American Go E-Journal » U.S. Go Congress

“We have tournaments for women and for juniors, why not one for seniors!” exclaimed Bart Jacob after his first Senior Cup game Monday afternoon. The idea for a Senior Cup came from longtime player Wanda Metcalf 5k. With well-established events like the Youth and Women’s tournaments, as well  and now a Girls Championship already at the Go Congress, the Senior Cup fills a noticeable gap for a community of longtime go players, some of whom gather weekly at their local clubs, while others see each other once a year at the annual Go Congress. The Senior Cup is four rounds, and all players must be at least 55 years old. TD James Peters says he’s honored to be running a tournament that involves so many long-time Go Congress attendees. “It’s a natural extension of the sorts of tournaments we already run.”
– report/photos by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

David Glekel 3d and Eric Hookway 10k came out on top Sunday night as the dan and kyu champions of the 9×9 tournament directed by Audrey Wang. As the tournament began, she reviewed the new double elimination structure, faster time settings (5 minutes basic time and 1 period of 10 seconds sudden death byo yomi), and adjusted komi structure. The completely new format — which was designed to complete the tournament in one evening rather than several sessions over the week of the Congress as in past years — caused some confusion for longtime players used to simply being lined up and split into tables, and “could improve in terms of overall efficiency,” said assistant TD Si Chen. “If we do double elimination again, there are definitely some things we could improve on.”  Overall, “it was a really good tournament,” said Dan Champion David Glekel, and players had a good time. The new time settings and komi structure were received well, and the champions were chosen without further playoff games needed during the week.
– report/photo by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

Bill Phillips 1k
Age: 59
Lives in: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Years playing go: 42
Favorite thing about go: Bill learned to play go in 1974, the same year he learned to play Ultimate Frisbee- although he’s a lot more serious about go than Ultimate. That being said, he likes them for the same reasons. “Both are incredibly competitive,” he says, “But there’s also an element of compatibility and cooperation that’s required in both of them. In go, you start with an empty board and you build it up to a point where one person has a little bit more than half and one has a little bit less than half. And you want to be that one with a little bit more than half. It’s intensely competitive but it also requires this [cooperation] and respect of your opponent.” The relationships he’s built in the go community are a large part of his long-term go playing. “I’m also here at the Go Congress because of the people. The other thing I really love about go is that every stone is the same, it’s just the relationship with the other stones that are different. And so, the number of relationships far exceeds the number of stones. So the relationships between stones exceed the number of stones, and the relationships at the go tournaments far exceed the number of games I play.”

Jasper Emerton 7k
Age: 17
Lives in: Nashville, Tennessee
Years playing go: 1
Favorite thing about go: “When you’re playing, there’s trick moves that you can play such as snapbacks. Seeing that move before your opponent does and being able to trick them into it is my favorite thing… being able to see something that my opponent doesn’t see and taking advantage of their lack of reading.”

– report/photos by Samantha Fede, E-Journal special correspondent, reporting from the 2016 U.S. Go Congress  

US Open/US Masters Highlights: Tournaments at this year’s Go Congress kicked off with round one of the U.S. Open and U.S. Open Masters Sunday morning at 9a, pairings posted promptly at 8:45p. In first-round top-board action at the 2016 U.S. Open Masters, Zirui (Tim) Song 1P edged out Man Bowen 7d by 2.5 points in a 4-hour marathon on Board 1; Andy Liu 1P (left) defeated Matthew Burrall 6d (right) on Board 2, Zhaonian (Michael) Chen 7d beat Jeremy Chiu 7d on Board 3, Ryan Li 1P defeated Hugh Zhang 7d on Board 4 and on Board 5 Kenryu Ito 1P beat Lionel Zhang 7d.

In Round 2 of the Masters on Sunday night, Andy Liu 1p defeated Cheng Zhang 7d, Hanchen Zhang 1P defeated Tim Song 1P, Michael Chen 7d defeated Mengxue Luan 7d, Ryan Li 1P defeated Zhongfan Jian 7d, Tony Tang 7d defeated Danny Ko 7d and Xiannan Zheng 7d defeated Calvin Sun 1P. The E-Journal team broadcast five boards live on KGS in Round 1 (Jennie Shen 2P commented on KGS with Andrew Jackson) and six boards in Round 2 (Feng Yun 9P commented on KGS with Solomon Smilack), and Board 1 was streamed on the AGA’s YouTube channel and Twitch in the morning (commentary by Mingjiu Jiang 9P with Stephen Hu) and Board 2 in the evening (commentary by Jennie Shen 2P with Andrew Jackson).

