Four-time US Open Champion Jie Li 7D will provide live commentary on the key game between top seeds Myungwan Kim 9P and Yongfei Ge 7D — both two-time US Open winners themselves — in the Sweet 16 round of the Strong Players Online Tournament (SPOT1) at 1p this Saturday, May 1 on KGS. Ge lost to Kim at the 2009 US Go Congress and tells the E-Journal “I will try my best. To me, Kim is best at endgame, and I will try to make it complicated in mid-game.” Ge, who works as a software architect, spent some time studying go every day to prepare for his 2007 U.S. Open win after his first Open win in 2001. Over 500 watched Kim’s game on KGS last Saturday, and our sources say that he’s studying hard as well. Five of top eight seeds are in SPOT1’s upper half, while two are in the lower half due to first round upsets. Click here for the complete Sweet 16 matchups. An innovation of SPOT1 is the use of web cameras, enabling the players to see each other on Skype, which “was proposed by the sponsor of SPOT1, AGA President Allan Abramson,” reports TD Zhiyuan “Edward” Zhang. Players describe the web camera play as both “close to face-to-face playing” and “more formal than regular online games.” While it makes some “feel nervous but excited” the players also says it’s an “interesting experience” that “feels real.”
