American Go E-Journal » 2022 » September

The Evanston Go Club is holding an online fundraiser simul event on OGS with Albert Yen 8d on Saturday, October 15. Yen is the winner of the 2022 Midwest Open and Chicago Open.

The event on the 15th will include two sessions of 3-person simuls, at 1 pm and 2:30 pm Central Time; each session will last 90 minutes, which includes time for a post-game review. 

“Our previous simul event filled up quickly, and we had to turn people down,” says Mark Rubenstein, president of the Evanston Go Club. “The simul is a great event to bring players together and a unique opportunity to interact with top players like Albert. The proceeds will help us offer bigger and better tournaments for the whole go community.”

“This time, since we are holding the event online, we will broadcast the whole event for people to enjoy at home,” says Yen. “Jeremiah Donley 6d, 2022 US Masters player and popular instructor for the Columbus Go Club, will be giving live commentary on the AGA stream.”

Players who are interested in playing Albert can secure their slot by contacting him at albertyen33@gmail.com. A donation of $30 to the Evanston Go Club is requested. All proceeds go towards special prizes, equipment, and professional commentary/review for tournaments hosted by the club.

With three top players tied at three wins and one loss each, SMS scores were used to declare Pengyu Guo the new North Carolina State Champion last weekend. “First place in the open section was deemed to be Edward Zhang, with Chen Zhang securing second place honors,” reports organizer Bob Bacon.   Some thirty go enthusiasts gathered on September 17 at Umstead Park in Raleigh, NC for the North Carolina Championship and 21st Annual Memorial Tournament. “The weather was ideal and spirits were jovial as familiar and new friends competed for trophies and cash prizes,” Bacon told the EJ.

Section A (2 to 3 Dan) also had 3 ties at the top, and SMS scores determined 1st place honors for Suyoung Yoon, with Nianci Gan in 2nd place.  Section B (all 1 Dan) was clearly won by Xiaoping Wu, who posted a perfect record of 4-0.  Second place was taken home by Florida visitor Dakota Krafick.  The winner of section C (1-3 Kyu) was Tao Mao with an impressive 3-1 score, with second place going to Paul Celmer.  6 to 9 Kyu comprised section D, which was handily won by Justin Su, who posted the only other perfect 4-0 record of the day. Ben Parrot was named for second, although later review suggests that Yihui Shao earned that position. Section E (10-12 Kyu) had multiple ties, with the winner, Sky Wang, determined by SMS scores.  Neal Siekierski was awarded second place.

“A magnificent lunch was prepared and presented by Arlene Bridges with assistance from Russell Herman and the tournament was smoothly run by Tournament Director Jeff Kuang,” Bacon reports.

The San Francisco Go Club held its “Respect for the Aged Tournament” this past Saturday, September 17. Attendees competed over three rounds for cash prizes, BadukPop subscriptions, certificates, and honors. Lunch from Andersen Bakery was included with admission. Tournament results were as follows:

Division 1: 1^st: Peixuan Wang 8D; 2^nd: Linden Chiu 4D; 3^rd: David Liao 2D

Division 2: 1^st: Alexander Lo; 2^nd: Lena Lee; 3^rd: Guy Moreau

Division 3: 1^st: Edmund Hsiao; 2^nd: Roger Schrag; 3^rd: Benjamin Lo

“The SF Go Club thanks all those who attended and contributed to the success of the tournament,” says club president Matthew Barcus. Click here for a video clip from the tournament.

Xinyu Tu took first place at the 2022 New England Open over the Labor Day weekend, winning all five rounds. See below for the complete winner’s list.

“We had players from each of the six New England states, except for New Hampshire,” reports organizer Trevor Morris  “Next year, we’ll be recruiting heavily from New Hampshire!”  In order to incentivize New England players, “next year we’ll have a special prize for the top finisher from each of the six New England states,” said Morris.

With over $3,000 in cash and prizes, the 2022 New England Open tripled the advertised $1,000 prize pool. Prize sponsors, in order of the value of their donations, included ZBaduk, OGS, BenKyo Baduk, GoMagic, Battle Standard (physical location, hosting the Central CT Go Club), New York Go Institute, BadukPop, AYD, Yilun Yang, SmartGo, Shawn’s Go Group, baduk.club, AwesomeBaduk, Chris Sagner, and Guo Juan’s Internet Go School. Click here for links to all of the sponsors and a detailed description of their donations. 

“A special thanks to Sunstein LLP, an intellectual property law first, for sponsoring breakfast, which included, importantly, bottomless coffee, on the second day,” said Morris. “The breakfast was very popular, and would not have been possible without their generous support.”

