The United States Youth Go Championships (USYGC) drew 58 kids and teens on March 26. Contestants vied for the top slot in five different sections. Dan level youth also competed for entry into a qualifier for the World Youth Go Championships, which will be held next week. Calvin Sun 7d again topped the Senior Dan Division, with a perfect record. Sun, who has represented the US four times in a row as USYGC champ, is required to take a year off from the WYGC, and will not be competing in the qualifier. The Ing Foundation, which sponsors the event, just changed the age limit to under 16 for the Senior Division. While this unfortunately disqualified several U.S. youth, the tourney allowed all of them to participate in the USYGC Qualifier anyway. Eligible finalists who will be advancing on for the right to represent the U.S. at the World Youth are Hugh Zhang 7d, Andrew Lu 6d, Vincent Zhuang 5d, and Yunxuan Li 2d (who pulled a surprise upset by defeating several four dans). In the Junior League (under 12) Aaron Ye 3d, Sammy Zhang 2d, Luke Zhang 1d, and Jeremy Chiu 1d will all compete in the finals next week. Both Senior and Junior division games will start at 9 am PT, Saturday the 2nd, in the AGA Tournaments room on KGS. Calvin Sun 7d is the National High Dan Champion, and Yunxuan Li now holds the title for National Low Dan Champion, Senior Division.
The kyu level tourney was equally exciting, with kids ranked from 1k to 19k duking it out in multiple bands. April Ye 3k is the new Single Digit Kyu (SDK) Champion in the 1-4k bracket, Senior Division, while Larry Qu 4k is the new Junior Division Champ. In the 6-10 kyu bracket, top honors went to Joey Phoon 6k in the Senior, and Raymond Liu 10k in the Junior. Bennett Ji 11k won the Senior in the 11-19k bracket, and Julian Erville 11k won in the Junior. Winners will be receiving trophy plaques with their names and titles, $400 scholarships to the US Go Camp, and gift certificates for audio go lessons from Guo Juan’s Internet Go School. The USYGC was run by tournament directors Paul Barchilon and Jeff Shaevel.
– Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor
