American Go E-Journal

Feijun (Frank) Luo 5d (r) topped a record field of 38 players who turned out for the February 5 Year of the Rabbit Go Tournament in Atlanta, GA. Players aged seven to over sixty competed over four round in three divisions. The tournament was held in the new office building of the Atlanta Contemporary Chinese Academy (ACCA), with Zhiqiang Liu, Board Chairman of the ACCA welcoming all go players to the event. Liu praised go as “the most interesting and intellectually challenging board game” and encouraged further collaboration among the Atlanta Go Club, Atlanta Chinese Go Association and ACCA. The one-day, four-round tournament generated a number of intense games, including the championship game in Division I (4d-5d) between Feijun (Frank) Luo 5d and Geng (Eric) Wang 5d, who each won a go tournament championship in Atlanta in 2010.  Luo managed to defeat Wang by just 2.5 points after playing catch-up for most of the game.  Yongming (Michael) Zhuang secured the Division II (3d-4d) championship after winning all 4 rounds.  Jicheng (Kevin) Tang, Likang Xu, Xiaodong Sun, and Fengli Cao tied in the second place.  In Division III (1d and below), Kun Chen and Alex Hartsell both captured a championship title, and Brandon Zhou and Kyle Cavin had a tie for second place. Notably, four youth players — Kun Chen 14, Zhangzheng Xu 14, Peiyu Tang 13, and Brandon Zhou 7 – performed well at the tournament, and Zhou, the youngest player, is now a 4k player after learning go just 7 months ago. Local organizers plan to host more tournaments in Atlanta in the future, and welcome all players, “regardless of their levels.”