06 Mar 2010 1 Comment
| April 17, 2010 | to | April 18, 2010 |
This is a placeholder for the weekend in mid-April when the Keio Old Boys will be visiting Brisbane for their annual shindig with the Brisbane Go Club. Dinner on Saturday evening, random go, lunch and the now-traditional team vs team match on Sunday. RSVP and/or query John Hardy at the club, if you’re in Brisbane at all and want to come play.
01 Mar 2010 No Comments
| March 3, 2010 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| March 4, 2010 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
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!
21 Feb 2010 No Comments
| February 24, 2010 | ||
| 9:00 am | to | 3:00 pm |
If you’re going to be around the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus on Wednesday the 24th, drop by the Queensland University Gaming Society stall, where they will be raffling off a Hikaru no Go-themed beginners go set and various other gaming gear, to kick off first semester. They usually run a weekly go session on campus during semester. More go players of all strengths always welcome…
01 Feb 2010 1 Comment
On the twelfth of December, Mile Gu from Auckland and Matthew Crossman from Brisbane played a game on IGS to determine who goes to the eighth World Students Go Oza Championship this year. The game was even, with Mile taking black and Matthew taking white:
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White resigned at that point. Mile Gu will represent Australia and New Zealand in the championships on the second and third of March in Japan.
18 Jan 2010 No Comments
Yesterday in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server a team from the All Keio Igo Association met a team led by the Brisbane Go Club in the second of what is becoming a series of annual friendly matches. Of the ten games played, Brisbane won eight, Keio won one, and one went to jigo. The games played were (with the Keio players listed first):
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.
13 Jan 2010 3 Comments
| January 17, 2010 | ||
| 3:00 pm | to | 6:00 pm |
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.
20 Dec 2009 1 Comment
The 2009 Brisbane rengo champions are Larry Wen 3d and Andrew Gray 9k. The three rounds of pair-ish go on Saturday started a little late, and finished a lot late, but that was alright, because it doubled as the Brisbane Go Club’s Christmas party, and there was plenty of BBQ and salad and delicious desserts to keep the membership occupied. We had eleven teams:
up from eight competing last year. Second place went to team A (Tim and Rene) with three wins and 2 points SOS, and third place (with a box of Christmas crackers as the prize) went to team L (Andrew and Matthew) with 2 wins and a bye. As always the draw was a mutant Swiss with initial slide pairing, ably executed by Amelia Gray with a bare spreadsheet and mysterious incantations, then funneled through whichever BGC committee member was handiest as a front man:
The consensus is that Yanis is indeed not a fifth kyu, Fumiko Hulme is indeed not a tenth kyu, and that go on a thirteen by thirteen board is much deeper than it looks. Many thanks to club president Mark Bell for his house as the venue and the barbeque (and the beer), John Hardy for donating the first prize, and the players for turning up and joining in in such good spirits.
12 Dec 2009 No Comments
| December 13, 2009 | ||
| 2:00 pm | to | 4:00 pm |
At the very last minute, we’ve arranged a teams match between Melbourne (MU-SPGO and the Victorian Go Club) and Brisbane (Brisbane Go Club and QUGS). It’s on at 2pm Brisbane time tomorrow (Sunday the thirteenth of December) in the Australia Room of the KGS Go Server. More details at Sensei’s Library.
02 Dec 2009 1 Comment
The representative from Australian and New Zealand to the 2010 World Students Go Oza championship in Japan will be determined by a playoff between Mile Gu and Matthew Crossman on December the twelfth, on IGS. More details as they come to hand.
13 Nov 2009 No Comments
| February 6, 2010 | to | February 7, 2010 |
The thirtieth Queensland Championships will occur over Saturday 6 February and Sunday 7 February, 2010, in the Holt Room at the Student Union on the University of Queensland campus at St Lucia in Brisbane. There will be an open division for dan players (attracting AGA representative points) and a handicap division for kyu players. First round of six starts at nine o’clock, and there is a published schedule running until five o’clock both days.
Please RSVP to your nearest Brisbane Go Club officer – use the registration form or write an email. If you’re interstate, that’s horatio@go.org.au. Because this is an AGA-sanctioned championship, competitors will need to either have current Australian Go Association membership or be prepared to acquire some during registration (club membership will do nicely), and will accrue AGA credit points from their placings. Entry is five dollars for students and juniors (thank QUGS for this one) and thirty-five dollars for everyone else. Anyone and everyone who plays any sort of go in the greater Brisbane area is welcome and strongly encouraged to turn out and play.
