28 May 2009 No Comments

Halfway through the 2009 WAGC

…and the Australian representative is in equal seventeenth place out of sixty-six players. David He 7d of New South Wales lost to Jia Cheng Tan 6d of Singapore in the third (morning) round on day two of the thirtieth World Amateur Go Championships, and defeated Matt Cocke 5d of the United Kingdom in the fourth round this afternoon. Meanwhile, Longyang Li 4d of New Zealand lost to Santiago Andres Tabares 3d of Argentina in the third round and defeated Cristiano Garbarini 1d of Italy in the fifth round, to end up in forty-fourth place on the leader board.

Meanwhile, the IGF director from Oceania, Neville Smythe, has popped up among the audience at Shizuoka and engaged in na side game with Shiratori Sumiko 5p. Five handicap stones and 255 moves later, it was white’s game by six points. Review by Michael Redmond 9p and the SGF game record in conveniently viewable form at the Ranka blog entry.

by aguido in World Championships Tags: , , ,

27 May 2009 2 Comments

Australian representative wins first two games at WAGC

After day one of the 30th World Amateur Go Championships, David He 7d from Australia is in sixteenth place out of sixty-six players (thirteen players are occupying third place at the moment). In the first (morning round) he won against Turkey’s Fatih Sulak 2d. In the second (afternoon) round he defeated Anh Tuan Tran 2d from Vietnam. New Zealand’s Longyang Li 4d won his first round game against Edgardo Carceres Estrada 7k and lost to Gheorghe Cornel Burzo 6d of Romania, to place twentieth along with 26 other players. There are six more rounds to go.

by aguido in World Championships Tags: ,

26 May 2009 No Comments

A day at the NEC Cup Tournament

shamim-fb-nec-12

This correspondent has somehow forgotten which day she attended at the NEC Go Tournament (blame it on assignments clogging up the brain space). She has also missed the start of the day of attendance by rolling back into sleep (again, blame it on assignments). Nevertheless when she did finally arrive, it was a cold slightly grey afternoon and just at the end of second games. This year the NEC Cup was conveniently held in the city of Melbourne itself at the gorgeous Vibe Savoy Hotel on Collins. Many players (the room was packed!) from around Australia convened in the grand hall with its gold and mirrored walls and dangling chandeliers and there were trophies, shiny and new, awaiting the winners just off to the side. I’m 98.899% sure all had a resoundingly good time as I made my way among the bowed heads and the sounds of clicking stones and the occasional laughter and winces.
As with every go tournament and go meeting, it’s obvious that this game is enjoyed by all ages and both genders, from different walks of life, and always somehow ending with a smile and a clap to the back. As games ended and points tallied up, many would group around to discuss strategies or alternate plays, going over difficulties and good decisions. Mr Kawamura, a visiting go professional from the Nihon Ki-in, with his gracious and mild mannered smile, also often made the rounds to interact with everyone as well as offering an interesting simul play with 6 young players of various ranks.
Certainly it was a successful and exciting NEC Cup in its 13th year, there was even a 50 point seki (mutual life) which I missed seeing! Well, there’s always next time ;)

Congratulations to NEC Cup top 5 placements:

Division 1 (3 dan +)
Daniel Shen 5d
Yoon Kee Jeong
Wei Xu
Kazuya Miki
Shen Feng Zhou

Division 2 (4 kyu-2 dan)
Tai Sheng Wang
Long Pan
Trithang Tran
Adam Harley
Kin Lung Mak

Division 3 (15kyu-5 kyu)
Greg Wallace
Bryce Steward
Alan Ho
Wai Chon Ho
Evan Wallace

And to all current and prospective players, see you all at next year’s Cup =)
Also look forward to the upcoming Australian Go Nationals to be held in Melbourne this year!

shamim-fb-nec-49shamim-fb-nec-32shamim-fb-nec-27shamim-fb-nec-21shamim-fb-nec-16shamim-fb-nec-14shamim-fb-nec-9shamim-fb-nec-5shamim-fb-nec-33shamim-fb-nec-20shamim-fb-nec-39

More photos can be found at SPGO on Facebook.

by Shamim in Events, Life, Photos, Tournaments Tags: , , ,

21 May 2009 No Comments

Melbourne Go Lovers Club

On the evening of Thursday 14th May 2009 I paid a visit to the Melbourne Go Lovers club, currently convened by James Kaaden. This group was previously convened by Chizuko Katanaya, with a change necessitated by ill health.

Melbourne Go Lovers, Thursday 14 May

Melbourne Go Lovers, Thursday 14 May

The club meets at a large private residence and usually attracts about six players. The playing fee is $5 and some delicious snack food, coffee or tea, and wine are provided. The club maintains a small library of go books which may be borrowed by regulars. It seems to be a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, but the go games are just as intense as in the most important tournament.

Shimada-san at Melbourne Go Lovers

Shimada-san at Melbourne Go Lovers

I met some old campaigners – Shimada-san and Bao Nguyen were there, both of whom have played at AGA events in the past. James Kaaden is a young man with an interest in go administration as well as playing, and we will see more of him in the future.

John Hardy

by John Hardy in Visiting Tags: ,

21 May 2009 No Comments

SPGo Visit

On Friday 15th May 2009 I visited the SPGo club at the Melbourne University. A tram ride up town brought back old memories. The Alice Hoy Building was easy to find, and soon after 1pm large numbers of go players filled the lecture room. There were about 14 players, including Anna, one of the leaders in the club.

Pretty soon everyone had paired off, and I found myself playing Shiny from Shanghai, who said she was 15 kyu. I don’t think so! After a long drawn out battle, during which Shiny parried all my best blows and overplays, I found myself fifteen plus points behind and therefore resigned.

This being a university club, it is no surprise to note that all members are quite young. Most were of Asian background, and there was a good mix of males and females. Everyone seemed very keen, and the AGA can dream about getting such a large group to join in our activities.

by John Hardy in Visiting Tags: ,

18 May 2009 1 Comment

Australia Room Friendly Series

There is now a page on Sensei’s Library for the Australia Room Friendly Series.

This is an annual series of teams matches between cities held in the Australia Room on KGS. After the first match for 2009 the current standings are: Adelaide 2 points, Brisbane 0.5 points, the other capital cities no points. Teams are self-organised, although Brisbane’s is easy (there’s only one club in the city and by definition I know where they all live). There are (were?) teams from Adelaide and Brisbane, and sniffs of a team each from Sydney(-ish) and Melbourne(-ish). No word from Canberra or Perth yet.

If you want to join in/watch/mock, details are on the wiki page, or comment on this blog entry. Get stuck in….

by aguido in Events, Team matches Tags: , ,

17 May 2009 No Comments

3D GO!

Even though there are plenty of people out there who have probably been aware of it for some time, you can get 3D .sgf file generators. The one which put me onto it was from http://www.voilamonsieur.com/products/u3dc/u3dc.html and is called Universal 3D Chess… but don’t let the name put you off. It is good fun.

3DGo 1

While it is only a novelty it is still fun, and looks pretty. Why not give it a try :D

by jason in Other

16 May 2009 No Comments

2009 World Amateur Go Championships

The thirtieth World Amateur Go Championship this year will be eight rounds played from Wednesday the twenty-third to Saturday the twenty-ninth of May in Fukuroi, Japan. Australia’s representative is David He 7d of New South Wales, who was the 2007 Australian champion. David is profiled in this week’s American Go Association E-Journal. The Australian Go Journal will be following how he goes, and reporting it here.

Ranka Online has the tournament announcement and will be covering the championships in depth.

by aguido in Tournaments, World Championships Tags: , , ,

07 May 2009 No Comments

An Young Gil in invitational match at The Enclave?

