GO CONGRESS UPDATES
Myungwan Kim LIVE TONIGHT on Ing Masters: Myungwan Kim 8P of Korea will provide live commentary tonight beginning at 7P PST (10P EST) on KGS; he’ll be commenting on the North American Ing Masters Round 3 game between Feng Yun 9P and Eric Lui 8d. Kim, 30, took second place in the 12th BC Card Cup and now lives in Los Angeles. The big Round 2 news was Juyong Koh 3P’s win over Mingjiu Jiang 7P in a game that stretched over 20 hours; the game was suspended Monday night when the main Congress building was evacuated (see Congress Interruptus below) and re-started Tuesday afternoon after the U.S. Open games concluded. Click here for the interactive crosstab showing NAIM wins, losses and selected game records. Monday night’s Ing Masters live commentary attracted over 100 attendees for the Jiang-Koh game. The crowd was kept entertained by Maeda’s sharp analysis – and translator Yoshi Sawada’s amusing asides -- of the Ing top-board game, and Takemiya Masaki even dropped by to offer his comments, with Congress Co-Director Akane Negishi – in full formal Japanese kimono – assisting with translation. The nightly commentaries are an outgrowth of last year’s hugely popular live commentary broadcast of the Ing Masters final, which drew a huge crowd at the Congress, with hundreds more watching online. photo (r) by Brian Allen
Congress Interruptus: Games were left unfinished throughout the U.S. Go Congress Monday night – including at the North American Ing Masters tournament – when the PSU Student Union was evacuated around 10 p.m. because of a possible gas leak. Players milled about outside before dispersing to nearby bars – some of which have been stocked with go boards -- or their rooms for a rare early night. The building checked out fine and was re-opened without incident Tuesday morning. photo (l) by Steve Colburn
Ge Leads in U.S Open: Yongfei Ge 8d has grabbed the lead in the US Open, defeating Hong, Seung Hyun in the third round Tuesday for a 3-0 record in the 6-round event. The other top players with 3-0 records are Myungwan Kim 8P, Yue Zhang, and Kuo Yin 3P. Yin – a 25-year-old former student of Feng Yun 9P’s from China (see FIVE MINUTES WITH KUO YIN below) – upset Mingjiu Jiang 7P with a 5-point win for the first of what was to be two losses of the day for Jiang. In another notable achievement, the Open games started right on time for the third straight day, thanks to the efforts of TDs Chris Sira and Jeff Shaevel, using PyTD.
Jang Bi Tops Lightning Tourney: Jang Bi 9-dan swept the top board at Monday night’s Lightning Tournament 5-0, defeating a 6-dan and four 7-dans giving handicap stones, despite Tournament Director Keith Arnold’s offer to let the top board forgo handicaps. There were 90 players for the event, which usually draws over 100 participants, which Arnold ascribed to the popularity of the live Ing Masters commentary with Ryo Maeda 6P, held at the same time downstairs in the cafeteria. Table winners: Jang Bi 9d, Phil Waldron 6d, Corey Stevens 5d, Peter Zhang 4d (won a four-way 3-2 tie, with TD Keith Arnold losing out on a tie breaker), Andrew Briscoe 3d, Jason Yu 2d, Ken Koester 2d, Daniel Alvira 1k, Mark Gilston 1k, Andrew Okun 2k, Daniel Liu 4k, Jim Pickett 5k, Andrew Shang 6k, Eileen Hlavka 8k, Jingxi Zhai 14k. photo by Chris Garlock
– reports by Chris Garlock & Lee Hunyh

