If you’d like to start recieving these quarterly journals in the mail, and hold nice shiny paper in your hand, please email me (Amelia) with your postal address and other relevant details (like, perhaps, your name) and subscribe. $25 a year, including postage anywhere in Australia. Unfortunately, at the moment we are not mailing these printed versions outside of Australia. I apologise for any inconvenience.

Still, the digital copy here on our website is completely free and available to anyone anywhere in the world! Enjoy.

If there are errors in any of the information there, please let us know – we’re trying to deliver as accurate a collection of information as we can. Also, if you’d like to contribute something for our next issue, please feel free to leave a comment, or contact us at amelia@go.org.au.

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.

You’ll notice there’s a shiny new Print Edition tab above. You will be able to go here to download all issues of the Journal (There’s only one at the moment, but in the not too distant future, it shall have friends.), or you can download Issue 1 from this link right now!

A general round of applause goes out for all the wonderful contributors of this issue, and in particular, a huge thank you to James Birkett, who designed the front page graphic, and chid0ri, who allowed us to use her Empty Triangle comics. If you’d like to write an article, or just give general feedback, you are more than welcome to contact us here at the blog by leaving a comment, or emailing amelia@go.org.au. We want to know what you’d like to read.

This year’s ACT championships, hosted by the Canberra Go Club, will be held in July. The event is also held in the middle of the ANU Chess Festival, so if you suddenly find yourself craving a game of chess (for some strange reason), no doubt you’ll find one. The venue is as it has been in the past, the ABU student residence Fenner Hall. It is conveniently located in the middle of the city (see map) with plenty of accommodation nearby.

The entry fee will be $30; $20 for students, and all players must be AGA members. Don’t worry though, joining has been made simple and easy on the AGA website. You should also be able to join up on the day.

The schedule for the weekend, as we have it, is as follows:

Saturday
Registration: 9 – 10am
Round 1: 10 am
Lunch: 12.30  pm
Round 2: 1.30 pm
Round 3: 3.45 pm

Sunday
Round 4: 9.30 am
Lunch: 12 noon
Round 5: 1 pm
Round 6: 3.30 pm
Closing Ceremony: Approx. 5.45 pm

There will be the usual open division for dans and handicap division for kyus. It is, like all state championships, AGA-sanctioned (meaning credit points and everything else that implies). More information as we get it, but, in the meantime, if you’re planning to head to Canberra, remember to take warm clothes! We’re informed that it can get a little nippy at night around that time of year.

The Sydney City Go Club will be holding this year’s New South Wales State Championships. It’ll be held on  Saturday 6^th June to Sunday 7^th 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.

A more comprehensive report on the Nationals (and more pretty photos!) will be in the coming issue of the Journal proper, so stay tuned!

Reflections of Go

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.