Spotted on the KGS message of the day: Ahn Younggil, Korean 6p vs. Andy Liu (bigbadwolf), KGS 9d, AGA 7d. 5/10/09 8:00 AM in The Enclave, under social. Master Gil is based in Sydney, and has taught a lot of people around the traps in Australia, as well as frequenting the Kiseido Go Server under the login younggil. For those who’ve wondered what he plays like when he’s not trying to teach you, this should be well worth watching…

(hat tip: Rene Hexel, Australia Room regular on KGS)

Update:White by resignation after one hundred and eighty-four moves. The SGF record is here in the KGS archives.

by aguido in Events, On KGS Tags: ,

03 May 2009 1 Comment

Live from the Ballina Go Camp

‘evening, all.

We’re just finishing up the second day of the Ballina Go Camp, here at the Ballina Beach Resort in sunny Ballina, northern New South Wales. An even dozen of us have just had a Saturday and Sunday of lectures from An Young Gil 6P, random games of go, game reviews, and food.

An Young Gil 6P teaching

An Young Gil 6P teaching

Also three colour go (black, blue, and white). The contingent from Adelaide (two Matts, a Clint, and Alex) have taken to it well. The people from Sydney (including David Mitchell of Sydney Go Journal fame), not so much. The largest contingent, from Brisbane, are already familiar with the sport, and how it does strange things to joseki. No-one from Canberra or Melbourne at this year’s camp, maybe next year with a bit more run up we’ll get some of those coming along.

Three colour go at the 2009 Ballina Go Camp

Three colour go at the 2009 Ballina Go Camp

Prizes were given to the winners of the problem competition just now. John Hardy, the organiser, handed the problem sets out on Saturday morning, highest percentage of correct answers wins. Everybody else is clustered around Master Gil as he does some impromptu instruction, killing time until dinner. The fish and chips from the Fisherman’s Co-op lived up to its billing last night, but it looks like pizza tonight.

This is being written from a free internet terminal at the resort, so I’ll update this post later with the pictures we’ve taken, and what happened between now and the end of the camp on Monday lunchtime…

Update: Sunday evening was David Mitchell’s travelling road show of trick joseki, some random go, and a movie expedition by the Adelaide crew (Wolverine, which wasn’t half bad). Monday morning was teaching by the strong players and Master Gil, and more random go. Here are some pictures of the weekend taken by John Hardy:

and in a more traditional web page for those of us whose browsers don’t run to Flash. The attendees this weekend were:

  • Matthew Crossman 1d (Brisbane)
  • Horatio Davis 4k (Brisbane)
  • Alex Hanysz 3d (Adelaide)
  • John Hardy 2d (Brisbane)
  • Rene Hexel 2d (Brisbane)
  • Clint Hill 6k (Adelaide)
  • Brian Humphreys 4k (Armidale)
  • Barry Jay 2d (Sydney)
  • Kevin Jiang 6d (Brisbane)
  • David Mitchell 5d (Brisbane)
  • Markus Pache 5d (Lismore)
  • Matt Pulsford 10k (Adelaide)
  • Matthew Weiss 4k (Adelaide)
  • Bill Wen 16k (Brisbane)
  • Jeremy Wen 1k (Brisbane)
  • Larry Wen 3d (Brisbane)

Hopefully there’ll be another one. Wouldn’t you like to join in?

by aguido in Events, Go camp Tags: ,

31 Jan 2009 1 Comment

2009 Australian Go Camp is coming to Ballina

May 2, 2009toMay 4, 2009

This year’s Australian Go Camp will be held on the Labour Day weekend at the Ballina Beach Resort, New South Wales. Two-ish days of sun, sand, surf, and go, with An Young Gil 6P flying up from Sydney to teach, and a contingent driving down from Brisbane to play. More details in the flyer.

The Journal will of course be reporting live from the event. :)

by aguido in Announcements, Events, Go camp Tags: , , , ,