• Shigeru Inoguchi 5k (inogus6044) black no komi vs Horatio Davis 4k (aguido) white – black by resignation
• Kiyoshi Itsuki 7d (itsukk6575) white vs John Hardy 4d (jackoheart) black and three stones’ handicap – jigo
• Shunji Iseki 7d (isekis6575) white vs Alexander Hanysz 3d (xela) black and four stones – black by one point
• Tokio Sugimoto 1k (sugimt6560) white vs Amelia Gray 2k (kifudancer) black – black by resignation
• Humihoshi Mochida 1k (motidh6560) white vs Matthew Weiss 4k (weissm) black and three stones – black by resignation
• Tatsuo Suzuki 5d (suzukt6572) white vs Jason Mackay 3d (nighteyes) black and three stones – black by resignation
• Kensei Ishibashi 3d (ishibk6668) black vs Mile Gu 3d (syptryn) white – white by resignation
• Hiroshi Kobayashi 2d (kobayh7466) white vs Jeremy Wen 2d (hello12345) black – black by 15.5 points
• Yuuji Kaneko 4d (kaneky7870) white vs Rene Hexel 3d (powidl) black – white by four points
• Takahiro Ishiyama 2d (ishiyt1765) white vs Matthew Crossman 2d (matjet) black – black by 20.5 points.

Etsuko Hoshino 15k did not get to play, unfortunately, as her opponent from the Brisbane team, Dr Peter Hexel, was a late scratching due to illness. The shortest game was Jason Mackay’s (15 minutes):

and the last to finish was Alex Hanysz in a thrilling arm wrestle in the endgame:

An afternoon of good clean fun, and hopefully a stepping stone on the way to many more such matches in the future. Kudos to John Hardy from Brisbane and Kiga-san from Keio for organising the event.

It’s back. The All Keio Igo Association will meet the Brisbane Go Club (and connections) in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server for the annual friendly team vs team match on the afternoon of Sunday the seventeenth of January. Come and watch. If you’re a Brisbane player, or know someone who once played go against someone who once had a beer in Brisbane, contact John Hardy and see if there’s still a place or two open on the team.

Kickoff is at 3pm Brisbane time, 2pm Tokyo time. Games will be played in tournament time and at tournament strength.

Here are links to the game records, with some brief and slightly flippant comments by me. In each case, the first named player is white. We agreed to use handicaps according to club ranks rather than KGS ranks.

(I’m giving KGS names only, in case anyone doesn’t want their KGS identity linked to their real name. But I’ll admit to being “xela” onilne.)

Board 1: jackoheart (Brisbane) vs bestedwin

Bestedwin gave a powerful account of the high Chinese fuseki, building thickness and preparing to attack forcefully. Jackoheart’s ambitious play at move 36 met with a violent response, but white skilfully defended his weak group, leading to a close endgame.

Result: B+5.5

Board 2: xela (Adelaide) vs Nighteyes

Nighteyes threw xela off balance from the start by opening at the 7-4 point. Xela responded by building a moyo around the lower right corner, and even managed to kill one of black’s two invasions–but at the cost of leaving severe weaknesses in the centre and top left. Surprisingly, neither of white’s two weak groups died. Nighteyes chose to finish the game with an all-or-nothing ko fight rather than playing out a close but unfavourable endgame.

Result: W+R

Board 3: Greenfuse (Adelaide) vs powidl

This was a fighting game from beginning to end. Powidl’s early attack at move 25 backfired badly, with black forced to make small life in the corner. However, Greenfuse’s invasion at move 44 led to a big ko, and the game seemed to swing back in black’s favour at move 121 with the capture of fifteen white stones. But then white dominated the fighting in the lower left quarter of the board and made up the lost ground very quickly.

Result: W+33.5

Board 4: jasonchan (Adelaide) vs matjet

This game started calmly, but white 16 launched a messy fight. At critical points of this game jasonchan seemed to take the most complicated option each time, leaving heavy groups and cutting points, but his tesuji knowledge was enough to get him out of trouble at each crisis.

Result: W+R

Board 5: Benlaowai (Adelaide) won by forfeit

Board 6: Hello12345 (Brisbane) vs weissm (3 stone handicap)

Both players did a fine job of demonstrating classic principles of handicap go in this game. Weissm built thickness and attacked white’s groups on a large scale, sealing in the invasion at move 32, capping at move 48, and using the resulting thickness to attack white’s central stone after move 81. Hello12345 for his part handled the white stones deftly, saving both weak groups to reach a roughly even endgame position. Black 104 was probably the losing move, with the cutting point proving fatal to the stones on both sides.

Result: W+30.5

Board 7: Kifudancer (Brisbane) vs Onehan (5 stone handicap)

Onehan hasn’t played at the Adelaide University club since more than a year ago, and it seems that he’s improved quite a bit since we last saw him! Five handicap stones were just a few too many for this game. Up to move 38, black’s play was a model of how to attack in a measured way: not trying to kill the white stones outright, just herding them along and securing territory in the process. Black took a firm grip on the top of the board, and the game was essentially decided in the opening. Kifudancer had a small moral victory in killing the lower right corner later, but black was still ahead.

Board 8: aguido (Brisbane) vs Ozball (6 stone handicap)

This was another game featuring many exciting reversals of fortune. At move 28, a mistake by Ozball allowed white to live in the bottom left corner, and white was off to a good start. Aguido built an enormous moyo at the bottom, but Ozball made an even more enormous moyo at the top. White’s moyo got reduced, and black’s got invaded, and the final result came down to a question of who could make fewer mistakes in the endgame.

Result: W+22.5

Following the success of the Brisbane-Keio match, Adelaide has decided to join the party. The inaugural Adelaide-Brisbane match will take place in the Australia room of KGS on Sunday 22nd February. Games will start at 3 p.m. Adelaide time (2:30 Brisbane, 3:30 Melbourne/Sydney, 4:30 a.m. GMT).

Come and cheer for your favourite team, or laugh at our mistakes–you choose!

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. :)

The All Keio Igo Association has challenged the Brisbane Go Club to a friendly match over the internet in January, with the intent to make this an annual event. The match will take place in the public Australian Room of the KGS Go Server, between a picked team of eleven Keio University alumni and a Brisbane team, plus ring-ins.

The main event kicks off at 3PM Brisbane time (4pm Sydney time, 3:30pm Adelaide time) and is scheduled to take around three hours. An Young Gil 6P (KGS handle younggil), currently based in Sydney, will play a demonstration match against Yamashita-san 9d from Keio, which he will then review. Master Gil is also going to select and review one of the team matches.

All Australian go players are invited to watch any or all of the games and reviews. If you don’t have a KGS account, it is easy enough to log in and create one; KGS is where most of the AGA’s public activities occur, outside of tournaments.