World Go News from the American Go Association
August 2, 2007; Volume 8, #58

FENG YUN & MINGJIU JIANG IN ING MASTERS FINAL
RICKY ZHAO WINS DIE HARD
YONGFEI GE LEADING U.S. OPEN
EAST YOUTH ALL STARS REPEAT IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY
CHERRY SHEN/ERIC LUI TOP YOUTH-ADULT PAIR TOURNEY
LIVE! FROM THE 2007 U.S. GO CONGRESS

YOUTH GO: Kids & Adults Team Up in Youth-Adult Pairs
KYUS BEAT SHIRTS OFF ROBBINS-ARNOLD
SELF-PAIRED? KEEPING UP WITH OPEN & ING
GO QUIZ: Repairing?
GO CLASSIFIED
TODAY’S GAME COMMENTARIES: Ping Yu 6P comments on Thursday morning’s exciting US Open game between Mingjiu Jiang 7P and Kevin Huang 8d and Yilun Yang 7P takes a look at the Redmond Cup Senior Division Round 2 game between Cherry Shen and Landon Brownell. NOTE: game commentaries are a regular feature of the Member’s Edition of the E-Journal: sign up now and get commentaries, reviews and more every week!

FENG YUN & MINGJIU JIANG IN ING MASTERS FINAL: Feng Yun 9P (l) will face Mingjiu Jiang 7P (r) in the 2007 North American Ing Masters final round Friday night. Both are undefeated in the 4-round tournament: Feng Yun beat Eric Lui 8d, Xuefen Lin 1P and Jing Yang 7d, while Mingjiu Jiang defeated defending Ing champion Michael Chen 8d, Yilun Yang 7P and Huiren Yang 1P. The final will be broadcast live on KGS beginning at 7P EST and will feature live commentary by Korean pro Myung Wan Kim 8P from the Korean Go Association. The game will be simulcast at the Go Congress in The Galley. Photos by Steve Colburn

RICKY ZHAO WINS DIE HARD: Ricky Zhao 6d won the Die Hard tournament, held Wednesday on the traditional day off at the U.S. Go Congress. While many of the Congress participants were off sightseeing or just taking it easy, 110 players gathered in the main playing area for the 4-round tournament, which features just 45 minutes per player and Chinese counting. Chuck Robbins and Dennis Wheeler directed. Winner’s Report: Section A: 1st Ricky ZHAO 6d; 2nd Yang XU 4d. Section B: 1st Albert GUO 1d; 2nd Benjaman ARMITAGE 1d. Honorable mentions: Sean HE 1d; Andrew DUDZIK 1k; Andrew HUANG 2k; Lee HUYNH 2k; Andrew OKUN 2k. Section C: 1st Joel BENYOWITZ 4k; 2nd David ROHDE 6k; Honorable Mentions: Craig GARRETT 4k; Michael HESS 6k; Peter DRAKE 6k; John GIPSON 6k. Section D: 1st Keiju TAKEHARA 8k; 2nd Andrew CUPINO 8k. Honorable mentions: Lihu Ben-Ezri RAVIN 9k; Andrew SHANG 9k; Yukino TAKEHARA 13k; Kelly BRAUN 13k.
- reported by Dennis Wheeler

YONGFEI GE LEADING U.S. OPEN: With 4 straight wins and just two rounds to go, Yongfei Ge 8d is now the leading contender for the 2007 U.S. Open Championship. Click here for the complete round-by-round results. Other 4-game winners include Landon Brownell 6d, Juan Pablo Quizon 5d, Wan Chen 4d, Gary Shen 4d, Enzhi Liu 3d, Frank Salantrie 3d, Bradley Jones 3d, Tim Hoel 2d, Jonathan Hop 1d, Fernando Rivera 1k, Kei Kawabata 2k, Paul Benson 4k, Sheehan Hsu 6k, John Greiner 7k, Kenji Takehara 8k, Geoff Boyer 10k, John Eckencamp 12k, Garrett Smith 13k, Stanley Sun 15k, Tiffany Wu 15k, Chris Hlavka 15k, Vi Cao 21k, Gary Smith 30k. photo of Yongfei Ge (center, in white shirt) reviewing a game with Feng Yun (l) by Chris Garlock.

