News from the American Go Association

August 15, 2006
Volume 7, #68

JIE LI 9D UPSET BY TEENS IN OPEN & ING
US OPEN & ING UPDATES
LIGHTNING TABLE WINNERS
BARBIERI LEADING IN SELF-PAIRED
OTHER TOURNAMENTS
DELL RECALLS SONY BATTERIES AFTER CONGRESS LAPTOP FIRE
LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN TOURNAMENT
FENG YUN ELIMINATED FROM SAMSUNG
NAKAYAM'A'S LAST LECTURE
LIVE FROM THE YOUTH ROOM!
ATTACHED FILES: 2006.08.15USOpenRd3Bd2ALiu-Jli; 2006.08.15IngRd3Bd1ZChen-Jli; 2006.08.14 Nakayama 2p promotion game

JIE LI 9D UPSET BY TEENS IN OPEN & ING: Jie Li 9d suffered twin defeats at the hands of two up-and-coming teens today, when fifteen-year-old Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu beat Li 9d in the third round of the U.S. Open, scoring a 2.5-point upset victory for the 7-dan teenager. Then in the evening, 17-year-old ZhaoNian Chen 8d notched a comfortable 11-point win against Li. The Open game featured Li's patented steady play against an all-out effort by Liu, who mixed it up early, attacking strongly from the beginning. Although Li mounted an impressive comeback effort, a critical endgame mistake proved fatal to his bid to erase Liu's lead. In the Ing game, Chen engineered a significant reduction of Li's moyo after Li hallucinated a tesuji. The losses may derail top US amateur Jie Li's hopes of challenging Ming Jiu Jiang 7P for the US Open championship this year, as well as his bid to retain his Ing title. Although clearly disappointed, the top-ranked player took his defeats with grace, reviewing the games with his opponents and laughing at his own blunders. Both games are attached to today's EJ.

US OPEN & ING UPDATES: In the third round of the US Open, Ming Jiu Jiang 7P adroitly handled a valiant effort by Yuan Zhou 7d, extending his win record thus far in the Open to 3-0. Fellow teenager Curtis Tang 7d (who defeated Cornell Burzo 8d) is the only other 3-0 top player remaining. Other top-10 results: Zhi Yuan Liu d. J. Li; S. Hong d. M. Guan; K. Kotani d. P. Waldron; D. Kim d. N. Phipps; Y. Ge d. E. Lui. Round 4 is scheduled for 9A Thursday; Boards 1 & 2 will be broadcast live on the IGS. Round 3 Ing Cup results: Z. Chen d. J. Li; Y. Ge d. E. Lui; L. Yu d. G. Price; S. Hong d. N. Chadwick; Y. Zhou d. N. Phipps; J. Chen d. I Lui; T. Morris d. M. Burrall; J. Boley d. J. Quizon. Boards 1 and 2 of the fourth and final round of the Ing will be broadcast live on the IGS Wednesday night starting at 7P.

BARBIERI LEADING IN SELF-PAIRED: Steve Barbieri is making a run at collecting a fistful of Self-Paired titles this year, with an early lead in the Champion (most wins over losses; 8-2 so far), the Hurricane (most wins; 8 so far) and the Dan Killer. Harold Lloyd is the current Kyu Killer leader, Williams Phillips is both the Straight Shooter (most wins against consecutive ranks) and the Dedicated (most games). To no one's surprise, Horst Sudhoff is leading in both the Teacher (most games against weaker players) and the Philanthropist (most losses). Stay tuned for developments as these races heat up as the week progresses.
- reported by Laura Kolb and Lee Hyun

LIGHTNING TABLE WINNERS: First-round table winners in the ever-popular Lightning Tournament - 107 participated this year - are: Gary Shen 3d; Yang Xu 4k (5 wins); Zhonghia Zhou 2d (5 wins); Thomas Bitonti 1d; Yukino Takahara 19k (5 wins, age 6); Angela Pham 22k (5 wins); David Rhode 10k (5 wins); Jason Gu 6d; Phillip London 3k (5 wins); Mike Schwartz 3k; Jasmine Wan 1d; Sheehan Hsu 7k; Cherry Shen 4d (5 wins); Wesley Zhang 8k (5 wins); Andrew Shang 13k (5 wins); Kevin Shang 2k; Jack Yang 5d; Jaron Li 9k (5 wins). Tables of six played round-robins with just 10 minutes per player and no overtime; table winners will play off later this week for the championship. Keith Arnold directed, as usual.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS: Only five players are undefeated after just two rounds in the Midnight Madness rated tournament, held late each night after many Congress attendees are abed counting liberties. Unbeaten thus far are Peter Hansmeier, Andrew Briscoe 2k, Todd Blatt 5k, Peter Ye 14 and Kenneth Luther. Redmond Cup Round 2 results: Senior League Curtis Tang (2-0); Junior League: Calvin Sun (2-0).

