News from the American Go Association

August 21, 2006
Volume 7, #72

TEENS TRIUMPH IN 2006 ING & OPEN
TOP BOARDS FINAL PLACE-WINNERS
VEL & SUDHOFF DOMINATE SELF-PAIRED
TOURNEY ROUNDUP
CONGRESS EJ CREDITS
CHINA-KOREA MATCH TIED UP
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PRO GO EXPANDING
GO PROFILES: Calvin Sun 4d
GO CLASSIFIED

TEENS TRIUMPH IN 2006 ING & OPEN: Teenagers Andy Liu 7d and ZhaoNian Chen 8d schooled their older and higher-ranked opponents last week at two of American go's major tournaments. The 15-year-old Liu and 17-year-old Chen pulled off stunning upsets of more experienced opponents like Ming Jiu Jiang 7P and Jie Li 9d, both of whom were expected to dominate the Ing and Open. Although both Jiang and Li made uncharacteristic blunders, Liu and Chen demonstrated remarkable strength, determination and stamina in their games, as well as humility in their victories (immediately after his title-clinching final round, Liu was found reviewing the game next door with Chinese 7P Duan Rong; look for their commented game record in this Friday's Member's Edition - sign up for the Member's Edition at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.html) Liu swept all six rounds of the Open to take the 20 06 championship, defeating MingJiu Jiang 7P, Jie Li 9d, ZhaoNian Chen 8d, Yongfei Ge 8d, Guthrie Price 7d and Seung Hyun Hong 7d. Chen won the four rounds of the Ing Invitational to take first place, knocking off two of the highest-rated amateurs in the country, Jie Li 9d and Yongfei Ge 8d, as well as Guthrie Price 7d and Trevor Morris 6d. The kids, it would appear, are not only alright, they're amazing.

TOP BOARDS FINAL PLACE-WINNERS: Ing Invitational: 1st: ZhaoNian Chen 8D; 2ND: Yongfei Ge 8d; 3rd: Lie Li 9d; 4th: Yuan Zhou 7d; 5th: Lianzhou Yu 7d. US OPEN: 1st: Andy Liu 7d; 2nd: Mingjiu Jiang 7P; 3rd: Seung Hyun Hong 7d; 4th: Curtis Tang 7d; 5th: Zhaonian Chen 8d.

VEL & SUDHOFF DOMINATE SELF-PAIRED: Horst Sudhoff and Sudhir Vel dominated the Self-Paired Tournament this year, carting off seven of the 11 prizes. Sudhoff won the Kyu Killer, Dedicated (most games), Sensei (most games against strong players) and Philanthropist (most losses), while Sudhir Vel won the Champion (most wins over losses), the Keith Arnold (most wins against kyus, shared with Harold Lloyd), and the Hurricane (most wins, shared with Bill Phillips). Sean Langlier is this year's Grasshopper (biggest rating increase), Bill Phillips won the Straight Shooter (most victories against consecutive ranks), Kory Stevens won the Faithful (smallest rating change), Martin Lebl won the Philanthropist (most losses) and David Armstrong won the Optimist (largest rating decrease).

TOURNEY ROUNDUP: Eric Lui took First Place in the Youth Handicap; Zhongxia Zhao won the Lightning, and Peter Hansmeier topped the Midnight Madness tournament; COMPLETE 2006 CONGRESS TOURNEY RESULTS are posted online now at www.usgo.org (click on Latest News).

CONGRESS EJ CREDITS: The live broadcast of top boards at the Ing and Open this year were made possible by the IGS and KGS: special thanks to tweet at IGS and William Schubert for their support in bringing the games to a worldwide audience. Michael Kyriakakis and Akane Negishi joined EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock as game recorders and a very special thanks to Dave Weimer 4d and Steve Colburn for stepping in on Saturday to complete the broadcast of the rest of the exciting Board 2 game between Ming Jiu Jiang 7P and Jie Li 9d. Look for the record of this thrilling half-point game in Friday's Member's edition: sign up at http://www.usgo.org/org/application.html Thanks again to the entire EJ team, which included Aria von Elbe, Laura Kolb, Lee Huynh, Lawrence Ku, Mario Moran, Phil Straus, Chuck Robbins, John Hilt and Steve Colburn. Last but not least, our deepest appreciation to 2006 Co ngress organizers Paul Celmer and Peter Armenia and their wonderful team, who made it all possible.

CHINA-KOREA MATCH TIED UP: The dual international match between the winners of the Chinese Tianyuan title, Gu Li 9P, and the Korean Chunwon title, Ko Geuntae 5P, is now tied at one win each in the three-game contest. Gu Li won the first game by 7.5 points and Ko took the second by resignation, both winners playing black. The decisive game will be today. Gu Li won the dual match between the Chinese and Japanese winners of the national Agon Cup titles earlier this year against the Japanese teenager Iyama Yuta 7P. Gu Li has won what the Japanese would call the Tengen match the last three years, defeating Choi Cheolhan 9P of Korea twice and Song Taekon 7P once. Song is another of the amazing Korean teenagers, though he will be twenty next month. Gu himself is only twenty-three. Pictures and career highlights can be found at http://www.gogameworld.com/gophp/playerinfo.php?id=79

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PRO GO EXPANDING: In the third article by prominent Korean go journalist Lee Hongreal, carried on the gobase.org site, Lee discusses the increasing internationalization of professional go, as more players move from one Asian country to another and more Europeans train in Asia. Several US-born players have done this, of course, including James Kerwin 1P in Japan, Janice Kim 3P in Korea, and Michael Redmond 9P in Japan. A number of strong young US players seem to be considering trying this path out in China now. The series of articles, called "Agora Black & White" is a new feature on Jan van der Steen's site.

GO PROFILES: Calvin Sun 4d
Calvin Sun is a nine-year-old 4-dan who lives in Cerritos, California. He is the 2006 Redmond Cup Junior Divison champion, and he has also represented the US in the World Youth Go Championships in the junior division in 2005. He started playing go when he was six years old. His parents saw a go advertisement, and they decided to let him learn the game. At first, he started learning from Mr. Wang, an amateur 5 dan living in southern California. He now learns go from Mingjiu Jiang. Calvin likes doing life and death problems.
- reported by Lawrence Ku

GO CLASSIFIED:
FOR SALE: 1) Complete set of old 4.5mm Japanese shell and slate go stones with some natural yellowing and a few minor chips; $100 plus $10 shp. 2) Nice old half-inch folding go board in original box. Wood unknown. $30 plus $15 shp. DISCOUNT: Both items for $120 plus $20 shp. Pay by U.S. postal money order. Inquire by private email to Anton Ninno at antonninno@yahoo.com

WANTED TO BUY: I am interested in buying a copy of the 1982 movie "The Go Masters," original title "Mikan no Taikyoku," with English subtitles. I think there was a VHS-version released that included English subtitles; pretty sure there was no DVD. Contact abc@glowwormpub.com

PLAYERS WANTED: Looking for go players in the Gallup, New Mexico area. There are a bunch of chess players but they turn blank at the mention of our beloved game. Lee Frankel-Goldwatermirage7i8@gmail.com

SELL IT, BUY IT OR TRADE IT HERE with over 8,000 go-players worldwide! Classified ads are FREE and run for 4 weeks; email your ad to us now at journal@usgo.org

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

American Go Association P.O. Box 397 Old Chelsea Station New York, NY 10113-0397