American Go E-Journal » 2022 » December

Lambert Li 6d wins 2022 King Cup;  Yifan Qu 6d is 2022 California State Go Champion

Tuesday December 13, 2022

Top left; All the players in the King Cup; top right: prize winners in the Beginners section; bottom right: prize winners in the Handicap section; bottom left: prize winners in the Open Section; middle left: the Youngest Player.

Over eighty go players gathered in San Diego on the weekend after Thanksgiving to contest the 5-round 2022 King Cup – California State Go Championship. The Open section had sixteen strong players including an 8-dan, two 7-dans, and eight 6-dans. All games were played at the comfortable San Diego Chess Club (2020 American Chess Club of the Year) in Balboa Park. The state tournament was hosted by the San Diego Go Club for the 5th year.

The result was a split decision: Lambert Li 6-dan, won the tournament with an unblemished 5-0 record and Yifan Qu 6-dan, was crowned the 2022 California State Go Champion as the highest scoring California resident  (San Diego, CA) in the Open, with a 4-1 record (winning on a tie breaker over Alvin Huang 4-dan of Lake Forest, CA).

In the 58-player Handicap section, Xinran Gao 2-dan, won the dan section (16-players) with a 4-1 record over Chunwei Shi 2-dan, and Jake Kim 1-dan on a tiebreaker.

In the single-digit kyu handicap section, Alexander Lo 2-kyu, had a perfect weekend at 5-0. Both Sheldon Li 7-kyu, and Russell Bernhardt 5-kyu, finished 4-1 along with two others and attained their places by tie breaker.

The double-digit kyu handicap section had two brothers, Lorence Tsai 12-kyu and TsungYu Tsai 11-kyu, finish with 4-1 records. Bob Zhao 10-kyu was third in the section.

There were also nine players in the Beginners tournament of the King Cup. Ryan Lin 35-Kyu won with a record of 5-0. Go professional Hai Li 5P, was the tournament director for the beginners and analyzed their games as part of their education. SDGC has a tradition of honoring with a trophy the youngest player to compete. This year it was a 5-year-old girl.

Each day all of the participants were treated to a free pizza lunch. It took 30 pizzas a day to feed the group.

The tournament saw many new members joining the AGA or renewing their memberships. SDGC now has 108 AGA members. San Diego Go Club president Enrique Garcia said that it was encouraging to see support for the tournament by go players from all over the state. Several players came down to San Diego from the San Francisco Bay area and Fresno.

The SDGC thanked tournament sponsors for their generous support, including the Bi Family, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, Yellow Mountain Imports, State Farm Insurance, and the San Diego Chess Club.

The next major event to be sponsored by the San Diego Go Club will be the 12th annual San Diego Go Championship in the spring of 2023, date TBD.

photos by Jackson Hranek and Enrique Garcia; reporting by Ted Terpstra

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3-way tie for first at NGC Winter Warmer

Monday December 12, 2022

Fueled by hot chocolate and cookies, 30 players came in from the cold to compete in the National Go Center Winter Warmer last Saturday, December 10. There were three first-place winners all with 3-1 records: Huang Qi (6D), Joel Kenny (5D) and Qingbo Zhang (5D)

All three- and four-game winners received their choice of a go book, a souvenir mug, or an NGC t-shirt.

The other winners were: Qiuhua Zheng (4K) 4-0, Michael Lash (4K) 3-1, Laura Wu (6K) 3-1, Regina Kim (10K) 3-1, Davis Zetlan (10K) 3-1, Michael Zeller (11k) 4-0 and Calvin Li (21K) 3-1.

“We are expecting to bring back the Chinese Lunar New Year tournament after a 2-year hiatus as our next event.” reports TD Gurujeet Khalsa. “The exact date is still to be set but will be around the start of the Year of the Rabbit on January 22nd.”

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6th Haesung Korean Female Kisung: Yoonyoung Kim, Choi Jeong, Eunji Kim and Kim Chaeyoung Reach Semi-Finals

Monday December 12, 2022

Yoonyoung Kim 8P (l) defeats Oh Yujin 9P on Nov. 22, broadcast by BadukTV

From November 21-29, Yoonyoung Kim 8P, Choi Jeong 9P, Eunji Kim 5P, and Kim Chaeyoung 7P made their ways to the semi-finals round of the 6th Haesung Korean Women’s Kisung. The tournament is a notable women’s championship in Korea featuring top female Korean professional players. Most games have been broadcast live on BadukTV, and the total prize pool sums to 121 million won (US $93,000) with a top prize of 50 million won ($38,000).

