CHEN & YUAN WIN NJ OPEN: ZhaoNian (Michael) Chen 7d, Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu 7d shared top honors and New Jersey State Co-Champions last weekend, winning $300 each. 115 players turned out one of the strongest fields on the year at the 51st annual tournament February 20-21 in Princeton, New Jersey, organized by the Princeton Go Club. The E-Journal broadcast the Board 1 games live on KGS to crowds that topped 500 for the final showdown for the final round game between Chen and Yuan. The game records can be found on KGS under usgo1; a game commentary for the EJ by Alexander Dinerchtein on the final round game is attached. 5-game winners ($100 each): William Lockhart 6d, Justin Teng 4d, Huang Sida 2k, Brian Aronson 3k. 4-game winners ($60 each): Kevin Shang 5d, Jared Beck 4d, Li Shi 1d, Brandon Langley 2k, Amy Su 5k, Kim Ilhee 6k, Iris Lin 9k, Adam Newshan 14k, Joanne Huang 17k, Robert Cole 19k, Jessica Huang 21k. Beginner (15k and below) random drawing for a complete go set: Jonathan Hong. Paul Matthews and Rick Mott directed the tournament.
MINGJIU JIANG 7P TO REP N.A. AT CHUNLAN CUP: Mingjiu Jiang will represent North America at the North American Chunlan Cup after defeating Feng Yun to win the qualifier Sunday night on KGS. In the first round earlier in the week, Mingjiu Jiang won over Calvin Sun, and Jie Li won over Jason Gu. Feng Yun received a bye when her opponent could not meet the schedule. In the second round, Jie Li 7D had to withdraw due to his law school school schedule, leaving Feng Yun and Mingjiu Jiang to battle it out.The sponsoring Chunlan Group is a large conglomerate of electrical, electronic, and mechanical manufacturing companies, headquartered in Taizhou, China. In 1999, Chunlan began sponsoring a world go championship, first as an annual event, then as a biannual event beginning in 2001. With a top prize of 1 million yuan (about $150,000USD), the Chunlan Cup is comparable in size to the Fujitsu, LG, and Samsung Cup. For the 8th Chunlan, 16 top players from around the world have been invited to participate in a knock-out that will begin in late March, and continues through the rest of the year until concluding with a final 3-game series in June 2011.Korea leads the Cup so far with four, Japan has one win, and China has won the last two. Jimmy Cha represented North America in 2008 and won his first round against Imamura Toshiya 9P from the Kansai Kiin, but lost to China’s Huang Yizhong 7P in the second round. Alexander Dinerchstein played for Europe and lost in the first round.
RUECKRIEMEN WINS VT TOURNEY: Rolf Rueckriemen 2k won the February 13 From the Word Go tournament in in Middlebury, VT. There were 12 players from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Wnner’s Report: 1st: Rolf Rueckriemen 2k (4-0); 2nd (tie): Adam Luter 1k (3-1) & Lihu Ben-Ezri Ravin 4k (3-1); 4th: Henry Danaher 2k (3-1). Peter Schumer directed.
FIRST-TIMER SHIN WINS GOLD AT GROESCH MEMORIAL: First-time tournament player Joe Shin took home top honors at last weekend’s John Groesch Memorial. The 4-round tourney was held on February 20 in College Park, MD and attracted a dozen players. Zarathustra Goertzel also finished 4-0 and won the kyu prize. The John Groesch Memorial prize for the best performance by a player under the age of 20 who is new to tournament go (defined by less than two years of tournament play) was won by Alexei Avakov with 3 points. Steve Mount directed.