A crosstab of results for the entire field of 346 players will be posted soon; meanwhile click here for results from US Open Round 1 and US Masters Round 1. Again this year we’ll be including game records in the crosstab; to include your game record, please email your sgf file to journal@usgo.org. Be sure all game info, including the result, is complete. Watch our website, Facebook and Twitter feed for updates throughout each day; top-board broadcasts with professional commentary can be found on our YouTube channel, Twitch and KGS.

US Go Congress Broadcast Schedule: Monday, 8/1: US Open Masters Game 3
9:30a EST: YouTube/Twitch: Hajin Lee 3P, with Stephen Hu 6d
10:30a: KGS: Cathy Li 1P, with Justin Teng 6d

US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Monday, 8/1
9:00a: US Open, round 2; and US Open Masters, round 3
1:00p: Under 16 Girls Championship, round 1; and Senior Cup, round 1
3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 2; and Youth 9×9 / 13×13
7:00p: US Open Masters, round 4; and Evening League, night 2
7:30p: Lightning Tournament

Here’s a short rundown of the rest of the tournaments on the roster this week:

Women’s Tournament: Ladies compete in this four-round annual tournament; begins Sunday 7/31 at 3pm. TD: Lisa Scott

Evening League: Evening League is a week-long ladder tournament in which players face off in serious games, competing for glory at the top of a standings page updated in real time. Players may play at any time during the week, but every night there will be a dedicated area where the standings will be projected and people can find opponents. Evening League is an evolution of the Self Paired Tournament, which it will be replacing; begins Sunday evening 7/31 at 7pm and continues every night of the week. The first night of play drew over 50 players! TD: Andrew Hall

9×9: The battle of the tiny boards commences! This year’s 9×9 tournament is a paired four round double elimination tournament; Sunday 7/31 at 7:30pm. TD: Audrey Wang

Girl’s Tournament: The four highest rated girls under 16 years of age will face off in a two round no-handicap tournament to find first, second, third, and fourth place; begins Monday 8/1 at 1pm. TD: Gurujeet Khalsa

Senior Cup: A four-round rated tournament for players 55 and older; begins Monday 8/1 at 1pm. TD: James Peters

Lightning: A playing time of 10 minutes sudden death will test participants on their instincts and performance under pressure! Players will split into 6-person tables to play a round robin tournament for table prices. Table winners will play elimination games throughout the week to find the ultimate champion; begins Monday 8/1 at 7:30pm. TD: Keith Arnold

Crazy Go: Play Go on crazy boards, with crazy rules, against crazy people! Games include Blind Go, 3D Go, Four-Color Go, and more; begins Tuesday 8/2 at 7pm.

Amateur Team Relay Go: Players of all strengths can queue up to join one of two teams who will rotate pairs of players against each other in an ultimate pair go game! While waiting to take the place of the pair currently playing for their team, the next pair will be coached on strategy and board position by professional coaches.

Die Hard: Annual four-round tournament for those players who don’t need a Wednesday day off from Go! Wednesday 8/3 at 9am. TD: James Peters

North American Pair Go Championship: Teams of one male and one female will compete against three other teams of similar combined strength in a two-round tournament to determine table winners. At the top table, pairs will compete to win and represent the US at the International Pair Go tournament in Tokyo in the fall! Don’t afraid to get dressy folks, formal or semi-formal dress is encouraged. Thursday 8/4 at 7pm. TD: Todd Heidenreich

– Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison, with additional reporting by Chris Garlock; photos by Karoline Li except for top right, by Chris Garlock

While this year’s U.S. Go Congress in Boston includes many longtime traditional events like the U.S. Open, Lightning Go and pro lectures, it also offers some new events. The Evening League combines the community and competition of the Midnight Madness tournament and the flexibility of the Self-Paired. “The Evening League is all about fostering competitive spirit in a straightforward and transparent format,” says TD Andrew Hall (photo). Perhaps most important, this is the first year that the Go Congress is offering evening passes to enable local players who cannot attend during the day to have a chance to play some competitive rated games while the Congress is in town.

