail within two days of payment by paypal or other agreed-upon means. Contact Ken Schatten at kschatten AT Alum DOT MIT DOT edu , or by phone at 301- 949-7855.

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Go Commentary: Lee Sedol vs Gu Li – Jubango – Game 5

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This is game 5 of the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango, between Lee Sedol 9p and Gu Li 9p.

Lee Sedol MLily Gu Lee Jubango Game 5 review 300x204 picture

Lee Sedol 9 dan during the game review.

The mood of the series changed dramatically when Gu Li defeated Lee Sedol in four consecutive games – including in games 3 and 4 of this match – and the overall score for the Jubango became 2-2.

This game was very important for Lee, because if he lost he’d face a heavy burden.

It would be very difficult for him to overcome the psychological damage of losing five games in a row, while also being behind in this match.

This game was played on May 25, 2014, in Shangri-La, Yunnan. Shangri-La is a famous location in the Chinese highlands, on the Tibetan Plateau.

We’re writing a book about this match

This commentary, and others, will form the basis for our Go book about Lee Sedol and Gu Li’s jubango.

The actual book will contain a more extensive commentary of this game, but you can regard what you see below as a draft (learn more).

Please help us to make our first Go book as good as possible. There are several ways you can help us to improve the commentary below:

  1. Ask questions about the game – if anything is unclear, please let us know so we can explain it better!
  2. Point out any mistakes, even minor typos – our first draft is below. Because this is going to be a book, even small mistakes need to be fixed.
  3. Tell your friends and ask them to help too.

The rules of the game

The time limit for these games is 3 hours and 55 minutes, with 1 minute x 5 times byo-yomi. It’s traditional to subtract 5 minutes from the 4 hour total, because of the 5 x 1 minute periods.

There’s no lunch break scheduled for these games, but food is provided and the players are free to get up and eat whenever they want, throughout the game.

Let’s have a look at the game 5 of the 10 game match between Lee Sedol 9p and Gu Li 9p.

Commented game record

Lee Sedol vs Gu Li – Game 5

[Embedded SGF File]

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Your Move/Readers Write: ‘Catching Chess Cheaters’

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“Chess Life recently published a fascinating article, ‘Catching Chess Cheaters’ centered on using computers and statistics to detect cheating in chess,” writes John Pinkerton. “It covers many related topics of interest to go players such as rating inflation, comparing players of different generations, the statistics of move quality, and computational complexity theory. One interesting statistic is that players make 60 percent to 90 percent more errors when half a pawn ahead or behind compared to when the game is even. It’s believed to be a cognitive effect, not the result of high-risk/high-reward play, because it’s seen in both the player ahead and the player behind.” Graphic courtesy Chess Life; cover photography by Luke Copping

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Ali Jabarin Defeats Surma & Podpera to Become Second European Pro

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Israeli go champion Ali Jabarin 6d (right) has won the final knockout rounds of the European Pro Qualification Tournament at Vienna in Austria to become the second pro qualifying under the new European Go Federation (EGF) /CEGO pro system (see Pavol Lisy First European Pro – EJ, 6/1). He beat Mateusz Surma 6d of Poland then Lukáš Podpera 6d of Czechia in the two closely-fought knockout rounds comprising this third and final stage of the competition to select two pros from sixteen of Europe’s strongest amateur players. Israel, though not geographically part of Europe, is usually treated as European in international sporting contests and is an EGF member-state. The games were played at the Freie Waldorfschule Wien West on Friday June 20 as a preliminary to the Vienna International Go Tournament, which Jabarin also won, in a field of almost 100. The pro qualification tournament was overseen by Wang Runan, the President of the Chinese Weiqi Association.

The two new pros, Pavol Lisy and Ali Jabarin, will receive their certificates – at which point they officially gain professional status – at the upcoming 58th MLily-WeiqiTV European Go Congress in Sibiu, Romania next month (July 26 – August 9), where they will still be entitled to compete as amateurs. After that they will go to Beijing for another six months’ intensive training. Next year will see the first Bonus Point and Grand Slam Tournaments as well as another Pro Qualification Tournament to select a further two pros. These special tournaments are all part of a complete professional system which is detailed in the EGF/CEGO Agreement (pdf, 6.85Mb).

Click here for full details of the 2014 Pro Qualification Tournament, including results, game records and more.

Report by Tony Collman; photos: (right) Ali Jabarin in Round 5 v Mateusz Surma, courtesy of Vienna 2014 pairings/results page, (left) Chinese Weiqi Association President Wang Runan (at right) congratulates Jabarin, EGF President Martin Stiassny seen at far left, by Lorenz Trippel.

