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

In a surprise announcement, not one but two Lasker Awards were made at this year’s U.S. Go Congress. The recipients were two longtime go organizers, Richard Dolen (middle in photo at right) and Frank Fukuda (right in photo below). As Dolen himself modestly noted, his greatest claim to fame in 60 years in the go community is having taken Michael Redmond to Japan as a young boy, where he was accepted as a pupil by Oeda Yusuke 8P and eventually became the first US-born 9-dan professional go player. Fukuda’s long go history in Seattle includes being part of the Last Exit Go Club’s team that organized the second U.S. Go Congress in Seattle in 1985. Dolen, whose go career has taken him around the world, has played a key role in the Los Angeles go scene for many years, and the Cotsen Open – one of the major events on the U.S. go calendar – is the result of Dolen introducing Eric Cotsen to Yilun Yang 7P. Fukuda was a key player in the creation of the Seattle Go Center, as well as helping ensure its survival and growth. Click here for Dolen’s “Snapshots from 60 Years of Go” and “Chris Kirscher on Frank Fukuda.” The Lasker Award is named after Edward Lasker, a founder of the American Go Association. photos: top right: Dolen (center) with AGA President Andy Okun (left) and E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock; bottom left: Fukuda (right) with 2013 Congress Director Chris Kirschner; photos by Phil Straus

Despite a nail-biting half-point loss to Beomgeun Cho in the final round Saturday morning, Yuhan Zhang  7d (right) won the 2013 U.S. Open championship on tie-break. Zhang, one of the strongest amateurs in China, placed 8th in a recent amateur tournament there. Click here for complete U.S. Open results and game records. Click here for final results and game records from the NAMT and SPO tournaments.

Row 1: 1st: Zi Yang Hu; 2nd: Mingming (Stephanie) Yin; 3rd: Jie Liang; 4th: Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu
Row 2: 5th: Tianyu (Bill) Lin; 6th: Hugh Zhang; 7th: Calvin Sun; 8th: Dae Hyuk (Daniel) Ko
Row 3: 9th: Yongfei Ge; 10th: Yuan Zhou; 11th: Aaron Ye; 12th: Jianing Gan
Row 4: 13th: Justin Teng; 14th: Daniel Chou; 15th: Lionel Zhang; 16th: Matthew Harwit
TD: Gurujeet Khalsa; EJ Broadcast Team: Coordinator: Todd Heidenreich; Floor Manager: Dennis Wheeler; Game Recorders: Richard Dolen, Ethan Frank, Andrew Jackson, Logan Lancaster, Brian Leahy, Mike Lepore, Matt Payton, Alex Salazar, Solomon Smilack, David Weimer. Managing Editor: Chris Garlock. KGS Support: Akane Negishi. Photos/collage by Chris Garlock

Row 1: 1st: Cong Li; 2nd: Yuhan Zhang; 3rd: Juyong Koh; 4th: Beomgeun Cho
Row 2: 5th: Maojie Xia; 6th: Peilun Li; 7th: Ho Son; 8th: Andrew Lu
Row 3: 9th: Andrew Huang; 10th: Albert Yen; 11th: Yue Zhang; 12th: David Lu
Row 4: 13th: Steve Stringfellow; 14th: Sung-Chul Cho; 15th: James Sedgwick; 16th: Martin Lebl
TD: Gurujeet Khalsa; EJ Broadcast Team: Todd Heidenreich, Coordinator; Dennis Wheeler, Floor Manager; Game Recorders: Richard Dolen, Andrew Jackson, Solomon Smilack, David Weimer, Logan Lancaster, Brian Leahy, Ethan Frank, Matt Payton, Alex Salazar, Mike Lepore; Managing Editor: Chris Garlock. KGS Support: Akane Negishi.
photos/collage by Chris Garlock

Matthew Hu Repeats as NAMT Champ; Cong Li Wins SPO: Matthew Hu 1P (left) repeated as North American Masters Tournament champion Friday night, defeating Stephanie Yin 1P as hundreds watched at the U.S. Go Congress and online on KGS. The main playing area was packed as Takemiya Masaki 9P and Myungwan Kim 9P provided detailed live commentary on the top boards in both the Masters and the Strong Player’s Open. Cong Li 3P (right) won the SPO, defeating Yuhan Zhang 7d. The board the NAMT final was played on — a 2-inch kaya table board donated by Yutopian and signed by Takemiya, Kim and both players — will be auctioned off at the banquet Saturday night to benefit the American Go Foundation. Final results — and game records — are here: NAMT; SPO. Click here for the NAMT commentary and SPO commentary; Frank Fukuda translated for Takemiya and the E-Journal’s Solomon Smilack transcribed both commentaries. 

