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Congress Updates: August 9: Andrew Lu Sweeps Congress Die Hard Tournament; California1 Leads Wisonet Team Tourney

Thursday August 9, 2012

Andrew Lu Sweeps Congress Die Hard Tournament: Nearly a quarter of the Congress attendees — 93 players — participated in the Die Hard tournament instead of taking the day off Wednesday. Andrew Lu swept all his games, going 4-0 in the top section to win the tournament. The other 4-0 players were: Sun Daqiang 2D, E-Journal Tournaments reporter Lee Huynh 1D, Anand Sathya 2K, Yin Zihang 3K, and Rohde David 5K.
– Andy Olsen, TD; photo: Lee Huynh (r) and friends study life and death problems Thursday night.

California1 Leads Wisonet Team Tourney: The California1 team led the Wisonet Cup State Team Go Tournament after the third round, with 3 major points. California II and Virginia were tied with 2 major points each, but California II’s minor score of 17 was ahead of Virginia’s 6. The winning team (most wins over losses) in each head-to-head match gets one major score point, and also earns minor score points based on the win-loss record for the team overall. The rest of the scores: New Jersey 1 major, 12 minor, New York no major, 8 minor, and North Carolina no major, 5 minor.

Fraser & Huang Win 13×13: Kalinda Fraser 8k won the 13×13 Kyu Division and Willis Huang 1D won the Dan Division on Tuesday night.
– Jim Hlavka, TD

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Go Congress Photo Album: Crazy Go

Thursday August 9, 2012

Top right: spiral go; middle right: Galactic Go; Bottom Right: 4-color Go; Bottom left: Blind Go; Middle left: TD Terry Benson being interviewed by The Surrounding Game documentary crew; Top left: 3-color Go.
all photos by Phil Straus except Terry Benson and Blind Go by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Go Congress Photo Album: Day Off Activities

Thursday August 9, 2012

Top right: dancing to bluegrass music at the Wednesday night Live Bluegrass and Dessert event; bottom right: playing “Big Brother” go with Chinese professionals; middle bottom: playing in the Midnight Madness Tournament; bottom left: enjoying music at the Wednesday night Live Bluegrass and Dessert event; middle left: playing poker; top left: practicing for the Pair Go tournament; middle: playing go and picnicking atop High Windy Mountain. photos by Phil Straus, Chris Garlock & Steve Colburn.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Liu and Su Top Youth Adult Pair Go

Wednesday August 8, 2012

Amy Su 4d and Ge Liu 6d won the top table of Youth Adult Pair Go at the US Go Congress on Tuesday afternoon. Su is the daughter of Feng Yun 9P, and looks like she is becoming a strong player in her own right. Thirty-two players competed in the event this year, which included a few male/male pairs as well. The event often serves as a warm up for the regular Pair Go tourney on Thursday night, where pairs will compete for the right to represent the US at the World Pair Go Championships. Youth Adult Pair Go is one of many events in the Youth Room, which features daily prize tourneys. Thursday’s events are relay Go and a 13×13 tourney, the Youth Team Tourney will be on Friday. Congress youth attendance has been increasing steadily, and 100 kids and teens are attending this year – almost a full quarter of registrations. Other Pair Go winers included: Kelsey Dyer 1d and Sam Zimmerman 5k; Melissa Zhang 1d and Jeff Horn 1d; Peter Zhang 5d and Julie Burrall 6k; Ethan Frank 6k and William Xu 4k; Jia Jia 7k and Winston Jen 8k, Erandi Lozano 15k and Phillip Brix 6k. Story/photo: Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Sathya Anand 2k attributes the divine move to his partner Kalinda Fraser 8k, their opponents Ethan Frank 6k (front) and William Xu 4k (rear) were nonplussed and went on to win the game.

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

Kyu-Killer Keith Arnold Falls to Kyu Players, 19-1

Tuesday August 7, 2012

Despite professional-level trash-talking – “Yeah, yeah, you got that wrong, didn’t you? But then you had so little time to think” – Keith Arnold won just one of his 20 games in the Keith Arnold Kyu-Killer Challenge Tuesday afternoon. “It was harder than I thought,” Arnold admitted to the E-Journal Tuesday night as he played multi-color go at Crazy Go with his daughter Melanie and friends. “I’d have been happy to win five games, but I didn’t expect to win only one. I do think, however, that some of those ranks were a bit suspect,”Arnold said, beaten but unbowed. photos by Phil Straus (left) & Chris Garlock (right)

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Gan and Ye Shut Out Rivals in Redmond

Tuesday August 7, 2012

Jianing Gan 7d and Aaron Ye 5d swept their divisions in the 2012 Redmond Cup. Fifteen-year-old Jianing Gan 7d, from Canada, placed first in the Cup’s online qualifiers and proved unstoppable, with a perfect record. His opponent in the finals at the US Go Congress was defending champion Calvin Sun, 7d, age 15, who has won the Redmond three times. Both boys also competed in the AGA Tygem professional tourney, last week, and Gan proved exceptionally strong, placing third in the event. His opponent, and new American pro, Ganshing Shi 1P provides commentary on the exciting final match in the game record below. In the Redmond Junior Division ten-year-olds Aaron Ye 5d and Austen Liao 2d duked it out. Ye, who is also the reigning US Youth Champion in the under-12 division, played solidly in both rounds, winning by convincing double-digit margins. Liao, competing in the Redmond for the first time, did his best, but was overwhelmed by the defending champion. -Report/photo by Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photo: Jianing Gan 7d (l) vs. Calvin Sun 7d (r).

