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Mark Lee Wins 2015 SoCal Go Championship

Former Korean insei Mark Lee took home the $700 first-place prize at the 2015 Southern California Go Championship, held the weekend of February 28-March 1 in Monterey Park, California. Seventy two players from Southern California and as far away as the San Francisco Bay area, Arizona, Oregon and Atlanta, Georgia participated in the tournament, which featured a total prize purse of $3,000 and was organized and directed by Kevin Chao. Thanks to sponsorship by the World Journal and American Asia Culture Exchange Association, the event took place at the spacious headquarters of the Los Angeles division of the World Journal (http://www.worldjournal.com/page-about_us-e/). 

Winner’s report: 
Open Section:1st place Mark Lee (5-0), 2nd place Danny Ko (4-1), 3rd place Youwhan Kim (4-1), 4th place Qipeng Luo (3-2), 5th place two-time defending champion Evan Cho (3-2). 
Dan Section:1st place Tyler Oyakawa (5-0), 2nd place Brandon Zhou (4-1), 3rd place AGA president Andy Okun (4-1), 4th place Ted Drange (4-1), 5th place Hanhua Li (4-1) 
Upper Kyu Section:1st place Suttiat Boonchuen (5-0), 2nd place Julie Burrall (4-1), 3rd place Aijun Song, 4th place Alfred Foung (4-1) 
Mid Kyu Section:1st place Ross Secrest (4-1), 2nd place John Bulcher (4-1), 3rd place Michal Lebl (4-1) 
Lower Kyu Section:1st place Dowson Yang (4-1), 2nd place Derek Su (3-2), 3rd place Vivie Truong (3-2)
Photos: (top right) James Guo, president of World Journal L.A., presents the first place trophy to Mark Lee; tournament playing venue. photo by Kevin Chao.