Home
Subscribe!
About us
Contact us
Archive
FAQ
Book "9 Graceful Solutions"
Sponsors
Friends
Advertise in «Goama»
Learn Go Game

“GOAMA”, International Go Newsletter
Go back

44th issue
goama44.sgf (goama44.sgf)

1. What is the ideal Go server? An article by Alexander Dinerchtein with comments by Tamsin Jones, "Goama" expert
2. World Go news
3. The final game from the North American Fujitsu Qualifier: Li Jie vs Jiang Mingjiu
4. The most exciting game of the week
5. Gifts for our readers!
6. Future tournaments: EGC-2007 in Austria

Dear friends!
We are glad to present you the 44th issue of the "Goama" newsletter, including:
1. What is the ideal Go server? An article by Alexander Dinerchtein with comments by Tamsin Jones, "Goama" expert
2. World Go news
3. The final game from the North American Fujitsu Qualifier: Li Jie vs Jiang Mingjiu
4. The most exciting game of the week
5. Gifts for our readers!
6. Future tournaments: EGC-2007 in Austria

**********************************************************************************

Alexander Dinerchtein
What is the ideal Go server?

I have played Go on the Internet since 1998. I have tried many Go servers: IGS, Cholian, Hitel, Mgame, Neostone, Play361, Cyberkiwon, Livebaduk, Lessonbaduk, IBS, Dashn, Orozone, Cyberoro and KGS. In this list you can see many Korean servers and servers that have since disappeared.

You might say that KGS is almost ideal, and I cannot disagree with you. That said it would be even better if we had more players and a solid rating system.

Even such a powerful server as KGS could be improved. Here are my suggestions.

1. Audio lessons are very pleasant, but it's even more interesting to see the face of the teacher, using a web camera. As far as I know, it was first tried in 2000 by Livebaduk. Video lectures delivered by Kwon Kapyong, 7-dan and his students (Kwon has the largest Go school in Korea and has produced many professionals, including Lee Sedol and Choi Chelhan) made the server popular within a few months and increased the number of visitors from 0 to 1500-2000 members in rush hours.

2. Almost every Korean Go server has virtual currency. You may spend it on watching lectures and live broadcasts (with pro commentaries). It's also possible to bet money on the outcome of top-level dan players' games, as in real-life totalizator ( In Russia we can bet money on results of football/hockey matches and even try to guess the final score) . Of course you can play for money, even in bangneki style (http://senseis.xmp.net/?BangNeki ). I don't know a server where you can take the money home, exchanging virtual currency for real cash. It would probably make the situation with government regulations and taxes easier. You would have to have virtual money in your account if you would like to use the services described above. Of course, it would be very profitable for server owners.

3. I would like to see live translations, especially from real pro tournaments with short time controls, like the Nongsim Cup. It would not be very expensive for server owners. Considering the will of Asian Go Federations leaders, who wish to make the game popular in other countries, they could easily accept the system, where only non-Asian players (it's not a hard task to block Asians by IP) could watch the translations. Asian users would still pay for translations on Tygem or Cyberoro, so these servers would not lose any profit or popularity.

4. It would be nice if we could see the total score of games played with a single opponent. It's always a pleasure to see that you can beat someone who was always beating you a few years ago.

5. The option of using pictures in KGS profiles is a great feature, but considering that there are not only lazy users, but also users who for various reasons cannot use Adobe Photoshop or other picture editor programs, it would reasonable to give them the chance to select an avatar from a list during the registration procedure. Later they could change it to their own pictures, if so desired. Dashn offers avatars from Korean history. On Livebaduk they used pictures based on star signs.

We could take the pictures from fairytales or movies, Lord of the Rings, for example. In my opinion it's not honest if one player has a beautiful avatar while the other one hasn't got one at all.

6. I meet this problem by reviewing KGS games for commentary section on Go4Go (http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/alex/ ). It's hard to find the recent game records of 7-9 dan players who play on KGS infrequently. If you wish to find them it's necessary to input players' nicknames and check them one by one: Tartrate, sariyu, fondle, mymy, yukisuke … Maybe one of them has played a game? I suggest keeping a list of recent games played by 7-9 dan players or of games that attracted more than 100 observers.

7. And finally, there is one feature, which is not important at all. If you save the game on disk, you load the observer's kibbitzes as well. Probably, it would be better to have a choice: to load the game with comments or simply as a clean sgf record.


I suggest you to discuss my ideas on the pages of our magazine. Maybe you disagree with me or would like to add your own opinions?

I will send the discussion to William Shubert, the owner of KGS. Probably we can make our favorite server better! Even Chinese, Korean and Japanese servers might follow our ideas!
Please send us your thoughts to qp@omen.ru



Comments by Tamsin Jones, Goama expert:

You make some interesting suggestions, Alex. Video interaction would be great fun, not only for lessons, but also for playing ordinary games and for chatting. Perhaps there are bandwidth issues, which might be resolved in the future?

As you may know, last year some American states passed laws greatly restricting online gambling. It could be that online money would run into legal issues (remembering that KGS is operated from the USA). Also, using online money might make online go dangerously addictive. Play money of some kind might be useful though, so long as it can only be used on the server (to avoid legal restrictions). For instance, getting sufficient points by promoting or winning a tournament to earn a lesson or gift could be very motivating.

I know that IGS Pandanet charges its Japanese users. That said, would it really be necessary to block Asian users from accessing English translations? Surely most Koreans, for instance, would be more interested in getting their comments in Korean, after all! I am uncomfortable with the idea of discriminating against users based on location, and I don't really believe the big companies would stand to lose significant money anyway.

It would be great to have win-loss statistics and opponent-specific statistics to look at.

