Kevin Jiang 5d and Cronos Chen 3d playing

Kudos to Joshua Murray for volunteering to organise the GCGC. Sam Nakagawa and a couple of other members of the Brisbane Go Club dropped in to teach.

Many beginners, with Amelia Gray teaching one of them

Currently the GCGC is operating as a chapter of the Brisbane Go Club, and meets on the last first Sunday of the month from 2pm until (nominally) 5pm. The venue is go-friendly during quiet periods and serves a decent menu for dinner, and I can report the chairs are much more comfortable than their Brisbane counterparts. A Gold Coast Cup is planned for mid-October this year. If you live within cooee of the Gold Coast, why not drop in for a game? Give Joshua an email on goldcoast@go.org.au, and get him to subscribe you to the mailing list for Gold Coast players, gold-coast-players@go.org.au.

More teaching, this time by Sam Nakagawa

As I write this, the third round is about to finish up. When the round started, Tae Sun Min 1k and Lee Kang Hyun 2k were tied for the lead. Sixteen players are competing in C Division, three 1k, three 2k, two 3k (including your humble author, who apparently got promoted when he wasn’t looking) and the rest 4k and under. Notable in the first round was a jigo

Meanwhile, the A Division is finishing up the fifth round. At the start of the round, Bi Jang 7d and Miao Zhao 7d were sharing the lead on four victories and equal SOS and SDS, with Guyu Liu 7d in third.

Update 2:50pm: Third round started early and finished even earlier. Tae Sun Min 1k is in first place after easily crushing his third opponent. Lee Kang Hyun 2k is close behind in second place with three victories and a half a point less SOS. Oh Ryoon Kwon 1k is third, sort of.

Update 6:03 pm: ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! The Sydney KAC Champion is Bi Jang 7d from Korea. Meanwhile in division C Oh Ryoon Kwon 1k has taken first place on four wins, beating Tae Sun Min 1k on SOS, who in turn beat Lee Kang Hyun 2k. Going to go listen to the trophy presentations now…

Meanwhile, in the B Division there are sixteen players (six 1d, four 2d, five 3d). This is a handicap division, which must make Hak Beom Seo 4d very happy. :) First blood in round one went to young Yelson Qian 1d (Australia’s representative at the recent Children’s Baduk Cup in Korea), defeating the visiting Gilbert Kim 3d. Also competing in this division is Tring Xu 3d, half of this year’s Australian team at the world pair go championships, who defeated Mark Law 1d.

Between them the two top divisions fill the room and then some, so C Division (1k to 9k) will be playing five rounds tomorrow. It’s quite an atmosphere here, what with a sizeable Korean delegation led by Sang-Dae Hahn and at least four professionals on the floor. I’ve counted half a dozen cameras, so there should be some pictures coming up soon, although as befits an intrepid go reporter I’ve left my camera cable behind, so they won’t be mine.

More updates as the weekend goes on…

Update 2:35pm: round 3 of B Division has just started; Tring Xu 3d, Duc Cho 2d, and Changup Son 1d are tied for first place. A Division is still grinding through its second round of games.

Update 6:50pm: the third round of A Division has finished, with Guyu Liu 7d, Miao Zhao 7d and Bi Jang 7d tied on three wins and separated on SOS. Meanwhile, Tring Xu has maintained her lead through to the final round of Division B and is playing out a thrilling endgame against Sun Woong Choi 1d. If she wins the game, she takes first place in the division, if she doesn’t…

An Younggil 8p sends word: the two Korean visiting professionals in Sydney will hold a teaching evening on Friday the thirteenth of August, the day before before the fifth Korean Ambassador’s Cup this weekend. Kickoff is at seven at the Young Go Academy; cost is $30. Details in the flyer posted on the AGA web pages.

“Last Sunday was the opening day for of the new club. There was a friendship match between Korean and Chinese go players in Sydney as the opening event. Participants are 3d to 7d and each dan has three or four players each team. The team members are 17 each, and there were two rounds in the afternoon.

On the first round, Chinese team won by 10 to 7, and after the round, there was a review between Rain Jang and Miao Zhao. Rain beat Miao, and he came to Australia three weeks ago, and he seems to be the strongest amateur player in Australia I think. Kyung-Min Yu reviewed the game in fluent Chinese; he’s a 6p Korean player and has lived in Taiwan about 5 years before coming here. After the short review, the second round had begun and the Chinese team won by 11 to 6. Finally, the friendship match ended with the result Chinese won by 21:13. There were three foreigners in the Korean team (Norman Wildburger 5d, Ciaran Pearson 5d and Barry Jay 3d) although actually, we count as foreigners too. They won 5 games and one lost, and they also seemed to enjoy the time so much. There were many other go players who came to watch the games and the new venue.

After the event, the players and watchers were all coming for dinner together and people enjoyed the Korean style of buffet. There was also raffle time for some concert tickets, and the Chinese took all five. The event was so successful and I really thank the visitors including players. :-) As the Australian government is letting me stay here longer for Go, I hope to contribute something with Go and this is the first step to do it properly. By the way, the new club will be opened every single day from 2pm to 10pm.”

The YGA has An Younggil 8p, Kyung-Min Yu 6p (come here from five years in Taiwan teaching go), and Rain Jang 7d (fresh from a year in Seattle) as teachers, and seems to be exciting a lot of interest. Here are some photos of the open day tournament:

On Friday 28th May we hosted a banquet dinner for our guests, attended by members of the Mainland Chinese Society of Queensland (MCSQ) and Q001 (Brisbane Chinese societies), a consular representative, and a brief visit by the Deputy Mayor of Brisbane, Mr. Graham Quirk. Following Chinese custom the conviviality was helped along by numerous toasts, although sparingly partaken of by Australian drivers. One of the visitors turned out to have a wonderful singing voice, and treated us to a Chinese song in an impromptu performance.

On Saturday 29th May a team go match was organised at a local church. We had invited David He 7D of Sydney, and Billy Sun 6D of Melbourne to participate with the Brisbane side in a well – judged move designed to bring home the teams Cup. It was a great pleasure for us to renew our acquaintance with these two gentlemen. As it turned out, David He was well known to the Xi ‘an visitors as well so friendships were renewed, and not much was said about ring – ins. We played a round in the morning and then another round after lunch.

David He vs Li Gangyi in Round 2

 The match was played with one hour each and no byo – yomi. All games were even which resulted in some mismatches but after all, it was a friendly match. Hopefully the Brisbane players have learned a few things from their more experienced opponents.

There was often animated discussion after the games were over, with some moves being replayed, sometimes even leading to a reversal of the result! Too bad, though, as only the original result counts.

When the battles were over and the dust had cleared, Xi ‘an emerged the winner by 12 – 6.

Presentation Ceremony

Professor Zhou , here seen with John Hardy (L) and Larry Wen (R) in front of the beautiful wall hanging which the visitors presented to the BGC, hoisted the winner’s cup. Brisbane vowed to get that cup back in a return match next year in Xi ‘an. Xi ‘an offered to import some players from Beijing to ensure that it stays in China :)

After the presentations, everyone enjoyed an Aussie BBQ hosted by the MCSQ – and importantly, prepared and cooked by them! Mark Bell and I sat with our feet up and would not have called the King our uncle.

We continued into the evening with friendly go, and not a few fourexes, plus some powerful liquor contributed by the guests for any who dared. It was a great way to finish the day, and already plans were afoot to make that return match a reality.

Group shot

Thank you, Xi ‘an go players, for honouring us by visiting our home town, and we will surely meet you again next year in China.

Have a safe trip home.

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 ^^.

Despite the surprise that absolutely no one there spoke English, whereby appointment was made by various comical gestures, I succeeded in setting up a match with Nakamura Hidehito (中村秀仁), a 9 dan professional! I have played against 6p’s before, but never anyone higher.

With a 3 stone handicap, which is reasonably standard for a 9p to give a 6 dan, I was prepared for evisceration. It is then, with great, and pleasant surprise that I somehow managed to win! It certainly wasn’t easy, I was slowly, but steadily losing ground the entire game. But with a 3 stone advantage, I was able to lose ground slow enough to survive to the endgame with a 15 point advantage, forcing Nakamura Hidehito to resign.

Despite speaking no English, Nakamura Hidehito was able to convey the major mistakes I made in the game. I attach the game here, with the variations he presented. Hopefully it’ll be useful!

Black 22: The result is not joseki, but according to Nakamura, quite even. In a handicap game, that means good for me :).
Black 27: Should be more aggressive, at B.
White 48: Not joseki…. I didn’t know how to respond.
Black 49: The cut at D6 would have been better, resulting variation shown in SGF.
Black 91: A mistake I shouldn’t have made, but it wasn’t a major mistake.
Black 95: A good attack, if Black had wasted one move defending corner, it would be just what Nakamura wanted.
Black 147: Game winning move. White was hoping for black to make a mistake here and reduce the middle. With the center secure and all groups solid, white has little chance to reverse the 3 handicap advantage from now on.

The party arrived in Melbourne on 2nd March 2010, and then flew to Brisbane on the 3rd. We held a welcome banquet for them, with local dignitaries and BGC members.

