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AGA News!
Updated 12/12/2009
YAMASHITA TAKES LEAD IN TENGEN
PARK YEONGHUN FIGHTS BACK IN GS CALTEX CUP
KOREAN MYEONGIN TITLE MATCH TIED AT 1-1
CANADA-US YOUTH FRIENDSHIP MATCH SET
SILBER-TEUBER DEFENDS GERMAN PAIR GO TITLE
EURO CHAMP UPDATE & REVIEW
IPHONE/IPOD APPS: A BUYER’S GUIDE
IN MEMORIAM: Hashimoto Shoji & Kajiwara Takeo
PARK YEONGHUN FIGHTS BACK IN GS CALTEX CUP: On December 2nd, Park Yeonghun 9P avoided a shut-out in the the GS Caltex Cup when he defeated challenger Cho Hanseung 9P in Game 3 of their best-of-five-games title match. Park must win both remaining games to retain the title he has held for the last two years. The GS Caltex Cup is one of the most lucrative in Korea. Park has a more outstanding record of title wins than Cho by a significant margin. Both are in their twenties. Game four in the match is set for December 9th.
CANADA-US YOUTH FRIENDSHIP MATCH SET: Canadian and American youth players have once again set their annual battle for continental bragging rights. Teams of youth players from each country are due to meet on the KGS go server on December 13 at 4p Eastern time (1p Pacific, 7p GMT. "Last year's inaugural match featured teams of three players, but interest in this year's match has more than doubled the team sizes," reports match organizer Lawrence Ku. Click here for full details about the match.
 SILBER-TEUBER DEFENDS GERMAN PAIR GO TITLE: Olga Silber 1k and Benjamin Teuber 6d successfully defended their German Pair-Go title in Pförzheim last weekend. An early 'decider' was the 3rd round game against 'presidential couple' Manja 4d and Michael Marz 3d (Michael Marz is president of the German Go Association). The contest was held in Pförzheim by request of local sponsor Omikron), which employs six go players now.- Peter Dijkema, after EuroGoTV EURO CHAMP UPDATE & REVIEW: Here's a quick overview of freshly-minted European national champions: Romania: Dragos Bajenaru (3rd time); Russia: Ilja Shikshin (4th time); Ukraine: Artem Kachanovskyj; Cyprus: Dimitris Regginos; Finland: Vesa Laatikainen (his 19th); Croatia: Matej Zakanj (3rd in a row); Hungary: Pal Balogh (3rd); Lithuania: Giedrius Tumelis; Slovenia: Gregor Butala (2nd); Poland: both Leszek Soldan Senior and Junior (Soldan senior his 13th). - Krzysztof Bozek  IPHONE/IPOD APPS: A BUYER’S GUIDE  by Roy Laird
 More than 100,000 apps are available for the iPhone/iPod, including a bewildering array of go apps. Here's our holiday gift to you: a quick guide to what's available. My bottom line: most of the go apps you need are free, but you can do siginificantly better for a few bucks. Serious students will want to consider Smart Go Pro (graphic), and Joseki Tutor is a good choice for those looking to improve your grasp of local opening sequences. That said, let's take a look at what’s out there. The most popular apps are clearly the ones that actually play go. Several of those, such as Ayago ($2.99) Go Touch ($.99) and iGo ($.99) are driven by GnuGo, an open source program that plays at roughly the mid-kyu level. You might prefer to download GnuGo itself for free. David Fotland’s Many Faces of Go and Anders Kierulf’s Smart Go dominate the go software market, and have each released three iPhone/iPod apps. Igowin, the 9x9 freeware for PC and Mac that thousands of users have downloaded over the years, is now available as a free iPhone/iPod app, Igowin Tutor (graphic). It’s a great program for beginners, with an extensive tutorial from the ground up, and you can’t beat the price. For stronger players, Igowin ($2.99) adjusts more quickly and uses the full power of the award-winning MFGo engine on a 9x9 board. The auto-adjust feature on both programs changes the handicap according to the result, so you can measure your progress. Fotland has also released Igowin Joseki ($2.99), enabling the user to review and understand more than 2000 common opening sequences. And he plans to release more similar apps. SmartGo 9x9 ($.99) also plays auto-adjust 9x9 go, while the full Smart Go ($2.99) can play 19x19 go (without auto-adjust however). Smart Go Pro is by far the most comprehensive program I found, and at $12.99, it’s priced accordingly. With an archive of 15,000 pro games, a library of more than 2000 problems at all levels, the ability to record and import games in sgf format, and other features too numerous to mention, it’s the Swiss Army knife of iPhone/iPod go apps. But even Smart Go Pro is missing a few useful features, such as a time clock and the ability to play on the Internet. But free and low-cost apps are available for these functions too. Tetsuki will get you a game on KGS, and it’s free. GameTimer ($.99) is a game clock that includes regular and Canadian overtime settings, or find “GameClock Tournament” by Zombie Process for a free timer app with go options. To record your games in sgf format, try Goban (graphic), another free app. GoPlayer ($3.99) will randomly select from more than 1000 games and play them out for you as fast or slow as you want, as Smart Go Pro does, but with a larger database (and price). There are even a few go-moku apps: GoMoku Master ($3.99), Igomoku, Gomoku Professional, Gomoku Narabe ($.99), Igobang ($.99). If there's a great app I missed, write me at roylaird@gmail.com and we'll keep EJ readers posted.IN MEMORIAM: Hashimoto Shoji & Kajiwara Takeo
By John Fairbairn
 Hashimoto Shoji 9P, a stalwart of the Kansai Ki-in, has died at age 74 of myocardial infarction on December 2, just a few days after Kajiwara Takeo 9P succumbed to acute kidney failure at age 86 on November 28. Hashimoto, sometimes humorously dubbed the "Grumbling Hashi
 moto" to distinguish him from Hashimoto Utaro, the founder of the Kansai Ki-in - this was from his habit of complaining throughout his games that he was losing - was actually born in Taiwan and did not return to Japan until 1946 at age 11, having learned go from his father, who was working as a go teacher in Taiwan and himself later reached 7-dan. His son's progress thereafter, from 1-dan in 1947 to 9-dan in December 1958 was then a speed record for promotion to the top rank. He won the Oza title twice, the NHK Cup three times and the Judan once. He frequently qualified for the major leagues and had an impressive career record of 1037-631. At the time of his death he was the de facto kingpin of the currently flourishing Kansai Ki-in, although officially acting only as an advisor. Kajiwara Takeo was one of Japan's best known players even though he won no titles. He did manage to reach the Meijin and Honinbo leagues many times, but his fame rests on two other things. One was his habit of coining astringent comments and neologisms, known as Kajiwara-isms. Perhaps this was a form of self-mockery, giving himself a humorously louche air, as he came from the infamous island of Sado which was used as a penal colony in Edo times, and where the convicts devised a secret language by reversing syllables and so on. One example of a Kajiwara-ism was “atatata,” from atama wo tataku (strike at the head of two stones). More substantially, Kajiwara's reputation was as a surrogate teacher for Kitani Minoru when the latter was an invalid. Many of the now famous members of the Kitani school are indebted to him, and this work was recognized when he was made a member of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette (IV), in 1995. His sister,Takeda Misao, was also a pro, married to the late Takeda Hiroyoshi 6-dan. Kajiwara also has a special place in western go as author of the popular book Direction of Play. - Longtime go writer John Fairbairn is the co-creator – with T Mark Hall -- of the GoGoD Database & Encyclopaedia | |
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YAMASHITA TAKES LEAD IN TENGEN: 
KOREAN MYEONGIN TITLE MATCH TIED AT 1-1: The best-of-five-games match between