American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

In a dramatic game that saw the lead change hands several times 14-year-old Zi Yang (Matthew) Hu 1P (at right) prevailed over brand-new U.S. professional Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu 1P in the North American Ing Masters (NAIM) tournament final round Friday night. Hu had also defeated Liu in the 5th round of the U.S. Open Friday morning, his 5-0 record giving him a virtual lock on winning the Open, which has one more round on Saturday. Liu had a winning position coming out of the middle game, according to game commentator Yilun Yang 7P,  but allowed Hu to start a ko that wound up erasing Liu’s lead and he resigned shortly afterwards. Click here for the game commentary (scroll down to Game Review). Click here for latest results in the NAIM, US Open and Strong Player’s Open.

“Andy played really well today,” Hu said after the game, “I think maybe I was just a little more lucky.” Liu said that the games showed that “The difference between an amateur and a professional is staying calm no matter how complicated the game gets. I have a lot to learn from Matthew.”

After the game, the board Hu and Liu played on — a 2-inch kaya board donated by Yutopian — was auctioned off to benefit the American Go Foundation, with E-Journal Broadcast Coordinator Todd Heidenreich’s $600 bid winning both the board — which had been signed by both players as well as game commentors Yilun Yang 7P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P and Maeda Ryo 6P — and two unique bowls created especially for the event by Todd Blatt of MakerBot using his replicator.

Women’s Tournament: Amanda Miller 9k and Caroline Scheck 16k were both 3-0 going into the final round on Friday.
– reported by Lee Huynh

NAIM/SPO PLAYER PHOTOS POSTED: Photos are now posted of the players in the North American ING Masters and the Strong Players Open. Plus, in the crosstabs for the US Open,  NAIM and Strong Player’s Open, hovering over the result shows who a player’s opponent was. “It’s a small change, but it makes viewing the crosstabs a thousand times more pleasant,” says an EJ reader.
 – reports by Chris Garlock: photos by Phil Straus (top right) and Steve Colburn (bottom left); photo (l-r): AGF President Terry Benson, E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock, EJ Simulcast Manager Todd Blatt; Matthew Hu 1P, Todd Heidenreich, Andy Liu 1P, Yilun Yang 7P, Maeda Ryo 7P.

Kelsey Dyer 1D (right) and Yuan Zhou 7D (left) won the 2012 U.S. Pair Go Championships Thursday night at the U.S. Go Congress. They defeated Yukino Takehara 2k and Justin Ching 3D in the first round and then beat Amy Su 4D and Lionel Zhang 6D to clinch the title. They’ll represent the United States later this year at the World Pair Go Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Su and Zhang took second; in third were April Ye 1k and Kevin Huang 7d and in fourth place were Yukino Takehara 2k and Justin Ching 3d. Todd Heidenreich directed, with Assistant TD Jesy Feliccia and special assistance by Dennis Wheeler and Steve Colburn.
– photo by Chris Garlock

Call it our very own Go Olympics. Top-seeded Zi Yang Hu (below right) and #2 seed Andy Liu (below left), already scheduled to play for the 2012 North American Ing Masters (NAIM) title tonight — 7p on KGS, with live commentary by Mingjiu Jiang 9P (top right) and Yilun Yang 7P (top left) — are 4-0 in the U.S. Open and thus likely to be paired in this morning’s 5th round action, which will be broadcast on KGS starting at 9:30a (EST) with live professional commentary. Mingming “Stephanie” Yin will play Beomgeun Cho in the Strong Players Open (SPO) final, which will be broadcast live on KGS starting at 7P. Other 4-0 winners in the Open are Jeremy Chiu, Aaron Ye, Yunxuan Li, Forest Song, Frank Salantrie, Linden Chiu, Jared Beck, Willis Huang, Vivek Chavda, April Ye, Raymond Jiang, Zihang Yin, Jason Preuss, Theodore B. Terpstra, Elliot Stern, Amanda Miller, Bryan Tan, Caroline Scheck, Edward James Lane and Zongren Huang. Click here for latest results in the US Open,  NAIM and Strong Player’s Open.

Andrew Lu Sweeps Congress Die Hard Tournament: Nearly a quarter of the Congress attendees — 93 players — participated in the Die Hard tournament instead of taking the day off Wednesday. Andrew Lu swept all his games, going 4-0 in the top section to win the tournament. The other 4-0 players were: Sun Daqiang 2D, E-Journal Tournaments reporter Lee Huynh 1D, Anand Sathya 2K, Yin Zihang 3K, and Rohde David 5K.
– Andy Olsen, TD; photo: Lee Huynh (r) and friends study life and death problems Thursday night.

California1 Leads Wisonet Team Tourney: The California1 team led the Wisonet Cup State Team Go Tournament after the third round, with 3 major points. California II and Virginia were tied with 2 major points each, but California II’s minor score of 17 was ahead of Virginia’s 6. The winning team (most wins over losses) in each head-to-head match gets one major score point, and also earns minor score points based on the win-loss record for the team overall. The rest of the scores: New Jersey 1 major, 12 minor, New York no major, 8 minor, and North Carolina no major, 5 minor.

Fraser & Huang Win 13×13: Kalinda Fraser 8k won the 13×13 Kyu Division and Willis Huang 1D won the Dan Division on Tuesday night.
– Jim Hlavka, TD

Top right: spiral go; middle right: Galactic Go; Bottom Right: 4-color Go; Bottom left: Blind Go; Middle left: TD Terry Benson being interviewed by The Surrounding Game documentary crew; Top left: 3-color Go.
all photos by Phil Straus except Terry Benson and Blind Go by Chris Garlock

Top right: dancing to bluegrass music at the Wednesday night Live Bluegrass and Dessert event; bottom right: playing “Big Brother” go with Chinese professionals; middle bottom: playing in the Midnight Madness Tournament; bottom left: enjoying music at the Wednesday night Live Bluegrass and Dessert event; middle left: playing poker; top left: practicing for the Pair Go tournament; middle: playing go and picnicking atop High Windy Mountain. photos by Phil Straus, Chris Garlock & Steve Colburn. 

Despite professional-level trash-talking – “Yeah, yeah, you got that wrong, didn’t you? But then you had so little time to think” – Keith Arnold won just one of his 20 games in the Keith Arnold Kyu-Killer Challenge Tuesday afternoon. “It was harder than I thought,” Arnold admitted to the E-Journal Tuesday night as he played multi-color go at Crazy Go with his daughter Melanie and friends. “I’d have been happy to win five games, but I didn’t expect to win only one. I do think, however, that some of those ranks were a bit suspect,”Arnold said, beaten but unbowed. photos by Phil Straus (left) & Chris Garlock (right)