Bill Lin 7d and Aaron Ye 6d are the winners of the Redmond Cup, after a series of online matches, and then a live final at the US Go Congress. In the Junior Division (under 13) Ye, who has held the Redmond title for the past three years, made it clear he has no intention of giving up his title. He won all five rounds of the online qualifiers, and then cemented his status with two wins in a row against runner up Jeremy Chiu 6d, who lost on time in round 1 on Sunday, and then was defeated on the board again on Monday. Both boys are 12 years old. In the Senior Division (under 18) Bill Lin was undefeated in the six round qualifiers, but then stumbled in the first round of the finals, losing to two year reigning champ Jianing Gan 7d on Sunday afternoon. He came back fighting strong on Monday though, winning that round, and then claiming the title with a second win on Thursday. Matches from both divisions were broadcast live on KGS, and hundreds of viewers watched the games.
Friday’s big event in the Youth Room at Congress was the Youth Team Tourney, where teams of three compete against each other, just like in Hikaru no Go. 16 teams competed, 48 kids total, in both dan and kyu brackets. Top honors were won by Zhen Xianan 7d, Yifei Gao 6d, and Xinying Jiang 6d (with Aaron Ye as the alternate on one match). In the Kyu Division, Patrick Zhao 10k, Kilin Tang 12k and Daniel Zhao 14k won first place. All six received prizes in the Youth Room, as a well as a trophy at the awards banquet, and a free one month membership for Baduk TV. – Story and photos by Paul Barchilon E-J Youth Editor. Top: Bill Lin 7d vs. Jianing Gan 7d in the Redmond Cup finals; Bottom: Kyu Division winners in the Youth Team, at right, demonstrate the advanced strategy that won them the match.
