American Go E-Journal » U.S. Pro Tournament

Thursday morning’s session at the AGA Professional Qualification Tournament  featured just two games, Ben Lockhart vs Aaron Ye and Sarah Yu vs Andrew Lu, in a battle to move onto the semi-finals. Lockhart had an early lead but then played a couple of slow moves and Ye was able to pull ahead; a huge semeai then developed and Lockhart missed the critical move to win the capturing race (click here to see Myungwan Kim’s brief video commentary). Sarah Yu, who had played tengen in her Wednesday night match against Lu, played a similar center move Thursday, explaining afterwards that she felt the 7.5 komi was heavy and this would lead to more favorable josekis. However, she failed to make effective use of her unusual move and Lu gained the advantage. This game also developed into a crowd-pleasing semeai (click here for Myungwan Kim’s video commentary).

In the afternoon matchups, Eric Lui defeated Andrew Lu by resignation, advancing to the semi-finals. Daniel Gourdeau won against Aaron Ye; he lost against Ye in the round-robin, so they’ll play again on Friday morning to determine who advances to the final with Lui. Ben Lockhart beat Jeremy Chiu, tying their match at 1-1; they’ll play on Friday morning. Sarah Yu beat Manuel Velasco, knocking him into the bottom bracket; she’ll await the winner in the Lockhart-Chiu game. The live KGS broadcast will start at 9:30a PST.
– report/photo by Chris Garlock, with technical support from Dennis Wheeler. photo (l-r): Sarah Yu, Danny Ko, Manuel Velasco, Daniel Gourdeau, Andrew Lu and Ben Lockhart.
CORRECTION (1/8): Our original report did not indicate that Eric Lui is in the finals and that the winner of the Gourdeau-Ye game will advance to the finals. 

The round-robin section of the AGA Professional Qualification Tournament wrapped up Wednesday morning with few surprises except for second-seeded Ben Lockhart’s 7th-place finish. Eric Lui was first, Aaron Ye second, Daniel Gourdeau third, then Andrew Lu in fourth, Sarah Yu was fifth, Jeremy Chiu sixth, and Manuel Velasco eighth.

The knockout section commenced on Wednesday afternoon as Los Angeles enjoyed a second straight day of rain, although of course the eight top-ranked North American go players at the Hotel Normandie were oblivious — or at least impervious –to the weather. The knockout section is a best-of-three, with the first game having already been played in the round-robin. Eric Lui had beaten Manuel Velasco in the round-robin and had no trouble with him on Wednesday afternoon, knocking Velasco down into the lower bracket. Daniel Gourdeau’s win against Jeremy Chiu secured his place in the upper bracket as well. Sarah Yu had lost to Andrew Lu in the round robin, but won on Wednesday; they’ll play to advance on Thursday morning. And Ben Lockhart, who had lost to Aaron Ye in the round-robin, beat him by a point and a half in the knockout, forcing a third game on Thursday morning. Both games will start at 9:30a PST on KGS.

A brief video of Myungwan Kim 9P’s commentary on the Ye-Lockhart game has been posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel.
– report/photo by Chris Garlock

“I like the You Tube highlights from the qualifier games,” says Bob Gilman. “These analyses of important situations provide insights in a readily digestible form. Longer game commentaries are good to have also, but they demand a big time commitment to watch, and it’s easy to forget many of the points made. I hope you continue to do features like these.”

“Just wanted to compliment the short videos,” writes Keith Arnold. “While there is some suggestion that they were born of necessity and bad internet connection, I actually think they have been uniformly excellent, informative and just right for busy modern life and short attention spans.”

The latest batch of pro tourney game highlights includes Sarah Yu (W) vs Manuel Velasco (B), Ben Lockhart (W) vs Aaron Ye (B) and Jeremy Chiu (W) vs Eric Lui (B), all from the fifth round of the round robin.

Top seed Eric Lui 7d is one game away from winning the AGA Pro Qualification Tournament’s round robin section, with a 5-1 score and and just one more round to play before the knock-out section begins. Third-seeded Aaron Ye 7d is in second place, also with five wins, and Andrew Lu and Daniel Gourdeau are next with three wins each. Second-seeded Ben Lockhart has scored just two wins thus far, as have Jeremy Chiu, Sarah Yu and Manuel Velasco. The knock-out section begins Wednesday afternoon; it’s a best-of-three match in which the first game was played in the round robin.

