The Youth Room at the US Go Congress has been bustling all week, with over 100 kids and teens registered this year. Sunday drew scores of kids for Lightning Go, and 9×9 and 13×13 were very popular on Monday afternoon. Tuesday’s Youth Adult Pair Go featured 68 players, although several of them were Rengo (same sex pairs) instead of male-female. Many charming pairs were children playing with their parents, or strong players joining with younger siblings and relatives, even Andy Liu 1P got in on the action, playing with Alex Jiang 7k . After the day off break, Relay Go is planned for Thursday. The most popular event of the week, the Youth Team Tourney (where teams of three will compete in the same format seen in the Hikaru no Go manga) is set for Friday. Winners at all of these events have had their choice of a slew of great prizes: Hinoki Press generously donated a full case of each of their popular Heart of Go Series, all seven volumes, while Winston Jen donated both anime, and copies of the latest Japanese manga about go, Hoshizora no Karasu (Crow in the Starry Sky) – in the original Japanese, as it has not been translated into English. GoGameGuru donated both sets of stones, and copies of Speed Baduk Vol. 2. Youth Room directors Paul Barchilon and Fritz Balwit “have had our hands full, but are having a great time with the kids,” Balwit told the E-Journal.
Table Winners Reports: Lightning: Daniel Liu, Gilbert Feng, Frederick Bao, Patrick Lu, Daniel Zhao, Douglas Patz; 9×9: Forest Song, Willis Huang, Benjamin Peng, Yuga Suzuki, Sarah Crites, Seth Liang; 13×13: Sammy Zhang, Mike Fellner, Yuga Suzuki, Patrick Bao, Dowson Yang, Alex Du; Youth Adult Pair Go: Lirui Wu 7d and Dongfang Li 1P, April Ye 1d and Dae Hyuk Ko 7d, Melissa Zhang 2d and James Sedgwick 6d, Kelly Lu 3k and Michael Chen 7d, Melissa Cao 5k and Jie Liang 7d, Ann Wu 10k and Steven Wu 10k, Sammy Suastegui 15k and Jesy Felicca 6k, Sarah Crites 16k and Bob Crites 8k, Douglas Patz 22k and Alexandra Patz 13k. -Story and Photos by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor; top: Youti Wen 22k and Shen Wen 4k at left, vs. Alice Sedgwick 17k and Richard Newman 12k; Bottom: Prizes in the Youth Room, courtesy of Hinoki Press, GoGameGuru, and Winston Jen.
