Finland: The Nuorten SM 2013 finished September 15 in Helsinki with Bean Yang 4d in first, Jerry Savo 1k in second, and Samuel Laire 3k in third. Italy: Also on September 15, Carlo Metta 3d (left) took the Torneo di Pisa while Alessandro Pace 2d placed second and Alberto Zingoni 1d came in third. Russia: At the Russian Female Championship in Moscow on September 8, Dina Burdakova 5d bested Natalia Kovaleva 5d and Daria Koshkina 3k was third.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/eurogotv-update-finland-italy-russia/

The second Gotham Go Tournament, scheduled for October 12th in New York City, will also be the East Coast AGA Pro-Select Qualifier. The tournament will be at the same place as the last one in January, the Hostelling International New York (891 Amsterdam Ave, btw 103rd & 104th in Manhattan). Click here for details and to register. photo: January 2013 Gotham Tournament; photo by John Pinkerton

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/gotham-go-tournament-east-coast-aga-pro-select-qualifier-set-for-october-12/

Wang Chenxing 5P (left) secured her first major international title when she defeated defeated Yu Zhiying 5p to win the final of the 4th Bingsheng Cup, on September 12, 2013. On her journey to the final round, Wang defeated last year’s winner Rui Naiwei 9P, Xie Yimin 6P, and Li He 3P.

However, 15-year-old Yu Zhiying deserves recognition in her own right. If she had defeated Wang, she would have broken the world record for youngest international title holder in the go world. The current record is held by Lee Changho 9p for his win at the 3rd Tongyang Securities Cup in 1992 when he was 16 years and 6 months. At 15 years and 10 months, Yu’s triumph would have shattered Lee’s 20-year streak.

First played in 2010, the Bingsheng Cup remains the only women’s individual international go tournament. It draws the top 16 players from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, North America, and Oceania. Named after Sun Zi (aka Sun Tzu), the author of The Art Of War, the Bingsheng Cup is held annually at the Sun Wu Memorial Hall on Qionglong Mountain in Suzhou, China. For more information about the 4th Bingsheng Cup including photos, a post-game interview with Wang, and game records, visit Go Game Guru.
­– Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru; photo courtesy of Go Game Guru

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/wang-chenxing-takes-first-international-title-with-bingsheng-cup-win/

With this win – her first major international title – Wang has become a new star in the Go world.

Wang’s previous international victories include the 1st Tri-Nation Pair Go competition in May 2013 (her partner was Chang Hao 9p) and the 2nd Huang Longshi Cup women’s team tournament, which China won in 2012.

However, this is her first individual win on the international stage. She also has several domestic Chinese titles to her name.

Wang’s given name, Chenxing (晨星), means Venus.

Sun Wu Memorial Hall

The 16 player knockout tournament started on September 8, and the final was played on September 12, at the Sun Wu Memorial Hall, Qionglong Mountain, Suzhou, China.

Sun Wu was one of the names of the renowned Chinese military general who is also known as Sun Zi (and known by many as Sun Tzu in the West) – the author of The Art of War.

Wang Chenxing (left) plays Yu Zhiying at the Sun Wu Memorial Hall, in Suzhou, China.

The final game

In the final showdown, Yu Zhiying built big territories in the top right area and the top left corner.

Meanwhile, Wang developed her left side moyo in exchange.

The game was very close at the end of the middle game, but Yu made a small mistake in the endgame.

Wang seized her chance and punished black’s mistake.

Yu tried to save all of her stones, but Wang didn’t allow it. She kept attacking and captured Yu’s black center stones.

Wang also defeated Xie Yimin 6p, Rui Naiwei 9p and (last year’s winner) Li He 3p, while Yu eliminated Okuda Aya 3p, Mukai Chiaki 5p and Tang Yi 2p en route to the final.

Rui Naiwei 9 dan – the Iron Lady – was defeated by Wang Chenxing.

This year, the Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese representatives were all eliminated before the semifinals.

Joanne Missingham 6p, who usually plays for Taiwan, but represented Oceania again in the Bingsheng Cup, was knocked out by the formidable Rui Naiwei in the first round.

An interview with Wang Chenxing

There was an interview with Wang Chenxing after the final game. Here’s an edited translation:

Reporter: How did you find the final?

Wang: The opening went smoothly and I thought it was ok.

I felt I was winning once we reached the endgame stage.

Reporter: How does it feel to win your first (individual) international title?

Wang: I don’t feel like it’s real yet because I only just finished the game.

Reporter: Are you a hard worker or a genius?

Wang: Maybe half and half.