On December 12th, Yoonyoung Kim will face off against Kim Eunji. In the past two months, Yoonyoung Kim has achieved an impressive 12-game winning streak, during which she defeated world champion Oh Yujin 9P and Asian Games gold medalist Cho Hyeyeon 9P. Coincidently her winning streak was ended by rising star Kim Eunji on Dec. 4 in the Nanseolheon Cup championship match, but it ensures an exciting and perhaps emotional battle between the two in the Female Kisung semi-final.

The Korean Baduk Association has built a robust support system to ensure that generations of female players will continue to thrive. From as young as 15 years old, Kim Eunji 3P was able to play as many as 156 official games this year, winning 108. Choi Jeong 9P and Kim Chaeyoung, both aged 26, logged 95 and 94 rated games, and won 69 and 65 games respectively. Yoonyoung Kim 8P, aged 33, is a young mom who also spent several years teaching go in North America. Still, she managed to play 45 matches at around a 70% win ratio, and delivered enormous victories for her team in the Women’s Baduk League.

The marked black stone in the middle is believed to be a critical error, and Kim 8P wisely seized the opportunity to counter with the arrow-marked white stone.

Tournament table and game records can be found on the “GotoEveryone” website.

Analysis of game on Baduk TV:
Choi Jeong vs. Kim Eunseon: https://youtu.be/sRUsQPGusIU
Yoonyoung Kim vs.. Oh Yujin: https://youtu.be/AzwrS86hxAQ
Kim Chaeyoung vs. Kim Hyemin: https://youtu.be/sNgsyDA-Mpc
Kim Eunji vs. Heo Seohyun: https://youtu.be/gnBLvxDZnto

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Weekend Tournament Preview

Friday December 9, 2022

Sat, Dec 10: Washington, DC
NGC Winter Warmer; 4 round AGA rated event open to all levels.
Gurujeet Khalsa (17036260777)

Sat, Dec 10: Raleigh, North Carolina
Go Rebuilds: Ukraine Fundraiser: 100% of the funds raised are used to provide needed medical supplies to Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
Boris Bernadsky (9293663998)
“We have players ranging from 25 Kyu to 3 Dan. We’ve raised over $700 so far and are hoping to raise at least $1000. All participants get free go books, access to premium memberships for AI Sensei, The European E-journal, and all players under 15kyu get Premium access to BadukPop.”

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Richard Duan wins Virginia Youth Championship

Thursday December 8, 2022

Top left: Richard Duan with organizer Edward Zhang; right: Tournament play

Eleven-year-old Richard Duan 2D upset two adult 4-Dan players in even games at the November 27th Capital Go Club’s Fall Tournament in Fairfax, Virginia, winning the Youth Championship, a subset of the overall tournament. Three other players achieved two wins: Chebong Cho 4D, Raymond Kim 4D and Sun Lee 14K. Samuel Lee 7D (1W-2L) and James Park 7D from the Korean American Baduk Association (Annandale Va.) have been invited to the 2022 VA State Championship Final, coming up this Sunday, December 11. Pairings for the first round, which starts at 9:30a at 4119-B Chatelain Rd, Annandale VA, will be Park 7D vs Zhang 6D, and Lee 7D vs Yaming Wang 5D.

Ms. Mei Cai (1-2) is a candidate for the Virginia women’s champion though other Virginia female players may request a challenge by 12/15/2022 via email agatd1@gmail.com. Meng Wang and Michael Zhou helped organize the quarterly tourney.

Report by Capital Go Club; photo by Bin Duan.

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Have you registered for this years Pandanet AGA City League?

Monday December 5, 2022

Join the more than 20 returning teams this year’s season. Registration continues until Friday December 23rd. Head to your club, hop on discord, slide into your local players DM’s; convince them to join! Read through the rules on the Pandanet League site to learn of the new qualifications. Send the registration link  to your team to have them sign up. If there are any questions contact the TD for more information.

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Applications open for 2023 World Student Go Championship

Monday December 5, 2022

The 21st World Student Go Championship will be held at the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo from February 21 to February 22, 2023. The North American Go Federation is now accepting applications for one player to represent North America in this tournament; full airfare, accommodations and meals will be provided by the tournament organizing team.

Eligibility requirements include: Must be a university student under the age of 30 at the time of the tournament; Must be currently enrolled as a student in a university in either Canada or the US. (Students who are studying outside these two countries as exchange students are not eligible.); Must be able to participate in the tournament in person. (Expected to be in Japan from February 20 to February 23, 2023. There will be a reception and pairing drawing on the 20th at 6:30 p.m. Must be able to arrive in time for the reception and drawing.); Must be an amateur player; Must be able to communicate in English or Japanese via email.

To submit your application, please fill out this application form by the end of December 11. Questions? Contact Hajin Lee at hajin.lee@usgo.org.

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