News / Articles

FENG YUN WINS 2004 ING PRO TOURNEY Feng Yun 9p swept all three games this week to take first place in the 2004 ING American Pro Tournament. Yun defeated Mingjiu Jiang 7p, Yilun Yang 7p and Huiren Yang 1p to win the $3,000 top prize. Yilun Yang took second place and $1,500 and Mingjiu Jiang92s third place netted him $1,000 while in fourth place, Huiren Yang won $500. Jeff Shaevel directed the finals, Jon Boley directed the preliminary rounds, and Sal Gionfriddo and Ian McCown were the game recorders for the finals.

FINAL ING RESULTS: As reported in yesterday92s E-Journal, Jie Li, who won the Ing Cup in 2002 but lost it to his student Joey Hung last year, recaptured the title Wednesday by defeating Yongfei Ge and posting a perfect 4-0 score. The exciting game, with commentary by Li, is attached.
       In other fourth-round Ing results, Jong Moon Lee beat Jung Hoon Lee, Lianzhou Yu won against Curtis Tang (the 11-year-old 6d who posted a very respectable 2-2 result in the Ing, scoring upsets against both Thomas Hsiang 8d and Yuan Zhou 7d), Yuan Zhou defeated Jon Boley, Thomas Hsiang beat Joey Hung, Edward Kim won over Xenos Khan, I-Han Lui defeated Richard Liang and Eric Lui beat Jin Chen.

U.S. OPEN UPDATE: Notching a fourth victory in his quest for another U.S. Open title, defending U.S. Open champion Jie Li defeated young Curtis Tang on Board 1 in this morning92s fourth round of the Open. With just two rounds left to play, the chances of dethroning Li are looking ever slimmer. In other top board results, Yongfei Ge beat Lu Wang, Xuefen Lin won over Jung Hoon Lee, Joey Hung defeated Edward Kim, Mozheng Guan beat Yuan Zhou, Minshan Shou won over Zhaonian Chen, Jong Moon Lee beat Thomas Hsiang, Lianzhou Yu defeated beat Ron Snyder, Rui Wang won over I-Han Lui, and Richard Liang beat Eric Lui.
Four-game winners: Li, Jie 7d; Mizuno, Yaoki 5d; Lin, David 5d; Sannes, Pal 5d; Rosenblatt, Gregory 3d; Shen, Hao 1d; Tang, Stephen 1d; Barberi, Steve 1k; Maia, Joseph 2k; Guo, Yao 3k; Kiguchi, Christopher 5k; Vogel, Jeffrey 11k; Zhang, Richard 13k; Yuan, Jacquelyn 17k; Chang, Vincent 20k; Benthem, Nick 22k.
- reported by Joe Carl

COMPETITION FIERCE IN SELF-PAIRED: With hundreds of games already played in the continuous Self-Paired Tournament at the U.S. Go Congress, competition is fierce in several prize categories. In the Champion (greatest excess of wins over losses), Martin Lebl and Christopher Kiguchi are neck and neck at nine games each, while in the Giant Killer (kyu player with most wins against dan players), Nicole Casanta has a one-game lead over Christopher Kiguchi. Martin Lebl seems to have a lock on the Sensei (player with most games against weaker players) with 24 games (his closet competitor, David Dinhofer, only has 8 games) and Lebl also has a sizable lead in the Philanthropist (player with most losses).
       Albert Guo is holding onto his lead in the Grasshopper (player whose rating increases most during the tournament) and Martin Lebl has a narrow one-game lead over (who else?) Christopher Kiguchi in the Straight Shooter (player with most wins against players of consecutive ranks). However, Lebl has an impressive 10-game lead over Kiguchi in the Hurricane (player with most wins). Chuck Robbins, One Kunkio and Micah Feldman are all tied at two games each in the Kyu Killer (dan player with most wins against kyu players), while Martin Lebl seems untouchable in the Dedicated (player with the most games) with a twenty game lead over Christopher Kiguchi. In the Faithful (player with the smallest rating change), Gordon Ho92s 0.0001 rating change this week may be hard to beat. Finally, Billy Ng is leading in the Optimist (player with the largest ratings decrease).

CONGRESS PHOTOS ONLINE! Don‘t forget to check out all the latest 20th U.S. Go Congress photos online now at http://www.usgo.o rg

PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING: Yang On Forcing Moves
A forcing move is one you must answer, right? 93Wrong!94 says Yilun Yang 7p. 93A forcing move threatens severe damage, but your first reaction should not be to answer,94 said Yang in a lecture this week at the U.S. Go Congress. Instead, you should first consider how you can avoid answering. 93Ask yourself How can I tenuki?94 Yang said. Resist being submissive, Yang urged. 93For example, always look for something other than the simple connection when your opponent peeps.94

GUO GOES TO CHINA: Go Congress attendees have discovered the benefits of go immersion this week: this year there92s another chance to soak up lots of go when Guo Juan 5p leads a go trip to China in November. Get all the details at http://guojuan.de mon.nl/goschool/hangzhou.html

GAME COMMENTARY: Li Squared
2004 North American Amateur Ing Cup winner Jie Li92s steady play is on display in today92s commentaries on two Ing Cup games.
In the title-clinching game last night, Li played Yongfei Ge 7d in a hard-fought game pitting Ge92s reducing moves against Li92s moyo strategy. Li92s thorough commentary explains how he used the threat against one group to extract profit elsewhere on the board.
In our second game, from the third round of the Ing Cup, Li plays 2003 Ing champion Joey Hung, in what Li laughingly termed a grudge match: Hung, Li92s friend and student, bested Li by one point last year to win the Ing. This time around, a close game turns into a rout when one of Hung92s groups turns out to have some unexpected weaknesses.
Thanks to Tournament Director Chuck Robbins, Coordinator Joe Carl, the game recorders and of course all the ING players for their hard work and dedication. The 2004 North American Amateur Ing Cup is sponsored by the Ing Chang-Ki Wei-ch‘I Education Foundation and organized by the American Go Association.
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

IN THE KNOW ABOUT GO: We92re very pleased 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

Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the American Go Association.

To make name or address corrections, notify us at the email address below. Story suggestions, event announcements, Letters to the Editor and other material are welcome, subject to editing for clarity and space, and should be directed to:
Editor: Chris Garlock
mailto:journal@usgo.org