YUKI EVENS SCORE IN KISEI: In a powerful victory, Yuki Satoshi 9P, the Kansai Kiin hopeful, forced current Kisei Hane Naoki to resign after only 124 moves to even the score in the 29th Kisei title match at 2-2. Details in next Monday's E-Journal.
J APANESE FUJITSU TEAM SETTLED: The eight players who will represent Japan in the 18th Fujitsu Cup have been settled with victories by Ishida Yoshio 9P, Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P, and Yuki Satoshi 9P. Details in next Monday's issue.
MANNING ALL SMILES IN CHESHIRE: Toby Manning 3d of Leicester won the open section of the Cheshire Tournament in England. Details in next Monday's issue.
2005 COTSEN OPEN SET: This year's Cotsen Open has been set for April 30 & May 1 in Los Angeles, CA. Prizes, pro analyses and more; details in Monday's E-Journal.
2004 YEARBOOK UPDATE: The 2004 American Go Yearbook and CD will be in the mail by the end of next week and members can expect it to begin arriving the first week in March. We apologize for the delay and appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.
ONLINE UPDATING DEBUTS: Need to change your email address? E-Journal readers can now instantly update their contact information online! Never miss another action- packed E-Journal: just click on http://www.listlynx.com/MailUser1.asp and you'll not only be able to update your email address, but your mailing address and other contact info as well. Plus, you can also find out when your AGA membership expires! The first time you access the online list manager, you'll have to have a password emailed to you, which you can change once you're logged in. NOTE: If you have multiple members sharing one email address (or if you're a member who doesn't have an email address at all), you'll need to contact us at journal@usgo.org to get your password. We hope you find this new service useful, and welcome comments or suggestions on how we can continue to improve. Send them to us at journal@usgo.org
ROBBINS WINS ALERT READER: Chuck Robbins is this week's Alert Reader winner, winning a $10 go vendor gift certificate for spotting our Alert hidden in last week's game commentary. Honorable Mentions to Mike Yankee who writes that "Yilun Yang's teaching commentaries are the best!"and Gary Whitten who finds the E-Journal "enjoyable and enlightening." Jonathan Tien wondered "That's all I do? No question or something?"Yes, all you have to do is spot the Alert; winners are drawn at random from those who correctly report the Alerts (a record 36 this week!); keep a sharp eye out and you could be a winner too!
GAME COMMENTARY: Simple Situation, Prolonged War
"White intends to lead the game into a simple situation and a prolonged war," explains Yu Bin 9P in his commentary on his exciting game with Lee Changho 9P in the January 24 Semifinal Round of the 9th LG Cup. Yu Bin falls behind in the game "and must wait patiently for chances." See whether he gets those chances in the attached game file, courtesy of www.gogameworld.co m
In this week's installment of "Important, Fundamental Matters," Kaz Furuyama takes another look at using the zig-zag shape to make life.
To view the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html
GO REVIEW: How to Play Handicap Go
By Yuan Zhou
Published by Slate and Shell
Reviewed by Michael Turk, 10k
Yuan Zhou's sequel to "Understanding How to Play Go" consists of a series of thoroughly-commented games. This time he comments on nine handicap games. Eight of these are between himself (an AGA 7D) and weaker AGA dan-level players. The handicaps ran ge from 7 stones to 3 stones. There are many diagrams in the book and most diagrams have between 3 and 10 moves. The comments are more frequent and contain more explanations than most other sources of commented games in the English language. One interesting point about this book is that rather than a one-sided look at Black, White's moves are also considered. This balance may be particularly useful to middle/strong kyu players who regularly play as White in handicap games. If you liked "Pro-Pro Handicap Go" or "Understanding How to Play Go" then you will almost certainly find "How to Play" useful.
MY MOVE: Wanted: National Tournament Director
By Mike Lash, AGA President
If you're interested in helping the AGA develop a national program for managing the growing tournament scene, have I got a job for you! We're currently seeking a National Tournament Director (NTD) who will focus primarily on managing major tournaments, establishing venues and standardized tournament administration guidelines. While the NTD may run some tournaments, our goal is to have a panel of trained tournament directors
who will run the major AGA tournaments, using a uniform process and approach. As with all the AGA jobs, this one pays highly in the appreciation of the entire American go community; those interested can email me at president@usgo.org
Hearty congratulations are due Jujo Jiang 9P for his fine performance in the recently completed North American Fujitsu Qualifier tournament; the United States will be well represented in this prestigious tournament next month in Japan.
After the successful completion of the Fujitsu tournament, I was sorry to receive Joe Carl's resignation as National Tournament Coordinator. Joe regretfully informed me that at this time his personal commit ments will not accommodate the large portfolio of tasks that this position entails, but he has agreed to return to an active role in this area when his circumstances permit. On behalf of the AGA, I wish to express our deep appreciation for his efforts; we await his return.
It's said that when one door closes, another opens and I am very pleased to announce that former AGA Board Director Bill Cobb has agreed to take on Joe's role of National Tournament Coordinator, working closely with me (and whoever takes the NTD job) on establishing a national tournament program and infrastructure for all AGA tournaments, as well as a national tournament schedule, tournament director training, tournament manuals, AGA tournament rules, policy and forms, strong players and professional tournaments, etc. I anticipate visible progress will be made in the next few months.
Speaking of participation, don't miss the ne w Team League! Matches have already started but there's still room for more teams, so form your team and sign up now!
Finally, just an administrative reminder that our new fiscal year begins March 1. The Assembly last year agreed to shift the fiscal year calendar by three months, so an abbreviated FY06 will end on May 30 and a new FY06 will begin June 1 and end May 30, 2006. This change moves us closer to a normal corporate financial cycle and ties our annual cash flows more closely to the Congress, our biggest event of the year.
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Published by the American Go Association; text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org
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