EAST YOUTH ALL STARS REPEAT IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY: Twelve top youth players battled for coastal supremacy Wednesday night in the 2nd Youth All Star Championship at the US Go Congress. In the end, the East repeated as All Star champions, sweeping five of the six games in a series of exciting matches. The first All Star Championship was held at last year’s Congress and featured 2006 US Open Champion Andy Liu and 2006 ING Champion Zhaonian Michael Chen as well as Eric Lui for the East and 2006 Redmond Cup Senior Division Representative Curtis Tang and Guthrie Price for the West. With these players ineligible to play this year, many players from the East, including Daniel Gourdeau 5d of Canada, took this chance to show off their improved go skills. This year, the two US youth representatives to the World Youth Go Championship, Calvin Sun (Junior division, West Coast) and William Zhou (Senior division, East Coast) were pitted against each other, with William winning by 5.5 points in a very close game. Redmond Cup finalists also populated the playing field, with Calvin Sun and Hugh Zhang of the Junior Division and Cherry Shen and Landon Brownell of the Senior Division. Many of this year’s youth players are also doing well in the US Open, with Jason Gu and Landon Brownell a perfect 3-0 as of Wednesday. Landon Brownell was the sole victor from the West, forcing Ricky Zhao to resign. The tournament, organized by Lawrence Ku, was played in the Strong Players Room, with time limits of 45 minutes and 5 periods of 30 seconds byo-yomi. Winner’s Report: Landon Brownell 6d (W) def. Zhongxia Ricky Zhao 6d (E) by resignation; William Zhou 7d (E) def. Calvin Sun 6d (W) by 5.5; Jason Gu 6d (E) def. Calvin Lee 6d (W) by resignation; Jack Yang 6d (E) def. Cherry Shen 5d (W) by resignation; Yang Xu 4d (E) def. Hugh Zhang 5d (W) by 11.5; Daniel Gourdeau 5d (E-Canada) def. Lawrence Ku 6d (W) by 1.5.
- reported by Lawrence Ku; photo by John Pinkerton

CHERRY SHEN/ERIC LUI TOP YOUTH-ADULT PAIR TOURNEY: Cherry Shen 5d and Eric Lui 8d topped the table winners at the 2007 Youth Pair Go Tournament Tuesday, which pairs youth player with adult players. Other table winners include Jack Pinkerton 5k & Tina Zhang 4d; Yukino Takehara 13k & Yuichi Tanimiya 5d; Tiffany Wu 16k & Steven Wu 2d; Michael Plesser 20k & Nicole Casanta 1d; Eric Wu 8k & Chiu-Fang Wang 35k. The table winners will play off later this week to determine the final winners.
– reported by Todd Heidenreich

LIVE! FROM THE 2007 U.S. GO CONGRESS: Thursday, August 2, 3 p.m.: In Room 161, Maedo Ryo 6P is explaining sabaki to a rapt audience, stones flying on and off the demonstration board as Yoshi Sawada translates…down the hall, Yoshiaki Nagahara 6P is taking a well-earned break on a couch…in the main playing hall, Huiren Yang 1P is playing an eight-on-one simul…at the next table, Ping Yu 6P (l, in white shirt) is playing a three-on-one simul while across the room Noriyuki Nakayama 6P is playing a two-on-one simul…scattered throughout the main playing area are several dozen casual games…a student stops Yilun Yang 7P in the corridor to ask a question about his game…downstairs, in the Strong Player’s Room, Boards 3 and 4 are still underway…across the hall, the AGA Board of Directors is meeting…down the hall in the Youth Room, Feng Yun 9P is conducting a game review while youngsters play casual games around the room and players check their email online at computer kiosks.
- report/photo by Chris Garlock

YOUTH GO: Kids & Adults Team Up in Youth-Adult Pairs
by Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor
Two dozen pairs participated in the popular Youth-Adult Pair Go Tournament Tuesday, which is establishing itself as a warm up for the U.S. Pair Go Championship, which will be held on Thursday. The top board featured Cherry Shen, 5d, with Eric Lui 8d, who prevailed against Michael Liang 6d and Chuyang Liu 5d in the first round. In Round 2 they defeated Yang Xu 4d and his partner, 2006 World Pair Go representative for the U.S., Wan Chen 4d. High dan players played at five out of six tables, but the available pool of female players steadily decreased in rank. The pair points system compensates for this quite well though, and the dan players frequently say it was the kyu player who won the game. Such was the case in the photo at right, where 6 year old 22k Barbara Huang played with Micah Feldman 5d, who is just shy of ten times her age. They handily defeated teenager Joyce Hong 19k, playing with Stuart Horowitz 3d. “That little girl was amazing,” commented Horowitz on Huang’s play, “she hardly ever made a bad move and her shapes were all rock solid. My partner Joyce played a solid game as well.” Next up in the Youth Room will be Relay Go, on Thursday, which features teams of kids running up to a board, making a move, and then running back to pass off to the next player. Speed and skill are both important, and there is usually as much running as playing (ok, I admit it, we are trying to tire them out in the hopes of being able to defeat some of them in the US Open the next day). photo by John Pinkerton

