American Go E-Journal » 2016 » August

Andrew Hall doesn’t wear hats, but if he did, he’d be wearing several at this year’s Go Congress. Players may know him best as the founder and Tournament Director of the new Evening League, but he is also the Event Coordinator for the Congress, which means he plays backup for just about everyone else on the Congress team. You might spot Hall at the Congress Help Desk one minute, or fixing clocks (right) the next, and then he’s off and running about the playing rooms in his distinctive Congress staff shirt, the only one with the sleeves cut off to show off both arms covered in go-themed tattoos. Hall learned go from his grandfather, and both his father and his uncle — a 1k in Glasgow — also play. In ninth grade he discovered Hikaru No Go and started spending evenings playing go in Davis Square. After college, he got involved in the local go community who met regularly for club play and tournaments. “We ran local tournaments, including ladder tournaments like the Evening League, and then someone let us run a Congress!” Hall laughs. He’s also worked hard on developing the Open Team Relay tournament, another tournament that — like the Evening League — emphasizes making go fun and fostering a sense of community and competitive spirit, Hall’s favorite things about the game.
– report by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photo by Chris Garlock

US Open Masters Round 4 Report (Crosstabs Posted!): After four rounds, just three players are undefeated: Kenryo Ito 1P, Andy Liu 1P and Yun Bao 7D. Bill Lin, Zhaonian Chen, Ryan Li, Xiangnan Zheng and Zirui Song are all 3-1. Crosstabs of results for both the US Open Masters and US Open have now been posted.  Again this year we’re including game records; to include your game record, please email your sgf file to journal@usgo.org. Be sure all game info, including the result, is complete. Watch our website, Facebook and Twitter feed for updates throughout each day; top-board broadcasts with professional commentary can be found on our YouTube channel, Twitch and KGS.

US Go Congress Broadcast Schedule: Tuesday, 8/2: US Open Masters Game 5
9:30a EST: YouTube/Twitch: Hajin Lee 3P, with Stephen Hu 6d
10:30a: KGS: Stephanie Yin 1P, with Daniel Chou 6d

US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Tuesday, 8/2
9:00a: US Open, round 3; and US Open Masters, round 5
1:00p: Senior Cup, round 2; and Youth/Adult Pair Go
3:00p: Redmond Cup
7:00p: Evening League, night 3; Crazy Go; and Open Team Relay Go

Lightning Tournament
“This was the year of the undefeated,” said TD Keith Arnold (at right, pointing). “Special thanks to Ryo Maeda 6P for filling out the bottom table to make an even number.”
16 tables, 94 players. Table Winners: Tai yuan Zhang 7 dan (5-0); Changha Kim 6 dan (5-0); Forest Song 5 dan (5-0); Young He 4 dan (5-0); Soren Jaffe 3 dan (5-0); Gilbert Feng 3 dan (5-0); Daniel Puzan 2 dan (5-0); Isaac Wu 1 dan; Cam Wagner 1 dan (5-0); William Gundberg 2 kyu; Jim Fienup 3 kyu; Musa Al-Hassy 5 kyu; Tevis Tsai 7 kyu; Katie Oh 10 kyu; Alice Sedgwick 13 kyu (5-0); Lawrence Pierce 24 kyu.

9×9 Tournament: Dan champion: David Glekel, 3d; Kyu chamion: Eric Hookway, 10k. Click here for our full report.

– report by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photos by Chris Garlock except for Lightning Tournament (bottom right) by Karoline Li. 

“We have tournaments for women and for juniors, why not one for seniors!” exclaimed Bart Jacob after his first Senior Cup game Monday afternoon. The idea for a Senior Cup came from longtime player Wanda Metcalf 5k. With well-established events like the Youth and Women’s tournaments, as well  and now a Girls Championship already at the Go Congress, the Senior Cup fills a noticeable gap for a community of longtime go players, some of whom gather weekly at their local clubs, while others see each other once a year at the annual Go Congress. The Senior Cup is four rounds, and all players must be at least 55 years old. TD James Peters says he’s honored to be running a tournament that involves so many long-time Go Congress attendees. “It’s a natural extension of the sorts of tournaments we already run.”
– report/photos by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

David Glekel 3d and Eric Hookway 10k came out on top Sunday night as the dan and kyu champions of the 9×9 tournament directed by Audrey Wang. As the tournament began, she reviewed the new double elimination structure, faster time settings (5 minutes basic time and 1 period of 10 seconds sudden death byo yomi), and adjusted komi structure. The completely new format — which was designed to complete the tournament in one evening rather than several sessions over the week of the Congress as in past years — caused some confusion for longtime players used to simply being lined up and split into tables, and “could improve in terms of overall efficiency,” said assistant TD Si Chen. “If we do double elimination again, there are definitely some things we could improve on.”  Overall, “it was a really good tournament,” said Dan Champion David Glekel, and players had a good time. The new time settings and komi structure were received well, and the champions were chosen without further playoff games needed during the week.
– report/photo by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

Bill Phillips 1k
Age: 59
Lives in: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Years playing go: 42
Favorite thing about go: Bill learned to play go in 1974, the same year he learned to play Ultimate Frisbee- although he’s a lot more serious about go than Ultimate. That being said, he likes them for the same reasons. “Both are incredibly competitive,” he says, “But there’s also an element of compatibility and cooperation that’s required in both of them. In go, you start with an empty board and you build it up to a point where one person has a little bit more than half and one has a little bit less than half. And you want to be that one with a little bit more than half. It’s intensely competitive but it also requires this [cooperation] and respect of your opponent.” The relationships he’s built in the go community are a large part of his long-term go playing. “I’m also here at the Go Congress because of the people. The other thing I really love about go is that every stone is the same, it’s just the relationship with the other stones that are different. And so, the number of relationships far exceeds the number of stones. So the relationships between stones exceed the number of stones, and the relationships at the go tournaments far exceed the number of games I play.”

Jasper Emerton 7k
Age: 17
Lives in: Nashville, Tennessee
Years playing go: 1
Favorite thing about go: “When you’re playing, there’s trick moves that you can play such as snapbacks. Seeing that move before your opponent does and being able to trick them into it is my favorite thing… being able to see something that my opponent doesn’t see and taking advantage of their lack of reading.”

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