American Go E-Journal » U.S./North America

The early registration deadline for this year’s U.S. Go Congress has been extended to June 15. The original deadline was May 31, but “Due to a programming error, we didn’t have rooms available for about a while,” says Congress Director Karen Jordan. “Sorry about that!” Click here to register and you can visit the Springs Go Club website for more info as well.  Late payment fees will be $50 after 6/15, $75 after 6/30 and $100 after 7/17.

Taking advantage of an attack on his opponent’s central group, Myungwan Kim 9P won the first Strong Player’s Online Tournament (SPOT1) Saturday, May 22. Kim won Game 2 Saturday to sweep the match 2-0 against his young Canadian opponent Jianing Gan 6d. The game featured a complicated battle in the bottom-hand right corner in which any mistake would lead immediate collapse. Gan responded correctly, but had a few slow moves and Kim took sente to attack another group and while Gan managed to survive, Kim consolidated a huge territory on the left and  Gan resigned at move 174. Earlier in the day, Eric Lui defeated Zhaonian Chen — once again killing a giant group to seal victory — to take third place. Lui, playing white, succeeded again with a moyo strategy; White 24 and 32 focused on the moyo while Black 25 and 33 stole White’s corner territory. Black invaded by attaching at 73, and White’s attack set up a favorable trade of 28 black stones while only sacrificing 13, keeping a lead of about 15 points and winning by resignation. Kim won the $1,000 top cash prize, runner-up Gan won $400 and Lui won $100. All three players automatically qualify for the Top 32 in the next SPOT tourney. Kuo Yin 3P provided live commentaries again for SPOT1 from Beijing, China, and Jie Li 7D commented game 2 of the finals.
– Edward (Zhiyuan) Zhang; photo by Yixian Zhou

Kuo Yin 3P, former China Ing Cup Universities Champion, will give live commentaries for both Strong Player Online Tournament (SPOT1) games this Saturday, May 22. First up Saturday morning is the battle for third place between Eric Lui 7d (MD) and Michael Chen 7d (NJ). The game starts at 10a EST on KGS and Lui leads 1-0 in the best-of-three match. Next, at 1p, Jie Li 7d, four-time US Open and three-time NAIM Champion, will comment on Finals Game 2 between Myungwan Kim 9P (r) and Jianing Gan 6d (l) as Kim — on a 19-win streak — tries to close out the best-of-three series and collect the SPOT1 trophy.  
– Reported by Tournament Director Zhiyuan ‘Edward’ Zhang

Edward Zhang (r) has been appointed National Tournament Coordinator for the American Go Association (AGA), President Allan Abramson announced Monday. Zhang — who has been coordinating the Strong Players Online Tournament (SPOT1) — will have two Assistant TC’s, Oren Laskin, and Eric Davidson-Sawyer. “This team of three tournament coordinators brings new faces and energy to this important function, spreads the work load, offers new ideas, and better provides for continuity in case of a vacancy, ” Abramson said. “I am pleased that all three stepped up to serve the AGA membership,” he added.

The Evanston Go Club’s fifth year at the Anime Central convention (ACEN) in Chicago last Friday and Saturday was so popular that “the crowds never seemed to let up, and we kept teaching until midnight both days!” reports local organizer Mark Rubenstein. “ACEN is a huge event, with 15,000 attendees last year,” says Rubenstein. “The go club has our own room with dozens of 9×9 boards available for learning. The room was full of enthusiastic, costumed first-time go players, some of whom spent hours enjoying their first foray into go.”  The club also held a tournament on Saturday, and gave away 8 full-size go sets, provided by Yellow Mountain, to the top eight winners. For more pictures of the “wacky, wonderful world of ACEN,” check out the club’s photo page. “Thanks also to Bob Barber, Lee Hyunh, David Rohde, and Bob Schattke for their tireless and enthusiastic help!” photo: at the 2006 ACEN

Trevor Morris 7d narrowly won last weekend’s tournament in Amherst, MA. Going into the fourth round of the one-day tourney on Sunday, May 16, there were no three-game winners, so the top spots were up for grabs and Morris eked out the win, besting David Saxner (also 3-1) by a single tie-break point to win the tournament trophy. Eric Reid was the only kyu player to post a 3-1 record, clinching the kyu title. Special mention goes to Richard Buckman (2-1) who volunteered to take a bye in the second round after a first-round loss. Buckman managed to pick up wins in his last two games, for a respectable winning record. photo: (l-r):  Richard Buckman, David Saxner, Trevor Morris, Eric Reid)