Yuhan Zhang One Win Away From U.S. Open Championship: Yuhan Zhang’s (right) fifth straight win in the U.S. Open — he defeated Peilun Li in Friday morning’s round — makes him the odds-on favorite for this year’s U.S. Open champion. However, hot on his heels are Zi Yang Hu, Beomgeun Cho, Mengchen Zhang  and Calvin Sun, all 4-1 going into Saturday’s final round. Latest results — and game records — are here: U.S. Open.

Self-Paired Tourney Update: With 17 games played, Jeff Horn 1d is in the lead for the Dedicated, the player who plays the most games, as well as for the Kyu Killer, the dan player who wins the most games against kyu players, and the Hurricane, for the player who records the greatest number of wins. David Frankel (left) is far ahead in the race for the Dan Killer, the kyu player who wins the most games against dan players. Horn is also leading in the Sensei, for the player who plays the most games against weaker players (also known as the “Teacher” award). With a 6-1 win-loss record, Steffen Kurz is leading the race for Champion — the player who records the greatest excess of wins over losses –in the Self-paired Tournament. Kurz is also leading in the Grasshopper, the player whose rating increases the most during the tournament. Competition is stiff for the Faithful, the player with the smallest rating change, with John Kalb, J.D. Anders, Joshua Guarino, Deborah Niedermeyer and Yoshitomo Nakata all neck-and-neck at 0.0 ratings changes. Click here for complete current standings. Jim Levenick is the Tournament Director. photo by Chris Garlock

Game Commentaries: Mingjiu Jiang 9P comments on the US Open Round 5 Board 1 game between Yuhan Zhang 7d and Peilun Li 7d.  Wei Chen 3P comments on the US Open Round 4 Board 1 game between Yuhan Zhang 7d and Calvin Sun 7d. Watch for commentaries this morning on KGS by Huiren Yang and Stephanie Yin, starting around 10a PST. 

Representatives of the Chinese Weiqi Association (CWA) will visit the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles right after the Go Congress finishes up Saturday in Tacoma, WA. CWA Vice Chairman Yang Yi (right) says he’d like to meet as many go players as he can during the two-week trip. The first event is Sunday, August 11 from 1-5 PM (887 Oak Grove Ave. Menlo Park, Suite 203, CA 94025). The second event is Thursday, August 15 from 7-10 PM at the Westfield Plaza Mall near Topanga Canyon Blvd and Oxnard St (21801 Oxnard Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367). “The Woodland Hills Go Club is very happy to host the Chinese pros,” said organizer Joe Walter, “and we’ve set up the main floor area to get maximum exposure for the public.” Walter also says the Woodland Hills event is free of charge, although donations are fine if a player wants to show appreciation for the simul games. The delegation also include Chen Wei 3P who has trained over two dozen top amateurs and several pros, and Li Cong 3P who is still actively competing in a lot of professional tournaments. “When friends come from afar, isn’t it a joy?” said longtime SF organizer John Kwei from the American Ing Chang-Ki Goe Foundation, quoting Confucius. He plans to have a lecture on pro training besides a simul and group dinner with the players.
– reported by Edward Zhang; photo by Phil Straus

Go’s breadth of history is on display this week in the Vendor’s Room at this year’s U.S. Go Congress. Next to the very latest books about go is an exhibit that features old Japanese go books painstakingly  hand-copied by internee Giichiro Mizuki at the Minidoka Relocation Camp in 1945. On Yutopian’s heavily-laden table are dozens of books about go, just across the room from a hard-cover copy of Arthur Smith’s “The Game of Go,” first published in 1908. Contrast Yutopian’s shiny new go boards with the age-darkened goban and chipped stones that traveled from Japan in the late 1800’s to Austria and then to the United States during World War II and now rests in Chris Kirschner’s living room. Kirschner, who organized this year’s Congress, marvels at the long and improbable link of events and history that connect us with the “kindly Japanese gentleman” who taught Chris’ seafaring great-uncle how to play go in 1898. “I don’t think he had any idea of what he was accomplishing,” Kirschner says. “I know that I have no idea of what I accomplish when I teach someone, and I’m equally certain that you don’t either. But I am absolutely certain that it is good.” The exhibit was organized with the assistance of the Wing Luke Museum and includes material from Brian McDonald’s extensive collection of go books, as well as from Chris Kirschner and Keith Arnold.
– report by Chris Garlock; photos by Phil Straus