Tuesday October 29, 2019
This is the last week to register to play in the tournament. Join the strongest players across the US and Canada in this tournament spanning months. The rules for the tournament outline when games are played and any other information. Starting mid-November you can watch many professionals at least five professionals play. Email the Tournament Director to register or find out more at steve.colburn@usgo.org
Sunday October 27, 2019
Mark Lee won his fifth Cotsen Open title on Sunday, capping his 5-0 sweep with a convincing 123-move win over Andy Liu 1P. “Andy always comes up with new moves, so it was a pretty interesting game,” Lee told the E-Journal after the game. Lee won all five games by resignation. Although he’d been playing a lot of games with Korean professionals and insei before this year’s US Go Congress – where he came in third behind Eiko Kyu and Zhongfan Jian – Lee said he hasn’t had a chance to play much since, due largely to teaching duties with his students. He learned some AI moves studying with the Koreans but says he’s not planning on adding them to his repertoire just yet. “They’re very difficult to understand,” he said. “It’s good to change, but it’s going to be a lot of work,” he laughed. “Maybe I will try later.” This year’s title was especially satisfying, Lee said, “It was the toughest one yet,” due to the large and strong Open Section. “I was really happy to get a chance to play against so many strong players, especially since I don’t get many opportunities to play that many strong players.”
Winner Report
Open Section: 1st: Mark Lee (5-0); 2nd: Andy Liu (4-1); 3rd: Evan Lin (4-1); 4th: Xiaocheng Hu (4-1); 5th: Calvin Sun (4-1); 6th: Ying Ngai Yu (3-2).
Section A (4d-2d): 1st: Kosuke Sato (5-0); 2nd: Zhizhe Zhang (5-0); 3rd: Ashish Varma (4-1)
Section B (1d-2k): 1st: Tony Yang (5-0); 2nd: Tommy Yinhe Liu (5-0); 3rd: Andrew Luo (4-1)
Section C (3k-5k): 1st: Billy Maier (5-0); 2nd: Samuel Kennedy (5-0); 3rd: Shawn Blue (4-1)
Section D (6k-10k): 1st: David Su (4-1); 2nd: Mario Espinoza (4-1); 3rd: Viet Nguyen (4-1)
Section E (11k-30k): 1st: Jiqi Wang (5-0); 2nd: Michael Lee (5-0); 3rd: Xiao Tiao Wang (4-1)
Club prize winner: Santa Monica Go Club
The E-Journal’s coverage this year included broadcasting top boards on OGS and videos on the AGA’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, including interviews with Eric Cotsen, Yilun Yang 7P, Richard Dolen and more
Saturday October 26, 2019
Defending champion — and four-time winner — Mark Lee has some serious competition in his quest for a fifth Cotsen Open title. Lee swept all three rounds Saturday but with the Open Section one of the biggest and toughest in years, there are some top players still in the hunt with two rounds to play, including Andy Liu 1P, Evan Lin and Ming Lin, a very strong player from Taiwan. All three are also undefeated after three rounds.
With 155 players this year, the Cotsen moved to a new, more spacious venue in downtown Los Angeles, and once again featured the professional masseuses for go-tensed shoulders and free taco truck lunch that have drawn hungry players from throughout the LA area and as far away as Seattle, WA, Evanston, IL, Tennessee, New York City and even Melbourne, Australia.
The E-Journal’s coverage this year included broadcasting top boards on OGS and videos on the AGA’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, including interviews with Eric Cotsen, Yilun Yang 7P, Richard Dolen and more. CLICK HERE for the top-board game records for rounds 1-3; tune in on OGS for Round 4 Sunday starting at 10:30am PDT.
– report/photo by Chris Garlock
Wednesday October 23, 2019
Over 150 have already registered for this year’s Cotsen Open in Los Angeles, CA. Online registration has closed, but day-of registration is available Saturday, starting at 8a. Everyone must be registered or checked-in (if pre-registered) by 9a if they wish to play in Round 1. The location is the MG Studio, 1319 W 11th St; parking across the street. Registration and check in will be in the back of the building at 1320 Connecticut St. As usual, the Cotsen features free lunch from the Kogi BBQ Taco Truck, free registration for those who play both days, club prizes and Yilun Yang 7P will play a pro-pro game Sunday morning. Online coverage will be provided by the E-Journal; follow us @theaga on Twitter and @AmericanGoAssociation on Facebook, with video coverage on our YouTube channel and top-board games on OGS.
