American Go E-Journal » 2015 » August

Kelly Liu to Play Melissa Zhang for 1st Girls’ Under-16 Championship

Tuesday August 4, 2015

In the semifinals of the first-ever AGA Girls’ Under-16 Championship held Monday at the Twin Cities US Go Congress, Kelly Liu 1d upset Amy Wang 5d in a hard-fought match. In the other semifinal, Melissa Zhang 3d beat Melissa Cao 1d when she chased a one-eyed group across the board and denied it a second, life-giving eye. Ms. Liu will now play Ms. Zhang for the championship and a $100 first-place prize on Thursday at 1 p.m., while Ms. Wang will play Ms. Cao for third place.
– Ted Terpstra, TD
Update: the headline has been updated; Liu did not win the Championship but will play Zhang on Thursday in the final.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

The Power Report (Part 1): Japanese out of Mlily Cup; Yoda keeps lead in Kisei S League; Cho Chikun repeats in Fumakira Masters; Go Seigen elected to Hall of Fame

Tuesday August 4, 2015

by John Power, Japan Correspondent for the E-Journal

Japanese representatives eliminated from Mlily Cup: The first two rounds of the 2nd Mlily Cup, a Chinese-sponsored international tournament, were held in Beijing on July 7 and 9. The three Japanese players, Ida Atsushi 8P, Yuki Satoshi 9P, and Ichiriki Ryo 7P, were all eliminated in the opening round. photo: Li Qincheng 1P (l), Yuki Satoshi 9P (r)

Yoda keeps lead in Kisei S League: Yoda Norimoto 9P has maintained his undefeated record in the top league, the S League, of the 40th Kisei tournament. In a game played on July 9, Yoda (B) beat Takao Shinji 9P by half a point. Yoda is now 3-0. On July 16, Kobayashi Satoru 9P (B) beat Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P by resignation to pick up his first win (to two losses). Yamashiro has the same score. In another game, played on July 23, Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) beat Murakawa Daisuke Oza by resig. Yamashita goes to 2-1 and Murakawa to 1-2.
Progress report on other leagues: In the A League, Kono Rin 9P has the sole lead on 5-0 with two rounds to go. The only other players in the running are Ichiriki Ryo 7P and Cho Riyu 8P, who are both on 4-1. In the B Leagues, Awaji Shuzo leads the B1 League with 4-2 and Yamada Kimio 9P leads the B2 League on 5-1. In the C League, which is a Swiss System, four players have unblemished records after three rounds. They are: Akiyama Jiro 9P, Han Zenki 8P, Yo Seiki 7P, and Kyo Kagen 3P. In the fourth round, Akiyama will play Han and Yo will meet Kyo. Only one player from this league can join the irregular knock-out tournament for league-winners; to win the league, you have to win all five games, so they are the only ones still in the running.

Cho Chikun repeats in Fumakira Masters: The final of the 5th Fumakira Igo Masters tournament was held in the Ryusei Studio in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on July 11. Taking white, Cho Chikun 9P (l) beat Takemiya Masaki 9P by 5.5 points to win this title for the second year in a row and for the third time overall. This is an official title, so it takes Cho’s record tally to 74 titles. Takemiya was disappointed to miss this opportunity to win his first title for 20 years.

Go Seigen elected to Hall of Fame: The 12th selection meeting of the Hall of Fame Awards was held at the Nihon Ki-in on July 21. Go Seigen (r) was the unanimous choice of the 12 committee members in attendance. There were eight nominees, chosen on May 25 by the nomination committee. Each member can vote for three persons, and the support of two thirds of the members is the qualifying condition. This is the first time since the election of Dosaku that a nominee has been supported by every member.

Tomorrow: Iyama taking aim at two former titles; Iyama retakes lead in Gosei; Takao to challenge for Meijin

photo research by Maeda Ryo & Todd Heidenreich

Categories: Japan

US Go Congress Updates: Lee, Song & Cao Leading in US Masters; Masters Players Photo Album; Stones Fly at Lightning Tournament; Lee-Sibicki Game Draws a Crowd

Monday August 3, 2015

Mark Lee, Zirui Song & Youyin Cao Leading in US Masters: Defending Masters champion Mark Lee scored his third successive win on Monday, defeating Chen Wang, but his 3-0 record has company, with both Zirui Song and Youyin Cao also undefeated so far. Click here for the tourney crosstab. Click here for results through Round 2 in the US Open.

2015 US Open Masters — The Players: An album of EJ photographer Phil Straus’ portraits of all 26 players in the US Open Masters tournament has been posted on the AGA’s Facebook page.

Stones Fly at Lightning Tournament: 68 players turned out for this year’s Lightning Tournament, organized as usual by Keith Arnold (standing). The winners will play off later this week; table winners were Yihang Sun 5d, Mirano Shireki 5d, Jinhan Bai 2015.08.03_lee-sibicki-review-DSC_0059 4d, Gilbert Feng 2d, Daniel Puzan 1d, Jim Hlavka 1d, Pauline Pohl 2k, Ethan Frank 6k, Tevis Tsai 7k, Preston Peng 9k, Sarah Crites 11k and Steve Zhang 17k.

