American Go E-Journal » 2016 » August

One of the workers behind the scenes at this year’s US Go Congress is US Open and US Open Masters Tournament Director Matthew Hershberger. Often working until the wee hours of the morning to prepare the next day’s pairings and then working through the afternoons to pair the US Open Masters tournament that evening, Hershberger pairs over 200 games per day. He doesn’t remember when he first learned about go, since there were a lot of strategy games around his house growing up. Then he discovered Hikaru No Go. “It was a bit of a feedback loop,” Matthew says, “I started reading Hikaru No Go because I was interested in go, then that made me realize that I could actually learn and play online.” His first Go Congress was the European Go Congress in Finland, and then he ran his own Congress in 2014 in New York City. He enjoys tournament play the best because of the ability to completely focus on go without distraction. This led him to get some experience running local tournaments, and now a local in Boston himself, he stepped up to the plate when the 2016 Boston team was looking for a US Open director. His calm and congenial manner mask how much work he successfully completes on a day to day basis here at Go Congress, managing over 400 go players in competition for some of the US Go community’s top prizes.
– Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photo: Hershberger mentally pairing the next round; photo by Chris Garlock

“Crazy go. It’s insane!” The 19 variations of go available Tuesday night at the US Go Congress have grown from just two that TD Terry Benson played at a Go Congress in Cambridge, England in 1976; Rengo Kriegspiel, a game of pair go where none of the four players can see each other or the board, and a variation of team go involving three-player teams and a lot of beer. Benson’s lineup on Tuesday included Rengo Kriegspiel, Joker Go, Blind Go (where both players are blindfolded, not just one as per Bao Yun), Galactic Go, and Zen Go, which is a three-person go game, which means that every turn you play for the opposite color. “In terms of actual instruction in go, Zen Go is the best,” says Terry. “You have to change your perspective each turn!”
– report/photos by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

by Dennis Wheeler

Monday was the usual non-stop super busy day for the E-Journal staff, with morning rounds from 9a-1p, evening rounds from 7p-11p and the usual “stuff as assigned” in between. For many years I’ve been one of the handful of top-board game recorders at the morning US Open Masters games, but this year we have a crew of five recorders, so I’ve been managing the recording team, which is great, but to be honest I was missing game recording. So when I was asked to be the game recorder for the Blind Go exhibition match Monday afternoon between Bao Yun 7d and Eric Lui 1p (apparently I have established a reputation for being good at it, especially after a Chinese article was published last year), I was both thrilled and honored. Bao Yun is famous for setting the world record for playing and winning five simultaneous games while blindfolded.

As experienced as I am at recording games, I’ve never had to call out the move coordinates to the players before. Turns out it’s not as easy as you might think. Game recording is easy — you just click the mouse in the same location that the players place a stone, but for this game I had to carefully check the coordinates, recheck to be sure and then check once more to be absolutely certain before calling them out so that Bao Yun, sitting next to me with a bright blue blindfold, could consider his move.

It felt to me like Eric Lui had a strategy in mind to try and trip up Bao Yun. It was quite impressive to be sitting at the same table with them both, Bao Yun blindfolded and with his back to us. He’d call out the coordinates of the move he wanted to play, and I’d place it on the board for Eric. Eric would play his move, and I’d call out the coordinates for Bao Yun. I also pressed the clock for Bao Yun and would occasionally call out the remaining time. Of course, the Ing clocks called out the time once we got into byo-yomi. Impressively, the game went all the way to counting, including filling all the dame.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how difficult it must be for Bao Yun to keep all those coordinates in his head for a full game, and I was especially worried about a “misclick” if I gave him the wrong coordinates, which I did once. Bao was of course expecting the actual move, so he adjusted easily enough after I said “oops.”

Mingjiu Jiang 7p was across the large open room giving a blow by blow commentary for a good size audience of Go Congress attendees, but far enough away that he was out of our earshot. In the end, Eric managed to win by a small margin. Though apparently we forgot to announce the ruleset to be used, which sparked a brief discussion as to the exact score, though the one point difference would not have changed the result. Black won by 5.5 by AGA counting. Click here to download the game record.

Special thanks to both Peter Armenia and Peter Gousios for helping relay and verifying the coordinates for my fading hearing in the loud open room.
– photos by Chris Garlock

A highlight of the US Go Congress is the teacher training program. At Myungwan Kim 9p’s Tuesday afternoon lecture on teaching opening theory, Kim (right) said that one of the most important things players need to develop is evaluation, both global (whole board) and local (small area) evaluation. “If you are winning globally, or if you are weak locally, how should you play?” he asked the crowd attending the teaching seminar. “Defensive,” he told us after we shouted out a few answers.  He also shared a mathematical approach to deciding between invading a territory or reducing it from the outside, in which the player calculates how many points he or she can let the opponent have and still win. If the opponent will make too many, invade.  Otherwise, play from the outside.  “That’s how you will find exactly how Lee Sedol will play,” explains Kim, “It’s not that difficult. But if you don’t have this type of theory, how can you find what he played? It’s way more difficult.” He also had something to say about losing stones. “The difference between sacrifice and giving up is whether you planned it or not,” he argued, getting a laugh from the crowd. Kim’s next teaching lecture is on Thursday, 8/4, at 1pm.

