Players from across the Midwest gather for the opening rounds of the 2025 Chicago Rapid at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Evanston, Ill. The tournament featured five fast-paced rounds and divisions ranging from Dan to double-digit Kyu. Photo by David Schiller.
The Evanston Go Club’s 2025 Chicago Rapid, held at Immanuel Lutheran Church on November 1, 2025, brought together 78 players from across the Midwest for a day of fierce but friendly competition. The event's lightning-fast, five-round structure fueled hundreds of intense games. By the end of the marathon, Jeremy Chiu 7D emerged as the undisputed champion with a flawless 5-0 record.
Dohyup Kim (left) competes against Jeremy Chiu (right) in round 4 of the 2025 Chicago Rapid. Photo by Jason Cheng.
For Chiu, the most memorable game came from Dohyup Kim 8D, the 2025 Chicago Open champion.
Ten… nine… eight… Each countdown beep rises over the silent shuffle of stones.
Near the midgame, Kim cut into one of Chiu’s groups, igniting a tense fight that stretched across the middle of the board. Both players tested reading out life-and-death sequences.
“I was honestly pretty nervous at the start of the game. I hadn’t played a strong opponent in a while,” Chiu said.
But Chiu said he stayed focused on simplicity.
“I didn't do any super specific prep for any of my opponents. I just felt like I wanted to try to play my game, and hopefully that would turn out well,” Chiu said. “And it did.”
Chiu managed to seal off Kim’s stones from connecting to the rest of his army, enclosing them in a large territorial net. When the dust settled, Chiu’s capture secured a decisive advantage.
Yet, between rounds, Chiu emphasized rest over rehearsal.
“During breaks, I try to just relax and not do too much because my brain’s always pretty tired during tournaments,” Chiu laughed.
Behind him, Dohyup Kim 8D took second place. He traveled from Incheon, South Korea for his third Evanston Go Club event. The Korean powerhouse treated the Rapid with the same stone-faced composure that defined his 2025 Chicago Open victory in May. Though Kim no longer trains intensively, his competitive spirit remains.
“I’ll be back,” Kim said, smiling. “Now, I play for fun. I like to travel around the world to play in tournaments. Winning is fun too, but unfortunately, this time I couldn’t.”
Third place went to Kenny Jin 6D, who credited a deliberate preparation routine.
“I especially prepared the big avalanche joseki before today’s tournament. I would say opening preparation is a big part of success,” Jin said.
That preparation showed in his game against Dohyup Kim 8D, where Jin steered the opening into the avalanche sequence he studied.
The youth section, directed by Xinming ‘Simon’ Guo, focused on the club’s educational mission. Guo integrates learning and play through a modified scoring system he calls “population score.”
Children compete in the free Youth Tournament directed by Xinming Guo at the 2025 Chicago Rapid, Evanston. Photo by Xinming Guo.
“Instead of counting empty territory, kids count how many stones are on the board,” Guo said. “Kids can easily understand how many points they have, and we have special tools to help them count.”
This approach, Guo added, encourages curiosity rather than pressure.
“We create a less-pressure, more-reward environment. The kids can also have the opportunity to visit the Main Section to see what they can do in their future.”
Between rounds, Peter Leung’s 4K ever-inventive side events offered a lighter counterpoint to the intensity of the main hall. Known for designing accessible Go-themed activities, Leung introduced two new “around-the-room” challenges: Guess the Rank and Group Mentality.
“The tournament can get really intense,” Leung said. “I wanted a way for people to interact and relax without using even more brain power when they’re exhausted at the end of the day. They're a way for people to talk and engage with each other without feeling like someone else is an opponent. It's more like a collaboration, a discussion where you can work with someone, as opposed to fighting over points.”
This year, Evanston Go Club saw a new wave of rising youth stars jumping from single-digit Kyu to mid-Dans, including Dino Wang 3D and Enzo Aozono-Araldi 3D.
Stephanie Tan 3D (left) competes against Dino Wang 3D (right) during round 2 of the 2025 Chicago Rapid. Photo by Tomomi Aozono.
Dino said his improvement did not come from a sudden breakthrough, but from a persistent drive to measure himself against stronger players.