Lee-Sibicki Game Draws a Crowd: Despite some technical glitches with the video feed, Hajin Lee’s game against Nick Sibicki (left) drew plenty of on-site interest, with nearly 100 gathering on the first floor of the student center to watch the popular go video bloggers play. Lee played on the stage in Scooter’s, while the game against Sibicki — who was in another room upstairs — was projected on the screen behind her and broadcast online. After the game, which Lee won handily, the two reviewed the game and took questions from the appreciative crowd. Another match is being planned for Thursday at 3p.
– reports/photos by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S./North America

LA Tops Greater DC to Win 2015 Pandanet AGA City League Finals

Monday August 3, 2015

In the City of Angels vs. The Beltway Boys, Los Angeles prevailed over Greater Washington in the 2015 Pandanet AGA City League finals last Saturday afternoon at the US Go Congress in St Paul, MN. The top two boards split, with LA winning the Mark Lee (LA) vs Zirui (Tim) Song (GW) game on Board 1 and Eric Lui (GW) defeating Evan Cho (LA) on Board 2 (both on time), making the Danny Ko-Yuan Zhou game the decider. The exciting showdown got even more so when a clock problem on Board 3 forced a game replay on Saturday night. Danny Ko won that game on time, sealing the win for Los Angeles.

Go to the Pandanet web site for all the game records from the rest of the season.

Full results:

A League: 1st – Los Angeles; 2nd – Greater Washington; 3rd – Boston; 4th – Seattle 1

B League: 1st – Princeton; 2nd – Bay Area

C League: 1st – Berkeley; 2nd – Boston 2

Click here for some photos and a short video of the players playing the finals. You can go back and watch the recorded match from Board 1 on YouTube and go through the review by Jennie Shen 2p. Watch for more information this week about registering for the fourth year of this tournament!

8/17: This post has been updated; Princeton placed 1st in the B League and the Bay area team was second.

Categories: Events/Tournaments,Pandanet-AGA City League,U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Professionally Speaking: Maeda Ryo 6P on Why Go is So Hard to Understand

Monday August 3, 2015

“There’s no real answer to the question of ‘Where’s the best move,'” Japanese professional Maeda Ryo 6P told a room full of rapt go players Monday afternoon at the US Go Congress in St Paul, MN. “Ask two different professionals and you’ll get two different answers.” One option, Maeda suggested, is to “find the move with the least wrong with it.”

Maeda also posed the following go conundrum: “On the one hand, you want to make territory; on the other, you don’t want to make territory. It’s one of the things that makes go so hard to understand.” Fortunately, Maeda revealed, go is actually quite simple: “There are only two options: fighting or not fighting.”
– report/photos by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Congress Update: 13×13 Table Winners; Self-Paired Update

Monday August 3, 2015

13×13 Table Winners: Justin Teng 6D, Melissa Zhang 3D, Julian Erville 1D, Peter Schumer 2K, Xiong Nqua 3K, Sherrie Echols 9K, Mathias Kramm 7K, Steve Zhang 17K.
– Jim Hlavka, Director

Self-Paired Update: There have been 46 games played so far. This rated tournament is open to anyone who wants to play; see page 12 in the Congress handbook for details/rules.
– John Hogan, TD; photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Main Tournaments Get Going at US Go Congress

Sunday August 2, 2015

The first day of this year’s US Go Congress on Sunday featured the first round of the US Open — in which 253 players participated — and Rounds 1 and 2 of the US Open Masters, in which 26 top players, including nine professionals this year, are playing for over $7,000 in cash prizes. Click here for the Masters crosstab. Defending Masters champion Mark Lee is off to a good start, notching successive wins over Calvin Sun and Michael Chen.

Go players also had plenty of other activities to choose from during the day, including lectures and simuls with professional go players like Mingjiu Jiang 7P, who was operating on just a few hours of sleep after arriving late Saturday night and then playing in the first round of the Masters Sunday morning (and would go on to play in the second round after lecturing all afternoon).

The 13×13 tournament was held Sunday night; we’ll post results on that and on Saturday’s 9×9 tournament as soon as we get them. Redmond Cup games were also held today; watch a report on those results soon as well.

The E-Journal’s expanded coverage proved a great success as Andrew Jackson anchored live video streams and game commentary on the AGA’s YouTube channel. As usual the EJ team broadcast top-board games on KGS along with pro game commentaries, and photos and updates were posted on the AGA’s Twitter feed — follow us @theaga (#gocongress #congress2015) — and Facebook throughout the day.

Live coverage begins Monday at 9a (CST) on KGS and Facebook.

– report/photo by Chris Garlock

NOTE: email us at journal@usgo.org if there’s anything in particular at the Congress you’d like to see included in our coverage.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

US Go Congress Launches in St Paul

Saturday August 1, 2015

Hundreds of go players from around the world — including the first-ever delegation from Cuba — gathered Saturday on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota for the 31st annual US Go Congress. Old friends reunited and new ones were made across the go boards that spilled out of the main playing room into the student center’s atrium (photo).

The US Open/Masters tournament begins on Sunday; play is scheduled to begin at 9a (CST); top boards will be broadcast live on KGS (look for usgo accounts) and pro commentary by Jennie Shen will begin at 10a. Other highlights of the Sunday schedule include a live Haylee go match; click here for the complete schedule.

Keep up with all the E-Journal’s Congress reports this week on the AGA website, on Facebook — “American Go Association” — and Twitter — @theaga. New this year: live video broadcasts of games; watch on our YouTube channel (usgoweb).
– report/photo by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

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