Imagine a ladder. The first night of the tournament (Sunday night beginning at 7p), players will be placed in positions from the top of the ladder to the bottom in the order they register for the tournament. During the tournament, players on the ladder challenge other players who occupy higher spots. If the challenger wins, they take the defeated opponent’s ladder position and everyone else moves down one spot. The tournament will be handicapped at handicap-2, all games will be rated, and results will be updated and projected real time during the evening rounds. These live TD-facilitated sessions, every evening from 7pm to midnight, are designed to give sense of physical place and the competitive spirit provided by a tournament, but players are not restricted to scheduled play. They may play games using tournament time settings with opponents anytime during the day, much as they did in the Self-Paired. Players record the results and the date and time of the game, and these results are input into the ladder every evening at 5pm in time for that evening’s ladder to be updated with the day’s results. That evening, players continue challenging and moving up (or down) the current ladder. Players do not need to play every evening; those who do not show up to an evening round are dropped from the ladder, but can join the ladder again when they want to play, and even challenge to reclaim their previous spot. Prizes may be won in the form of individual prizes inspired by the self-paired prizes of years past, but also through achievements that are attainable by multiple players.

The Evening League provides a structured opportunity for the local go community and Go Congress attendees to mingle and compete. “It’s king of the hill style; you play to climb the ladder and defend your space at the top!” says Hall.
– Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison for the E-Journal; photo: Hall shows off Evening League playing space in main playing area in Boston University’s George Sherman Union; photo by Chris Garlock

Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Go Congress featured an unusual line-up; three homegrown American professionals conducted game reviews in Boston University’s George Sherman Union. The newest pro, Eric Lui (right), a 1 dan professional as of January this year, is soft-spoken but the room full of players hung on his every word. “Who thinks black is better? Raise your hand,” asked Lui, who was reviewing a game for Ken Koester 1d. They were discussing a sequence in the corner, ending with a liberty race in the top left. “So, it seems like Black has too many liberties [so white can’t live],” explained Lui.

At the same time, Andy Liu (left), 1 dan professional, was lecturing to a room so packed that many couldn’t even get in the door. “The key to being stronger is you must, at all costs, avoid playing in the ‘red’ (or low-percentage) areas,” he told the audience, sprawled on the floor and spilling out the door. Although he was  reviewing his recent game with Lee Sedol from the Ing Cup, Liu seemed more focused on explaining the paradigm shift in measuring playing strength with the success of AlphaGo. Each point on the board has a probability distribution of how good a move it is. In the opening, most of the moves are green (i.e., having normal distributions), particularly on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th lines. You shouldn’t spend a lot of time on the opening, Liu advised, “Don’t sweat it… Don’t try to look for outliers when there are none.” Instead you should spend time when the distribution is skewed: when one move is green, and all the rest are red. How do you know what areas are red and green? It’s not that easy, according to Liu. He doesn’t know and no pro does. Their play isn’t perfect. That’s why AlphaGo is so exciting; it sees these distributions. “AlphaGo has called humanity out,” Liu said, saying that now top professionals are being forced to become stronger.

Calvin Sun, 1 dan professional (right), followed his young colleagues at 3pm. His fans, sitting in the front row, were multitasking by listening and watching games on KGS. Sun, reviewing a game, spoke quietly, “This is pretty good for you. It’s joseki but nowadays white doesn’t really play this because black gets sente.” His review, targeted at 1 kyu – 3 dan players, involved discussion of different joseki variations and when to not follow the joseki.
– report/photos by Samantha Fede, E-Journal special correspondent, reporting from the 2016 U.S. Go Congress  

In addition to broadcasting US Open Masters top-board games on KGS as usual, the E-Journal broadcasting team will again this year video stream the US Open Masters top board on both the AGA’s YouTube and Twitch channels (check out the video trailer here) , both with live commentaries by professionals. Plus a couple extras as well…

Here’s the tentative line-up for this weekend’s broadcasts (plus a reminder of Saturday’s AlphaGo keynote), subject to change (we’ll keep you posted on Facebook and Twitter).

Saturday, 3:30P EST: AGA City League Finals
Pandanet
YouTube/Twitch: Jennie Shen 2P, with Andrew Jackson 4d

Saturday, 7p: Congress Opening Ceremony & Keynote Speeches by AlphaGo’s Aja Huang & Fan Hui 2P

Sunday morning, 9:30a EST: US Open Masters Game 1
KGS: Jenny Shen 2P, with Andrew Jackson 4d
YouTube/Twitch: Hajin Lee 3P, with Stephen Hu 6d

Sunday afternoon, 3:30p EST: Redmond Cup Game 1
YouTube/Twitch: Jennie Shen 2p with Lionel Zhang 7d

Sunday evening, 7:30P EST: US Open Masters Game 2 
KGS: Feng Yun 9P, with Chris Garlock 3d
YouTube/Twitch: Hajin Lee 3P, with Stephen Hu 6d