The New York City team swept all three games against the Greater Washington team in the finals at the US Go Congress on Saturday. Ryan Li 1p def Tim Song 1p on Board 1, Hanchen Zhang 1p def Eric Lui 1p on Board 2, Stephanie Yin 1p def Yuan Zhou 7d on Board 3. New York City and Greater Washington were playing each other in the finals for the second year and for the second consecutive year New York City shut out Greater Washington, which has been in the finals for five of the seven years of the tournament. The full results for this tournament can be found on the Pandanet site . Game records are linked above.
Steve Colburn (TD) and New York City: Hanchen Zhang, Ryan Li, Stephanie Yin
Greater Washington Team: Eric Lui, Tim Song, Yuan Zhou
US Go Congress Tournament Schedule: Sunday 7/14 9:00a: US Open, round 1; US Open Masters Division, round 1 & 2 1:00p: Self-paired tournament begins; Senior Tournament, round 1 3:00p: Women’s Tournament, round 1 7:00p: US Open Masters, round 1; Lightning Tournament
9×9 Tournament Players met on tiny fields of battle to kick off the 35th US Go Congress with the 9×9 tournament Sunday night following opening ceremonies. Games were competitive with 30 dan level players and 46 kyu and wraped up close to 11:00 pm. “Table winners will be paired up throughout the next couple of days until we’ve crowned the kyu and dan quarter board champions,” says TD Pete Schumer.
by Samantha Fede You’ve read about the exciting tournament action. You’ve watched the top boards and streamed the commentary. You’ve heard of the simuls and game commentaries and lectures. But Go Congress is about more than just the game. It’s a place to make new friends and see old ones. That may sound corny, but it’s the reason that I come back year after year. This year is shaping up to be a particularly relaxing experience. Congress Director Dave Weimer did an excellent job selecting an amazing lake-front venue. The first floor of the Memorial Union, where most of the Congress activities take place, includes Der Rathskeller (German for “basement of a town hall”). Decorated like a German beer hall, this sprawling venue spills out onto a terrace overlooking sparkling Lake Mendota . After the opening ceremony Saturday night, many attendees joined the crowd of locals to cluster around tables and pitchers of local beer. I sat with some old friends, like Congress Coordinator Lisa Scott and Brady Daniels of “Brady’s Blunders,” as well as new friends like Congress IT volunteer Greg Steltenpohl and first-time attendee Max Peterson. We watched the spectacular sunset turn the sky pink and purple while live music played on the waterfront stage. As it got dark, Jennie Shen 2p observed fireflies flicker around the trees and friends finishing the 9×9 tournament pulled up chairs. The day had been hot, but a cool breeze off the water made us forget any lingering worries. Every year, each Congress location has its charms; this year is downright magical.
The 2019 U.S. Go Congress got underway Saturday in Madison, WI as hundreds of go players registered and immediately began gathering around go boards in the main playing area for unofficial games (the U.S. Open begins Sunday morning). The annual City League finals were held Saturday afternoon (look for a full report soon) and broadcast live on OGS and Twitch. Follow all the Masters top-board action on Twitch starting at 9a Sunday, plus updates on the Congress on Twitter and Facebook. – report/photos/collage by Chris Garlock
Ye (left) and Chiu (right) playing in their first Redmond Cup Finals against each other in 2014 in New York.
17-year old Aaron Ye 7d and 17-year old Jeremy Chiu 6d defeated Melissa Cao 3d and Zhixiang Lou 5d respectively to earn their berths into the Finals of the 26th Redmond Cup Senior Division. This is a repeat match-up from last year’s Finals, and will be the last time for the two young superstars to clash in this tournament as they will both be ineligible to participate due to age starting next year. Both Ye and Chiu are from the Bay Area, and have had a long rivalry competing against each other since 2010 at a local Bay Area tournament. Since then, both have won numerous US Youth titles and represented the US at international tournaments.
Chiu (left) and Ye (right) playing in their second Redmond Cup Finals against each other in 2018 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
When asked about the upcoming match, Ye responded saying, “I think Jeremy is a very talented Go player. From past games, I know he has put in a lot of effort into Go. I wish him good luck for the games.” Chiu shared a similar sentiment, telling the EJ, “Aaron and I have been playing for years; it does feel a bit surreal that this is our last Redmond match together. Aaron is and has always been a tough but fun opponent to play against; his aggressive style and precise reading often launches our games into intense fights. I’m hoping we’ll play some exciting games!” You can learn more about Ye and Chiu from last year’s player profile interview.
