American Go E-Journal » 2010 » April

The Strong Players Online Tournament (SPOT1) launches tonight, April 23, at 7P on KGS, with three matches between U.S. players, as well as six Canadian players battling for three slots in the Top 32. The first major online open tournament in recent years has attracted a lot of interest from players and fans alike. Among the thirty-five strong players from Canada, the United States and Mexico are Korean 9-dan professional — and two-time US Open Champion — Myung Wan Kim, Canadian Yongfei Ge 7D, also a two-time US Open winner, and 2006 NAIM Champion Zhaonian “Michael” Chen 7D from New Jersey. “Every team is tough,” said Yixian Zhou 7D from Los Angeles, better-known as “missbear” on KGS. “But I will have fun to learn from the strong players.” Changlong Wu 7D from North Carolina encourages fans to “Come and watch, and join the AGA today.”  The tournament continues over the weekend. Click here for the pairings. schedule and results.
– Zhiyuan “Edward” Zhang, SPOT1 Tournament Director

Four players with identical 4-0 records topped the three divisions of the Salt City Go Tournament, held April 17 in Syracuse, NY.  Gus Price 7d (at right, in photo) took the $200 top prize in the A division, while Peter Wynn 4k took first in B.  Dan Young 18k and Meg Houston 29k, both playing in their first AGA tournament, tied atop the C division. 12-year old Yao Zhou 6d (at left, playing Price) took the second-place $75 prize with a 3-1 record.  A record 32 players competed in the tournament, which was the third paired tournament held by the Syracuse Go Club, with cash prizes of $400 along with 13 books from Slate and Shell. The tournament’s go problem cake (B to play), a 3-year tradition at the tournament, drew 15 solution submissions this year (only four correct), with Noel Kinnear of Schenectady, NY winning a book prize.
– Richard Moseson

Trevor Morris 7D took first place out of 30 players in the Massachusetts Spring tournament, held April 11 in Somerville, MA. In second place was Pete Martin 4k and Matt Mallory 1k was 3rd.
– Wanda Metcalf

Thirteen-year-old Calvin Sun 7d and ten-year-old Kevin Fang 1d won their divisions at the World Youth Go Championships qualifiers on April 10 and 11.  In the Senior Division, Sun faced stiff challenges from Curtis Tang 8d and Zhongxia Zhao 7d.  Zhao bested Tang in the semi-final, but then lost to Sun at the finals.  The qualifier was held on KGS, and drew over 300 viewers on the top boards.  In the Junior Division, all four youth happened to live in the Bay Area and were able to compete live at the Bay Area Go Players monthly ratings tournament.  In the first round Aaron Ye 1d, 7,  was top seeded, but lost to Sammy Zhang 1d (9), while Kevin Fang 1d (9), beat out Henry Zhang.  Fang and Sammy Zhang faced off in the finals, with Fang emerging the victor.  Both boys will be off to Taiwan to compete in the World Youth Championships in July, along with their teacher and team coach Mingjiu Jiang 7p.
– Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor; photo: Henry Zhang (l) vs. Kevin Fang (r) and Aaron Ye  (l) vs Sammy Zhang (r) at the World Youth Qualifier in Palo Alto, CA.  Photo by Stanley Fang