24 Apr 2009 1 Comment
(Report courtesy of John Hardy, photos of Andrew Gray.)
On 18 – 19 April 2009, Brisbane Go Club met with members of the Keio Old Boys group for friendly go and social activities. The venue, a large modified residence at Stretton in Brisbane’s southern outskirts, is known as Good Hope Residence by its owner and tour guide, Mr. Kanazawa. The group of eleven go players, led by Mr. Kiga, ranged in strength from 2 dan to 7 dan and consequently represents quite a challenge to the lower ranked BGC players.
This was the sixth annual visit by the Keio group, and it is always a popular activity for the BGC members. On Saturday, BGC President Dr. Mark Bell escorted the group to a day at the races, which has proved a popular acivity with our Japanese friends. On Saturday evening we played social go and enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner hosted by the Keio group. After dinner, Mr. Nomura 7 dan kindly acted as sensei, and showed us an interesting game played by him no less than 57 years ago! It is amazing that the game record still exists after such a long time, and shows clearly how much go players revere the game.
On Sunday, we were treated to a delicious lunch of Japanese soba noodles. This was followed by the now traditional team match between Keio and BGC. We matched their eleven players in two rounds of play (handicap) , and after the smoke had cleared, Keio had won by 12 – 10. The exciting final game between Matthew Crossman and Mr. Kamota was watched by many, as the result would decide whether BGC could draw the match. It was not to be – a slip in the endgame saw Mr. Kamota win by resignation. After that, we all enjoyed dinner of fresh prawns and salad hosted by BGC.
On the BGC team, the 2009 Queensland Go Champion, Kevin Jiang 6D, matched well with the Keio top players for a 1 – 1 record. Dr. Mark Bell also scored 1 – 1 . Matthew Crossman is a recent addition to the BGC, and has achieved his current rank of 1D after just 15 months of playing go. Jeremy Wen 1D aged 15 also scored a win in his game. Jeremy has rocketed up the ranks in the last two years, and he also is a star of the future. The Keio boys had better look out for Matthew and Jeremy next year!
The BGC looks forward to next year’s visit for more go fun with our Keio friends.
An Young Gil was also kind enough to provide us with two reviews of games from the event, which will be appearing in the printable version of the Journal. Stay tuned.
13 Apr 2009 No Comments
| April 15, 2009 |
With Easter comes chocolate eggs and the eagerly awaited mini break for Melbourne University Students (good luck to those diligently completing their assignments) and for Students Playing Go it’s prime time for the annual tournament. As per previous years there’s a madcap dash to book rooms, sort out equipment, hijacking students for promotional purposes and of course poring over potential prizes. There will be two divisions in anticipation of the many new players, round robin style and a mini 9×9 competition, and this year a promise of a rocking fantastic first place prize (so practice now!). It’s a good chance for players to test your skills and have some fun, especially right before the NEC Cup.
Date- Wednesday 15th April, 10a.m-4p.m
Place- Alice Hoy, room 109, Melbourne University Parkville Campus
Directions- The room is tucked away under the building, please take the tram up Swanston to Melbourne University (last stop) and walk down Monash Road, look to your left for stairs going down to classrooms, there’ll be a sign saying 108-109.
Tournament opened to all players, free entry to members (and lots of free food!)
And for those going to the NEC Cup at the end of the week, whether as entrants or to support your fellow players, please say hello to the SPGO committee members who are there to cover the event and strike your best smile and challenge pose ;)
06 Apr 2009 No Comments
I just found two cute little videos on YouTube, with happy memories from Brisbane last year. Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/Confuseki
10 Jan 2009 2 Comments
| April 18, 2009 | to | April 19, 2009 |
The Melbourne Go Club will be running the 13th NEC Cup on April 18th & 19th 2009. The venue this year is the Vibe Savoy hotel – 630 Collins St Melbourne. For more information, or to register, contact Brad Melki at bmelki@hotkey.net.au, or read the entry form.
Go Game Guru