Go players of New Zealand,

Firstly, I must apologise for the lengthy delay in producing this issue. Most of the news is from last year, but hopefully it’s still better late than never….

Du Shiyong at the 1^st Incheon International Amateur Championship

In 2003 the World Amateur Go Championship was not held because of the SARS epidemic, but the 1^st Incheon International Amateur Championship was held instead, in Korea from 27 September to 3 October. Incheon is the main port city for Seoul.

58 countries and territories participated, including our own Du Shiyong, from Auckland, who ended up in 27^th place. In the first four rounds, Du played two 7 dans and two 5 dans, and managed one win. Then, on the third day, he defeated a 1 dan and a 3 dan, to improve his placing from 42^nd to 27^th. Hiraoka Satoshi of Japan took first place, followed by the players representing Korea, the Netherlands and the Ukraine.

The Incheon tournament may run every year, as well as the WAGC. There is also a possibility of sending a NZ representative team to the Asian Cup (held in Korea) in 2004.

NZ Champs

The nationals (held in Auckland on November 8^th and 9^th) went very well; with about 16 players in total including one from Christchurch.  There was a 3-way tie for first place, each with 5 wins (in 6 rounds).  Colin was officiating and decided that we couldn't really do a sum-of-scores to separate ties for first, fourth and sixth places because there had been several people drop out during the two days. The results were:

First equal:
    Jimmy Yuan
    Bun Lee
    Long Yang Li

Forth equal:
    Steve Kim
    Juhua Zhou (Patrick)

Sixth equal:
    Colin Grierson
    Roman Pozaroczyk
    Du Shiyong
    Chao Qunzhou

Here is one of the games from the tournament (thanks Steve for recording it).

White: Jimmy Yuan

Black: Steve Kim

Komi: 7 points

Date: 9 November 2003

Figure 1. 1-48

Figure 2. 49-100

Figure 3. 101-138

Black resigns after White 138

Wellington Champs

The annual Wellington Open Championship was held on the weekend of 29^th and 30^th of November. Our timing could have been better – it was only three weeks after the National champs and about three weeks before Christmas, so out of a field of ten players, only one travelled to the event from outside Wellington: 13 year old Jimmy Yuan, who now lives in Christchurch. Because of the low numbers, we didn’t have a separate field for the kyu grade competition, but used starting scores based on known rank, so that the draw would produce the closest possible matches. After the five rounds (three on Saturday, two on Sunday), Jimmy Yuan emerged as the Wellington Open Champion 2003, to add to his string of wins for the year.

The placings were:

On Saturday evening we held the traditional Go Party at Stanley’s house, where we admired the Go Kichi go-ban and played some games of Hex and even a bit of go. A few people took on Jimmy at the go exercise where white is to play and live on a board whose entire perimeter is occupied by black stones – try it!

Li Long yang represents NZ in Brisbane

The Oceania qualifying tournament for the 2^nd Toyota & Denso Cup has just been held in Brisbane, Australia. The winning player is entered into the first round of the professional World Go Oza Tournament. Results are not yet available (at time of writing), but New Zealand’s representative was Li Long Yang, 5 dan, of Auckland.

Online tournament at Dashn.com

We have heard of another series of online tournaments: on Korea’s Dash & Dot Baduk site. They are holding quarterly tournaments amongst teams from all countries, in four divisions of playing strength. Three players per team. They are promoting interaction between Korea and the rest of the go-playing world. Dash & Dot say they are one of the major Korean Baduk (Go) sites, with 300,000 members, commented professional games, tutorials, etc. For more information, check out http://www.dashn.com/english.

Next KGS tournament approaching

Registration is starting for the 3rd KGS Team Tournament and will close on 5th March.  The tournament is expected to run from 27th March to 22nd May. Steve Taylor is willing to be the organizer if some among you are willing to form a team, especially a strong team to tackle the open division. For complete details see http://www.igoweb.org/~kgsteams/, and contact Steve go_player@clear.net.nz if you wish to enter.

New strength in Palmerston North

For anyone near Palmerston North, or passing by that way, let it be known that Don Potter is now in town! Don has been a Japanese 4 dan for about 25 years, and is going to try establishing a club in Palmerston North. He welcomes any go player passing by. Don also plays on Yahoo. Don’s email address is dpotterkk@yahoo.com.au and his phone number is (06) 358-5200.

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All the best for 2004, and remember, “Play vital points before big points”.

Dan

February 2004