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Mark Lee 7D Sweeps 9-0 to Win US Open Masters; Go Congress Wrap-Up

Mark Lee 7D (Lee Sang Hyeop) defeated Songyan Jiao 7D in just 208 moves on Saturday morning to sweep the 2014 US Open Masters Division, 9-0. Conner Li 3P took second with 7 wins followed by Matthew Hu 2P in third place also with 7 wins. With 6 wins each, fourth place went to Songyan Jiao 7D, Ryan Li 7D took fifth, Andy Liu 1P took sixth, and Calvin Sun 1P took 7th. "My opponents were very tough but I think maybe I was a little lucky," the modest 17-year-old former insei from Korea told the E-Journal after his final win. "After my first couple of wins I was able to build my confidence." Lee (left) said that he was so focused on playing his best in each game that "I wasn't really thinking about winning the championship, so it's just now starting to sink in."

 

 The Masters is the first title that Lee, who studied with Myungwan Kim 9P (at left, with Lee, reviewing Saturday's game) when he was younger, has won since he was 11. "It was clear to me (back then) that he was very talented and smart and had a lot of potential," said Kim. Lee, who's thinking about moving to the US, will be visiting Kim in Los Angeles for a few months this autumn,  teaching go and studying English, and plans to compete in the Cotsen Open at the end of October. "As a former insei, he dedicated his whole life to studying go to be a pro," said Kim. "While it may be still an ongoing project he hopes to find some other meaningful work in his new life in the US."Click here for the Masters crosstab. NOTE: Masters Division games with audio commentary are available for a limited time free on KGS Plus; look under “Recent Lectures” under USGO5. photos by Phil Straus (right) and Chris Garlock (left)

US Open: top winners (6/7D): 1st: (tie) Xiaotian Hu & Xuyu Xiang; 3rd: Daniel Chou; click here for complete winner's list. NEW THIS YEAR: Send us your US Open game record in sgf format with all game info complete, including both players’ full names, and the round number, and we’ll add it to the official US Open crosstab. Email them – by Friday, August 22 – to journal@usgo.org. 
Other Events: Jeff Wu 5k won the 13x13 kyu championship in a final game with Ann Wu 10k, while April Ye 1D took the dan championship. In the 9x9 tournament, Dirk Riedeman 3D won the dan division, while Matt Mo 10k won both of his playoff games to win the kyu division. Speedy players Yukino Takehara 1k and Will Lockhart 5D progressed furthest in Lightning Tournament's kyu and dan divisions respectively. Julian Erville 1D took first place in the Midnight Madness, followed by Yukino Takehara 1k in second place, and Jeremy Chiu 6D won first place in the Die Hard Tournament on Wednesday with a perfect four-win record. In the Women's Tournament: Top Bracket: 1st: Chen Jiahui (4-0); 2nd: Wan Yian; 3rd: April Ye. Middle Bracket: 1st: Kelly Liu (4-0); 2nd: Yoko Ohashi; 3rd: Amanda Miller. Bottom Bracket: 1st: Marjorie Hey; 2nd: Alexandra Platz; 3rd: Kaoru Hidaka. 
13x13 photo by Karoline Li
NOTE (8/17): the US Open results PDF has been updated to the correct final report and the 9x9 dan winner has been added.