American Go E-Journal » Go News

Bao the One to Beat: Yun Bao 7d prevailed over Kenryo Ito 1P Thursday morning in the sixth round of the US Open Masters, giving the “Blindfold Go” master a 6-0 record with just three rounds to go. The game was hard-fought by both players, with Ito in a dramatic byo-yomi that had viewers on the edge of their seats. Click here for the game record and here for the livestream broadcast on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Bao has beaten the players with 5-1 records — Andy Liu, Hanchen Zhang, and Eric Lui — so unless something unusual happens in the next couple of rounds, he’s the odds-on favorite to win the 2016 US Open Masters title.  Of course, there remain strong opponents who will try to block Bao in the next three rounds; see below for the schedule. Complete US Open Masters results through Round 6 and top-board game records here. Click here for the US Open crosstab, updated through Round 4. 

AlphaGo Keynote Video Posted: Aja Huang and Fan Hui’s AlphaGo keynote speech has now been posted on the AGA’s YouTube channel.

Pro Game Commentaries
US Open Masters Round 6, Ito Kenryo 1p (W) vs. Bao Yun 7d (B) Hajin Lee 4p with Stephen Hu 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Andy Liu 1p (W) vs Danny Ko 7d (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Zirui Song 1p (W) vs Eric Lui 1p (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Cheng Zhang 7d (W) vs Michael Chen 7d (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d
US Open Masters Round 6, Shuo Sun 7d (W) vs Hanchen Zhang 1p (B) Liao Guiyong 9p with Louie Liu 3d & Matthew Harwit 5d

US Go Congress Tournaments Schedule: Friday 8/5
9:ooa: Us Open, round 5; US Open Masters, round 7
1:00p: Senior Cup, round 4; Youth Team Match
3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 4
7:00p: US Open Masters, round 8; Evening League, night 5

Youth Lightning / 9×9 / 13×13
The youth room has been abuzz with tournaments and impromptu games of relay go in the basement all week, presided over by Devin Fraze, Youth Room Coordinator. Table winners in the Lightning: Albert Yen 7d, Young He 5d, Jessica Wu 3d, Kilin Tang 7k, and a tie between Brian Ye 19k and Stephanie Tan 22k. Table winners in the 9×9: Kilin Tang 7k, Sarah Crites 10k, and Billy Ganbaatar 14k. Table winners in the 13×13: Tony Xie 6d, Patrick Zhao 2k, and Gabriello Adler-Abramo.

Under 16 Girls Championship
Taylor Shu 6d (right) defeated Gabriella Su 6d to clinch the championship in the second annual Under 16 Girls Championship Tournament. Gabriella took second place, while Melissa Cao 3d and Jessica Li 3d placed third and fourth respectively.

Evening League: Latest updates here.

– report by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photos by Chris Garlock except for Under 16 Girls Tournament (bottom right) photo by Ted Terpstra. 

AlphaGo has brought go global attention but it’s organizations like the American Go Association that must now figure out how best to capitalize on the new interest in the game. Anyone with questions about the AGA, or who would like to find out more about how you can get involved in promoting go, should plan to attend at least one of the AGA’s organizational meetings on Friday and Saturday at the US Go Congress.

On Friday at 2p, AGA leadership will meet with strong players to discuss issues of concern to them, include the latest on the postponement of the World Mind Sports Games. On Friday at 3p, the AGA board of directors convenes its Congress board meeting. All attendees are welcome and encouraged to observe. From 4:30 to 5:30p, AGA’s IT man and web admin Steve Colburn will be available to discuss the AGA’s website and Internet presence.

Then on Saturday, at 2p, find out what’s involved in hosting a Go Congress in your area. “It’s fun and easy,” promises AGA president Andy Okun. At 3p, the AGA Chapter Assembly — comprised of representatives on the AGA’s chapters — meets.
The agenda includes discussion of the chapter rewards program, future Congress hosting ideas, plus next year’s Congress.

