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

Aaron Ye 6d won the Diehard Tournament on Wednesday, the event traditionally held on the Congress day off. 76 players participated and seven had perfect 4-0 records: Aaron Ye 6d (Overall winner); Daniel Puzan 1d; David Frankel 1k; Steve Wishnousky 3k; Vincent Tam 5k; Aaron Pearson 7k and Chris Ramsumair 8k.
– report by Andy Olsen, TD; photo by Garrett Smith

Yulin Tong Takes Lead in US Open Masters: The lead in the Open Masters changed not once but twice on Tuesday. First, Youyin Cao 3P  beat defending champion Mark Lee in the morning round. Cao is a Champion Team member of the 2014 Huang Long Shi Shuang Deng Cup Ring Contest. Then in the fifth round on Tuesday night, Yulin Tong 4P (right) defeated Cao in just 107 moves. Click here for the latest results. Three rounds have been played in the US Open; click here for the latest results. (update: this post has been updated; Cao beat Lee by resignation, not by half a point)

Day Off: Anyone signed up for Stillwater bus ride: bus will load/depart 9a at Flynn Circle, next to building #7.

Both the AGA Teacher Certification and the Tournament Director Workshops kicked off Monday afternoon. This is the third year for the Teacher Certification, consisting of four 2-hour sessions, which have been a great success. Nearly two dozen participants showed up for the first session Monday afternoon, which was about learning to teach go to an absolute beginner. Later sessions will focus on teaching DDK, SDK players, and one-on-one teaching.

Chris Kirschner conscripted a volunteer from the campus staff at St Thomas University, where the Congress is being held. Interested but somewhat mystified, Diane Kruger, Associate Dean of Finance and operations, College of Education, Leadership and Counseling, stood at the demo board while Kirschner demonstrated how to teach someone to play go for the very first time. He was quite entertaining and encouraging and fielded questions from the audience about various teaching methods. Before the session was over, not only had his volunteer learned some of the basics of the game, but she was eagerly requesting contact info from everyone to continue learning and also to share with the rest of her faculty staff.

This is the first year for the TD Workshop, and actual certifications will not be granted at the end of the four 1-hour sessions, as the format is still evolving. Topics will cover pairing, reporting, and organizing for your own local tournament. To encourage new TDs, the AGA will provide mentoring help from established AGA TDs as they start their first tournaments. A number of experienced go teachers and tournaments have been enlisted to share their knowledge and mentor interested members for both workshops. A schedule of events was included in Congress welcome packets. Myung Wan Kim will be teaching Thursday 1 to 3 — “Mathematical end games”, that is, counting — and “After school programs” on Saturday 1 to 3. Kirschner and Maeda will be teaching the “one on one” session on Friday.
– Dennis Wheeler; photo: volunteer Diane Kruger observing an Open Masters game Tuesday with AGA president Andy Okun; photo by Chris Garlock

In the semifinals of the first-ever AGA Girls’ Under-16 Championship held Monday at the Twin Cities US Go Congress, Kelly Liu 1d upset Amy Wang 5d in a hard-fought match. In the other semifinal, Melissa Zhang 3d beat Melissa Cao 1d when she chased a one-eyed group across the board and denied it a second, life-giving eye. Ms. Liu will now play Ms. Zhang for the championship and a $100 first-place prize on Thursday at 1 p.m., while Ms. Wang will play Ms. Cao for third place.
– Ted Terpstra, TD
Update: the headline has been updated; Liu did not win the Championship but will play Zhang on Thursday in the final.

“There’s no real answer to the question of ‘Where’s the best move,'” Japanese professional Maeda Ryo 6P told a room full of rapt go players Monday afternoon at the US Go Congress in St Paul, MN. “Ask two different professionals and you’ll get two different answers.” One option, Maeda suggested, is to “find the move with the least wrong with it.”

Maeda also posed the following go conundrum: “On the one hand, you want to make territory; on the other, you don’t want to make territory. It’s one of the things that makes go so hard to understand.” Fortunately, Maeda revealed, go is actually quite simple: “There are only two options: fighting or not fighting.”
– report/photos by Chris Garlock

13×13 Table Winners: Justin Teng 6D, Melissa Zhang 3D, Julian Erville 1D, Peter Schumer 2K, Xiong Nqua 3K, Sherrie Echols 9K, Mathias Kramm 7K, Steve Zhang 17K.
– Jim Hlavka, Director

Self-Paired Update: There have been 46 games played so far. This rated tournament is open to anyone who wants to play; see page 12 in the Congress handbook for details/rules.
– John Hogan, TD; photo by Chris Garlock

The first day of this year’s US Go Congress on Sunday featured the first round of the US Open — in which 253 players participated — and Rounds 1 and 2 of the US Open Masters, in which 26 top players, including nine professionals this year, are playing for over $7,000 in cash prizes. Click here for the Masters crosstab. Defending Masters champion Mark Lee is off to a good start, notching successive wins over Calvin Sun and Michael Chen.

Go players also had plenty of other activities to choose from during the day, including lectures and simuls with professional go players like Mingjiu Jiang 7P, who was operating on just a few hours of sleep after arriving late Saturday night and then playing in the first round of the Masters Sunday morning (and would go on to play in the second round after lecturing all afternoon).

The 13×13 tournament was held Sunday night; we’ll post results on that and on Saturday’s 9×9 tournament as soon as we get them. Redmond Cup games were also held today; watch a report on those results soon as well.

The E-Journal’s expanded coverage proved a great success as Andrew Jackson anchored live video streams and game commentary on the AGA’s YouTube channel. As usual the EJ team broadcast top-board games on KGS along with pro game commentaries, and photos and updates were posted on the AGA’s Twitter feed — follow us @theaga (#gocongress #congress2015) — and Facebook throughout the day.

Live coverage begins Monday at 9a (CST) on KGS and Facebook.

– report/photo by Chris Garlock

NOTE: email us at journal@usgo.org if there’s anything in particular at the Congress you’d like to see included in our coverage.