American Go E-Journal » 2011 » December

The first TRENDnet Southern California Go Championship was held December 3-4 in Alhambra, CA, under clear skies and cold dry Santa Ana winds.  Inside the Southern California Chinese Broadcasting building, the atmosphere was warmer as about 50 players of all ages gathered for five rounds of go.  The open section – and $500 top prize — was won by Won Lee 7d.  Lee, a veteran SoCal strong player not so active in recent years, put on a strong showing by edging out local strong youths Curtis Tang 7d and Andrew Lu 6d, according to tournament organizer Kevin Chao.  Other section winners were Yunxuan Li 3d in the dan section, Vincent Ma 3k in the high kyu section, Raymond Liu 7k in the mid kyu section, and Gary Huang 10k in the low kyu section.  The tournament featured a $2,000 prize pool and was sponsored by TRENDNet, a Torrance, CA-based supplier of home and small business networking equipment.
– Andrew Okun; photo: Won Lee at left, Kevin Chao at right, Andy Okun in center.

Winner’s Report:
Open Section: Champion  Won Lee 7d (4-1); 2nd place Curtis Tang 7d (4-1); 3rd place Andrew Lu 6d (4-1). Dan Section: 1st place Yunxuan Li 3d (5-0); 2nd place Jae Kim 1d (4-1); 3rd place Ming Teh Wu 4d (3-2). High Kyu Section: 1st place Vincent Ma 3k (5-0); 2nd place Kevin Chou 1k (3-2); 3rd place Ted Terpstra 5k (3-2). Mid Kyu Section: 1st place Raymond Liu 7k (4-1); 2nd place Jiayue Li 8K (4-1); 3rd place Michal Lebl (3-2). Low Kyu Section; 1st place Gary Huang 10k (4-1); 2nd place Susanna Pfeffer 12k (4-1); 3rd place Samantha Davis 10k (3-2).

Jimmy Yang 5d went 3-1 winning the high dan section at the 2011 Slate and Shell Open in Fairfax, VA on a tiebreak with Josh Lee 5d also 3-1. The sponsor, Slate and Shell, donated books which were awarded to the first and second place winners in each section. Kelsey Dyer 1d, playing in her first tournament since achieving a shodan rating, won the second section with a 3-1 score in a tiebreak with Arnold Eudell 4k (3-1). The other sectional winners were Garrett Smith 9k (3-1), and Anderson Barreal 14k (3-1) with second places going to Gurujeet Khalsa 7k (2-1), and Mohan Sud 10k (2-2).
– Gurujeet Khalsa; photo: tournament winners holding their prizes from Slate and Shell

New York City go players have organized a tournament to help victims of the floods in Thailand. Pre-registration is required for the December 18 Thailand Flood Relief Tournament. “The floods that started this summer in Thailand are still being cleaned up,” organizer Boris Bernadsky tells the E-Journal. “As many as 17 provinces of Thailand, including Bangkok are still underwater” after the worst floods in fifty years. Bernadsky organized a similar tournament last spring to help the victims of the Japanese tsunami. Prizes for the 3-round tournament have been donated and include membership in Breakfast’s Insei League, a private lesson with Yin Ming Ming 1P, and gift certificate to local Thai food restaurants. $20 suggested donation; all funds collected will be donated to a charity benefiting the flood victims. Space is limited to 40 players, pre-register at Badukboris@gmail.com