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Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,Youth

U.S. Go Congress Lightning Tournament Table Winners

Tuesday August 7, 2012

Dan: Brandon Zhou 2d; Andrew Zalesak 1d; Peter Zhang 3d; Willis Huang 1d; Amy Su 4d
Kyu: Sathiya Anand 2k; John Redford 7k; Justin Cheng 4k; Alvin Chen 12k; Philip Brix 6k; Alex Kuang 22k; Zihang Yin 3k; Jerry Lu 10k. TD: Keith Arnold
– Lee Huynh; photos/collage by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Congress Updates (Monday, August 6): Tournament Results, Game Commentaries, CA Leads in State Team Tournament, 13×13 Table Winners

Monday August 6, 2012

Tournament Results: Latest results – and top-board game records – in the U.S. Open; North American Ing Masters and the Strong Players Open are posted online. NEW! Watch the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat with our live video streaming of Board 1 games at the U.S. Open (9a daily) and NAIM (7p daily), available online at eurogotv.com.

Game Commentaries: Live game commentaries are broadcast daily on KGS at 9a EST (US Open) and 7p (NAIM/SPO); top boards are also commented at those times by professionals attending the Congress. NEW: Live pro commentary on top NAIM and SPO games is also being simulcast on KGS from the BRC lobby each night starting about 7:30p. Pro commentaries (including Yilun Yang’s commentary on the Andy Liu-Kevin Huang NAIM game Monday night) are also posted online.

CA Leads in State Team Tournament: California, fielding two teams, led the new Wisonet Cup State Team Go Tournament after the first round Sunday. Other states in the tournament include New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia and New York, with Maryland having to withdraw after not being able to fill out their team roster.

13×13 Table Winners: Dan: Ned Phipps, Evan Zen, Hildegard Puttkammer, Willis Huang. Kyu: Julian Erville, Eric Backus, Kalinda Fraser, Jerry Lu/Bryan Ten/Elmer Martinez-Rivas (3-way tie), Zongren Huang. Playoffs are set for Tuesday night.
– TD Jim Hlavka
photos by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

Hikaru Trivia Contest Stumps Hotta Yumi

Monday August 6, 2012

Hotta Yumi, author of the award winning Hikaru no Go manga, delighted kids and teens in the Youth Room at the U.S. Go Congress on Monday. The second annual Hikaru no Go Trivia Contest was a huge success, with Hotta (seated) serving as the official judge. Fifteen kids competed in teams of three, trying to answer questions that were so difficult even Hotta was often stumped. Reigning Hikaru trivia champion Bijan Saniee (standing, far right, in photo below) led his team to victory, once again showing his profound knowledge of the most obscure bits of detail from the popular manga. Ten-year-old Austin Liao (at far left in photo at right) gave him a run for his money though, popping his hand up repeatedly, and correctly answering some of the most challenging questions of the afternoon. After Team Bijan secured their victory, Hotta Yumi signed autographs and took photos with fans. Winston Jen (at left in photo at left), who donated 1,000 sets of the manga to the AGA, competed on a team as well. A special moment came when Hotta presented Jen with a thank-you gift , an original hand-drawn picture of Sai and Hikaru, dedicated to Jen by name, and signed by both Hotta and Hikaru artist Takeshi Obata. Test your own Hikaru knowledge with this HNG Quiz with some of the questions from the contest: A: Who drank his coffee black, even when he was in middle school? B: Who was Isumi’s roommate in China? C: What is Akira’s mother named? D: How is Hikaru able to take the Insei test, even though he missed the deadline? E: On what day does Sai disappear, and how can you tell? Click here and you could be a winner!
– Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor; photos by Chris Garlock

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America,World,Youth

Phil’s Portraits: Monday’s Gallery

Monday August 6, 2012

Photos by EJ photographer Phil Straus. Top left: EJ game recorder Richard Dolen; Top right: longtime Congress attendee Ken Koester (second from right) and fellow Lightning Tournament players await instructions from TD Keith Arnold; Bottom right: KGS Admin Akane Negishi shows off her go-themed earrings and nails; Bottom left: Triple-threat Tournament Director Karoline Burrall (TD for the U.S. Open, North American Ing Masters and Strong Players Open).

Categories: U.S. Go Congress,U.S./North America

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