American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

The 35th US Go Congress closed with a celebration of the week’s tournament winners at the awards banquet Saturday evening. Tournament champions received prizes, and all players and Go Congress staff shared in good food, good cheer, and rousing recognition of the hard work put in by all.

US Open
Frederick Bao 6d won top prize in the top division of the US Open, edging out Canadian Go Association President James Sedgwick 6d in second place, and Chanseok Oh 6d in third by tie-breaks. See the full list of US Open division winners here.

Senior Tournament AKA “Geezer Go”
Bart Jacob 3k and Moon Oh 1d were both undefeated with five wins.

Women’s Tournament
Yacen Xie 5d, Sarah Crites 6k, and Hung-yao Chang 15k took the top prizes in each of the three divisions.

9×9 Tournament
James Sedgwick 6d took first place in the dan division while Neal Wright 5k won the kyu division.

13×13 Tournament
Kunxuan Li 4d and Sarah Crites 6k won the dan and kyu divisions respectively.

Lightning Tournament
Shixing Li 5d and Ben Gunby 2k won the dan and kyu divisions respectively.

Die Hard Tournament
Stephen (Xiaocheng) Hu 6d ran away with the dan division of the tournament with an undefeated four wins, and Billy Maier 3k won the kyu division, also with four wins.

Self-Paired Tournament
Jeff Horn 1d claimed three titles, “Dedicated” for most total games, “Philanthropist” for most wins given to others, and “Kyu Killer.” Other titles recognized were “Hurricane” for most total wins claimed by Marion Edey 9k, and “Dan Slayer” claimed by James Acres 1k.

-photo by Eva Casey
-report by Karoline Li Tournaments Bureau Chief

Congress Tournament Schedule: Saturday 7/20
9:00a: US Open, round 6

Stay tuned for US Open and other tournament results coming soon!

–photo by Chris Garlock

The 2019 U.S. Masters tournament concluded dramatically Friday night as both Nyu Eiko 2p and Zhongfan Jian 7d killed huge groups in their final-round top-board games against Mark Lee 7d and Eric Lui 1p. Those wins gave Eiko the Masters championship and Jian second place. Click here for the Masters crosstab. Both top boards were broadcast live on the AGA’s Twitch stream, attracting 110,000 unique viewers around the world. For U.S. Open results through Round 5 (Round 6 is being played Saturday morning), click here.

Congress Tournament Schedule: Friday 7/19
9:00a: US Open, round 5; US Open Masters Division, round 6
1:00p: Senior Tournament, round 5
3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 4
9:00p: Self-Paired Tournament ends – get those results turned in!

Women’s Tournament
Yacen Xie 5d, Lenka Dankova 4k, and Hung-Yao Chang 15k are undefeated with one round to go in this year’s Women’s Tournament with three wins each. The multinational field includes players from Japan, the Czech Republic (Dankova), and Mexico – 12-year-old Paola Ortega 10k is part of a team from Mexico sponsored by the AGF.

-photo by Samantha Fede
-report by Karoline Li, Tournaments Bureau Chief

Japanese pro Eiko Nyu 2P is leading the 2019 Masters tournament with a 5-0 record going into the last two rounds on Friday. Eric Lui, Mark Lee and Zhongfan Jian are all 4-1. Rounds 6 and 7 will be broadcast live on OGS and the AGA’s Twitch stream Friday; Round 6 starting at 10a EDT and Round 7 at 8p EDT (and streamed live in the Great Hall), with commentary by Yilun Yang 7p and Jennie Shen 2P, hosted by Julie Burrall 1d, Samantha Fede 5k, Tyler Oyakawa 5d and Nick Sibicki 4d. Complete tourney results posted here. U.S. Open results here.

US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Thursday 7/18
9:00a: US Open, round 4; US Open Masters Division, round 5
1:00p: Senior Tournament, round 4
3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 3
7:00p: Pair Go

Crazy Go!
“Crazy Go was its usual laughter and insanity” reports Terry Benson, who directs the “tournament” every year. “Well over 100 congress attendees ‘played,’ but watching was at least as common.” Benson also reports that a new variant was created this year by three of the kids: One Color Knights Move Go (right), played between two players and a third to record the game and referee.

-photos by Terry Benson
-report by Karoline Li, Tournaments Bureau Chief

US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Wednesday 7/17
9:00a: Die Hard Tournament
That’s all for today, folks!

Senior Tournament
One of the youngest annual Go Congress tournaments, and quickly becoming one of the most popular, is reserved for players 55 and older. Now in its fourth year, the Senior Tournament is a favorite of long-time congress attendees and is directed this year by Eva Casey, herself a returning player and current Tournament Coordinator for the Massachusetts Go Association. “[In the next round] three of the Senior Tournament games will be between 3-0 contestants,” reports Casey. The six undefeated players so far are Frank Brown 5k, Jim Conyngham 4k, Bart Jacob 3k, Paul Magretts 2k, Moon Oh 1d, and David Cho 5d. Tune in for more results as the Senior Tournament progresses!

–photos by Eva Casey
-report by Karoline Li, Tournaments Bureau Chief

And then there were two. Four-game winners, that is. Japanese pro Eiko Nyu notched a comfortable win over Aaron Ye 6d on Board 1 in the fourth round of the 2019 U.S. Masters on Tuesday, while Eric Lui eked out a 1.5 win over Alan Huang. Complete Masters results here, and U.S. Open results here. Check out the video of Mingjiu Jiang’s commentary on the Nyu-Ye game on the AGA Twitch stream here. Round 5 will be broadcast starting at 10a EDT on Thursday.
– report by Chris Garlock, photo by Todd Heidenreich