News / Articles

ING CUP UP FOR GRABS? Reigning Ing champion Joey Hung lost his first-round game to Lianzhou Yu by just three points last night. Sixteen top amateurs are battling it out for top honors in the 14th North American Amateur Ing Cup, a 4-round event sponsored by the Ing Chang-Ki Wei-ch92i Educational Foundation.
The full winner92s report: Lianzhou Yu 7d defeated Joey Hung 8d; Jie Li 9d beat I-Han Lui 7d; Yongfei Ge 8d won over Jin Chen 6d; Jong Moon Lee 7d defeated Eric Lui 6d (also by 3 points); Curtis Tang 6d upset Thomas Hsiang 8d; Jung Hoon Lee 8d beat Richard Liang 6d (3 points); Xiaoying Huang 5d won over Edward Kim 7d and Yuan Zhou 7d defeated Xenos Khan 6d.

JIE LI 2-0 IN U.S. OPEN: Jie Li continued his quest for a third consecutive U.S. Open title by defeating Rui Wang in Round 2 this morning. Although the Open was plagued for the second straight day with technical glitches that once again delayed the start of the round, players not only waited patiently, but for the second day in a row turned in every game result, an unheard of occurrence in U.S. Open history, according to TD Ken Koester. On Board 2, Xuefen Lin beat Eric Lui; Yongfei Ge defeated Zhaonian Chen on Board 3; on Board 4, Joey Hung won over Mishan Shou; on Board 5 youngster Curtis Tang, fresh off a year of training in China, defeated Yuan Zhou, and on Board 6: Lu (Jeffrey) Wang beat Thomas Hsiang; Jung Hoon Lee beat Richard Liang on Board 7 and on Board 8 Jong Moon Lee defeated Yaming Wang.
- reported by Joe Carl

SELF-PAIRED OFF AND RUNNING: All day Sunday, as Go Congress attendees registered in the lobby of the RIT Conference Center, the click of stones could already be heard as the Self-Paired Tournament got underway anywhere players could grab a board and a willing opponent. One of the most popular events at the Congress, the Self-Paired Tournament runs continuously through the week as players challenge each other to rated games at all hours of the day and night.
       Perennial Self-Paired contender Martin Lebl may have a chance this year to sweep more categories than usual, without fellow marathoner Horst Sudhoff at the Congress this year; Lebl already leads in five of the thirteen categories but there are still a lot of games yet to play.
       Leaders as of Sunday night: Champion (greatest excess of wins over losses): JEREMIAH PARRY-HILL; Giant Killer (kyu player with most wins against dan players): NICOLE CASANTA; Sensei (player with most games against weaker players): MARTIN LEBL; Philanthropist (player with most losses): MARTIN LEBL; Grasshopper (player whose rating increases most during the tournament): ALBERT GUO; Straight Shooter (player with most wins against players of consecutive ranks): MARTIN LEBL; Hurricane (player with most wins): MARTIN LEBL; Kyu Killer (dan player with most wins against kyu players): JAMES BENTHEM; Dedicated (player with the most games): MARTIN LEBL; Faithful (player with the smallest rating change): JAMES CARTER; Optimist (player with the largest ratings decrease): GUTHRIE PRICE.
- reported by Bill Saltman

OVERHEARD: 93The game was like two samurai in a dark closet; a lot of hacking and slashing and most of the time I couldn92t tell whether the damage was caused by my opponent or was just self-inflicted.94

BOYER JOINS E-TEAM: Photographer Dave 93Bippy94 Boyer has joined the Go Congress E-Team; look for his photos 96 along with others -- on the AGA Congress website at http://www.usgo.o rg/photos/

GAME COMMENTARY: The Pros Miss a Ladder
       Today92s lesson is that even professionals can make a mistake. In the AGA/ING Pro Tournament Round 1 game between Feng Yun, 9P and Mingjiu Jiang, 7P, both pros missed a ladder; when they found it a few moves later, reports Tournament Director Jeff Shaevel, 93Both players looked up at each other and laughed.94 Today92s game was recorded by Ian McCown and edited by Chris Garlock.
       To view the attached .sgf file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open using an .sgf reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen‘s http://gobase.org /sgfeditors.html

BEGINNER92S MIND: Glimpses Of The Game
By Aria von Elbe
       Exhaustion is a terrible thing, but when brought on by go it92s alright. Well, maybe not alright, but somehow an energizing kind of tiredness. Maybe I shouldn92t have stayed up until one in the morning taking nine stones against an 8k. And perhaps it wasn92t the best idea to then head up to my room and review Shusaku games until 3 a.m on my brand-new goban. That could be why I slept through my alarm this morning and certainly helps explain why I92m now 0-2 in the US Open, continuing the track record I started in Seattle back in January: all losses, all the time.
       Despite my dismal results, I still feel as if I92m getting better. Maybe it92s just the caffeine talking, but I think I92m starting to understand concepts I didn92t before, beginning to finally grasp some comprehension of the game92s inner workings, even if only dimly.
Surrounded by so many people with such dedication to this game, I realize I92m not all that different. Sure, we92re all different ranks, with different experience and different style of play, but we92re all just as addicted to the game. Whether you92re a pro or a beginner, here at the Congress everyone92s just a person who loves go, and that92s the best feeling of all: to know that I have over 400 friends who I don92t even know yet, just waiting to share their intensity for our shared interest. And there92s still five go-filled days to go!

BULL, LAIRD WIN SEATS ON AGA BOARD: Mike Bull narrowly bested Larry Gross for the Western AGA Board seat in the Board election results announced Sunday night, winning by an 8-7 vote of chapter representatives. In the other contested race, Roy Laird defeated Bill Saltman for the At-Large Board seat. Running unopposed were Bill Cobb in the East and Jeff Shaevel in the Central region. Bull will replace Jon Boley and Laird will replace Dave Weimer; both Boley and Weimer tell the EJ that they plan to step down at the next meeting of the Board later this week, so that the new Board members can take their seats immediately, instead of in January, and begin working with the rest of the Board.

IN THE KNOW ABOUT GO: We92re happy to provide our full Member92s Edition to our non-member readers this week as a special promotion; we hope you enjoy the coverage, features and game commentaries. Reader and member support enable us to provide comprehensive weekly go news, reviews and more year-round and we hope you92ll consider joining today by clicking here now: http://www.usgo.o rg/org/application.asp

Published by the American Go Association

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any recipient: please credit the AGEJ as the source. PLEASE NOTE that commented game record files MAY NOT BE published, re-distributed, or made available on the web without the explicit written permission of the Editor of the E-Journal. Please direct inquiries to journal@usgo.org

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Editor: Chris Garlock
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