THE 41-YEAR-OLD GAME: Two old men at a go board at a Go Congress is hardly news. But the game Monday night between Ted Drange and Hiroyuki Katsukawa had been more than forty years in the making. The two have been playing postal go since 1967 - first via aerogrammes and, since 2001, by email - and this was the very first time they had met in person. Drange lives in the United States and Katsukawa in Japan and they've become good friends over the decades, exchanging photos and news of their families and careers, but somehow they'd never managed to make the trip to meet. Their postal correspondence began after Katsukawa heard that go had spread to Europe and the United States and thought "I might learn more about Westerners' thinking and philosophy by playing go with them." Drange, an avid member of a postal games club and a philosophy professor in West Virginia, had taught a course about the philosophy of games for many years, as well as using go in his logic course. When the 72-year-old Katsukawa - a retired school principal -- decided to attend this year's Go Congress in Portland, Drange, 74, made plans to drive up from California, where he's been living since retiring in 2001. Their first live game together was played on the board in the E-Journal Congress office, with Takemiya Masaki - who had signed a fan for Katsukawa to present to Drange -- watching. As the two old friends played out a couple dozen stones on an actual board for the first time ever, Drange noted in wonder that "It used to take us a year to play this many moves." When they played by mail, the games - they'd usually play three at a time - would take several years to complete; these days, playing via email, they take about a year. Takemiya, smiling approvingly, said "Nice game, good match" and Drange and Katsukawa happily turned their attention to reviewing the game with Takemiya. - report/photo by Chris Garlock

FIVE MINUTES WITH KUO YIN: Kuo Yin (right) is a 25-year-old 3-dan professional from Beijing. He was Feng Yun 9P's student in China, before she emigrated to the United States, and she invited him to come teach at her summer youth camp this year. He just graduated from Fudan University, one of the top schools in China, where he studied international relations, with a focus on law. He was the Chinese university champion in 2006 and likes reading and sports. photo by Steve Colburn

CHALLENGERS WIN 2 OUT OF 3 IN AGA BOARD ELECTIONS: Two out of three challengers have won in the American Go Association Board of Directors elections. More than 400 members - a record - voted in the At-Large election, contested by three candidates, with Jie Li defeating incumbent Roy Laird by a 181-148 margin, and Daniel Short receiving 87 votes. Andrew Okun edged out incumbent Gordon Castanza 23-20 in the Western Region, while the third incumbent, Chuck Robbins, defeated challenger Ke Lu 30-23 in the Eastern Region, and Board Chairman Roy Schmidt ran unopposed the Central Region and received 27 votes. "Congratulations to the new members of the Board," said outgoing AGA President Michael Lash, who also expressed his deep appreciation and gratitude to departing Board members Laird and Castanza "for their support throughout their terms." Elections Officer Arnold Eudell conducted the ballot count at the U.S. Go Congress with five witnesses on hand to monitor and assist. The new terms begin September 1.

REPORT FROM THE EURO GO CONGRESS: Kim Joon Sang 7d of Korea won the European Masters, the weekend event at the 52nd annual European Go Congress now underway in Leksand, Sweden; click here for latest news and results. After six rounds, European Championship leader Lai Yu-Cheng 7d from Taiwan is still undefeated, with three Koreans hard on his heels, reports EJ European Correspondent Peter Dijekma (look for a photo of Dijekma proudly wearing his E-Journal cap on the Euro Congress site).

CONGRESS EDITION STAFF:
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Game Recorders: Todd Heidenreich (Game Recorder Coordinator), Dennis Wheeler, Richard Dolen, Tom Hodges, Casey Alexander, Brian Leahy, Terry Fung, Josh Gum, Paul Hardin, Huck Bennett, Dave Weimer, Gordon Castanza, Brady Daniels, Calvin Lee (Youth), Cherry Shen (Youth), Troy Wahl.
Reporters: Bill Cobb, Lee Hunyh, Laura Kolb (Tournaments); Paul Barchilon (Youth Editor).
Photographers: Brian Allen, Phil Straus
IT: Steve Colburn

Published by the American Go Association
Managing Editor: Chris Garlock
Assistant Editor: Bill Cobb
Professionals: Yilun Yang 7P; Alexandr Dinerchtein 3P; Fan Hui 2P
Contributors: Paul Barchilon (Youth Editor); Lawrence Ku (U.S. West Coast Reporter); Brian Allen (U.S. West Coast Photo Editor); Keith Arnold (Go Quiz); Peter Dijkema (Dutch/European Correspondent); Marilena Bara (Romania/European Correspondent); Ian Davis (Ireland Correspondent)
Columnists: James Kerwin 1P; Kazunari Furuyama; Rob van Zeijst; Roy Laird
Translations: Chris Donner (Japan); Bob McGuigan (Japan); Matt Luce (China)

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