Antoine Fenech of Strasbourg, France, came to the US Go Congress specifically to exchange teaching ideas with American go clubs and for the seminars for go teachers. Kim’s Tuesday talk was Fenech’s first teaching lesson. “We don’t have this in Europe,” he said afterwards. Fenech (left) is a middle school math teacher who’s also a 5 dan go player. He runs programs in 10 primary schools in the city and teaches kids from 6-13 years old, a program started by his father in 1982, and responsible for training up many strong players. Fenech himself is a product of that program. “The most important thing is that the kids have fun” so that they come back, he said. Asked whether there’s a secret to teaching go he’d like to share with teachers in America, Fenech said that “We have a method to teach go very fast. In like five minutes, they can learn the real go game. And then after that, we don’t need to talk to them anymore, they can just play with each other. I have some kids who play every week and who just play together and I just taught them for five minutes the first day. If they’re already happy playing a lot with each other, then they don’t need someone to tell them more.” But that doesn’t mean the Strasbourg go program isn’t going to produce strong players. “I have some kids who want to improve, who want to play with me,” Fenech explains. “The new generation, we hope that some of them will become stronger, become the best French players.” The Strasbourg go club also developed a website so that kids can keep playing.

– report/photos by Samantha Fede, E-Journal special correspondent, reporting from the 2016 U.S. Go Congress

While the two dozen professional players and the many tournaments, lectures and simuls at the US Go Congress rightfully
claim most of the attention at this popular event, none of it would be possible without the small army of volunteers that keep everything going and on schedule. More than forty volunteers — ubiquitous in their bright orange Congress shirts — are helping out, according to Congress Director Walther Chen. “They’ve put in so many hours,” he says, “and I know they put in even more hours than I know about, so it’s amazing how much work goes into Congress.” In addition to all the pre-Congress work, registering, housing and feeding hundreds of go players, volunteers also re-set the huge main playing area and Strong Players Room each night, so that attendees see a neatly-organized playing area each morning. Chen says he was able to take on directing the Congress thanks to a community of active go players organizing tournaments and club meetings in the Boston area. Andrew Hall, Event Coordinator and Director of the Evening Tournament, helps organize local go club meetings on Thursdays. “One day I heard Andy Okun was getting dinner with Walther Chen to discuss possibly running Congress in Boston,” Hall said. While we’re talking, an attendee comes by to ask about accessing the wifi and Hall answers before continuing his story. “They went to dinner, and I got an email saying I was running the Congress with them.” Youth Director Devin Fraze, a math teacher from Ohio, explains that “when Fritz Balwite and Paul Barchilon were transitioning out of running the Congress Youth events, they asked me if I’d do it, so I stepped up. I love to see some new energy come to the organizing side of Congress and just to (be able to) give back to this wonderful event.”
– report by Samantha Fede, E-Journal special correspondent, reporting from the 2016 U.S. Go Congress; photo by Chris Garlock 

Ito & Bao Headed for Showdown in US Open Masters Thursday
And then there were two. Kenryo Ito 1P and Yun Bao 7D are the only undefeated players after five rounds in the US Open Masters. Bao (left) defeated Andy Liu by 2.5 points in a hard-fought Round 5 game Tuesday morning in which Liu had an early advantage but lost it when he mistakenly thought a move was sente. Ito beat Zheng Xiangnan in a Round 5 game that was just 114 moves but ran well into the lunch hour. Ito (right) and Bao will go head to head in Round 6 on Thursday. Complete US Open Masters results and top-board game records here. And click here for the US Open crosstab.

US Open Broadcast Schedule: Wednesday is the traditional Day Off, so there will be no live broadcasts. The broadcasts will resume Thursday morning.

Pro Game Commentaries
US Open Round 4 Board 1 Pro Commentary on KGS by Yilun Yang 7p (sgf)
US Open Round 2 Board 3 Pro Commentary on KGS by Feng Yun 9p (sgf)
2016 US Open Masters Round 3 Board 1 Cathy Li and Justin Teng KGS Commentary (sgf)
2016 US Open Masters Round 3 Board 4 Cathy Li and Justin Teng KGS Commentary (sgf)
2016 US Open Masters Round 5, Xiangnan Zheng 7d (W) vs Kenryo Ito 1p (B), w/Stephanie Yin 1p on KGS (YouTube)
2016 US Open Masters Round 5, Tony Tang 7d (W) vs Zirui Song 1p (B), w/Stephanie Yin 1p on KGS (YouTube)
2016 US Open Masters Round 5, Danny Ko 7d (W) vs Ryan Li 1p (B), w/Stephanie Yin 1p on KGS (YouTube)

US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Wednesday 8/3
9:00a: Diehard
7:00p: Evening League, night 4

Senior Cup
Click here for the latest crosstabs from the Senior Cup.

Women’s Tournament
Click here for the latest crosstabs from the Women’s Tournament.

Under 16 Girls Championship
Taylor Shu 6d and Gabriella Su 6d will face off on Thursday 8/4 to decide the Under 16 Girls Champion. Taylor defeated Jessica Wu 2d and Gabriella defeated Melissa Cao 4d on Tuesday afternoon in the semi-final. photo: Jessica Wu and Taylor Shu in the first round Monday

Evening League
In night two on Monday, 66 players showed up to play a total of 60 games between 7pm and midnight. Vo Nhat Minh 2d is the current defending champion at the top of the ladder.

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