I like the KGS avatar feature very much, and it would be useful to offer preset avatars at registration as you suggest. However, it bothers me that you think people should be stigmatized for not having a picture. Personally, I couldn't care less…in fact, some people's pictures are even a bit disturbing.

The KGS website (http://www.gokgs.com/) keeps lists of the 100 best players and offers an archive of games, but I agree it could enhanced further.

Finally, if you look on Sensei's Library (http://senseis.xmp.net) you can find the accumulated suggestions of hundreds of players on "KGS wishlist" along with Mr Shubert's responses and plans. I should also mention that Benjamin Teuber, a former insei, is currently working on an "Ultimate Go Server" project, which he describes at Sensei's Library. Perhaps there is scope for collaboration here?

***************************************************************************

World Go news

Kim Yeonghwan, 8-dan played a special 6-stones handicap game with more than 1000 members of the Korean Tygem server.
It was necessary to make a move you prefer and the stone, which gathered maximum number of hits, appear on the board.
Kim, 8-dan was losing a lot after the opening stage, but finally he killed a big group and won the game.

***************************************************************************

Commented game

Li Jie vs Jiang Mingjiu
You may see the game at the attachment. We took this game from the collection of commented games on Go4Go. If you like to receive more commented games, please subscribe the service here:
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/alex/
The price of the yearly subscription (500 games: Pro, KGS, Top European and US tournaments) is $50 only. There is also a 6-months plan available.

In our collection we have commented games from different professional and amateur tournaments: European Go Congresses, Ing cups, Toyota tour tournaments and many others.

**********************************************************************

The most exciting game of the week

11th LG Cup, semi-final
2007-02-12: Zhou Junxun 9p (Black) vs. Hong Minpyo 5p (White) B+2.5
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=13968
Hong Minpyo, 5-dan killed a big group, but lost the game

62nd Japanese Honinbo, league
2007-01-11: Hane Naoki 9p (Black) vs. Yoda Norimoto 9p (White) W+R
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=13972
White 100 - the winning tesuji

33rd Japanese Tengen
2006-12-07: Ogaki Yusaku 9p (Black) vs. Hikosaka Naoto 9p (White) B+R
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=13958
Huge furikawari. A brillant tesuji - Black 105

63rd Japanese Honinbo, preliminary
2007-02-15: Ko Iso 7p (Black) vs. Kudo Norio 9p (White) B+R
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=14031
Nice tesuji - Black 125

18th Korean Kiseong, challenger decision match
2007-02-16: Choi Cheolhan 9p (Black) vs. Kim Seungjun 9p (White) B+R
http://www.go4go.net/v2/modules/collection/sgfview.php?id=14032
Brave invasion - Black 41

***************************************************************************

Gifts for our readers!

Arkadij Bogatsij ("BAM0" on KGS) decided to offer a 10% discount for Goama readers, applying for the Premium version of the Fuseki.info account.
http://fuseki.info/ is an online version of the Bigo Assistant Profi software. It has 48 803 pro games inside (3 282 games in Demo version)
It's possible to view and study games according to players names, dates, fusekis and josekis.
You may use your discount by entering the coupon code "Goama", while upgrading the demo account to premium one.
It’s a great database! Highly recommended by "Goama" experts!

You can also get a 10% discount for ordering Go (or other board games) books or equipment from http://www.thetradingcentre.co.uk/
Just enter the coupon code "Goama"!

Contact us, please, if you have your own Go shop and would like to set a special discount for "Goama" readers.

************************************************************************************

Future tournaments

EGC2007 14th-28th July in Villach, Austria: With already 300 registered participants it seems to become a European record event as it has been planned. Villach fits very well for that: situated 500m above sea-level, surrounded by mountains and lakes in drinking water quality, protected area and widely spread cultural activities, this town has all the infrastructure one wishes for holidays, but stays little enough, with its 60.000 inhabitants, for not loosing the overview.

Beside the European Championship and many side tourneys, plenty of workshops are already guaranteed: 3 pros, Guo Juan, Yun Yeonseong and Kang Seunghee are under agreement for more than 90 working hours already; divided by workshops on demo board, evening lectures with headset and beamer in the big hall, simultaneous games and contributions to the congress bulletin. Additionally there are several japanese pros awaited, which will surely enrich the program. So you will sometimes have to decide between 2 workshops running at the same time.

During the EGC there will be an Ukyio-e exhibition with Go motives in the towngallery Villach. 50 originals from collection Gerstorfer from 1720 to 1988 will be shown. Many just know the reprints from Go-book covers.

You will have a chance to play a test game against a new Go program from Chrilly Donninger (programmer of Hydra, strongest chess program on market) and Peter Woitke (GoAhead)
If you want to know in detail how it is about artificial intelligence and Go, you can listen to a lecture from Martin Mueller, expert on this field, and the programmers mentioned before.

Who loves classical music, will have some possibilities for concerts in and around Villach. You might like the World Bodypainting Championship at Seeboden, near Villach, where you also find a big Bonsai museum.

Please note: Registrations should be done as soon as possible, especially for the hotels, also for other accommodations. We cannot reserve them all for long time, nor can we assure that the category of your choice will still be available short before the congress.

You can read more and register at http://egc2007.goverband.at/


Feel free to contact us, if you would like to inform our readers about the Go tournaments, you organize

*************************************************************************

Enjoy the newsletter!
The IGN "Goama" editor's team

You are welcome to republish any text material from the IGN "Goama" without commercial purposes: please note the source and put the link to http://gogame.info/.

To obtain republishing rights for commented game records, please contact:
A.Dinerchtein ("breakfast" on KGS), editor-in-chief
E-mail: qp@omen.ru
Go back




© 2006 by Gogame.info. All rights reserved.
Counter: Web Go Rating -
Top361.com