Mr. Wang with leaders of the Brisbane Chinese community

Before dinner there was friendly go with the visitors, who were all strong players.  Each visitor received a small gift, and we presented a special gift of a boomerang, signed by BGC members, to Mr. Wang.

Presentation to Mr. Wang Runan 8P by John and Larry

We all enjoyed a delicious dinner, and afterwards there was more go, until the restaurant kicked us out at 9.00pm. They just can’t understand, it seems.

On Thursday the 4th March, the visitors enjoyed a day out, and in the evening BGC hosted a BBQ. Thank heavens we were able to give them one fair dinkum Aussie meal on their trip. Four of the visitors brought their wives, who had to put up with the go players. The ladies kindly helped with the BBQ preparation, we can call them part of the BGC team.

Honorary BGC team members

What would a day be without go? Of course we again played social go with the visitors.

Jeremy won this six stone game against Mr. Wang

Everyone had a marvellous time. Mr. Wang is a warm, enthusiastic and friendly person – he even speaks excellent Japanese, which certainly helped me with communication. We dare to hope that this party will visit us again some time.

There are many people who must be thanked for their efforts in bringing this event to fruition. Bill Sun (Melbourne) and David He (Sydney) looked after the southern cities. David was responsible for the travel arrangements and put in a huge amount of effort on that. Larry Wen conceived and drove the idea to a successful conclusion and made most of the Brisbane arrangements. Brisbane members Erli Qiu and Kevin Jiang helped out with donations to help cover expenses (the AGA also contributed). BGC President Mark Bell did s sterling job behind the BBQ.

We consider this to be a highly succesful event which may lead to more exchanges between Australia and China.

For more pictures of this event -

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/jackoheart1/WangRunanVisitMarch2010#

On Wednesday evening this week (3 March), members of the Brisbane Go Club will host a banquet with guest of honour Wang Runan 8p, the current chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association, who is visiting several cities in eastern Australia. The venue is the Rasa Malaysia Chinese Restaurant, Underwood. Please RSVP to John Hardy at the AGA before turning up, as a cover charge does apply; dinner starts at six, go probably around eight.

All else being equal, there will also be a less formal barbeque on Thursday evening, and more go, at St Mark’s Lutheran Church, Mount Gravatt. As this event is free, please RSVP to Larry Wen at the AGA beforehand so they can lay on enough food. The BBQ starts at half past five for six o’clock, and go will happen after that.

Further events on Wang Runan’s visit to Australia are being coordinated by David He in Sydney, and Billy Sun in Melbourne. Please contact them for more information as to what’s happening in your city, and do feel free to tell us!

The Australian Go Association by prior invitation contributed substantially to the cost of the plaque, in “deep appreciation of (their) pioneering effort and leadership in the development of pair go”. Mrs Taki was reported to be very happy indeed.

I was accompanied by Hong Zheng 9P, a professional player from Beijing who has been visiting Sydney for a few months. In the group photo you can see him to my right (can you guess which one is me?).  The attendance is pretty high, as you can see, although players come and go throughout the afternoon. There were three former Australian champions there at one time or another, and plenty of other strong players as well, so it is the place to go for a tough game.

I don’t know much about the management of the SWC, but I did meet Ming Xu (to my left in group photo) who is one of the leading lights. Thanks to him they organise a very popular weekend tournament from time to time.

The members enjoy the game play, but they have also taken the art of the post mortem to a new level. Sometimes the discussions get VERY animated, and attract crowds as in the second photo. This also leads to stones from different sets often being mixed together – Chinese flat bottomed ones, Japanese style, little ones – there is no discrimination in the go bowls.

I have been assured that all players are welcome to attend, and to find out more about it I’d suggest just to go along one Sunday and introduce yourself. Alternatively you can check the details on the AGA website.

John Hardy with members of the SWC

An exciting game draws a crowd

The SBC is in the heart of the Korean community, and is surrounded by many Korean restaurants. On the other side of the rail line is a Chinese community, with a great choice of chinese restaurants. In other words, the SBC would be a magnet for go lovers and foodies alike.

By now, many of Australia’s go players have at least heard of Younggil An 8P, the friendly Korean professional player who is trying to make a life for himself in Australia. Younggil is the “master” of the SBC, where he also offers go lessons to young and old. There’s a $10 attendance fee, but there are special arrangements for regular players.

The main meeting is on Saturday from about 2.00pm until late, but when keen players like the well – known amateur Hae Taek Choi come to town, it might be open all night. Players can get tea, coffee, or soft drinks to keep up the fluid intake.

If you are in Sydney, head over to Eastwood sometime for a game or three. To find out more about the SBC, contact is through the AGA website.

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.

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

John Hardy

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.