Seattle Go Center - American Go Association - International Go Federation
This event happens every two years. To enable a large number of participants, the tournament is held at two sites simultaneously. One site is New York City; the other is usually west of the Rocky Mountains. The winners of the Open sections represent the U.S. at the world finals in Japan. Toyota and Denso also sponsor a tournament circuit in Europe; I believe the winners of that circuit also play in the finals in Japan.
In 2006, most of the Tacoma / Seattle attendees went to the Las Vegas tournament. (I'll try to get Mike LePore to cough up some words and pics, if he took any.) I went to the New York tournament, so I could visit family members I hadn't seen in some time.
Breakfast in NYC = expensive, at least in the Pennsylvania Hotel coffee shop. But I shared a table with Phil Waldron, former president of the Canadian Go Association, so it was quite pleasant. (Phil has tested Moyo Go Studio, so it was nice to get his opinion of the software and controversy over raiding other products' databases.)
The facilities were nice. The hotel is showing its age, but it seems well maintained. We're on the top floor, which is the 18th -- not high enough to see very far. The view is from the middle of the skyline, so it's tall buildings everywhere. We have two large rooms and a lobby -- exciting to see so many tables covered with go sets! I spoke briefly to Feng Yun -- nice to have a 9-p in attendance. (I also took her picture... but then the Hewlett-Packard Photosmart M22 camera coughed up a furball, and corrupted the card. I think I've dropped it / sat on it /otherwise abused it a few too many times. Disappoining... that old Fujifilm Finepix digital camera took a lot more abuse before it died on me.)
There are something like 200 players here. Registration was smooth; but the first round was a couple of hours late due to pairing problems. It was re-paired three times, I believe. Egad. When the pairings were posted, the crush of curious players combined with the dinky font size made it tough to actually read them. We need a better system for publicizing pairings at large tournaments.
The second round only had to be re-paired once.
In deference to the Japanese sponsors (Toyota and Denso), Japanese rules and scoring were in effect (which I prefer to the American rules, since I first was taught the Japanes rules). A nice touch was that the top two boards were simulcast on IGS. The simulcast was shown in our lobby, to keep spectators from crowding the tables. (This is actually one point where the facilities could use a bit of help: that projector badly needed a better screen for displaying the games.)
Between rounds, I chatted with Mike Lash (AGA president), and Mike Samuel, the graphic artist who has made so many excellent Go t-shirts and logos, and with AGF president Terry Benson (I really need to make those demo boards!) I did a little shopping -- got a hat from the first North American Oza (another great Mike Samuels design) and the report from the Second International Conference on Baduk (at Myong-Ji University in 2003). I listened a little to Ronghao Chen, who is involved with The World of Weiqi magazine, Chinese language, published in Shanghai I think he said. I think he translates for them. He's looking for stories about Go in America:
Ronghao Chen
61 Windsor Pond Rd.
West Windsor, NJ, 08550
chensonghao; the big ya hoo (I don't want him getting spammed from this)
609-799-1624
Intro | Day 0 | Day 1 | Mike M.'s Sat. results | Day 2 | Mike M.'s Sun. results
| Round | Table | I'm | Opponent | H/K | Result | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72 | W | Todd Heidenreich | 0/6.5 | W+ | Todd recorded, so I may receive SGF. Details of this game are hazy now... |
| 2 | 69 | B | Frank Tan | 0/6.5 | W+ | Frank's first tournament :) blehss1123, aol (future IGS). He simply outplayed me; I was way behind even before that ko weirdness at the end... Nice kid. |
| 3 | 69 | W | Andry Aleshintsev | 0/6.5 | W+ | Poor guy... I had to keep jumping up to pee. Too much caffeine I guess. He made what I thought was a slack move early on, giving me an eyeless group to chase. Of course, it made two eyes after covering 1/3 of the board... so I was behind. But in time trouble, he let me resurrect some dead stones, killing a few of his in the process. Luck. |
It snowed overnight -- about an inch or so on the ground in the morning. Checking out of the hotel was smooth. So was signing in for the tournament in the Penn Top lobby. Pairings were done pretty quickly, in pleasant contrast to Saturday. The complimentary pastries and coffee disappeared so fast that I missed out. No surprise, with some 200 players, plus another several dozen family and spectators in attendance.
| Round | Table | I'm | Opponent | H/K | Result | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 68 | W | Michael Kaplan | 0/6.5 | W+9.5 | Large moyo vs. large moyo, with an early center fight. I thought I was further ahead, so I was lucky to win. |
| 5 | 66 | B | Todd Blatt | 0/6.5 | W+2.5 | I thought I'd won, until Todd reminded me of the komi. The kid plays fast. He only used about 10 minutes for the whole game. We reviewed about half -- same old fuseki errors, blocking the wrong side of the 3-6 3-3 approach to a 4-4. My sense is that he's stronger than his official rating -- probably improving too quickly for his rating to catch up. We finished so quickly, I got in an extra game with Chuck Robbins. |
| 5½ | Reg. | B | Chuck Robbins | 9/0.5 | B+2.5 | I almost lost, thanks to not seeing a snapback... Chuck asked for a rated game, and I was very happy to oblige him. He works hard as TD, and he needs to have some fun too; and it's always an honor when a stronger player deigns to teach. |
| 6 | 68 | W | Bernard Braun | H/K | B+R | Bernard recorded on paper, and we input to SGF when we were reviewing. A good game -- Bernard took good advantage of my thinness and oversights. Round 6 SGF: MM vs BB |
Feng Yun won the Open section, of course. For my "fighting spirit" prize, I chose a copy of Fundamental Principles of Go by Yang Yi-lun, 7p. Reading it should help me climb.
I wish I could play some of these folks more often. Some of them I may see online.
My heartfelt thanks to the sponsors, Toyota and Denso, and to Viz Communications (U.S. publishers of Hikaru no Go, and to the American Go Association, and to tournament director Chuck Robbins of Slate and Shell, and the other companies that contributed prizes (Samarkand, Yutopian, Kiseido), and to the New York Pennsylvania Hotel, for making the tournament possible and wonderful. (My apologies to those I should have thanked but missed.)
Intro | Day 0 | Day 1 | Mike M.'s Sat. results | Day 2 | Mike M.'s Sun. results
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