Jianing Gan 7d and Aaron Ye 6d both won their first round matches in the Redmond Cup Finals at the US Go Congress Sunday afternoon. Gan, who is from Canada, was undefeated in the qualifiers, and is the defending champion in the Senior Division of the Redmond (under 18). His opponent Andrew Lu 6d is the current US Youth Champion, and lost only to Gan in the qualifiers. Lu was out for a win, and played strongly throughout today’s match, but ran into time trouble and ultimately had to resign. In the Junior Division (under 12) defending champion Aaron Ye, age 11, faced off against Canadian David Lu 6d, also 11. Lu is new to the Redmond, entering for the first time this year, and was undefeated in the qualifiers. Ye lost only to Lu, and was out for revenge in the finals. Lu stumbled early in the game, when Ye killed a large group in the corner, but kept up his resolve and created tremendous complications for Ye throughout the rest of the game, which hinged on a ko that almost turned the tide. Ye played steadily throughout though, and ultimately won by a large margin. The game was broadcast live on KGS, and drew 150 observers. Round two will be broadcast on Tuesday at 3pm PT, in the AGA Tournaments Room.
In the Youth Room at the Go Congress, today’s event was a lightning tournament, with ten minutes per player. 32 kids and teens played in the match, and table winners won $10 gift certificates to Congress go vendors. Shirley Lin 3P and Andy Liu 1P also held simuls. Justin Teng 6d won at the top lightning table, which included some of the strongest young players at congress. Jimmy Yang 5d, April Ye 1k, Yukino Takehara 2k, Austen Cao 9k, and Anson Hu won the other tables. Tomorrow’s events will be 9×9 and 13×13 tourneys, and professionals Myungwan Kim 9p and Mingjiu Jiang 7P will also hold simuls. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photos: top left: Andrew Lu 6d (l) vs. Jianing Gan 7d (r), photo by Phil Straus; bottom right: Youth Lightning Tourney, photo by Paul Barchilon.
