American Go E-Journal » 2016 » August

Bao Yun Clinches ’16 US Open Masters; Battle Underway for Runner-Up: There’s still one more round to play in the 2016 US Open Masters but the name of this year’s winner can already be inscribed: Bao Yun 7D. Bao defeated Song Zirui 1P Friday night by 3.5 points to build an unassailable 8-0 lead and clinch the 2016 title. The action now moves to the battle for second place. Zhang Hanchen will have to beat Ito Kenryo to take second place; if Ito wins, tiebreaks will determine the winner. In other Round 8 action, Andy Liu let certain victory against Zhang Hanchen slip away when he neglected to secure the life of a group in the endgame on Board 2 (click here for an sgf of the commentary by Feng Yun 9P and Yilun Yang 7P); Ito Kenryo 1P beat Ryan Li by half a point on Board 3, Eric Lui 1P defeated Sun Shuo 7d by 4.5 points on Board 4, Jian Zhongfan 7d beat Zhang Siyuan 7d by a half-point on 5 and Zhaonian Chen 7d won by 8.5 points over Albert Yen 7d on Board 6. Click here for the 2016 Masters Division crossgrid, with results and top-board game records. Click here for the US Open crosstab, updated through Round 5. 

Broadcast Schedule
10a: US Open Masters Round 9 (final): Live pro commentary on the AGA YouTube Channel.
10:30a: US Open Masters Round 9: Live pro commentary on KGS.
PLUS: Check all the pro game commentaries from the week here.

US Go Congress Tournaments Schedule: Saturday 8/6
9:00a: US Open, round 6; US Open Masters, round 9

Diehard
Exactly 100 players ranging from the low 27 kyu to 7d decided they did not need a day off on Wednesday 8/3 — “because rest is for babies” — and gathered in the main playing room for the annual Diehard Tournament. Both Ted Lin 3k and Alexander Foti 4k were undefeated with four wins.

Pair Go
Click here for a Facebook album of all this year’s pairs, and read here for the tournament story and results to find out who will be representing North America in the International Pair Go Championships in Japan!

Senior Cup
Visit live.gocongress.org for final tournament crosstabs. Chunlin Xu 7k won all four games to be the only undefeated player in the tournament.

Women’s Tournament
Visit live.gocongress.org for final tournament crosstabs.

Lightning Tournament
Players are on their own to find and complete their playoff games, and both the dan and kyu section playoffs have not yet reached the semi-final round. With just one more day left of play, will they complete before the end of the Go Congress? Will we be left without lightning champions? Stay tuned to find out!

– report by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photos by Chris Garlock

As you might imagine, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into broadcasting games from the annual US Go Congress, whether on KGS, Pandanet, YouTube or Twitch. Most of the time, everything works, and go fans around the world can follow the top-board action from the comfort of their own homes or at work.

But sometimes things go sideways. Like Thursday morning. With just minutes to go before the sixth round in the US Open Masters was scheduled to begin, and with Bao Yun and Ito Kenryo — the last two undefeated players left — seated at Board 1, the internet connection for the game recorder’s computers and the livestream feed went dead. The E-Journal team quickly scrambled to troubleshoot the problem, find workarounds and implement backup plans. The BU tech guys were called in, cables and adapters were swapped and software settings were rapidly reconfigured. As always, the priority was to ensure no disruption or distraction for the players while working to bring the best possible broadcast to viewers on the various platforms. At home, viewers probably didn’t even notice the 2-minute delay in the start of the round, which otherwise went off without a hitch. The way we like it.
– Dennis Wheeler & Chris Garlock; photo by Garlock

It’s only August and already Hajin Lee has had one heck of a year. She got married, stepped down from her post as Secretary General of the International Go Federation, got promoted to 4-dan professional at the Korean Baduk Association and got accepted to an MBA program in Switzerland. Oh, and there was that whole AlphaGo thing.

The AlphaGo games against Lee Sedol in March came just before the end of Lee’s tenure at the IGF and the huge crush of media interest generated headlines and news reports around the world as hundreds of journalists descended on Seoul, where she’d spent years as a pro. “Working at that event was really crazy, it was one of the busiest times of my life, but it was still fun,” she said. In addition to witnessing the most massive promotion of go in the history of the game, Lee came away with a personal memento of the moment:  “DeepMind sent me a beautiful set of Wedgewood tea cups and pots” for her wedding to fellow go player Dan Maas.

But the tea party will have to wait; Lee is moving to Switzerland this Fall to get an MBA focusing on international organizations. “When I applied for the program, I wanted to get some kind of job at the UN. But right now, I am open to other options because there are many organizations that do education or philanthropy work and I am mostly interested in those sectors,” building on her work at the IGF. “I really enjoyed working with the global community and the international context [at the IGF],” she told the E-Journal.

Lee was also recently promoted to 4P by the Korean Go Association. “In the Korean pro system, it’s a cumulative point system,” she explains. Her last promotion was to 3D in 2007. As for the question on many of her fans’ minds, Hajin — known for her popular go broadcasts as Haylee on YouTube — says this, “For the time being, my plan is to continue my YouTube broadcasts in Switzerland. The hope is to continue it for as long as I can.”
– report/photos by Samantha Fede, E-Journal special correspondent, reporting from the 2016 U.S. Go Congress . photo: Lee with husband Dan Maas at the Pair Go tournament Thursday night at the 2016 US Go Congress; photo by Chris Garlock 

The US Open Masters Division is the tournament for the best of the best, with the biggest prizes and most intense schedule. The invitational event, with 44 top players this year, is a 9-round event at the US Go Congress, with 6 rounds played at the same time as the US Open and an additional three rounds played Sunday, Tuesday and Friday nights. The new format replaced the 4-round North American Masters Tournament (NAMT) and the 4-round Strong Players Open in 2014. Eligibility in the Masters Division is limited to professionals, 7 Dan or stronger players and NAMT qualifiers. The top prize will be $5000 for first place, plus a $2000 for the top-placing North American Masters Tournament qualifier. Click here for the 2016 Masters Division crossgrid, with results and top-board game records.

