pair go

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: , , , ,

20 Dec 2009 1 Comment

2009 Brisbane Pair Go champions

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:

  • Tim Oh 2d and Rene Hexel 1d (A)
  • Joshua Wan 1d and Jeremy Wen 1d (C)
  • Markus Pache 4d and Yanis Pache 5k (D)
  • Andrew Lewis 2d and Horatio Davis (E)
  • Sam Nakagawa 2d and Kei Nakagawa 7k (F)
  • Walter Chang 1d and Rodney Topor 6k (G)
  • John Hardy 3d and Fumiko Hulme 10k (H)
  • Larry Wen 3d and Andrew Gray 9k (I)
  • Mark Bell 3d and Bill Wen 12k (J)
  • Mr. Chou 4d and Peter Hexel 16k (K)
  • Andrew Cao 1d and Matthew Crossman 2d (L)

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.

by aguido in Tournaments Tags: , , ,

19 Dec 2009 No Comments

WPGA Pair Go World Cup

The World Pair Go Association is holding a Pair Go World Cup to mark the twentieth anniversary of modern pair go. The tournament itself is in Hangzhou, China, from the 20th to the 23rd of March, 2010. Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) have been invited to send a pair, accommodation and travel paid. The Australian Go Association invites expressions of interest from pairs of players (male and female) to represent Oceania; please make these to your nearest club or national association. If more than one pair makes itself known to the AGA and NZGS, there will be playoffs held on the Pandanet Internet Go Server. We want as many as possible.

The WPGA would like us to select a representative by the end of January. We are looking to close expressions of interest by 8 January and hold playoffs circa 23 January. These dates will vary depending on what comes in. Tournament details and prize money are here.

by aguido in Tournaments, World Championships Tags: , , , , ,

29 Nov 2009 No Comments

Australia sponsors gift to World Pair Go Association stalwarts

On November 15, Neville Smythe attended the closing ceremony of the 20th World Pair Go Championship in Tokyo. IGF vice-president Thomas Hsiang presented Mr Taki Hisao (inventor of pair go) and Mrs Taki Hiroko (major force behind the Japanese Pair Go Association), with a plaque “with appreciation from the World Pair Go community” but specifically signed by the American Go Association, the European Go Federation, the Ibero-American Go Federation, the Canadian Go Association and the Australian Go Association.

Mr and Mrs Taki presented with a plaque of appreciation

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.

by aguido in Other, Visiting, World Championships Tags: , , , ,

19 Oct 2009 4 Comments

Brisbane Christmas Pair Go Tournament

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. :)

by aguido in Announcements, Tournaments Tags: , , ,

21 Dec 2008 1 Comment

Pair Go at Christmas in Brisbane

The Brisbane go club‘s Christmas party for 2008 was held yesterday at our usual stomping grounds, the Queensland Contract Bridge Centre. We had a nice healthy lunch (Subway and watermelon and cookies) and then played Australia’s first pair go tournament, just because.

Pair Go

The tournament was three rounds of go on thirteen-by-thirteen boards, run as a single division. The teams were:

  • Chulho Rhee 5d and Peter Hexel 18k (first place)
  • Jae-Wan Lee 2d and Fumiko Hulme 8k (second place)
  • John Hardy 2d and Kei Nakagawa 7k (third place)
  • Chris Zhao 2d and Nozomi Nakagawa 9k (fourth place)
  • Sam Nakagawa 2d and Takao Fujimori 5k (fifth place)
  • Jason Mackay 2d and Rodney Topor 3k (sixth place)
  • Jack Xu 3d and Justin Lee 9k (seventh place)
  • Rene Hexel 2d and, um, Horatio Davis 5k (wooden spoon)

Pair go - two facing two

The prize was a box of chocolate for each half of the winning pair. Mr Rhee and Dr Hexel were kind enough to share the loot with the rest of the club.

The winning team at the 2008 Brisbane pair go tournament

The pairing and draw were tuned for social go, which mean that the teams had to be paired up to be within four stones’ strength of each other to have a competitive single division. Slide pairing was used throughout, with Swiss pairing for the draw. Kudos to Amelia Gray, who slaved over a hot spreadsheet all afternoon, and Jason Mackay who helped her make reality match the spreadsheet.

Fumiko at the 2008 Brisbane Christmas tournament

sams-photo-005

Rounds were nominally forty minutes main time with ten minutes per side byoyomi. In practice, as club treasurer John Hardy remarked during the prolonged death agonies of round three, “This was not such a bad idea, but perhaps we should’ve used clocks.”

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Not enough sugar
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No kifu, but Sam Nakagawa and John Hardy took some interesting pictures, shown above.

Update: “The organisers used mysterious incantations, plus smoke and mirrors to calculate the handicaps. The losers consoled themselves with food and drink.” – the Brisbane Go Club‘s official take on the afternoon. :)

by aguido in Events, Tournaments Tags: , ,