American Go E-Journal

Almost 700 watched the Strong Players Online Tournament semifinal game on KGS between Myungwan Kim 9P (CA) (r) and Zhaonian Chen 7D (NJ) on Saturday afternoon. Kuo Yin 3P, the 2006 China Ing Cup University Champion and 2008 US Open runner-up provided live commentaries from Beijing, China. Kim won at move 190 by resignation. Chen used a variation of High Chinese opening and strategically obtained territories in both lower-right and lower-left corner. (Click here for game record) However when defending Black’s dragon Chen “misread badly” per his review and lost an 11-stone dragon. Chen did not give up, but started to operate on his big moyo, which successfully complicated the game. “Chen played well in the second half.” Yin 3P commented, “He simply trailed a bit too much at the beginning”. Kim 9P thrived in the complicated second half and did not give Chen a chance, though the fights were tough and both players were in byo-yomi.
In the other semiifinal, Jianing Gan (ON, Canada) (l) quickly built a lead in territory while Eric Lui 7D (MD) gained thickness. It appeared that Gan defended well on the left side and removed Lui’s potential in the upper-center. Later Lui tried to attack Black with thickness but White (Gan) again made sure to stay connected and sound. In the endgame Gan’s territorial lead seemed untouchable and Lui resigned after move 223.
Beginning in the qualifier three weeks ago, Gan remains undefeated (entire tournament results here) and has won the right to challenge Kim 9P, who has the highest rating in AGA (10.0). No matter what the result, the match is a dream come true for this middle-school student in Winsor as he told EJ last week “I am so lucky that I have the opportunity to challenge top players of North America.”
Game 1 of the SPOT1 best-of-three finals starts Sunday May 9 at 1p EST on KGS — Jennie Shen 2P will give live commentary –– and will resume on Saturday 5/22. Third-place game series between Chen and Lui have the same schedule.
Reported by Tournament Director Zhiyuan ‘Edward’ Zhang; photos by John Pinkerton