American Go E-Journal

Dae Hyuk Ko 7d (l) won the Cotsen Open last weekend in Los Angeles, California, besting a very tough Open section in which a lot of hard-fought games were played over the course of the two-day tournament. More than 150 players turned out for the 20th annual competition, one of the biggest and richest on the annual American Go Association tournament calendar. The popular event, founded and run by longtime local go fan and entrepreneur Eric Cotsen, is also a unique tournament, the only one to feature free shoulder massages from roaming masseuses, a free catered lunch on both days, a club competition with a $1,500 prize pool and full refund of registration fees to players who attend both days of the tournament. Another highlight was the online pro-pro game Sunday morning between Yilun Yang 7P and Yigang Hua 8P in China, which Yang then commented on afterward. In addition to being available to review player games, Yang ran a competition to correctly solve life and death problems that had players clustered over boards throughout the playing area working on the problems. This year’s tournament also hosted a planning meeting for the 2011 U.S. Go Congress, which will be held July 30-August 6 in nearby Santa Barbara, California and already has close to 100 pre-registered. The American Go E-Journal once again broadcast top-board games on KGS, some of which were commented by Jennie Shen 2P; EuroGoTV also hosted a live video feed of Board 1.
RESULTS (Open Section): 1st: Dae Hyuk Ko 7d ($1,000); 2nd: Juyong Ko 7d ($500); 3rd: Deuk Je Chang 7d ($250); 4th: Curtis Tang 7d ($125); 5th: Seung Hyun (Kevin) Hong 7d ($75); 6th: Rui (Ray) Wang 7d ($50). A 3d-5d: 1st Haibo Zhou $500; 2nd Brett Kelly $250; 3rd Jack Shih $125. B 1k-2d: 1st Aaron Ye $400; 2nd Ross Wolf $200; 3rd Sammy Zhang $100. C 2k-4k: 1st Clark Brooks $500; 2nd Alex Chau $250; 34d Jay Chan $125. D 5k-8k: 1st Roger Schrag $200; 2nd Alf Mikula $100; 3rd Ezana Berhane $60. E 9k-11k: 1st Daniel Davis Jr. $100; 2nd Jiayue Li $80; 3rd Reese Anschultz $50. F 12k-18k: 1st Gordon Castanza $80; 2nd Scott Nichols $60; 3rd Luis Armendariz $40. G 19k+: 1st Shuai Weng $60; 2nd Bryan Liu $40; 3rd Alex Ledante $30. Club prize: 1st Santa Monica Go Club $1000; 2nd Orange County Go Club $300; 3rd Yu GO Go Club $20.
CREDITS: Eric Cotsen, Sponsor; Casie Rizer, Organizer; Chris Hayashida, TD;  assisted by La Nida Cedeno, Lauren Madison-Jamar & Patricia Wang with special thanks to Alex Ledante; Friday set-up volunteers: Sue Gisser, AJ Laprix, Bobbie Rizer, Samantha Rizer, Sara Bergman. Photography by Tony Lau. E-Journal broadcasting team: Chris Garlock, Managing Editor & lead broadcaster; Chris Burg, Board 2 broadcaster & video stream manager; Nick McNelis, Board 3 broadcaster; Richard Dolen, Board 4 broadcaster; KGS, broadcasting host; EuroGoTV, video stream host. photo: reviewing the final round game between Dae Hyuk Ko 7d and Curtis Tang 7d; photo by Chris Garlock