MINGJIU JIANG TO ATTEND GO CONGRESS: Mingjiu Jiang, 7P, plans to attend this year's U.S. Go Congress in Tacoma, WA, organizers announced this week. See Mo nday's edition for details, or click on http://www.usgo.org/congress/index.asp for the latest list of Congress registrants.
BURRALL TOPS YOUTH GOE TOURNAMENT: Matthew Burrall 5d topped a field of 134 kids at the 9th Jujo Jiang Cup Youth Goe Tournament on March 20. Full winner's report in Monday's E-Journal.
ORIGINS TOURNEY SEEKS VOLUNTEERS: Joe Carl is seeking volunteers to help organize and staff a tournament at the Origins games convention in Columbus, OH June 29-July 3. "Thousands are expected at this popular event," reports Carl, "and this is a great opportunity to expose them to go." Email jcarl@columbus.rr.com or call 614-326-1618.
SHODAN CHALLENGER UPDATE: Two new additions bring the Shodan Challengers to 19; welcome Todd Dahlquist and Edward Chong in Monday's E-Journal.
THERE IS SUCH A THING AS FREE LUNCH: The 2005 Cotsen Go Tournament features a free Luxury Lunch Buffet on bo th April 30 & May 1 in Los Angeles, CA. Get more details or register with Casie Rizer: casie@thelec.com
MEMBERSHIP ON THE RISE AGAIN: Membership in the American Go Association was up again in March, to 1,962 members. The fourth straight increase is the longest unbroken string since the 22-month run from June 2002 to March 2004 peaked at 1,995 members. AGA President Mike Lash credited the AGA's new email online renewal system with helping make it easier for members to keep current and avoid missing issues of the Member's Edition of the E-Journal. "We appreciate the tremendous job Chuck Robbins and Sam Zimmerman have done developing and implementing the new system," said Lash.
WEEKEND TOURNEY ACTION: Syracuse, SF, Washington & Seattle
April 2: Syracuse, NY
Syracuse Spring Ratings Tournament
Anton Ninno 315-479-9073 antonninno@yahoo.com
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/syracusegocl ub/
April 2 & 3: San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Go Club Spring Tournament
Steve Burrall sburall@comcast.net
April 2: Washington, DC
Cherry Blossom Tournament
Allan Abramson 703-684-7676 mediate8@worldnet.att.net
http://www.novagoclub.org
April 3: Seattle, WA
Monthly Ratings Tournament
Jon Boley 206-545-1424 jon@seattlegocenter.org
http://www.seattlegocenter.org/
LEIGHTON ALERT READER WINNER: H.V. Leighton is this week's Alert Reader winner, winning a $10 go vendor gift certificate for spotting our Alert hidden in our March 18 game commentary. Honorable Mentions this week to John T. Davis, Rob Lampe, Alpha Chen, Joel Olson, T Dahlquist, Christopher Weinberger, Chris W, Gilles Cazelais, Paul Halpern, Matthew William Bengtson, Jay Turley, Peter N. Nassar, Eoghan Barry, Sal Gionfriddo, Moseson Family , Peter Haas, Bob Felice, Eddy Gorsuch, Eric Swain, Sergio P, John Exter, Michael Dobbins, A Craddock & John Stoneham. Winners are drawn at random from those who correctly report the Alerts. Keep a sharp eye out and you could be a winner too!
GAME COMMENTARY: A 9P Looks at a 9K Game & Kaz Returns!
From fuseki to endgame, Yilun Yang 9P looks at it all in today's 2-point game between Shodan Challenger Adam Bloom 9k and Bernd Nixdorf 9k. Yang's move-by-move commentary should prove enlightening to players of all levels.
The ever-popular Kaz Furuyama returns this week in fine form with Common Amateur Mistake #2: Pincering a Star Point Approach Stone.
And finally, in today's problem file you'll have to look beyond the obvious ways to kill White; this life and death problem is taken from Go Review by permission (from the January 1972 issue). Go Review was published by the Nihon Kiin from 1961 to 1977.
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: Nie Weiping on Go: Another View
Reviewed by Josh Allen, 5d
As a 5 dan I don't pay attention to many books out there, but contrary to fellow 5 dan Philip Waldron I think "Nie Weiping on Go" was a great book. The first, biographical pages, I found a real pleasure to read, telling me more of the recent development of go in China than I had previously come across. Those pages also provide a sense of the dedication it took for one of the most famous Chin ese players to become a top pro and gave me a respect for the player I did not previously posses.
As for the commentary throughout the book, I must again respectfully disagree with Philip Waldron's review (3/11/05 EJ). Yes, the entire book is on positional judgment (this is why the book is called "Nie Weiping on Go - The Art of Positional Judgment") so buyers should expect the book to related almost completely to the subject. The book does this by helping you count territory so you know who is ahead. Example from the book: " White can get 15 points on the left, 5 points on top, 11+ points in the lower right, 9 points on the right, for a total of 40 points (this makes more sense when you can see the actual diagram but you get the idea here), black has 5 points in the upper left about 25 points in the center , 2 points in the upper right for a total of 32 points black must obtain 15 points in order to win the game"). Based on this assessment, you can then find out what to expect and how to prepare for it. Nie then gives you diagrams on almost every page for what happens if something else was played.
I admit that unlike most go books, you will not find such things like "when A happens you must play B" because positional judgment is not so easily defined. It is based on what you're trying to play for, whether it's influence or territory, and what your opponent is playing for. Only then can you begin finding the right move that works with the entire board because it expands off those meanings. Finding those kinds of moves can turn the tide of a game and that type of broad thinking is contained in this book, which can only help your go. For these reasons I highly recommend "Nie Weiping on Go" and hope to see more form him in the future.
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