The Midwest Open Tournament on March 12-13 attracted 53 players from throughout the region, from home state Ohio, as well as Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and even Virginia. This was the second edition of the event, the first having taken place in January 2020, just before the pandemic.
The Midwest Open was held at the new Yokoso Center in Columbus’s Japan Marketplace, and participants were greeted with custom, high-quality name tags and a welcome by the Columbus Kyoto Ensemble, who kicked things off with a performance of Japanese music in traditional kimono dress.
The Open Division, consisting of 16 players, was a traditional bracket system of four intense rounds. The Main Division featured an innovative “Arena Style” pairing: participants were paired for the first round by the tournament director, but the remainder of the games were self-paired and managed with custom software, which will be available soon to organizers via Baduk.club. This allowed players to take breaks and manage their own availability, get food as needed, and record their games using the software app. Division winners all received medals, and the Open winners were able to select among rare, high-value go-related prizes. Albert Yen swept the section; click here for his analysis of his Round 2 game.
Sunday morning also saw the final match of the Ohio State Championship, a lively showdown between a father and son. The winner, Soren Jaffe, was crowned Ohio State Champion.
Organizers extended special thanks “to all the members of the Baduk House, who assisted greatly to the success of the tournament.” To learn more about the Baduk House residency program and volunteering for future events, click here. See below for the winners list, and information about the tournament—and next year’s Open—is available here.
- reporting/photos by Devin Fraze, edited by Hailey Renner. TD/Open winners photo (below left) by Eva-Dee Beech.
Ohio State Champion: Soren Jaffe
Juggernaut Award (most games and most wins): Jamin Kochman
Open: 1st Albert Yen; 2nd Edward Zhang; 3rd Alex Qi
Dan: 1st Shawn Ray; 2nd Jerry Jaffe; 3rd Mitchell Schmeisser
High SDK: 1st Dylan Jian; 2nd David Rohlfing; 3rd Manny Juargegui
Low SDK: 1st Richard Crawley; 2nd Angelo Di Lorenzo; 3rd Steven A Zilber
High DDK: 1st Joe Miller; 2nd Kara Ray; 3rd Winston Yan
Low DDK: 1st Jamin Kochman; 2nd Paul Mendola; 3rd Abhinav Gadde