I can’t really say I’m a hard worker though. I’m interested in many other things besides Go.

Reporter: What’s your goal from here?

Wang: I hope to win some more titles. I’m also interested in the Chinese women’s league, which began this year.

A near miss at a world record

Yu Zhiying, the runner up, came ever so close to breaking the world record for the youngest international title holder in the Go world.

Yu Zhiying just missed out on a new world record (and her first international title) at the 4th Bingsheng Cup. If Yu had won, she would have bested Lee Changho’s 20 year old record as the youngest international title holder.

The record for the youngest international title holder is still held Lee Changho 9p – at 16 years and 6 months (1992) – who won the 3rd Tongyang Securities Cup. It’s now stood for more than 20 years.

Following that is Fan Tingyu’s 16 years and 7 months (2013) – after his recent 7th Ing Cup win.

If Yu Zhiying had won the final, she would have smashed the record – her age at the time of writing is 15 years and 10 months.

Unfortunately for Yu, it wasn’t to be, but the youngster still has a bright future ahead of her.

The Bingsheng Cup

The Bingsheng Cup was first played in 2010 and is held annually at Qionglong Mountain, Suzhou, China.

The original name of the tournament is the Qionglong Mountain Bingsheng Cup, and it’s sometimes referred to as the Qionglong Cup (in English) because of this.

Currently the only women’s individual international Go tournament, it uses a knockout format for the top 16 players from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, North America and Oceania.

Amateurs are allowed to take part if they win the right to represent their region.

The time limit for games is 2 hours main time and 5 x 1 minute byo-yomi.

The first prize is 250,000 RMB (about $40,000 USD at the time of writing) and the runner up receives 100,000 RMB.

Qionglong Mountain is where Sun Zi (aka Sun Tzu) wrote The Art of War (孫子兵法), and is called the mountain of the wisdom.

Bingsheng (兵圣) literally means ‘soldier saint’ – named in honor of Sun Zi. The second character also appears in the names of the Qisheng and Kisei (Go saint) tournaments.

Park Jieun 9p won the 1st and 2nd Bingsheng Cups, and Li He 5p won the 3rd.

4th Bingsheng Cup full results

The round of 16

• Xiao Ailin 3p (Taiwan) defeated Manuela Marz (Europe)
• Li He 5p defeated Chen Wanyu (USA)
• Rui Naiwei 9p defeated Joanne Missingham 6p (Oceania)
• Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Xie Yimin 6p
• Tang Yi 2p defeated O Junga 2p
• Choi Jung 3p defeated Lu Jia 2p
• Yu Zhiying 5p defeated Okuda Aya 3p, and
• Mukai Chiaki 5p defeated Park Jieun 9p.

Quarter finals

• Li He 5p defeated Xiao Ailin 3p
• Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Rui Naiwei 9p
• Tang Yi 2p defeated Choi Jung 3p, and
• Yu Zhiying 5p defeated Mukai Chiaki 5p.

Semifinals

• Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Li He 5p, and
• Yu Zhiying 5p defeated Tang Yi 2p.

Final

• Wang Chenxing 5p defeated Yu Zhiying 5p.

Jeff Horn 1d won the Davis/Sacramento Go Club Fall Quarterly Tournament, held September 7 at the Arden-Dimick library in Sacramento. Horn (right) topped a field of seven players ranging in strength from 1 dan to 14 kyu.
– Willard Haynes
GOT TOURNEY REPORT? Let 14,000 go players worldwide know; get published in the E-Journal by sending us your report and photo(s) at journal@usgo.org

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/jeff-horn-wins-davis-sac-fall-tourney/

Wang Runan 8P, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, was the guest of honor at the Sino-British Weiqi Exchanges, a cultural exchange event held September 7 at the British Museum in London. Organized by the UK Research and Development Centre for Chinese Traditional Culture (UKCTC) in association with the East Midland Youth Chinese Organisation (EMYCO) and in cooperation with the British Go Association (BGA), the event was sponsored by Chen Yongqing, a businessman who is a promoter and advocate of weiqi culture in China and is President of the Xi’an Fuji Vocational Weiqi Club, and Vice Chairman of the Xi’an Weiqi Association. He also traveled from China for the event.

The event was organized to promote cultural exchanges between China and the UK through the game of go (known as weiqi in China), set up a platform where go enthusiasts can not only learn about the game’s culture but also enhance their go skills, and enable go enthusiasts in the UK to find more friends and encourage more people to take up go, facilitating its promotion as a result.

