An undefeated Jie Li 7D (r) topped a 58-player field to win the 37th annual Maryland Open over the Memorial Day weekend. “Five 7-dans and two 6-dans fought it out in a very strong open section,” reports organizer Keith Arnold, “but Jie Li emerged as the only player to finish 5-0 in the entire event.” “I am very impressed by the improvement of the younger generation of players, such as Eric Lui, Gus Price and Ricky Zhao,” Li told the E-Journal. “They played well.” The Empty Sky Go Club won the Greg Lefler Award and Kelsey Dyer 2k the Fighting Spirit Prize. Li is four-time US Open champion, has won the North American Ing and Toyota-Denso Oza three times each, and represented North America three times in the Fujitsu Cup. He’s also served as a board member at the American Go Association for the past two years and urges go players of all ages to join the AGA. “Members get a lot of benefits such as the free Yearbook and playing at rated AGA tournaments locally, or playing online in national tournaments,” says Li. Find out more and join online here. Sam Zimmerman directed. Click here for an album of photos from the MD Open.
– includes reporting by Keith Arnold and Zhiyuan ‘Edward’ Zhang; photo by Zhang
WINNER’S REPORT: Open Section: 1st Jie Li 7d; 2nd Eric Lui 7d; 3rd Guthrie; Price 7d; A Section: 1st Scott Waldron 4d; 2nd Gregory Rosenblatt 5d; B Section: 1st Keiju Takehara 2d; 2nd Ed Downes 1d; C Section: 1st Stephen Tung 1k; 2ndst Stephen Allen 6k; 2nd Ed Caldiera 7k; E Section: 1st Justin Chiang 10k; 2nd Jamie Birger 9k; F Section: 1st Matt Payton 25k; 2nd Deirdre Golash 13k. Joe Maia 2k; D Section: 1
American Go E-Journal
JIE LI 7D WINS MARYLAND OPEN
Tuesday June 1, 2010