All meetings will be held in Room 312 in Boston University’s George Sherman Union. For further info, email Okun at president@usgo.org
photo: DC-area organizers meet to plan to new National Go Center, earlier this week at the US Go Congress; photo by Chris Garlock 

One of the workers behind the scenes at this year’s US Go Congress is US Open and US Open Masters Tournament Director Matthew Hershberger. Often working until the wee hours of the morning to prepare the next day’s pairings and then working through the afternoons to pair the US Open Masters tournament that evening, Hershberger pairs over 200 games per day. He doesn’t remember when he first learned about go, since there were a lot of strategy games around his house growing up. Then he discovered Hikaru No Go. “It was a bit of a feedback loop,” Matthew says, “I started reading Hikaru No Go because I was interested in go, then that made me realize that I could actually learn and play online.” His first Go Congress was the European Go Congress in Finland, and then he ran his own Congress in 2014 in New York City. He enjoys tournament play the best because of the ability to completely focus on go without distraction. This led him to get some experience running local tournaments, and now a local in Boston himself, he stepped up to the plate when the 2016 Boston team was looking for a US Open director. His calm and congenial manner mask how much work he successfully completes on a day to day basis here at Go Congress, managing over 400 go players in competition for some of the US Go community’s top prizes.
– Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison; photo: Hershberger mentally pairing the next round; photo by Chris Garlock

“Crazy go. It’s insane!” The 19 variations of go available Tuesday night at the US Go Congress have grown from just two that TD Terry Benson played at a Go Congress in Cambridge, England in 1976; Rengo Kriegspiel, a game of pair go where none of the four players can see each other or the board, and a variation of team go involving three-player teams and a lot of beer. Benson’s lineup on Tuesday included Rengo Kriegspiel, Joker Go, Blind Go (where both players are blindfolded, not just one as per Bao Yun), Galactic Go, and Zen Go, which is a three-person go game, which means that every turn you play for the opposite color. “In terms of actual instruction in go, Zen Go is the best,” says Terry. “You have to change your perspective each turn!”
– report/photos by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison

by Dennis Wheeler

Monday was the usual non-stop super busy day for the E-Journal staff, with morning rounds from 9a-1p, evening rounds from 7p-11p and the usual “stuff as assigned” in between. For many years I’ve been one of the handful of top-board game recorders at the morning US Open Masters games, but this year we have a crew of five recorders, so I’ve been managing the recording team, which is great, but to be honest I was missing game recording. So when I was asked to be the game recorder for the Blind Go exhibition match Monday afternoon between Bao Yun 7d and Eric Lui 1p (apparently I have established a reputation for being good at it, especially after a Chinese article was published last year), I was both thrilled and honored. Bao Yun is famous for setting the world record for playing and winning five simultaneous games while blindfolded.

As experienced as I am at recording games, I’ve never had to call out the move coordinates to the players before. Turns out it’s not as easy as you might think. Game recording is easy — you just click the mouse in the same location that the players place a stone, but for this game I had to carefully check the coordinates, recheck to be sure and then check once more to be absolutely certain before calling them out so that Bao Yun, sitting next to me with a bright blue blindfold, could consider his move.

It felt to me like Eric Lui had a strategy in mind to try and trip up Bao Yun. It was quite impressive to be sitting at the same table with them both, Bao Yun blindfolded and with his back to us. He’d call out the coordinates of the move he wanted to play, and I’d place it on the board for Eric. Eric would play his move, and I’d call out the coordinates for Bao Yun. I also pressed the clock for Bao Yun and would occasionally call out the remaining time. Of course, the Ing clocks called out the time once we got into byo-yomi. Impressively, the game went all the way to counting, including filling all the dame.

I couldn’t begin to imagine how difficult it must be for Bao Yun to keep all those coordinates in his head for a full game, and I was especially worried about a “misclick” if I gave him the wrong coordinates, which I did once. Bao was of course expecting the actual move, so he adjusted easily enough after I said “oops.”

Mingjiu Jiang 7p was across the large open room giving a blow by blow commentary for a good size audience of Go Congress attendees, but far enough away that he was out of our earshot. In the end, Eric managed to win by a small margin. Though apparently we forgot to announce the ruleset to be used, which sparked a brief discussion as to the exact score, though the one point difference would not have changed the result. Black won by 5.5 by AGA counting. Click here to download the game record.

Special thanks to both Peter Armenia and Peter Gousios for helping relay and verifying the coordinates for my fading hearing in the loud open room.
– photos by Chris Garlock