UKCTC President Sherry Kuei welcomed the guest speakers and the hundred or so attendees to the event, introducing Counselor Li Hui of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in London, who thanked the British Museum for the venue, UKCTC for their continuing contribution to the promotion of Chinese traditional culture – something now highly valued in China – and the EMYCO for inviting the guests. Admitting he himself was not a player, Li said he looked forward to learning more about this “magic art”.

Chen Jiuxuan, Chairman of the EMYCO and son of Chen Yongqing, next introduced his organisation, a recreational, non-religious, non-political, not-for-profit organisation for the youth of the large Chinese community in the England’s East Midlands region. The EMYCO recruits twice-yearly from students at the University of Nottingham and the Nottingham Trent University, which have strong links with China.

British Go Association (BGA) Vice President (and AGA member) Francis Roads took the stage next and gave an overview of the activities and growth of the BGA since its founding in 1952, noting that he’s been a member for much of that time, having joined not long after learning the game 48 years ago. During his 5-year tenure as President of the BGA in the early ’70s, he had written to the Chinese embassy with an invitation for their nation to engage with the UK’s go community. To laughter from the audience, organizers and guests he related how the only reply he received was “a little red book entitled ‘The Thoughts of Chairman Mao.’” Roads said that it gave him great pleasure to participate in the kind of cultural exchange he had hoped for then.

Dr Chan Cheng, Honorary President of the UKCTC, introduced Wang Runan 8P by reading the Ten Principles of Weiqi, also known as the Ten Golden Rules, from Wang’s fan (see China Calls For Return of Ancient Go Manuscript 9/9 EJ; an English translation of these core strategies of the game, together with discussion, can be found at Sensei’s Library).

Wang, a small, slight man with highly mobile features and eyes sparkling with good humor, spoke with animated enthusiasm as Wang Ren translated. He first expressed his great pleasure at finding himself speaking at the British Museum, an institution he had learnt of at school since it holds a good number of Chinese antiquities including the oldest known manual of his game (since transferred to the British Library; see same 9/9 EJ referenced above).

Wang gave a brief history of go, beginning with its origin in China “over 4000 years ago” and including colorful legends of historic figures such as General Xie An, who allegedly sat calmly playing go, leaving battle reports undispatched, as his army of 80,000 faced and overcame a force of 800,000  invaders. Or General Guan Yu who, in the absence of anesthetics, is said to have used a game of go to distract him from the pain of having the marrow scraped from his arm to remove poison from an arrow-wound (left). Wang indicated he personally would prefer to have the anesthetics now available if he found himself in similar circumstances.

Wang told how the game spread to Korea, to Japan, and from there it spread to Europe, North America and other parts of the world after Japan had reached a dominant position in mastery of the game over the last several hundred years. But, he pointed out, in recent years China has once again excelled in international competitions.

He drew attention to the application of go’s ideas in many fields of life and especially to strategy, claiming that the upper echelons of the US military and the CIA also now study the game as key to understanding East Asian strategic thinking. He also referred to US President Obama’s gift of a goban to Chinese Premier Hu Jintao on the first presidential visit to China since Nixon’s time (see 12/14/09 EJ), expressing puzzlement, however, that the President chose a Chinese cultural artifact rather than an American one such as perhaps a basketball.

Wang provided a few tips for newcomers to the game, suggesting that they “Avoid concentrating on local play, disregarding the rest of the board,” instead taking what he referred to as the “helicopter view” of the whole board. He also said players should deploy their stones widely about the board, use strategy like probe stones which may be sacrificed,  and stressed the importance of reading accurately, noting that professionals may look up to 30 moves ahead; beginners should try to read at least three moves ahead.

After a short break, the house reassembled less formally for actual play, with Wang playing simultaneously with four volunteer players from the BGA. On board one was Matthew Cocke 5d of Epsom Go Club (above right, 2nd from top), one of the UK’s strongest players, who was given a 3-stone handicap. This game was televised on a large screen, with Francis Roads giving a running commentary over the PA  with the help of a laser pointer (right). Cocke was visibly shaken when, towards the end of the middle game, he realized he had allowed four stones to be cut off, an oversight which quite possibly cost him the game. Out of courtesy to the British who, like other Westerners, have the Japanese traditions deeply imbued, territory scoring was used rather than the Chinese tradition of area scoring. Cocke lost by 4 points. At the next board was was British Under-10 Champion Oscar Selby 8k, who took nine stones and lost by six points, earning praise from Wang. Next was engineer Mark Baoliang Zhang 1k of Diss (no club) who took seven stones and was behind when the game had to be halted because the museum was closing. Michael Webster 2d of the Central London Go Club, taking six stones, had perhaps the best result of the four, with Wang conceding that Webster had the lead at the point play stopped in this also unfinished game.

