News from the American Go Association

August 16, 2006
Volume 7, #69

TEENAGER ZHAONIAN CHEN WINS ING CUP
ERIC LUI TOPS HARDCORE
TOURNEY ROUNDUP
THURSDAY'S TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
GO PROFILES: Guthrie "Gus" Price 7d
A TEACHER'S WORK IS NEVER DONE

TEENAGER ZHAONIAN CHEN WINS ING CUP: Seventeen-year-old ZhaoNian Chen 8d won the 2006 Ing Cup Wednesday night at the 2006 US Go Congress, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat when Yongfei Gei 8d hallucinated in the endgame and didn't see six stones in atari, letting a 3-point victory slip from his fingers as Chen went on to win by 7. Packed with observers for the Ing Cup's final round, the Strong Players Room buzzed with excitement - as did the 150 watching live on IGS -- when a startled Ge missed the atari. Ge's "20-kyu mistake" eerily echoed Jie Li 9d's blunder in his game with Chen Tuesday night. The Chen-Ge game - with comments by Jie Li 9d - is attached to today's EJ. ZhaoNian Chen has been playing go since he was 7. The 17-year-old high school student lives in New Jersey and also likes to play soccer, watch sports and play various games. Other Round 4 results: J. Li d. E. Lui; L. Yu d. S. Hong; N. C hadwick d. G. Price; Y. Zhou d. J. Chen; I Lui d. N. Phipps; T. Morris d. J. Boley; J. Quizon d. M. Burrall.

ERIC LUI TOPS HARDCORE: Eric Lui 8d - also 17 years old -- topped the Congress Hard Core Tournament, the 4-rounder traditionally held on the Congress Day Off. Other 4-0 winners: Christopher Kiguchi 3d, Kevin Shang 2k, James Pickett 5k, Nelson Hua 7k, David Whiteside 12k, Liam Royce 17k and Kenneth Luther 18k. Young Jaron Li 9k went 3-0 and will play another round later.

TOURNEY ROUNDUP: In other Congress tournament news, Peter Hansmeier 1d, Andrew Briscoe 2k and Todd Blatt 5k are all 3-0 so far in the 7-round MIDNIGHT MADNESS tourney. In the SELF-PAIRED, Sudhir Vel has taken the lead in the Champion, Hurricane and Dan Killer categories, while Harold Lloyd is the current Kyu Killer; William Phillips is the Straight Shooter and Horst Sudhoff is hanging onto the Dedicated, Teacher and Philanthropist. In the YOUTH PAIR GO tournament -- which pairs a young go player with an adult -- Curtis Tang 7d and Chen Wan Yu 4d won Table 1. Julie Burrall 11k and Louis Abronson 5d won Table 2; Sheehan Hsu 7k and Carrie Gustavson 7k won Table 3; Tiffany Wu 17k and Steven Wu 2d won Table 4; James Wu 2d and Stephanie Xu 28k won Table 5, and Andrew Shang 13k and Linda Li 35 won Table 6. Due to the traditional Day Off Wednesday, there was no US Open Round.

THURSDAY'S TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: Boards 1 & 2 of the 4th round of the US Open will be broadcast LIVE on the IGS starting at 9A Thursday; at 3:30 there will be a pro-pro demonstration game broadcast live on the IGS.

GO PROFILES: Guthrie "Gus" Price 7d
At 17 years old, Price has been playing for just over three years and is already a regular in the Strong Players Room. His brother first introduced him to the game, and he has had several teachers on KGS. His current sensei is Li Ang 3P from China. The home-schooled high-schooler from Los Osos, California is a top math student, but also likes to play ping pong, tennis and computer games in his spare time. At last year's Congress, there was discussion of Gus going over seas to the Korean Baduk Association; although plans fell through, he says he still hopes to go one day. Asked why he plays go, he admits "I like murdering stones."
- reported by Aria von Elbe

A TEACHER'S WORK IS NEVER DONE
By Paul Barchilon, AGF Teacher of the Year
        What an unbelievable event this is! Being surrounded by so many go players, competing in the US Open and getting to listen to and play with professionals are all first-time experiences for me. I have wanted to come before, but finances made it impossible until this year, when I was chosen Teacher of the Year by None Redmond and the American Go Foundation, who paid my way here. I received the award because I have been instrumental in starting or assisting five go clubs in Colorado, all of which are aimed at children. I started our club two years ago when I heard that Hikaru no Go would be appearing in the US, figuring that if there was ever a time to pull kids in, this was it. I have promoted our club using the Hikaru angle, and secured funding of almost $3,000 to fuel our growth. Our programs are a huge success, and we now have routine attendance of 20-30 kids every Sunday at our main club, which meets at the Boulder Pub lic Library. As an artist with a good knowledge of graphic design as well as grant writing skills, I figured my experience would be of use to others. So we organized a workshop here at the Congress and I had my chance to share our stories with people here. Thirty five people came to my meeting last night, and I talked to them about starting and promoting clubs, how to get grants from youth organizations, and my own perspectives on how best to teach kids. I am also putting together a packet with all of the information we covered, and it will be available on the AGA website in the near future. If any readers are interested in starting a club for kids, feel free to e-mail me at shimari@comcast.net and I will make sure you are kept up to date. The meeting was big hit, and I left feeling that many new kids clubs will be springing up across the country in the near future.

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

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.

To make name or address corrections, go to http://www.listlynx.com/MailUser1.asp Story suggestions, event announcements, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space, and should be directed to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
journal@usgo.org