Morris also thanked Chris Sanger, “not only for donating lessons to the prize pool but also for offering to be the odd player out.  Thanks to him, no one had to take a forced bye.  In the rounds that he did not play (most of them!), he was super-helpful pitching in on logistics.” The E-Journal’s Eva Dee Beech made streaming of the final round possible, training Morris on how to set up cell phones to stream live, and then providing the off-site live transcription to KGS for the top two boards.  She also arranged for TelegraphGo to provide live commentary on Twitch.

Winner’s Report

Open section winners: Xinyu Tu (1st place, 5-0); Yuxiao Wang(2nd place, 4-1); Hao Li (3rd place, 4-1).

Four-game winners, all of whom earned a new rank, per their new official AGA ratings:

Hughes de Saxce (1 kyu) [now 1 dan]; Andrew Hall (1 dan) [now 2 dan]; David Fang (3 kyu entry rank; official rank: 5 kyu) [now 2 kyu]; Laura Wu (7 kyu) [now 6 kyu].

“An unexpected shout-out to the Feng Yun Go School,” adds Morris. Three of her young students were a real pleasure to have at the tournament, and they each gained more than 2 points in their official AGA ratings: Zhihan William Huang: 19kyu -> 8kyu; Zhiyong Huang: 10kyu -> 4kyu; David Fang: 5kyu -> 2kyu.

“Finally, we’d like to recognize the nine players who competed for the first time in an AGA tournament,” says Morris. “That’s a full 18% of the entire pool.  We look forward to seeing you all at the next one!” Hao Li, Yuxiao Wang, Jiayi Chen, Wei Chen, Patrick Blackstone, Philippe Lessard, Sophia Mears, Zeyi Tong, Martha Marteney.

The full tournament cross-grid and photos are available on the website.

Prize Coordinator: Michael Scudder (+ wife Lyda); Tournament Director: Trevor Morris (+ partner Martha Marteney). Photos by Chi-Hse Teng.

The National Go Center’s 2022 Back-to-School Tournament – 9/24/2022 is next Saturday and  Pair Go/Paella Night – 9/23/2022 is on the previous Friday evening. “If you are planning to come to either of these events, please preregister asap so we can know how many are coming,” says NGC Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa. “Looking forward to seeing many of you at either or both!”

Another upcoming big event coming up is the Toronto Go Spectacular to be held December 28-30 in Toronto, Canada. Pre-registration is open now with an early-bird discount until the end of September.

The Santa Monica Go Club’s annual “(de-caf) Coffee Cup” tournament is back after a two year hiatus. The in-person tournament will be held this coming Saturday, September, 24th, at the UnUrban coffee shop in Santa Monica (3301 Pico Blvd , S M. 90405). Registration is available at goclubs.org. Any additional questions, email Brent Russell at the SMGC Google Group (all info is provided on the goclubs.org site). “We look forward to seeing you there!”                             

The premium events at the Toronto Go Spectacular December 28-30 are the invitational events, say organizers. “But for many of us, ‘we just want to play some go!’ Don’t worry, we’ve got this taken care of!” says CGA president James Sedgwick. Thursday December 29th & Friday December 30th will see a 6-round Swiss-McMahon tournament, for players Beginner-7D.  In fact, even professionals ineligible for the North American Championship are welcome to participate.

Adult players 10K-25K can consider their preferred choice between the novice tournament and open tournament.  “A potential downside to the open tournament is you may wind up with some large handicap games,” says Sedgwick. “The novice tournament will give you the opportunity to compete against many players near your level, and also is less of a time commitment.  However you should anticipate playing many/most of your games against 6-12 year old children if you choose to compete in the novice event.” 

Organizers are expecting a large field of 150 players, with prizes commensurate for a major event like this. “First prize should be 1000-1500 CAD, comparable to the largest prizes at past Canadian open championships,” Sedgwick tells the EJ. “Large, but still a big step down from what the professionals have the chance to earn!” Trophies and so on will be available to players at all levels.

Discounted early bird registration is available until September 30th. For those who insist on waiting until the last moment late registrations will be accepted until Christmas. Refunds are available without question until December (minus the Eventbrite processing fees); after December, refunds are at the discretion of the organizers.

Accommodation options are now finalized; organizers have arranged a discount, but rates are not fixed, and they can be expected to rise through the fall. Check out all the details and order your tickets on the event page.  Email torontogospectacular@gmail.com for more info, or ask questions on the Facebook event.