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The Power Report: Ida Picks Up First Win In Honinbo Title Match; Kisei Leagues; 39th Meijin League

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by John Power, EJ Japan Correspondent

Ida Picks Up First Win In Honinbo Title Match:Faced with his first kadoban (a game that can lose a series) in the 69th Honinbo best-of-seven, Ida Atsushi 8P (right) fought strongly and killed a large group of his opponent, Iyama Yuta Honinbo. This keeps his chances of becoming the youngest tournament Honinbo alive, but Iyama will be doing his best to see that it’s just a consolation prize. The fourth game was played at the Olive Bay Hotel in the town of Saikai in Nagasaki Prefecture on June 18 and 19. Saikai is a ship-building center, and the Olive Bay Hotel is a luxury hotel built to accommodate customers. In the game, an invasion by Iyama, playing white, in the top right corner let Ida build strong thickness on the right side. Later, when Iyama invaded the bottom right as well, Ida countered very aggressively. With his 63rd move, he proclaimed his intention of killing White’s group. Iyama is usually an expert at rescuing weak groups, but not this time. He tried to turn the lost group into a sacrifice by aiming at a squeeze on the outside. When Ida foiled this, Iyama had to resign. The game lasted just 139 moves. This is Ida’s first win against Iyama. Avoiding the shut-out will be a big relief, while outfighting Iyama will give him confidence. Even so, the next game, scheduled for June 30 and July 1, will be another kadoban.

Kisei Leagues: Three games have been played in the 39th Kisei Leagues recently. The results are given below.
(June 12) (B League) Murakawa Daisuke (W) beat Cho Riyu8P by resig.
(June 19). (A League) Kono Rin 9P (B) beat Ichiriki Ryo 7P by resig.; (B Leagu
e) Yoda Norimoto 9P (W) beat Yuki Satoshi 9P by resig.
In the A League, Kono Rin 9P, on 2-0, has the provisional lead. In the B League, Murakawa Daisuke 7P, on the same score, has the provisional lead.

39th Meijin League: In a game played on June 19, Takao Shinji 9P (W) beat Murakawa Daisuke by resig. Takao (left) is now 3-3, so his chances of keeping his place have improved. Murakawa drops to 1-5, so he is close to losing his place. Yamashita Keigo 9P, on 6-0, is two points clear of the field.

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Melchior Chui Wins UK Go Challenge for Schools

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Now in its 20th year, the 2014 UK Go Challenge for Schools was won by Melchior Chui 9k of Cambridge with second and third places going to siblings Roella 12k and Edmund Smith 13k respectively, also both of Cambridge. The finals were held at Milton C of E Primary School in Milton, near Cambridge, England on Saturday June 21st, and were the culmination of heats played in schools throughout the year, each of which comprised five rounds of 13×13 go.Twenty-five youngsters took part in the finals, which are not restricted to those who have taken part in the heats. Click here for full list of winners.

The top three winners and the challenger all won cash prizes and they and all age group winners got a framed certificate showing their achievement. Click here for full format details of the competition, which is organized by the British Go Association and modeled on the earlier successful UK Chess Challenge.

The traditional caption contest to put words into the mouth of the logo go stones (above) in promotional material for the year was won by Benedict Steele of Milton with the caption, “Jump ahead of the competition!”

Report by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the E-Journal. Logo courtesy of UK Go Challenge website.

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Your Move/Readers Write: Jansch & Renbourn Redux

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“Anders Kierulf (@SmartGo) suggested that I should send you the attached cover art of albums for a well-known partnership in British folk-blues circles, featuring games of go,” writes JF Derry.
The E-Journal’s British correspondent, Tony Collman, covered this in his July 14, 2013 report, Go Spotting: Brit Folkies Bert and John.

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Go Spotting: Novels “Intuition” & “The Caryatids” Plus “Go Nation”

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“Intuition”: “In Allegra Goodman’s novel ‘Intuition’ on page 164 is the line ‘Jacob and Aaron sat playing go on towels in the sand,’” writes None Redmond, though she adds “Not one of her best books I think. I’m a bit bored with it already.” Note: This was previously spotted by Debbie Siemon in 2012: Go Spotting: Allegra Goodman ’s novel “Intuition” 

“The Caryatids”: And in Bruce Sterling’s  science fiction novel ‘The Caryatids,’ David Matson found this line: “Mr. Zeng was not a small-scale, face-to-face killer in the bold way of the warriors that she knew and loved best.  Mr. Zeng was the kind of killer who deployed a nuclear warhead the way he might set a black go-stone on a game board.”

Another reader alerted us to Marc. L. Moskowitz’ book Go Nation:  Chinese Masculinities and the Game of WeiChi in China, published last year by the University of California Press. Moskowitz “explores the fascinating history of the game, as well as providing a vivid snapshot of Chinese Go players today,” according to the UCP write-up. “Go Nation uses this game to come to a better understanding of Chinese masculinity, nationalism, and class, as the PRC reconfigures its history and traditions to meet the future.”

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