Thursday October 17, 2019
Pandanet is holding the 18th World Students Go Oza Championship from February 17-21, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, where sixteen students from around the world will gather to determine the world’s top student player.
To select the finalists, there will be an online preliminary round on Pandanet; check out the tournament page for details. University/college students under the age of 30 are eligible to participate in the preliminary round (note that students living in China, Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei cannot participate in the prelim). Application deadline is Sunday October 20.
Pandanet covers airfare, hotel and meals. For any other questions, email Chika Mochizuki and The All-Japan Students GO Association.
Thursday October 17, 2019
Two weeks remain to register your team for this season. Registration ends Saturday November 2nd. The first round will start on November 17th. Please see the updated rules for the year for any questions. Registration and questions can be sent to steve.colburn@usgo.org. We hope to see your city compete this year!
Friday October 11, 2019
The broadcasts from the 2019 US Go Congress in Madison, WI have now been published on the Official AGA YouTube channel – check out the playlist to access pro commentaries on the Pandanet-AGA City League Finals and all seven rounds of the US Masters, featuring Yoonyoung Kim 8p, Yilun Yang 7p, Mingjiu Jiang 7p, Jennie Shen 2p, Ryan Li 1p and Stephanie Yin 1p, as well as various special interviews. If you want to jump to a particular segment, just head to the comments section and choose the corresponding timestamp. These videos were originally broadcast live on Twitch; if you want to support more future broadcasts, please subscribe and become an AGA member. Thanks again to the E-Journal’s 2019 broadcast team and special thanks to Stephen Hu for producing the videos for our YouTube channel.
Wednesday October 9, 2019
The single biggest Go event in North America each year, the U.S. Go Congress draws hundreds of Go players from across the country for a week of events, and attracts thousands of viewers to broadcasts of the top boards. Whether you’ve ever attended a Congress or not, organizers would like your opinions on a few basic questions so that they can make next year’s Congress – set for August 1-9 in Estes Park, Colorado — an even better event. Click here now to complete the survey.
Tuesday October 8, 2019
Over 100 are already registered for the 2019 Cotsen Open, coming up October 26-27, 2019 at MG Studio in downtown Los Angeles. The Cotsen Open features thousands of dollars in prizes, an extremely competitive Open Division, live commentary on top board games, masseuses to massage players during their games, free food truck lunches to all those who pre-register on both Saturday and Sunday of the tournament. And, as always, everyone who pre-registers and plays in all 5 of their matches has their full entry fee refunded. Pre-registration closes on Tuesday, October 22nd; register here.
NOTE: The E-Journal still has a couple game recorder slots available; game recorders — who must have their own laptops — receive EJ caps, $25 per game and the chance to observe top-board games at close range. Email journal@usgo.org if interested.
Tuesday October 8, 2019
The 8th Virginia Open took place in Vienna, Virginia on September 28th and featured a 26-player field, including nine 5-dan and stronger players in the 10-person Open section. Eric Lui 1p emerged victorious in all three of his games to become the overall champion. Justin Teng 6d took second place after losing to Lui in the final round, while Qingbo Zhang 5d and Joshua Lee 6d took third and fourth place respectively. Among Virginia residents, Qingbo Zhang 5d, Joshua Lee 6d, Yaming Wang 7d, and Ran Zhao 5d qualified for the Finals of the Virginia State Championship, which will take place at a later time. In the Handicap division, Xuhui Zhang 3d, Derek Zhou 7k, and Adam King 15k won first place in their respective sections. All participants received a free Go Book courtesy of Hinoki Press and the Capital Go Club.
The venue also hosted the Jinghua Cup, which was a three vs. three team match between alumni of Peking University and Tsinghua University. Liang Yu 6d and Sihao Li 3d were able to score crucial wins for Peking University to clinch victory with a 2-1 score. Fairfax County Cable TV came to the event mid-day to record some of the action as well as a presentation by Edward Zhang about the cultural aspects of Go in both the West and the East. Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Keam also visited the event to give a brief talk about how he sees Go as a metaphor for global society and a bridge to connect Asian and American culture. More photos from the event can be found in this album compiled by Liang Yu, Hejun Kang, and Anna Liu.
– report by Justin Teng