28 Jun 2009 1 Comment

Fourth Korean Ambassador’s Cup

August 8, 2009

The 4th Korean Ambassador’s Cup in Sydney will be held at Sila Restaurant (161 Beamish Street, Campsie, phone 9718 1029) by the Sydney Ki-Won on Saturday the eighth of August. This is a one-day tournament and the open division will determine the Australian representative in the Korean Prime Minister’s Cup. For more details, contact Raphael Shin at the Sydney Korean Go Club.

(This is a placeholder for the event calendar. Will someone actually at the club please come forward and give us some more details to post?)

by aguido in Announcements, Events, Tournaments Tags: , ,

28 Jun 2009 No Comments

Date Claimers

Just a reminder of the three Australian tournaments in the last half of 2009:

  • The ACT Go Championship will be held at the Australian National University by the Canberra Go Club on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth of July (last weekend of the inter-semester recess) as part of the 17th ANU Chess Festival. Neville Smythe posted the formal announcement to AusGo, and the Journal has a previous post with all the details up. The Chess Festival page also seems to list a “Go Exhibition” on Friday the twenty-fourth, at Garema Place, Civic. Does anyone know any more about this?
  • The 4th Korean Ambassador’s Cup in Sydney will be held at Sila Restaurant (161 Beamish Street, Campsie, phone 9718 1029) by the Sydney Ki-Won on Saturday the eighth of August. This is a one-day tournament and the open division will determine the Australian representative in the Korean Prime Minister’s Cup.
  • The 32nd Australian Championships will be held at the University of Melbourne by the MU-SPGO and Melbourne Go Lovers clubs on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh of September third and fourth of October (the first second weekend of mid-semester break). Six rounds of go in two days, with the open division deciding the Australian Champion, plus a BBQ lunch and a bonus AGA annual general meeting. I am entirely certain there will be a blog post very soon from the tournament announcers.

Also there’s the Brisbane Christmas pair go tournament coming up in December, and the ongoing Australia Room Friendly Series – Brisbane v Sydney fixture has better-than-even odds of happening in early July.

by aguido in On KGS, Other, Tournaments

25 Jun 2009 No Comments

Australasian Go Forum is up and running

The Melbourne Go Lovers club asked for a discussion forum so that go players in Victoria could find one another. Normally I’d leave this kind of thing to GoDiscussions, but frankly I got bored waiting for their answer to my request for an AGA subforum, so now there is discussion.go.org.au.

It runs bbPress, and uses the same user accounts as the AGJ blog; that is, if you have a login there, you have the same login (and password) here, and vice versa, register wherever you feel like. The forum administrator is James Kaaden of MGL, one of the team behind the 2009 Australian National Championships.

Drop in and post something?

by aguido in Meta Tags: , , ,

10 Jun 2009 No Comments

Bits and pieces

  • Some of the Perth go players will be meeting on the first Sunday of every month at Clive Hunt’s place from the fifth of July. Play starts from two in the afternoon, more details closer to the date. If you want to RSVP, contact Clive at clivehunt@bigpond.com or 0415-619046.
  • The NSW State Championships have just finished. Does anybody have any kifu or anecdotes or photos from the tournament they would like to share? Send them in and we’ll blog ‘em.
  • The Australia Room Friendly Series on KGS has its second fixture on Sunday the fifth of July 2009: Sydney vs Brisbane. Both cities have the core of a team, although Sydney’s is at this point stronger. If you want to play, contact David Mitchell (Sydney) or Horatio Davis (Brisbane). If you’re in Melbourne or Adelaide and want to join in the fun, put a team together and scribble down a claim to a month on the SL wiki page. Currently Adelaide leads the table with two points, with Brisbane in second place on half a point. All other cities are equal last on zero points. :)
  • The biennial Toyota and Denso Cup World Go Oza, including the Brisbane qualifying tournament has been cancelled as the sponsors aren’t going to support it any more. Rumours have been going around for several days on various forums; the Australian Go Association has just been formally notified. The fifth tournament was going to be next year. If you have any suggestions for what to replace it with, please do tell the AGA…

by aguido in On KGS, Other, World Championships Tags: , , , ,

08 Jun 2009 No Comments

New South Wales Go Championships report

The NSW Go Championships was played in at the Sydney Go Club rooms in Surrey Hills on the weekend of 6 – 7 June 2009. Twenty players entered the dan division – a massive 82 dan aggregate! Fifteen players from the Chinese go community boosted the numbers, and Guyu Liu 7 dan was first with 6-0, while Miao Zhao 7 dan was second with 5-1.

The kyu division was not so blessed, with four entrants including tournament director Robert Vadas playing as 1 dan. Only four rounds were played due to one withdrawal, and Robert was first with 4-0, while Guo Liang Xu 1 kyu was second.

The event ran smoothly under Robert’s guiding hand. Lunches were provided for participants. Popular professional Younggil An 6P provided commentaries on some of the key games, adding to the overall fun and excitement.

A young lady who did well was Cuiying Xu Tring 2 dan (2-4), the only female and also the youngest participant at about 14 years. We remember her from one of the early Toyota Cups, still barely able to reach across the board. Another young entrant Edwin Tang 2 dan (2-4) also did well. It is just so great to see young players joining in and chasing the older ones.

For those interested, full results will be available on the AGA website very soon. Thanks to Robert Vadas for organising the event, and to all participants who made this such a memorable occasion.

by John Hardy in Tournaments, Visiting Tags: , ,

01 Jun 2009 No Comments

Thirteenth and twenty-first

At the end of the thirtieth World Amateur Go Championships on Saturday, the Australian representative David He 7d of New South Wales placed thirteenth with five wins and three losses (sum of opponents scores 39), and the New Zealand representative Longyang Li 4d placed twenty-first with the same record (but an SOS of 33). David lost his fifth round game against Juyong Koh 7d of Canada, won the sixth against Dimas Cabre Chacon 4d from Spain, won the seventh against Paisal Thunthaduluk 4d from Thailand, and lost the last against Korea’s Shin-wan Yoo 6d. Longyang in his last four rounds won against against Israel and Hungary, and lost one of the remaining rounds.

IGF Oceania director Neville Smythe was on the spot, and has posted some pictures (above). He wrote at the time:

David was disappointed to lose by 0.5 to Singapore, he was 10 points ahead for until near the end when Tan pulled off something desperate. He also lost to Canada after a good game; the Canadians always seem to be our nemesis (and I’m afraid he may also be losing at the moment to Thailand, and I think he must be feeling discouraged). LongYang Li from NZ had a very good win against Hungary, who had beaten USA.

Shortly after this, David He did indeed pull off a win against his Thai opponent, leaving him to face the second-placing player in the tournament. China took first place, and Hong Kong third, with Finland’s Antti Tormanen taking the Shizuo Asada Fighting Spirit Prize. Full results are posted by the Nihon Ki-in here, kifu of selected interesting games here.

by aguido in Photos, World Championships

29 Jan 2009 No Comments

2009 New South Wales State Championships

June 6, 2009toJune 7, 2009

The Sydney City Go Club will be holding this year’s New South Wales State Championships. It’ll be held on  Saturday 6th June to Sunday 7th June (which is conveniently the Queen’s Birthday long weekend). The venue is Philas House. This is AGA-sanctioned, with all that implies: representative points, etc. For more information, registration, questions, contact Robert Vadas at ravadas@yahoo.com.

by Amelia in Announcements, Tournaments Tags: