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November 24th, 2009

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Fish Hoek Open 2009

The Fish Hoek Open was held this Sunday at the house of Sanae Sawada, in honour of Susumu Sawada, 5dan, visiting from Japan. The tournament was a huge success with 15 players packing the playing area to the brim. It was especially nice to see some new players joining the fun. Thanks are due to Sanae for hosting us and providing a fantastic lunch of sushi and sandwiches.

When the dust had settled after three rounds, the following prizes were awarded:

Below the bar, Alex du Plessis (3/3), Rory Shea (3/3) and Michael Ben-Yosef (2/2 and one bye) won all of their games.

Above the bar (set at 1 kyu), the top finishers were: Sam Scott (3rd with 2 wins), Susumu Sawada (2nd with 2 wins, edging Sam out on tiebreak by a single SOS point, but having also beaten him in their individual game), and Konrad Scheffler (1st with 3 wins, after winning the third round decider against Sawada-san by 2.5 points).

Detailed results are available here (note: these results are missing the 3rd round game between Duard Steenkamp and Rory Shea, which Rory won at 3 stones handicap).

Posted by konrad as Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Tournaments, Western Cape at 1:14 PM, 1 Comment »

November 21st, 2009

Proposed constitution change

SAGA is a member of the International Go Federation. Among the benefits of being a member of the IGF is that SAGA can send representatives to the World Amateur Go Championship, the Korean Prime Minister’s Cup, the World Mind Sports Games, and sometimes the World Amateur Pair-Go Championships.

The IGF has recently adopted anti-doping regulations for Go, and requires its member organizations to modify their constitutions to indicate that they will comply with these regulations. If you’re interested in participating in or following the discussions regarding the constitutional changes required, please let me know by 28 November. The discussion will then be continued elsewhere, so as not to spam the SAGA mailing list.

By the way, regardless of what constitutional changes are decided on, they will still have to be proposed and voted on at a SAGA Annual General Meeting – the next meeting is likely to be held with the 2nd quarter internet tournament in April 2010.

Posted by Steve as SAGA at 5:35 PM, No Comments »

November 21st, 2009

Generalizing the credit points deduction formula for international representation

In the past, SAGA has been fortunate enough to be invited to send representatives to the annual World Amateur Go Championship and Korean Prime Minister’s Cup. These representatives have typically had almost all of their costs, including their flight and accommodation, paid for by various sponsors.

However, due to withdrawal of sponsors, these costs may not be covered for our representatives in future, or may only be partially covered.

Our current system for selecting representatives for these tournaments is the credit points system, where credit points are earned for local participation in Go, and success in local tournaments. The players with the most credit points are then selected as representatives, and are docked a number of points in order to give more players a chance to represent South Africa. This deduction is based on (a) the number of previous representations; and (b) the performance of the player at the tournament.

The SAGA council intends to modify the deduction formula to take into account representation where costs are not fully sponsored by the hosts, so that the participant has to fund his own trip, or find his own sponsor. Making the full deduction in such cases seems unfair.

The current deduction formula is:

Deduction = 1000(n + 2) x [1 - 2(T -P)/3T]

where:
n = number of times representing South Africa
T = Total number of participants at the tournament
P = Placing at the tournment

The current, “first-draft” proposal is a generalization of this formula, which deducts the same amount in the case of fully sponsored tournaments, but less for partially sponsored/unsponsored tournaments:
New Deduction = 1000(n + 2p/100) x [1 - 2(T -P)/3T]

where:
n, T, and P are as before, and
p = percentage of costs paid/sponsored by hosts

If you are interested in participating in or following the discussion regarding the new deduction formula, please email Steve Kroon (kroon@sun.ac.za) by 28/11.

Posted by Steve as SAGA at 5:01 PM, No Comments »

November 21st, 2009

SAGA Council meeting minutes available

The minutes of the SAGA Council meeting held on 14 October are now available here.

