Jason Bates Tops Syracuse “Salt City Tournament”

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Twenty-six players participated in Syracuse’s 7th Annual Salt City Go Tournament this past Saturday, with Jason Bates 2d (front left) winning the A division by tie-break ahead of Tim Aylsworth and Wayne Nelson; all three had identical 3-1 records and received cash prizes. Yan-Yeung Luk won all four of his games to clinch the B division, beating out Meg Houston and Ava Zurita, while Cross Bianchi swept his games in the C division, finishing one win ahead of Ryan Iffert and Kelvin Cheng. Theo Eckert-Budis 14k was the winner of the annual cake problem prize. Five C division players are first-year students in the weiqi class taught at the CNY Chinese School — the youngest of these was 8-year-old Liya Luk 16k, who finished with a 2-2 record. The oldest tournament participant was again 96-year-old Milton Sack 15k, who won both of the games he played. “Special thanks to Slate and Shell for greatly discounting its new books for use as prizes at the tournament,” says Syracuse Go Club organizer Richard Moseson. At right: this year’s problem cake: black to move. 

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Go Quiz: How Many Western Professionals?

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You Know, Like Grover Cleveland*: The fun of last week’s quiz is that there are more Honinbo heads than people. Quiz vet Reinhold Burger explains: “Thanks for this; I learned something. I knew that Shuei had stepped aside for Shuho, resuming the leadership after Shuho’s death. But I had not realized that Shugen had done the same for Shuei. So you have the symmetrical-looking sequence: Shugen, Shuei, Shuho, Shuei, Shugen. Interesting :)” Peter Schumer also cautioned that, while as heir Shusaku is often referred to as Honinbo, he died before he took over the house. So the seven of you who chose 19 different heads, as opposed to the total of 21 were correct. As for the anonymous person who chose 57, that was, of course, the number of “known Communists in the US State Department” according to a classic film. Congrats to Peter Schumer of Middlebury, VT, our randomly selected winner from among those submitting the correct answer.

This Week’s Quiz: The AGA will be qualifying one more new professional this year. This weekend one player will qualify for the AGA Pro Qualifier (to be held later this year) at the first Washington Open Baduk Championship (click here to register) and another next month at the 41st Maryland Open (click here to register). Pictured is your quizmaster congratulating Andy Liu for winning a spot in the first qualifier in 2012, which he went on to win. So our question this week is how many all time “Western” pros will our new pro be joining? To qualify, in addition to the AGA’s three pros, you must be (or have been) a pro born outside of the traditional Asian go nations, and certified as a pro by a national organization. Is the answer 12, 13, 14 or 15 Western professionals? Put your list in the comments (in case we missed someone) and feel free to include your response to my bonus quiz “57 communists” movie reference.
photo by Gurujeet Khalsa

* Cleveland served as 22nd and 24th President of the United States, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897).

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Washington Open Baduk Championship Selected as AGA Pro Tourney Qualifier

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Next weekend’s Washington Open Baduk Championship has been selected as a qualifier for this year’s AGA Pro Qualification Tournament; top boards will be broadcast on KGS by the EJ (email journal@usgo.org if you’re interested in being on the broadcasting team). The two-day event in Northern Virginia includes pro lectures and an unrated rapid tournament. The first Washington Open Baduk Championship will be held in Vienna, VA on April 26-27, with a top prize of at least $1,200 and cash prizes for every section. Myungwan Kim 9P (right) and Sohyun Park 3P will give lectures for both dan and kyu players on Saturday night, followed by a rapid tournament, and the professionals will do game reviews and simuls on Sunday afternoon. The tournament will be held at the Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Center (1952 Gallows Road, Suite 330) in Vienna, VA and is sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the Korean Cultural Center – DC, and Scorpion Sport Inc. in L.A. It is co-hosted by the Korean Amateur Baduk Association (KABA) and the American Go Association (AGA), and organized by the NOVA Go Club, the Baltimore Go Club, and the Korean-American Go Association. There’s no entry fee but AGA membership is required and lunch is free. Click here to register. NOTE TO VISITORS: Organizers have negotiated a discounted rate with Extended Stay America (8281 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Fairfax VA 22031), 4.5 miles from the playing site; call 703-204-0088 and ask for the NOVA Go Club rate, or email MRD@extendedstay.com.
– photo by Chris Garlock 

 

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Amir Fragman Wins Israeli KPMC Qualifier

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Amir Fragman defeated Israeli champion Ali Jabarin 6d at the Israeli Korean Prime Minister Cup (KPMC) Qualifier tournament, held 16-17 April 2014 during Olamot (Worlds) festival in Tel Aviv.

Top players in Israel attended the 6-round tournament, where fourteen contestants challenged for the right to represent Israel at the upcoming Korean Prime Minister Cup in October 2014.

The tournament was decided in the 5th round, when Fragman defeated Jabarin 6d by resignation to win first place, with Jabarin in second, while third place was shared by Tal Michaeli and Ofer Zivony.

More details and photos here.

– Reported by Shavit Fragman

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New Offerings from SmartGo Books, Plus Add Your Own Notes

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SmartGo Books now lets you add your own notes in books, reports SmartGo’s Anders Kierulf, who’s now in Paris for the 42nd International Paris Go Tournament which runs through April 21.

“Four new books and several translations have been added to SmartGo Books,” Kierulf adds. The new offerings include two from John Fairbairn: “Wonders of Life & Death: Honinbo Shusai’s tsumego classic Shikatsu Myoki” and “Today We Have a Splendid Feast: The Meijin Inseki’s Yoshin Teiki,” while “Fight Like a Pro – The Secrets of Kiai”, a much-requested book by Rob van Zeijst and Richard Bozulich, is also now available.

Gunnar Dickfeld has added Volume 3 of “Black to Play! Train the Basics of Go (20-15 Kyu)”, in English and German, and volumes 1 and 2 are available in English, German, Spanish, and French, while “The Basics of Go Strategy” is now available is Spanish as well as German.

Click here for details on all the SmartGo Books books now available.

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Miichigan & Toronto Vie for Collegiate Go League Championship Saturday on KGS

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After a convincing performance against lower seeds Yale and U Maryland last Saturday, the two top seeds of the Collegiate Go League, University of Michigan and University of Toronto, are vying for the championship title this Saturday, April 19 at 1 pm (EST) on KGS. Top boards will have live professional commentary and will be announced throughout KGS; head to the ‘Collegiate Go League’ room to catch the action and see who will be crowned ACGA university champion for season 3 and receive the coveted cash prize and ACGA Cup. Commentary will begin around 1:30 pm after matches commence.
– Cole Pruitt

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Go Commentary: Gu Li vs Lee Sedol – Jubango – Game 3

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This is game 3 of the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango, between Lee Sedol 9p and Gu Li 9p.

Lee Sedol Gu Li MLily Gu Lee Jubango Game 3 1 t 300x300 picture

Lee Sedol 9 dan (left) and Gu Li 9 dan discuss game 3 of their jubango shortly after the game.

Since Lee Sedol won the first two games, he should have had a psychological advantage going into this one.

However, the mood of the series changed shortly before this game took place.

The 4th Zhaoshang Cup

One week earlier, there was another game between Gu Li and Lee Sedol at the 4th Zhaoshang Cup and Gu Li won.

When I was watching that game, I felt that Lee was in poor form, and I thought that perhaps he was saving his energy and stamina for this jubango game.

When Lee isn’t in good form, he rushes and plays thin, territorial moves instead of solid moves that emphasize power. If you look at that game, you’ll feel that Lee’s play was different from these jubango games.

The Zhaoshang Cup is a team competition and neither player would have cared about the winning or losing as much as they usually do. However, there was another game shortly afterwards which changed the flow of this match.

The 16th Chunlan Cup

The Round of 16 at the 10th Chunlan Cup took place just two day before this game. Gu and Lee were paired to play together once again (based on drawing lots). And this game was different.

Both players did their best and you could feel their fighting spirit from the beginning until the very end of the game.

Gu Li took the lead, after making a big trade on the right side, and maintained it throughout most of the game. Lee Sedol caught up near the end, with his characteristic fierce and powerful moves, and almost reversed the game.

However, Gu managed to hold on to the smallest of leads amidst the chaos. Lee knew that he was losing by half a point, and that there was no way to catch up, so he resigned.

Gu Li restores his confidence

Winning those two games seemed to restore Gu Li’s confidence, and relieve the mental pressure he felt about playing Lee Sedol in this match.

On the other hand, Lee Sedol suffered some psychological damage in losing that game and the bad news for him was that he only had one day to recover and calm his mind before this game.

Some pundits said that Lee was only concentrating this jubango, and that if he won this game the earlier losses would soon be forgotten.

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.

Anyway, let’s have a look at game 3 this 10 game match.

Commented game records

Lee Sedol vs Gu Li – Game 3

[Embedded SGF File]

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