Poland: The Summer Go School Jerzy Sacharewicz Memorial finished on July 20 in Pryzstanek Alaska with Stanislaw Frejlak 4d in first, Gerd Mex 1d in second, and Marcin Majka 3d in third. Finland: Jusso Nyyssonen 5d (left) took the NGA Summer Camp Tournament in Espoo on July 19. Behind him were Tuomas Hella 4d in second and Bean Yang 3d in third. Hungary: At the 2014 Hungarian Go Camp in Szazhalombatta on July 13, Renato Tolgyesi 2d placed first, Bulcsu Fajszi 3k came in second, and Gyorgy Zahonyi 9k was 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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After a 2-month break, the MLily Gu vs Lee Jubango resumes this weekend with Game 6 scheduled for 1p Korea time on Sunday, July 27 (12:00a Sunday morning, US EST). Lee Sedol currently leads the match 3-2 after breaking his losing streak against Gu Li in Game 5. Live coverage with commentary of the match will start on Baduk TV three hours after the first move is played. The commentators will replay and analyze the game from the beginning and Go Game Guru’s An Younggil 8P will translate and discuss the game (in chat) with Baduk TV Live viewers. You can watch for as little as $2.70 with a Baduk TV Day Pass. If you plan to watch the game from the very start, subtract three hours from the times given above. Baduk TV starts the coverage three hours later because the games go for so long.
– GoGameGuru.com

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The new Korean action go movie “The Divine Move” (Dramatic Korean Go Movie Due Out in July 6/1 EJ) hits movie theaters across North America this Friday; click here for a trailer and local theater listings.

The movie has received warm reviews from Korean audiences, earning an 8.24 out of 10 rating on Korea’s search engine Naver.

When one thinks of the go community, violence and action are seldom the first thoughts that spring to mind. But Korean director Jo Beom-gu has painted go players in a new light in his action movie about a professional go player whose brother is murdered. Framed for the crime, he must spend time in jail. While there, he learns hand to hand combat and emerges tough as nails. After enlisting help from some unlikely candidates, he sets about getting his revenge, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The film’s North American posters promise “War On The Board.”

It is not the first time that go has made it onto the big screen. But in Western movies, the scenes are often short or unrealistic. The Divine Move is different in that go is central to the theme of the movie and appears in many scenes. Several fights are decided over the board or with life and death problems, and each section of the movie is labelled according to the various phases of a game, opening, counting etc.

The film in US-Canada release is in Korean with English subtitles and opens in a second wave of theaters on August 1.
– Ben Gale, Korean Correspondent for the E-Journal.

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Here’s an unusual stratagem for hooking new players in Japan: a free go-themed girls’ magazine with topics such as extreme go and finding your dream go-playing soul-mate. According to a recent report on RocketNews24, Goteki magazine explores such things as defining an “Igogirl” (black or dark-brown hair, a natural make-up style and enjoys getting presents) and the four species of Igomen (Yuru Fuwa Shikkari Igomen, Cabbage Roll Igomen, Chara Maji Igomen, and Ora Ama Igomen) as well as a handy love map to determine which Igomen you’d fall for. There are also some sexy photo spreads (right) featuring high level go players like Akihiko Fujita. Noting that manga and anime have been used in the past to introduce less popular activities like basketball and soccer to Japanese youths with relative success, the report concludes that we’ll know if this latest effort works “when we see Igogirls walking around with dark hair and sakura-pink dresses.”
– Thanks to Jonathan Thomas of the Mohawk Valley Go Club in Utica, NY for passing this along, via Richard Moseson

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“Not sure if the movie White Vengeance has already been mentioned before in the American Go E-Journal,” writes Erwin Gerstorfer. “Just by chance I saw it recently on German TV. The storyline is sometimes a little bit confusing, but nevertheless this movie contains many go references.” White Vengeance, also known as Hong Men Yan, is a 2011 Chinese historical film directed by Daniel Lee, loosely based on events in the Chu–Han Contention, an interregnum between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the founding of the Han dynasty in Chinese history, according to Wikipedia. “Most notably, the film shows a blind go player playing five simultaneous games, and the coordinates of the first moves are mentioned explicitly, e.g. 4 – 4 in the lower left corner,” says Gerstorfer. “Go boards with stones are shown often, although in some close ups, the board position looks strange.” The film is available online or through Amazon.