After the play it remained only for fond farewells and a seemingly endless round of photographs of various combinations of personages before the last of the party reluctantly left, the doors behind them closing securely on the British Museum’s priceless collection of treasures from around the world.

– report/photos by Tony Collman, British correspondent for the EJ. Top right: Lisa Quastella of the British Museums’s Sales and Marketing Dept presenting Wang with the gift of “Lotus Flower Print” by Ding Liangxian; group photo: (seated, l-r) Wang Ren, Francis Roads, Dr Chan Cheng, Wang Runan, Sherry Kuei, Chen Yongqing, Chen Jiuxuan. Translations were provided by Wang Ren,  friend of the UKCTC (Wang, Dr Chan) and Yuki Kuan of the EMYCO (Kuei, Chen, Roads), who also provided extensive assistance with the compilation of this report.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/sino-british-weiqi-exchange-held-in-london/

Applications are open for the American Go Foundation’s College Scholarship, through November 20th. The program  recognizes high school students who have served as important youth organizers and promoters for the go community.  Applicants who have started clubs and promoted go in areas where there is not a strong go community will be given special consideration, strong players who spend much of their time voluntarily teaching will also be considered.  There are two scholarships available, one for a male student and one for a female.  Last year no women applied, so only one scholarship was awarded.  Read about last year’s winner here, and former winners here.  For more information, and the application form, visit the AGF Website. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. 

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/1000-agf-scholarships-available/

Gordon Castanza — former AGA Board member and EJ game recorder — passed along this report from his friend Ernest French of the Beijing Go Club, who sends this report and a collage of photos he took at the “Second Donghu Cup Amateur Wei Qi Invitational Tournament between China and Korea,” which was held on Saturday, September 7th in Beijing, China.

“Last Saturday we played in an amateur tournament up in Wangfujing (in Beijing’s Dongcheng District). It was outside in the middle of a park, on a beautiful, cool, blue sky morning. After the opening ceremony, we started our matches against local teams – time settings of 35 minutes per player, absolute. Altogether, I’d say 100+ go players showed up in total.

Participating for the BJGC were Sam, Karl, Carl, Gina, Chris, and me; each round was 5 games (1 person sitting out). The first round we had some tough games – I lost one I should have won, but we did manage to go 2 and 3. For 8 am, that’s a good result.

Next round we faced the kids and cleaned up 4-1 despite some questionable play on their part (but what’re you gonna do?) All in good fun. By this point it was heating up, and we were full of coffee and ready to go. Unfortunately, our final match-up was against the baitou team – a bunch of really good Koreans who had won every game of the day so far. My game was against an older gentleman who placed his (Chinese style) stones upside-down. He was quite good, and calmly took advantage of my questionable play. I broke into his giant moyo at the end of the game… but somehow it wasn’t enough and I lost by 15. Carl was the only one to defeat that team all day. That afternoon we continued an (unofficial) match against the Beijing Capital Airport team, who gave us some fun games. Thanks to Karl for finding & organizing this, and I definitely want to do it again sometime!” Click here for more photos.

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/the-traveling-board-beijing-china/

One of the largest tournaments in northern Europe, the annual 29th Gothenburg Open will take place November 1-3. As a five-round standard McMahon tournament, each player is guaranteed five games arranged to be as even as possible. The standard entry fee is 30 EU. However, players 10k or less can register for half price and first-time Gothenburg Open players play for free. Players are also welcome to stay at the venue at no extra charge. To register or for more information including schedule, venue, and official rules, please visit the official Gothenburg Open website.
— Annalia Linnan; for complete listings, check out the European Tournament Calendar; photo courtesy of Gothenburg Open

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/upcoming-european-tournament-29th-gothenburg-open/

Netherlands: At The Delfts Toernooi on September 8, Filip Vanderstappen 5d defeated Rene Aaij 5d and Gelmer Bouwman 3d placed third. Hungary: The Kispesti Nadydij Goverseny also finished September 8 in Bupdapest with Dominik Bovis 4d in first, Peter Marko 4d in second, and Gabor Szabics 5d in third. Czech Republic: In Prague, Jan Simara 6d (left) took the Brno Tournament on September 8. Behind him were Lukas Podpera 6d and Ondrej Silt 6d.
– Annalia Linnan, based on reports from EuroGoTV, which include complete result tables and all the latest European go news

via American Go E-Journal http://www.usgo.org/news/2013/09/eurogotv-update-netherlands-hungary-czech-republic/