Life

16 May 2010 1 Comment

Go/Baduk in Korea

Hi all!

For those of you who do not know me my name is James Kaaden. I am writing as I am currently living in Seoul, Korea studying Go at Yu Chang’hyuk’s Baduk Dojang. This school has around 30 or so students ranging from small children (who are still really strong!) up to Yongguseng (insei). I have been studying over here for two months now and I will be staying for another four.

If anyone is interested in studying in Korea or has any questions about study regime etc, I would be delighted to answer. You can either post comments here or email me at james.kaaden@gmail.com, whichever you prefer! I will do my best to answer any question quickly and with sufficient detail.

Over the next few months I will be trying to post some interesting things I have learnt over here. Whether I find interesting life and death problems or learn new joseki that have not yet published, I would be excited to share them with you all. It is always fun to learn, but it is just as much fun sharing new things ^^.

by kaaden in Life, Other, Visiting Tags: , , ,

21 Mar 2010 1 Comment

World Pair Go Tournament features 3 Aussies beating other.

Its worth noting that the World Pair Go Cup in Hangzhou officially begins tomorrow, where Australian is represented by Cathy Zhang and Yiming Guo. Its a four round elimination tournament, and the detailed matchups are available here. Ironically, our first match-up happens to be against Joanne Missingham, Brisbane born, and alas, representing Taiwan is the tournament. The match-up should at least be fun to watch. It’ll be broadcasted live today at 11am Australian time on IGS. So if you’ve got Sunday morning spare, log-in, at least one Aussie is guaranteed to win.

by Mile Gu in Life, Opinion, Tournaments, World Championships Tags: , , , ,

14 Oct 2009 1 Comment

Weekly Go at UQ

About 6 people turned up for the UQ meeting this week including two stalwart QUGS members.
James the younger vs Jonathan and Horatio vs Claire were the going matches when I arrived.
james and jonathon at UQ

Horatio and James and I looked at the joseki of the week variations.
Horatio at UQ

by matjet in Club updates, Life, Meetings Tags: ,

08 Aug 2009 2 Comments

Friendly go at GenCon

September 20, 2009
1:00 pmto4:00 pm

A few of us will be holding a friendly go afternoon at Gen Con Australia, a rather large gaming convention on 18-20 September, 2009 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. We’ll be in the gaming area on Sunday afternoon from 1pm to 4pm, playing random go and teaching all comers. If you’d like a game or you’re at the convention anyhow, feel free to drop in.

Next year, if this idea holds water, we might actually take up their offer to hold a tournament there. Watch this space.

by aguido in Announcements, Events, Life 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!

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More photos can be found at SPGO on Facebook.

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

28 Mar 2009 4 Comments

An evening of go

Late afternoon on a cloudy Tuesday rolled around, and the committee members of Students Playing Go staggered over to the Union building, arms laden with go equipment and plenty of snacks. The event started precisely at four, and as several muttered ‘we didn’t expect -this- many people to show up!’ Indeed we recorded more than 40 turn-ups, comprising of old and new members, players from the local high school and even a couple of curious students peeking in from the outside. Many immediately dived into games while others sampled the food (the dips seemed to be a firm favourite!). It was great seeing everyone mixing about and even separating into small groups for teaching games. Yours truly had to miss the middle hour, during which the tournament director Trithang held a demonstration of life and death situations and opening strategy. All in all it was a very lively evening, ending with an awesome group photo! We certainly hoped that many have picked up some good tips and a good many new friends.

by Shamim in Events, Life, Other Tags: , , ,

25 Jan 2009 3 Comments

A little light go in Hobart

Horatio teaching go at LCA 2009

All last week I attended the tenth Australasian Linux Conference for professional development. On spec, I packed some light Chinese weiqi boards and some stones. It turns out, if you sit down in a barful (or conference-dinner-ful or exhibition-room-full) of computing geeks and start playing go, some of them will ask you to teach them, or for a game. The picture above is the Go session on the Tuesday.

I didn’t encounter anyone over twentieth kyu in strength, but the dozen or so I did teach were from all over the country. Alas, I could only refer the Adelaide and Sydney and Melbourne ones to their local go clubs. Hobart’s and Perth’s have died, so those people I referred to OGS and the AGA.

by aguido in Events, Life Tags: , ,