“When I'm playing someone stronger than me, I just really want to beat them because I’m just trying to prove myself. It’s the persistence that helps me keep improving,” Wang said.
This determination reshaped his style to respond to his opponents throughout the tournament.
The 2025 Chicago Rapid also welcomed international players.
Shimmaru Kosumi 3K, a Japanese university student originally from Malaysia, joined his first U.S. tournament after hearing about the Rapid from fellow player and outreach director Jamie Tang.
“I wanted to experience how U.S. players play Go,” Kosumi said. “In Japan, people are very defensive. When they are attacked, they react every time. But here, when I attack one stone, my opponent attacks on another.”
He laughed about the long day.
“It's so long,” Kosumi said. “In Japan, there's only three games a day. I never played five games in a day.”
For Alicia Seifrid 10K, a long-time Fox Valley Go Club member who first attended an Evanston tournament nearly two decades ago, the Rapid marked a return to familiar excitement.
“I think my first was in 2007, back when these were at UIC,” Seifrid said. “Anybody who hasn't done one of these tournaments should try it at least once, because it's just really great to get to meet a lot of Go players and play games with different people.”
As Go players, new and old, played the final stones, the 2025 Chicago Rapid became a celebration of connection. For Ryan Simeone 10K, who attended his first-ever Go tournament, Go creates a space for everyone. As Simeone puts it best, “You don’t have to speak the same language, because Go is the language.”
The 2025 Chicago Rapid champions Paige Lemaster, Na Pan, Kenny Jin, Dohyup Kim, and Jeremy Chiu (left to right) showcase their trophies next to Organizing Director and Co-Tournament Director Albert Yen, Nov. 1, 2025. Photo by Mark Rubenstein.
Evanston Go Club thanks the continued support from American Yunguseng Dojang, Baduk Club, Downtown Evanston, Hello Jasmine, Online Go Server, Pita Inn, and Yellow Mountain Imports. Online Go Server, the leading online Go server, provided membership vouchers for players to deepen game reviews with AI analysis. Also adding to the weekend’s charm, Sungsoo Kim 5D brought a unique collection of fans from Korea as tournament prizes.
“The character on Shin Jin-Seo’s fan reads self-strength,” Kim said. “It reflects his philosophy of focus on self-growth and just being better at the game.”
View the full standings here and photo album here.
2025 Chicago Open Winners
Open Division
- Jeremy Chiu
- Dohyup Kim
- Kenny Jin
- Na Pan
- Paige Lemaster
Main Division
3-4D: Xuyan Xiong, Jerry Chen
1-2D: Daniel Dowell, Jiaqi Zhang
1-2K: Yuheng Zhang, Jing Wang
3-4K: Elias O'Malley, Andrew Drucker
5-6K: Bowen Yan, Ethan Shi
7-8K: Matthew Wang, Denise Lee
9-10K: Travis Goeden, Ryan Simeone
11-12K: Henry Lange, Jason Cheng
13-14K: Matthew Knippen, Andy Wong
15-16K: Daniel Park, Kartik Saraf
17-18K: Rory Graman, Timothy Biel
Youth Tournament Winners
Gold:
Vincent Yang
Silver:
Forrest Zhu
Jack Gillespie
Connor Qin
Bronze:
Isaac Prime
Konrad Otsuka
Activity Winners
Guess the Rank: Samantha Mougette
Group Mentality: Theodore James
Organizing Team
Aaron Czarnecki - Chief Artist
Xinming Guo - Youth Director
Mark Rubenstein - President, Tournament Director
Qi-Mei Jamie Tang - Outreach Director
Cheuk To Tsui - Tournament Support
Albert Yen - Organizing Director, Tournament Director
Media Team
Jason Cheng - Writing
Zixuan Gao - Design
Peter Leung - Trivia Night
Kartik Saraf - Writing
Stephanie Tan - Writing
About Evanston Go Club
The Evanston Go Club, co-founded by Mark Rubenstein and David Whiteside in 1996, is the largest American Go Association chapter in the Midwest. Our mission is to provide a place that is open to the public for people to play, learn, or just watch the game of Go. For more details, visit our website here.