News from the American Go Association
January 14, 2006
Volume 7, #5
SPECIAL OZA EDITION

FENG YUN, WANG LU TOP OZA NYC DAY 1
VIRTUAL OZA
GO TIMES
GO IN GOTHAM
ATTACHED FILES: 2006.01.14 Oza NYC Round 1 Board 1 Feng Yun-Zhi Li Peng Comments by Feng Yun; 2006.01.14 Oza NYC Round 2 Board 1 Jie Liang-Feng Yun Comments by Feng Yun; 2006.01.14 Oza NYC Round 3 Board 2 Lu Wang-Yupei Xiong

FENG YUN, WANG LU TOP OZA NYC DAY 1: Wang Lu 7d of Atlanta joined defending Oza East champion Feng Yun 9P in sweeping all three games today, leaving them the only undefeated players in the Open section. 2-1 winners in the Open section are: Huiren Yang 1P, Zhaonian Chen 7d, Yupei Xiong 7d, Jie Liang 7d, Carson Tu 7d, Eric Lui 7d, Zhi li Peng 7d and Young K. Kwon 7d.
       Other 3-0 winners: Jason Gu 5d, Wei Zhang 5d, Xiliang Liu 4d, Sheng Lu 4d, Li Chen 3d, Peter Tse 2d, Michael Hu 1d, Zhongxia Zhao 1d, Alex Chang 1d, Jiangtao Gu 2k, Andrew Fu 2k, Steven Bretherick 3k, Kevin Shang 3k, Jasmine Yan 3k, Ze-li Dou 4k, Ed Hsu 4k, Walter Langendorf 4k, Yang Xu 6k, Todd Blatt 6k, Peter Zhang 8k, Siegfried Gold 9k, Daniel Xia 11k, Sean He 14k, Alan Fung 15, Kelly Braun 16, James Shenko Jr 17k, Jason Ho 18k, Francisco Rivera 20k, Anthony Qian 24k, Bijan Saniee 26k, David Chu 30k. Look for the final Winner's Reports from both New York and Las Vegas in Monday's edition.

VIRTUAL OZA: For those unable to attend the Oza in person, Boards 1 and 2 in New York City were both broadcast live on the Internet Go Server (IGS), with as many as 200 people watching worldwide. Photos and updates on the top two boards were posted regularly on the American Go Association's website at www.usgo.org and on the news update page at http://www.usgo.org/news/ where the day's games are now posted (they'll be replaced tomorrow as new games are played). Game recorders were EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock and John Pinkerton. Technical IT support was provided by John Hilt and Steve Colburn came through with an emergency laptop loan when one of the EJ laptops developed serious virus problems. Look for full coverage of Boards 1 & 2 again tomorrow on the IGS.

GO TIMES: "For Ms. Feng, the toughest part of playing go these days may be finding a worthy opponent," reported Blake Eskin in The New York Times today. "America, she explained, is 'the desert of this game.' There are oases," Eskin continued. "Players meet at the New York Go Center in Midtown, at a Korean cafe in Fort Lee, N.J., a floating house game in Brooklyn. It also has a cult following in math departments (it made cameo appearances in the films "Pi" and "A Beautiful Mind") and among computer scientists interested in artificial intelligence." Read the whole story online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/arts/14go.html?8hpib

GO IN GOTHAM: Shrouded in rain and fog on a dreary January morning, New York City was the perfect place for ducks and go players, 254 of whom (go players, not ducks) crowded into the top-floor ballroom of the famed Pennsylvania Hotel. With the spectacular view of Manhattan obscured by the elements, the go players turned their attention to the game they'd come for, playing casual games, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones as registration and Round 1 pairings and re-pairings stretched into mid-morning, and then diving happily into the tournament.
       The trend toward more young players - Feng Yun School students once again turned out in record numbers - was matched by many new players who were playing in their first tournament. The playing areas and lobby hummed with the buzz of conversation and analysis between rounds as players reviewed their games or watched Boards 1 and 2 broadcast onto a white tablecloth stretched across the wall.
       As grey day faded into black night and Gotham's lights blazed forth against the darkness falling outside, the cacophony of stones clicking on boards dwindled slowly away as the last and final round of the day wound down. Inexorably, game by game, the playing areas emptied out. Everyone would be back bright and early Sunday morning for Day Two but now it was time to set aside games and venture out into the bright lights of the big city.

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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