American Go E-Journal » 2019 » October

Mark Lee won his fifth Cotsen Open title on Sunday, capping his 5-0 sweep with a convincing 123-move win over Andy Liu 1P. “Andy always comes up with new moves, so it was a pretty interesting game,” Lee told the E-Journal after the game. Lee won all five games by resignation. Although he’d been playing a lot of games with Korean professionals and insei before this year’s US Go Congress – where he came in third behind Eiko Kyu and Zhongfan Jian – Lee said he hasn’t had a chance to play much since, due largely to teaching duties with his students. He learned some AI moves studying with the Koreans but says he’s not planning on adding them to his repertoire just yet. “They’re very difficult to understand,” he said. “It’s good to change, but it’s going to be a lot of work,” he laughed. “Maybe I will try later.” This year’s title was especially satisfying, Lee said, “It was the toughest one yet,” due to the large and strong Open Section. “I was really happy to get a chance to play against so many strong players, especially since I don’t get many opportunities to play that many strong players.”

Winner Report
Open Section: 1^st: Mark Lee (5-0); 2^nd: Andy Liu (4-1); 3^rd: Evan Lin (4-1); 4^th: Xiaocheng Hu (4-1); 5^th: Calvin Sun (4-1); 6^th: Ying Ngai Yu (3-2).
Section A (4d-2d): 1^st: Kosuke Sato (5-0); 2^nd: Zhizhe Zhang (5-0); 3^rd: Ashish Varma (4-1)
Section B (1d-2k): 1^st: Tony Yang (5-0); 2^nd: Tommy Yinhe Liu (5-0); 3^rd: Andrew Luo (4-1)
Section C (3k-5k): 1^st: Billy Maier (5-0); 2^nd: Samuel Kennedy (5-0); 3^rd: Shawn Blue (4-1)
Section D (6k-10k): 1^st: David Su (4-1); 2^nd: Mario Espinoza (4-1); 3^rd: Viet Nguyen (4-1)
Section E (11k-30k): 1^st: Jiqi Wang (5-0); 2^nd: Michael Lee (5-0); 3^rd: Xiao Tiao Wang (4-1)

Club prize winner: Santa Monica Go Club

The E-Journal’s coverage this year included broadcasting top boards on OGS and videos on the AGA’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, including interviews with Eric Cotsen, Yilun Yang 7P, Richard Dolen and more
 

Defending champion — and four-time winner — Mark Lee has some serious competition in his quest for a fifth Cotsen Open title. Lee swept all three rounds Saturday but with the Open Section one of the biggest and toughest in years, there are some top players still in the hunt with two rounds to play, including Andy Liu 1P, Evan Lin and Ming Lin, a very strong player from Taiwan. All three are also undefeated after three rounds.

With 155 players this year, the Cotsen moved to a new, more spacious venue in downtown Los Angeles, and once again featured the professional masseuses for go-tensed shoulders and free taco truck lunch that have drawn hungry players from throughout the LA area and as far away as Seattle, WA, Evanston, IL, Tennessee, New York City and even Melbourne, Australia.

The E-Journal’s coverage this year included broadcasting top boards on OGS and videos on the AGA’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, including interviews with Eric Cotsen, Yilun Yang 7P, Richard Dolen and more. CLICK HERE for the top-board game records for rounds 1-3; tune in on OGS for Round 4 Sunday starting at 10:30am PDT.
– report/photo by Chris Garlock

Over 150 have already registered for this year’s Cotsen Open in Los Angeles, CA. Online registration has closed, but day-of registration is available Saturday, starting at 8a. Everyone must be registered or checked-in (if pre-registered) by 9a if they wish to play in Round 1. The location is the MG Studio, 1319 W 11th St; parking across the street. Registration and check in will be in the back of the building at 1320 Connecticut St. As usual, the Cotsen features free lunch from the Kogi BBQ Taco Truck, free registration for those who play both days, club prizes and Yilun Yang 7P will play a pro-pro game Sunday morning. Online coverage will be provided by the E-Journal; follow us @theaga on Twitter and @AmericanGoAssociation on Facebook, with video coverage on our YouTube channel and top-board games on OGS.