KYUS BEAT SHIRTS OFF ROBBINS-ARNOLD: “His group was dead and ours was alive,” Keith Arnold 5d (l, in red & white shirt) said, throwing up his hands in mock exasperation. “Now he’s alive and we’re dead. Chuck, you’re a moron!” Arnold and Chuck Robbins 4d took on ten kyu-level players in the Chuck Robbins/Keith Arnold Challenge Thursday afternoon in the main playing hall at the US Go Congress. The Challenge stakes were perhaps the highest of any Congress event: if the Robbins/Arnold team failed to win more than half their games, both men would have to change shirts. Robbins (l, in white shirt), who never wears anything but a white dress shirt, would have to wear a Congress t-shirt, while Arnold would have to don a white dress shirt. Robbins failed to win a single game in the inaugural Challenge last year and the good-natured event featured running commentary by his new partner – mostly complaints about Robbins’ moves -- who alternated moves with Robbins as they played their ten opponents, who frequently erupted in laughter. As the afternoon wore on, a sartorial change in the air was sensed as the kyu players racked up win after win, winding up with a 6-4 result against Arnold and Robbins, who cheerfully disappeared behind the stage curtains to emerge moments later resplendent in a red Congress t-shirt.
- report/photo by Chris Garlock

SELF-PAIRED? KEEPING UP WITH OPEN & ING: Latest results in the popular Self-Paired Tournament were not available at press-time from TD Jon Hilt. Thanks to EJ team-member Dennis Wheeler, however, you can keep up with how your friends and clubmates are doing at the US Open and Ing Masters: for round-by-round results of the U.S. OPEN, click here and for ING MASTERS results click here PLUS: Top-board game records are posted online and updated daily.

GO QUIZ: Repairing?
Five of you knew – or guessed -- that it’s Peter Armenia’s car – parked outside one of the Go Congress dorms – that’s emblazoned with the words “Ko Fight,” in Monday’s quiz. Big congrats to Jack Merritt, Paul Barchilon, Justin Blank, Kim Salamony and Quinn Swanger (this week’s quiz questions are just for fun and don’t count toward official quiz tallies) Here’s another Congress quiz question: how many times did US Open tournament director Chris Sira (r), using a new pairing system, have to pair the first round of the US Open last Sunday? Once, twice, three times, three times or more than four times? Click here to vote!

CONGRESS SCRAPBOOK

(left) At the Huiren Yang 10-on-1 simul Thursday afternoon. Photo by Chris Garlock


GO CLASSIFIED

NEW CLUB FORMING: Barnesville, Georgia: Go club starting in the Fall '07 semester at Gordon College. If interested, please contact the club main advisor at go_gordonga@yahoo.com. The club will teach new and old players, and will have tournaments with other clubs either online or in person. Also, Gordon College Club will be appearing at Anime Weekend Atlanta for free go lessons on September 21-23 at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel & Cobb Calleria Centre, Atlanta, Georgia. (8/2)

PLAYERS WANTED: Syracuse, NY: The Syracuse Go Club has set up a second weekly go group on Thursday nights in a new location - the Recess Coffee House at 110 Harvard Place in the Syracuse University neighborhood. 7-10pm. This new alternate location is more convenient for SU students and city residents. The Monday night meetings at Dewitt Wegmans will continue as our home base. (8/2)

PLAYERS WANTED: New Port Richey, Florida: Looking for someone to play with or maybe a go club I'm not aware of. I'm AGA 5k. Email Queselk@gmail.com (8/1)

NEW GO WEBSITE: Relatively new website Ichi Ni San Go! is up, please post feedback or suggestions on forums or e-mail Nik.s@Telus.net (8/1)

PLAYERS WANTED: Detroit, MI: Players of all strengths & ages and/or willing to do teaching games and teach others how to play. Justinman949@yahoo.com (8/1)

FOR SALE: Complete collection of Go World issues #1 through latest (#111).
Issues #1-10 are protected by hard binding. All issues are in perfect condition.
Asking $1000 plus shipping & insurance. Please contact bwbgo@yahoo.com (7/16)

PLAYERS WANTED: Charleston, SC: beginning player looking for players in the area. Nels Lindberg; nelslindberg@gmail.com (7/16)

PLAYERS WANTED: Northern Illinois, Lake County. Player from Antioch, IL would like to find players in the Lake County area interested in starting a go club, or anyone who would just like to play! If interested, contact Dave at epiman89@sbcglobal.net (7/9)

PLAYERS WANTED: Mid-Ohio Valley: I'm based out of the Parkersburg, WV area and would like to find some local players. Contact Ryan at xmiyux@gmail.com (7/2)

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Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb

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