Posted by Steve as SAGA at 4:30 PM, No Comments »

November 21st, 2009

Stellenbosch club closed for holidays

The Stellenbosch club will not have any more meetings this year, due to the university holidays. Club meetings will resume on 14 January, 2010. If you would like to meet local players for a game in this time, please contact them directly, or make use of the Stellenbosch Go mailing list.

Posted by Steve as Stellenbosch at 12:03 PM, No Comments »

November 12th, 2009

Sad News at the Cape Town Go Club

It is with shock and sadness that we learnt recently of the death of Oscar, one of the long serving-waiters at the Touch of Madness restaurant, the venue for the weekly meetings of the Cape Town Go Club. Details of his passing are vague at this stage, more information will be posted as it becomes available.

Cape Town members will have come to know Oscar as a friend rather than a waiter, and his cheerful presence will be terribly missed.

There will be a memorial at the restaurant on Saturday 14 November at 2pm, should anyone wish to attend.

Posted by Chris as Cape Town at 9:53 AM, No Comments »

November 11th, 2009

Andrew Davies is the 2009 Cape Town Blitz Champion

The Cape Town club held its annual blitz tournament at the Touch of Madness restaurant on the 10th of November 2009. The tournament attracted a relatively large field this year, as we were graced with the presence of a number of Stellenbosch players who braved the distinctly unseasonal elements to make the long drive to Observatory.

Given the nature of the tournament (12 minutes absolute time), the tournament was, as usual, a rather frantic affair compared to the more sedate nature of typical club evenings, and there were a number of unusual strategies to be found, such as “keep things complicated and rely on a win on time” or “keep things complicated and win the fight” (OK, that latter is perhaps not so unusual).

There were also a number of slightly contentious victories, with one player being accused of a “sleeve tesuji” (moving stones accidentally or otherwise with their clothing), and one game where both clocks had fallen with neither player realizing it (in that case the victory was awarded to the player who noticed it first). Fortunately, given the friendly nature of the tournament, everything was accepted in good humour.

In the end, after the scheduled five rounds, there were two players on four wins, and it was decided to hold a playoff round to determine an absolute winner. In the end, Andrew Davies prevailed over Steve Kroon (twice in a row, in fact) to secure the title. Chris Welsh came third, also on four wins, and there were four players in joint fourth on 3.5 (the half points coming from byes). Konrad Scheffler won the “Most Sporting Player” award, after electing not to press for a victory on time despite his opponent only having 3 seconds left on his clock – the nature of the time rules means that it is quite easy to ensure a victory if your opponent only has a few seconds left on the clock by making a succession of unreasonable invasions to force the opponent to respond.

Posted by Chris as Cape Town, Tournaments, Western Cape at 2:31 PM, No Comments »

November 9th, 2009

Ben wins 2009 4th quarter internet tournament

Congratulations to Ben on winning the 4Q internet tournament.
We had a reduced field, but it was great that some new and dormant players joined us for the 3 round tournament played on KGS. Newcomer Francois Luus had an impressive day where he beat two 2-dan players.
The final placings were:
1: Ben Gale
2-4: Francois Luus, Andrew Davies, Konrad Scheffler
5-7: John Leuner, Sipho Mampe, David Richfield
8: Paul Steyn
9: Francois van Niekerk
10: Rory Shea

Posted by adavies as Tournaments at 1:10 PM, No Comments »

November 2nd, 2009

4th Quarter Internet tournament takes place on 7 Nov

The 4th quarter internet tournament for 2009 takes place this weekend, on Sat 7 November.

It will follow the usual format:
Each group will have 8 players (except the lowest rated group)
3 games, first one starting at 09:15
45min each per game with 25/10 byo-omi.

This tournament is open to SAGA members only.

Currently registered:
Ben Gale
Andrew Davies
Andre Connell
Sam Scott
David Richfield
Paul Steyn
Francois van Niekerk

Please let me know if you would like to participate.
Contact details:
andrew.davies@cobham.com (w)
021 712 3204 (h)

Posted by adavies as Announcements, Tournaments at 1:42 PM, 1 Comment »