All the games are being broadcast live each day on KGS, starting at 9:30a PST and 3p PST. The tournament is being held in Los Angeles at the Hotel Normandie. Click here for the tourney crosstab with results and game records. Brief game highlight videos are posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel.
– report/photo by Chris Garlock; photo: Eric Lui (left) reviews his Round 6 game with Daniel Gourdeau

In our latest batch of brief video game highlights focusing on key points in selected games, Norman Tsai 6-dan shows how Jeremy Chiu’s attachment to unimportant stones in his third-round game against Andrew Lu causes him to choose the wrong direction of play. In Daniel Gourdeau’s third-round game against Aaron Ye, Tsai explores what happens when a forcing move turns out not to be forcing after all. The dangers of gambling on a big kill are the focus of Tsai’s review of Ben Lockhart’s third-round game against Sarah Yu. And the problem of defending unimportant stones comes up again in Eric Lui’s third-round game against Manuel Velasco. Finally, second-seeded Ben Lockhart reviews his fourth-round game against Manuel Velasco.

“I like these game extracts as they are wonderful illustrations of when applying basic principles would have made a big difference,” comments Dontbtme. “It’s illuminating, so thanks a lot.” 

You can check out all of our videos on our Pro Tournament playlist.

After four rounds in the AGA Pro Qualification Tournament, Eric Lui 7d, Aaron Ye 7d and Andrew Lu 7d are tied for first place in the round robin section, each with three wins. Ben Lockhart 7d and Daniel Gourdeau 6d are next with two wins each, and Jeremy Chiu 6d, Sarah Yu 6d and Manuel Velasco 5d each have one win apiece. There are three more rounds in this section, after which the knockout rounds will begin on Wednesday afternoon. All the games are being broadcast live on KGS, starting at 9:30a PST and 3p PST. Click here for the tourney crosstab with results and game records. Brief game highlight videos are being posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel. photo: the Round 4 Velasco-Yu game Monday night; photo by Chris Garlock 

The E-Journal’s coverage of the 4th AGA Pro Qualification Tournament — this week in Los Angeles — has been expanded to include brief video game highlights focusing on key points in selected games. In our first batch, Tyler Oyakawa 5d provides a 2-minute review of the main ways to approach the 3-5 point in the Round 1 game between Sarah Yu and Daniel Gourdeau (right). “Nice comparison,” says Dontbtme. In his review of the Round 1 Andrew Lu-Aaron Ye game (4:10), Oyakawa explains how to manage an attack on weak groups, and in the Manuel Velasco-Jeremy Chiu first-round game (5:10), he looks at options for handling your opponent’s moyo, including when to reduce and when (and how) to invade. Finally, Oyakawa provides a brief explanation of Ben Lockhart’s fast opening moves against Andrew Lu in their Round 2 game  (2:00). “Check them out and let us know what you think!” urges EJ Managing Editor Chris Garlock.

The year is barely a few days old and it’s already been an exciting one for the American Go Association. Hundreds tuned in on January 1 to Myungwan Kim 9Ps commentary on our YouTube channel for the third round of the MLily Cup battle between go titans Lee Sedol and Ke Jie. Then an attack on the datacenter that hosts our site took the AGA’s website down until midday Sunday (though we were able to get some preliminary content out via our Facebook and Twitter feeds on Saturday and early Sunday), just in time for our coverage of the 4th AGA Professional Qualifier at the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles. And as the AGA pro event began to wind down for the day early Sunday evening, our coverage of the fourth round of the MLily began. “After the pro qualifications, I thought I’d have a go overdose, but no way,” said one YouTube viewer, “let’s watch this game.”

AGA Pro Qualifier coverage continues all week, with game broadcasts beginning at 9:30a PST and 3P PST daily, along with continuous posts on Facebook and Twitter, plus game highlights on YouTube. And if a fifth game is needed in the MLily Cup, we’ll broadcast that as well; stay tuned for complete details.

report/photos by Chris Garlock