American Go E-Journal

Aaron Ye 5d, who has been the Jr. Division US Youth Champion for the past three years, pulled a surprise upset at the Jujo Jiang Youth Cup in Sunnyvale, CA, on March 24th.  Ye, who is just 11, lost his Jr. Division title to Jeremy Chiu 5d in the US Youth Go Championships in February, and was out to settle a score.  Reigning Sr. Division champion Calvin Sun 7d was also unseated by Andrew Lu 6d at the USYGC.  All of these matches were held online, but Ye was determined to even the score when he got the chance to play both Chiu and Lu face to face at the Jujo Cup. Taking white against Chiu, Ye captured a large group on the lower side, and then forced Chiu to resign in just 132 moves.  Ye next took on Andrew Lu, and despite falling behind in the opening, was able to regain his footing, and defeat Lu as well.  As a special bonus for all E-J readers, Feng Yun’s compelling commentary on the game is being provided for free (see below).  Full members of the AGA get exciting commentaries like this every week, and members can compare games like this one with last week’s commentary, where Ye lost to Chiu, and also see an exciting game between Calvin Sun and Andrew Lu from the USYGC.  The game commentaries alone are worth the price of AGA membership.  For youth it is an even better deal, just $10 a year!  The E-J is providing this game as a freebie, full members can also see another game this week, where Guo Juan 5P reviews a game from a 1 dan player, and highlights how to find urgent points in relation to strong and weak groups on the board.  To sign up for the members edition, register with the AGA here.  Winner’s Report: 5-7 dan: 1st Place: Aaron Ye, 2nd place: Andrew Lu, 3rd place: Jeremy Chiu, 4th place: Tianyi Liu; 1-3dan: 1st place: Daniel Liu;  1k – 8k: 1st: Eric Liu; 17k – 29k: Mathew Cheng; 13 x 13 board: Adam Tang.  -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor.  Photo by Abby Zhang:  A triumphant Aaron Ye holds up his trophy.