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The Twin Cities Go Club 2014 Summer Tournament was held on Sunday, July 20th, in the clubhouse of the Goodrich Golf Course in St. Paul, MN. The tournament was four rounds using McMahon pairings. 29 individuals participated, 14 of whom registered as 1 dan or stronger. Player strength ranged from 5 dan to 16 kyu. “It’s always a pleasure the play at this venue, which provides a peaceful background to some great games of go,” reports local organizer Aaron Broege. “The weather was warm with a slight breeze, allowing some individuals to play their games outside.” Bongkyun Moon 5D, winner of the Twin Cities 2014 Winter Tournament, came out on top again with four wins. Yi Tong 1D took second place and Josh Larson 3D placed third. Being the only other person to win all four of his games, Shuping Wang 1K “had a fantastic day, placing fourth,” says Broege. After the final game, Bongkyun Moon used the demonstration board to briefly review the game for the other players. Visit the club’s Facebook page for more pictures of the event and information about the Twin Cities Go Club.
photo: Matt Mackall 4K (left) and Paul Canfield 6K (right) were among those electing to play outside. 

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BadukTV has hired Shawn Ray 4d, better known as Clossius to his Youtube and KGS fans, to do a series of lessons in English for the network. “Thanks to the success of my youtube channeI, I was offered a job at BadukTV – on the condition that I relocate to Korea,” Ray told the Journal. “I took this opportunity to move to Seoul and study baduk  (go in Korean) seriously. I am planning to stay until I become 9D and then I want to come back to America to become a Pro player in the AGA.” Ray’s first video for BadukTV, which includes a fun animated opening, is available here.

“I chose Blackie’s International Baduk Academy (BIBA), as it was the only baduk school that I knew of that spoke English,” said Ray. “Since arriving, I have learned how to truly study baduk, and how many hours you really have to put into this game to become strong. I am sure many are interested in my training schedule so I will break it down.  We wake up and get to BIBA around 11 or noon, and stay until 9 pm. Once we arrive it is self-study until about 2pm, then we play league games with players stronger and weaker than ourselves. In between games we do more self-study, until about 5 or 6 pm and then go eat dinner. We get back around 7 pm and Blackie (9p) reviews our games, or goes over pro games with us and helps us understand them. It is nice when a 9P helps you review pro games, because then you can see that they are human too and also make mistakes. Just mistakes you would never notice being an amateur!  Once 9 pm hits, we all go home together. Once we get home, some of us do more studying, or we can relax until we go to sleep.”

“Our self-study consists of reviewing at least 4 pro games a day, doing at least 1 hour, or more, of life and death problems. Problems at your level can take anywhere from 1-5 min. Usually we go through nearly 100 problems per week. We also study Baduk books and analyze positions and new openings or joseki. It is a very intensive schedule to maintain and can mentally exhaust you very quickly. It took me a whole week before I was fully able to deal with the training regimen,” said Ray.

“My dream is to become a Pro player and start a go school in the U.S. and find a way to make a living teaching go. It is my hope that I can help raise the level in the U.S. so that one day we can compete internationally with the top Asian players. I have to thank all my friends and followers for their support, otherwise I would have never made it this far. In addition I would like to thank Jennie Shen 1p, who has been my teacher ever since I started playing go. Lastly, the inspiration to think I can still become pro is due to Andy Liu 1P, who is around the same age as me, yet is one of the top players in our country. It is my hope to rise to his level, and he showed me it was possible even at my age,” said Ray. Interested readers can join Clossius’s Go Group on Facebook, where he will be posting about his adventures, and even offering discounts on go books. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Image courtesy of BadukTV.

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