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Jeremy Chiu Sweeps Open Section at Bay Area Go Winter Tournament

Forty four kids and adults came to Berkeley, CA on February 22nd to play in the Winter Go Tournament organized by Bay Area Go Players Association. Eleven year old Jeremy Chiu 6d (right in photo at right), winner of the 2013 US Youth Go Championship junior division, led the open section with a 4-0 record. He faced a strong field, however, including 2012 European Women’s Go Championship winner Vanessa Wong 7d, three-time Redmond Cup champion Aaron Ye 6d, and 2012 Korea Prime Minister Cup contestant Matthew Burrall 7d.

Bay Area Go promoted the tournament as appropriate for players of all levels, and in fact a wide range of players participated. Three handicap sections in addition to the open section ensured that all players had a good shot at winning prizes. "It is nice that the really strong players had stiff competition in the open section," says organizer Roger Schrag, "But I am especially glad that the kyu players, double-digit kyus, and even 20+ kyu players all had people at their level to play." Bay Area Go's Spring Go Tournament is set for Saturday, May 31st in San Francisco's Japantown Center. Details will be posted soon at www.bayareago.org. 
Winners report: Open section: 1st: Jeremy Chiu 6d. 2nd: Vanessa Wong 7d. 3rd: Zhihong Ma 5d. Upper handicap section: 1st: Anbo Chen 3d. 2nd: Linden Chiu 2d. 3rd: Peter de Blanc 1d. Middle handicap section: 1st: Matthew Cheng 7k. 2nd: Yunyen Lee 3k. 3rd: Thomas Rike 6k. Lower handicap section: 1st: Benjamin Yu 10k. 2nd: Sean Wahl 10k. 3rd: Donald Swen 14k. photos by Zhihong Ma