Top row: Bohan An, Matthew Burrall, Fan Chen, Zhaonian Chen, Jeremy Chiu, Yuan Fu, Yongfei Ge, Thomas Hsiang, Alan Huang, Kenryo Ito, Zhongfan Jian

Second row: Xinying Jiang, Dae Hyuk (Daniel) Ko, Jung Hoon Lee, Haoshen Li, Ryan Li, Jie Liang, Tianyu (Bill) Lin, ZhiYuan (Andy) Liu, Benjamin Lockhart, Mengxue Luan, Eric Lui

Third row: Qipeng Luo, Bowen Man, Irene Sha, Gansheng Shi, Zirui Song, Gabriella Su, Calvin Sun, Shuo Sun, Zhengbokang Tang, Tongyu Wang, Zehua Yang

Bottom row: Albert Yen, Bao Yun, Feiming Yun, Cheng Zhang, Hanchen Zhang, Hugh Zhang, Lionel Zhang, Siyuan Zhang, Zhongxia (Ricky) Zhao, Xiangnan Zheng, Yuan Zhou

photos/collage by Chris Garlock

Bao the One to Beat: Yun Bao 7d prevailed over Kenryo Ito 1P Thursday morning in the sixth round of the US Open Masters, giving the “Blindfold Go” master a 6-0 record with just three rounds to go. The game was hard-fought by both players, with Ito in a dramatic byo-yomi that had viewers on the edge of their seats. Click here for the game record and here for the livestream broadcast on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Bao has beaten the players with 5-1 records — Andy Liu, Hanchen Zhang, and Eric Lui — so unless something unusual happens in the next couple of rounds, he’s the odds-on favorite to win the 2016 US Open Masters title.  Of course, there remain strong opponents who will try to block Bao in the next three rounds; see below for the schedule. Complete US Open Masters results through Round 6 and top-board game records here. Click here for the US Open crosstab, updated through Round 4. 

AlphaGo Keynote Video Posted: Aja Huang and Fan Hui’s AlphaGo keynote speech has now been posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel.

Pro Game Commentaries
US Open Masters Round 6, Ito Kenryo 1p (W) vs. Bao Yun 7d (B) Hajin Lee 4p with Stephen Hu 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Andy Liu 1p (W) vs Danny Ko 7d (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Zirui Song 1p (W) vs Eric Lui 1p (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Cheng Zhang 7d (W) vs Michael Chen 7d (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Shuo Sun 7d (W) vs Hanchen Zhang 1p (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d

US Go Congress Tournaments Schedule: Friday 8/5
9:ooa: Us Open, round 5; US Open Masters, round 7
1:00p: Senior Cup, round 4; Youth Team Match
3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 4
7:00p: US Open Masters, round 8; Evening League, night 5

Youth Lightning / 9×9 / 13×13
The youth room has been abuzz with tournaments and impromptu games of relay go in the basement all week, presided over by Devin Fraze, Youth Room Coordinator. Table winners in the Lightning: Albert Yen 7d, Young He 5d, Jessica Wu 3d, Kilin Tang 7k, and a tie between Brian Ye 19k and Stephanie Tan 22k. Table winners in the 9×9: Kilin Tang 7k, Sarah Crites 10k, and Billy Ganbaatar 14k. Table winners in the 13×13: Tony Xie 6d, Patrick Zhao 2k, and Gabriello Adler-Abramo.

Under 16 Girls Championship
Taylor Shu 6d (right) defeated Gabriella Su 6d to clinch the championship in the second annual Under 16 Girls Championship Tournament. Gabriella took second place, while Melissa Cao 3d and Jessica Li 3d placed third and fourth respectively.

Evening League: Latest updates here.

– report by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photos by Chris Garlock except for Under 16 Girls Tournament (bottom right) photo by Ted Terpstra. 

AlphaGo has brought go global attention but it’s organizations like the American Go Association that must now figure out how best to capitalize on the new interest in the game. Anyone with questions about the AGA, or who would like to find out more about how you can get involved in promoting go, should plan to attend at least one of the AGA’s organizational meetings on Friday and Saturday at the US Go Congress.

On Friday at 2p, AGA leadership will meet with strong players to discuss issues of concern to them, include the latest on the postponement of the World Mind Sports Games. On Friday at 3p, the AGA board of directors convenes its Congress board meeting. All attendees are welcome and encouraged to observe. From 4:30 to 5:30p, AGA’s IT man and web admin Steve Colburn will be available to discuss the AGA’s website and Internet presence.

Then on Saturday, at 2p, find out what’s involved in hosting a Go Congress in your area. “It’s fun and easy,” promises AGA president Andy Okun. At 3p, the AGA Chapter Assembly — comprised of representatives on the AGA’s chapters — meets.
The agenda includes discussion of the chapter rewards program, future Congress hosting ideas, plus next year’s Congress.

All meetings will be held in Room 312 in Boston University’s George Sherman Union. For further info, email Okun at president@usgo.org
photo: DC-area organizers meet to plan to new National Go Center, earlier this week at the US Go Congress; photo by Chris Garlock