In the Junior Division, 6 players were still in contention for finalist spots at the beginning of the last preliminary round. Kevin Huang 6d defeated Yuxin Fu 5d in the battle to decide the first finalist, while Frederick Bao 4d defeated Ben Gong 3d, tying both players at 4 wins and 2 losses. Meanwhile, Duc Minh Vo 2d defeated Boya Hou 1d, and Alex Qi 3d defeated Kosuke Sato 3d to also end the preliminary tournament at 4 wins and 2 losses. While normally there would have been a tiebreaker playoff to decide the second finalist, Bao had defeated all of the other players in the tie, so he earned the second finalist spot. Bao was also a finalist in last year’s tournament, while this is Huang’s first appearance.
In the 2nd AGA Girls Cup, nearly 20 players competed for two finalist spots. Participation was more than double compared to last year’s field, which bodes well for the future of this tournament. Defending champion Tianyi Li 3d swept the preliminary rounds 5-0 to earn the chance to defend her title in the Finals, while Ruyan Fan 4d, Sophia Wang 2d, and Ruogu Lin 1d ended the preliminaries at 4-1, resulting in a 3-way tiebreaker playoff. Fan defeated both of the other tied players to earn her first appearance in the AGA Girls Cup Finals.
The best-of-3 Finals in each event will take place at the 2019 US Go Congress on 7/14, 7/15, and 7/18 (if necessary). Tune in to the live broadcasts of the games on KGS at 3 pm on those days to catch the action. Both the Redmond Cup and the AGA Girls Cup are sponsored by the American Go Foundation. – Justin Teng AGA Youth Coordinatorand TD for both events.
Hikaru no Go artist Takeshi Obata is the subject of an art opening in Japan, running from July 13- August 12. Thanks to Winston Jen for the photo of the exhibit promo, and the news item on the exhibit. Click here for more info.
Eighteen players participated in the Massachusetts Go Association’s annual Skip Ascheim Memorial handicap Tournament held Sunday July 7 at the Boylston Chess Club.
There were no 4-game winners, so the five 3-game winners tied for first place, dividing the combined first second and third place $100 prize money equally. The winners were David Cho 5d, Javier Gonzalez 2d, Jonathan Green 2k, Sean Patico 2k and Earnest Lam 8k.
“It was nice to see Ralph St. Louis again,” says TD Eva Casey. “He used to play in most of our quarterly tournaments during High School. Now he’s a high school teacher in Lowell. He’s on track to finish his master’s degree in biotechnology (something like that) next December. He has not played Go for years but I would not let him sandbag, even though he was rusty. He had to play at his official AGA rating of -6.8.”
“Many thanks to Dan and Neil Ritter for hauling the equipment to and from the venue,” Casey adds.
Young Go players under the age of 20 will compete for a $1,500 prize pool at the August 31 U20 Eastern Youth Open. The event is being organized by the New York Go Association, which intends to host this competition annually and make it the largest youth Go tournament in the East. “It is time to provide an opportunity for young players to compete in a high quality face-to-face tournament,” says New York Institute of Go founder Stephanie Yin.
All players must be under 20 years old by the date of the tournament, ranked 10 kyu or higher, and current AGA or CGA members. Players whose AGA ranks are out of date but who have a KGS rank with at least 10 most recent games at the rank of 10 kyu or higher may enter. Pre-registration is required.
The U20 Eastern Youth Open will be held Saturday, August 31 from 9:30AM-4:00PM at the New York Institute of Go, 255-05 Northern Blvd, 2FL, Little Neck, NY.
Earlier this year the AGA IT team made sure that the AGA Membership Manager is fully working again. The organization wants our membership to know that our membership software is fully working to accept your payments. We have worked hard over the past months to cut down on issues and problems that have been reported to us. You can follow the two video guides below to help update your member and chapter information.
Members should check their information when logging in. If you are not receiving the EJ make sure your email is up to date.
This Saturday will feature the Pandanet AGA City League Finals between New York City and Greater Washington. They will be playing LIVE from the US Go Congress in Madison,Wisconsin at 3pm CST. Find the game on Pandanet in the AGA City League rooms under the accounts AGACL1-3.
There will be a Pandanet AGA City League Meeting during Go Congress on July 18 from 5-6PM in the Humanities 1641 room.
The full list of winners for the City League are A League: Winner = TBD Second = TBD Third = Waterloo 1 Fourth = Boston Fifth = Toronto B League: Winner = Bay Area Second = Raleigh Third = Seattle 1 Fourth = Waterloo 2 C League: Winner = Cincinati Second = New York City 2