The 2010 annual general meeting of the Brisbane Go Club, including elections, will take place on the Sunday of the tournament, during lunch.
19 Oct 2009 4 Comments
| December 19, 2009 |
…and barbeque (alright, mostly a BBQ) at our president Mark Bell’s house (55 White Street, Wavell Heights), on the northside of Brisbane, on Saturday the nineteenth of December. We will be playing rengo (teams of two) on 13×13 boards, in order to fit sufficient rounds into one day. BYO pairs (also your own alcoholic drinks and desserts) and RSVP to your nearest Brisbane Go Club member, mentioning if you are a vegetarian or similar. Any go player within range is cordially invited to turn up and join in. Please pass the word to anyone unlikely to read it here.
Play starts at nine o’clock. A BBQ lunch will happen around noon, and there will be tea and coffee and soft drinks laid on. We anticipate finishing around three o’clock, but our mileage will vary.
The draw will use the Gray & Mackay algorithm pioneered last year, and any leftover unpaired entrants will be paired quasi-randomly, or left free to play side games. The event does not attract AGA representative points, however if we get any traditional mixed pairs playing better than average, this will be noted for future use in selecting Australian pair go teams. :)
08 Aug 2009 2 Comments
| September 20, 2009 | ||
| 1:00 pm | to | 4:00 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.
10 Jun 2009 No Comments
24 Apr 2009 1 Comment
(Report courtesy of John Hardy, photos of Andrew Gray.)
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.
06 Apr 2009 No Comments
I just found two cute little videos on YouTube, with happy memories from Brisbane last year. Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/Confuseki
22 Feb 2009 5 Comments
Thanks to all who played in, observed or otherwise supported today’s Adelaide-Brisbane match on KGS. The final score was 6 games to 2 in Adelaide’s favour. There might be some further discussion and game reviews on Thursday night. Meanwhile, you can entertain yourself by laying bets on which two cities will be next to play a KGS team match.
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
02 Feb 2009 1 Comment
| February 22, 2009 | ||
| 2:30 pm | to | 4:30 pm |
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!
01 Feb 2009 3 Comments
| March 28, 2009 | to | March 29, 2009 |
Two days of go at the Brisbane Bridge Centre, 104 Frederick Street, Annerley, from the twenty-eighth to the twenty-ninth of March, hosted by the BGC. Participation attracts AGA representative points. There will be an open division (all strengths of dan player) to determine the Queensland Open Champion, and a handicap division on the McMahon system for kyu players. The tournament fee is $35 for student and junior players, and $55 for everybody else. This price includes the tournament, morning and afternoon teas, and lunch, both days. All welcome, especially AGA members from other states.
If travelling from interstate, try the Annerley Motor Inn or the Lancaster Court Motel, each of which is five to ten minutes from the venue. You will need to be a member in good standing of the Australian Go Association; individual memberships will be sold on the day for ten dollars, or you can arrange something through your club – for Queenslanders, that’s the Brisbane Go Club, which you will need to (re)join if you aren’t already a member.
To register, please email your name, rank, club, and contact details to the tournament director, Horatio Davis (horatio@go.org.au), or find the nearest BGC committee member and hand them a filled-in copy of the entry form. If you have particular needs for the dinner or morning tea (vegetarian, kosher, coffee, black forest cake) or wish to attend the teaching afternoon on the Friday or the tournament dinner on the Saturday, please mention these in your email. Registration fees will be collected on the day.
The Journal will of course be reporting live from the event. :)
Update: As of one week before the event, there are sixteen players registered in the open division and fifteen in the kyu division. Come on in, the water’s fine!
Second update: The schedule for the tournament is here. Short version: teaching half-day starts at noon, Saturday and Sunday we start at nine in the morning.
31 Jan 2009 1 Comment
| May 2, 2009 | to | May 4, 2009 |
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. :)
21 Jan 2009 2 Comments
We were recently given a couple of photos taken at the Nationals (Brisbane, November 2008), and thought it would be nice to share them.
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
27 Dec 2008 1 Comment
| January 18, 2009 | ||
| 3:00 pm | to | 6:00 pm |
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.
Go Game Guru