DELL RECALLS SONY BATTERIES AFTER CONGRESS LAPTOP FIRE: Less than 24 hours after the E-Journal's Sony Vaio laptop caught fire and exploded Sunday at the US Go Congress, Dell announced a recall of more than 4 million lithium-ion batteries made by Sony, because they could erupt in flames. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) called it the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry. "The recall raises broader questions about lithium-ion batteries, which are used in devices like cellphones, portable power tools, camcorders, digital cameras and MP3 players," wrote Damon Darlin in Monday's New York Times. Dell told the CPSC that it documented six instances since December in which notebooks overheated or caught on fire. "Dell has been bedeviled by reports of burning laptops in recent months," reported Darlin. "In June, a Dell notebook burst into flames during a conference in a hotel in Osaka, Japan." No word on whether it was a go event. Read the whole article online at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/technology/15battery.html?th&emc=th

LEE SEDOL WINS KOREAN TOURNAMENT: Lee Sedol 9P has defeated Choi Wonyong 4P to win the second Prices Information Tournament. He also currently holds the Maxim Cup title and won the latest Toyota Denso World Oza title. Not quite twenty, Choi Wonyong has not won a title yet, but is another of the up and coming young Korean pros.
- Reported by Bill Cobb

FENG YUN ELIMINATED FROM SAMSUNG: Feng Yun 9P, the only North American pro in the tournament, lost to Xie Yimin 3P of Japan last Saturday in the preliminary round of the international Samsung Cup. Rui Naiwei 9P has won her first two games, defeating Cho Mikyung 1P of Korean and Dang Xijun 1P of Taiwan. Other winning women include Park Jieun 6P of Korea and Cho Hyeyeon 7P of Korea, both of whom have also won their first two games. There are 49 women pros competing in the preliminary round of the international Samsung.
- Reported by Bill Cobb

NAKAYAM'A'S LAST LECTURE: Longtime Congress favorite Noriyuki Nakayama 6P announced yesterday that this will the last year he'll be attending the U.S Go Congress. His wife has been ill recently and it's a great hardship for him to be away for the month it takes to attend both the U.S. and European Congresses. At a standing-room only lecture Monday afternoon, the irrepressible Nakayama said that "I'm afraid the answer might be 'jigo' if my wife asks me which is more important, my American go friends or her." Much-loved for his cherubic delight in teaching go to players of all strengths, Nakayama said "The best thing about go is that you make many friends." At the lecture, he set up two life and death problems and invited members of the audience to come up and try to solve them, gleefully refuting the wrong moves until somebody solved the problem correctly. For the game section of the lecture, he showed part of the game (attached) he won to get promoted to 2P. Nakayama became a pro when he was almost 30, the oldest player ever to achieve this distinction. Nakayama noted that these days, 24 is the oldest you can be to make pro, and the age-limit is dropping. Nakayama said that he was permitted to try for pro because he was a very popular game recorder and the other professionals were worried that he would quit if he didn't get a chance to make pro. He went on to attain 3P in his 30's, 4P in his 40's, 5P in his 50's and 6P in his 60s, and joked that his plan to attain 7P in his 70's was thwarted when the oteai was abolished. Asked his advice on how to get stronger, Nakayama said that a good teacher, tsume-go (life and death problems) and professional game study are the keys to improving. He noted that teaching and competing are different and that the skills necessary to compete at high levels don't necessarily translate into those necessary to be a good teacher. Conceding that studying tsume go problems is difficult, he said it's cr itical to getting stronger, as is reviewing professional games. He especially recommended the games of Takagawa, "which are very elegant and easy to understand," suggesting that serious students of the game take look at a game each day.
- reported by Chris Garlock

LIVE FROM THE YOUTH ROOM! (Tuesday afternoon) Twenty-four pairs are competing here in the Youth/Adult Pair Go Tournament in the Youth Room at the US Go Congress. There are plenty of exciting games going on, with some celebrity contestants, including Michael Redmond competing with his daughter, 13-kyu Yumi. And 13-year-old superstar Curtis Tang 7d is teamed up with Chen Wan Yu. Landon Brownell, the 16-year-old 7d and his teammate Akane Negishi, dressed in a Japanese kimono, cut a sharp pair. The atmosphere is casual yet intense, as the North Carolina mountain rain pours down outside. Just a few years ago, there were hardly any kids in the Youth Room - and a few years before that there wasn't a Youth Room at all -- now it is full most of the day with around 30 kids. Youth room organizer Todd Heidenreich has done a great job pulling everything together, and the kids are definitely getting first class treatment. No less than five pros came in on Monday and kids get both simuls and one-on-one reviews, time permitting. Although there are many high-dan kids, there are plenty of kyu players too and everyone seems to be having a great time. When I asked 11-year-old Adam Plesser 16k if he had had enough go after competing in the US Open, and playing other kids and pros all day long, he had a simple answer for me - "Nope". Lionel Zhang however, was deeply ensconced in solving his Rubik's Cube when I caught up with him yesterday. In addition to all the excitement in the Youth Room, there has been the Redmond Cup, as well. Nine-year-old 5d Calvin Sun won his play-off match against Patrick Lung, both had their Congress expenses paid for making it to the finals. The tremendous growth of youth participation in the Congress can be largely attributed to the hard work of the American Go Foundation, an effort that has been spearheaded by None Redmond, US-born professional Michael Redmond's mother, who became involved after discovering he r son's prodigious talents at the age of 11. Look for an E-Journal interview with this tireless advocate for children's go later in the week.
- reported by Paul Barchilon, 2006 Teacher of the Year

2006 GO CONGRESS EJ TEAM: Chris Garlock, Aria von Elbe, Michael Kyriakakis, Laura Kolb, Lee Huynh, Mario Moran, Chuck Robbins, John Hilt.

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

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