21st U.S. Go Congress
Two things happened last week. This is about the happy one. Next post will be about the sad one.
So much cool stuff happened last week, it was awesome.
(Key for player's ranks for non-players: d == amateur dan level player, p == professional dan level player, k == amateur kyu level player (weaker than dan level). 1p is roughly equal to a strong 7d as far as playing skill goes, but the top amateur rank is 9d, so a 9d may be as strong as a 9p since the ranks are capped.)
(More go terms: komi == a number of points given to White to make up for the fact that Black has the first move.
tesuji == brilliant move or sequence of moves to accomplish a tactical aim.
moyo == large framework that has yet to become solid territory.
insei == professional go student. A person who studies and plays go every day with a group of other students to try to become a professional go player.
IGS and KGS == servers where you can play go on the internet.)
I didn't play in the U.S. Open, giving up my games there to help Chris Garlock record games at the top boards. I borrowed Shai Simonson's and Jeff Boscole's laptops at various times to simulcast the games on IGS (people in the hall were watching the top games on the closed-circuit TVs and rebroadcasting them on KGS as well). They're good people, although I have to say I greatly preferred using Shai's iBook G3 to Jeff's old broken Pentium 1. Can't discriminate against the Windows user too much though, at least he plays go. :P
Sophia and Tenshi, you should be jealous. One of the games I recorded was between two very hot young asian men (Lu Wang 8d and Takahiro Kitagawa 8d), and two more were between each of those and a Romanian guy with a sexy accent (Cornel Burzo 7d). Lu Wang (American, of Chinese descent) had his hair dyed red, and Takahiro Kitagawa (from Japan) had the most awesome haircut ever. Cornel just had the accent, but it was great. :P
Tuesday night, during the Ing match, we were watching the top board (Jie Li 9d vs Joey Hung 8d, I believe) on the closed-circuit TV when a late arrival came through the door. Myeong-wan Kim, a 7 dan professional from Korea (who looks like he's about 17 or 18 years old), walked in and immediately started commenting on the game. Somebody brought over a demo board and he began replaying the game and looking at variations. Things like "White should extend here now, Black must respond below and then... (20 move sequence in another corner) after this fight, there is a ladder breaker ready."
The Midnight Madness tournament went on all week, one round every night. I played in three rounds, winning two of them. The only downside to that was that I spent the night afterward hanging out with Chuck, Juan Pablo and Aria until 3 am or so then had to get up early to record in the Open. :)
Speaking of the Midnight Madness, Takahiro Kitagawa played every round and was undefeated in the Midnight Madness. He also won 5 out of 6 rounds in the U.S. Open, only losing to Xuefei Lin 1p. This guy is awesome. The Japanese don't hand out 8 dan amateur diplomas lightly. The only two ways to be awarded one are to win the Amateur Honinbo tournament, or the World Amateur Go Championship. He was insei at the Kansai Kiin from the time he was 12 until he was 18 (when the Kansai Kiin stops allowing kids to study there), then became insei at the Nihon Kiin for four more years, until he reached their age limit at 22. The Japanese professionals at the Congress treated him as though he were already a sensei, they basically consider him one of them. He will almost certainly pass the pro exam soon.
Wednesday was the "day-off", when people get to go on sightseeing tours of the area the Congress is in this year. I was one of the people who stuck around and played in the Diehard Tournament instead. :P
I took Chuck's advice and self-promoted to 3-dan, but I wasn't having a very good day. I lost all my games. Other sad news came this day, but you'll read about that in the next post.
My first game in the Diehard was quite amusing. I was paired against Horst, a 3 dan from Germany. I made a critical reading error early on in the game and spent the entire middle game trying to catch up. In the early endgame I noticed a tesuji to split a thread of stones reducing my moyo from his weak corner group. It would force him to defend one or the other. If he defends the reduction, the corner would die, and if he lives in the corner, I would no longer have a moyo, I would have territory with a lot of dead white stones in it. I play most of the way through the sequence, then right before cutting through I re-read and go "Oh, it doesn't work. That sucks." Then play elsewhere. Immediately his hand flashes a stone into place to protect the cut. I'm startled, then I re-read the sequence again. If I push through the cut one direction it doesn't work... if I push through the other way, it DOES work. I was so startled that I actually put my hand over my mouth and gasped audibly! I've never seen anybody do that in real life before, but I was so shocked by the situation that I actually did it. I looked at Horst, and we both cracked up laughing. We laughed for about four minutes solid (on MY clock time) then he said "it's good you can laugh. you will get stronger soon because you can laugh about it."
Thursday brought a surprise! After seeing Jie Li 9d play in the Ing Cup, Myeong-wan Kim 7p wanted to play him. Ron Snyder 7d acted as a go-between to arrange the match, and eventually the news was that there would be a no komi game between Jie Li and Myeong-wan Kim (apocryphal tale: Legend says that when Jie was offered a no komi game by the professional, he said "A teaching game is fine, but we'll see who the student is."). The game was broadcast on IGS and transmitted downstairs into one of the lecture halls, where Feng Yun 9p did the commentary. After two brutal ko fights in the mid-game, White ran out of ko threats. By this time both players were in byo-yomi, and we were all watching in the lecture hall, waiting breathlessly for the next move. Feng Yun's understated comment was "this is tough for White," and we watched and waited, and finally realized.. no next move was coming. Myeong-wan Kim had resigned the game.
Thursday also heralded the day that every single drink machine on the campus ran out of drinks. Even the automated coffee machine was out of mocha, french vanilla, cappucino and hot chocolate. You could only get Maxwell House Regular.
Thursday night I got to record the final game of the Redmond Cup. The Redmond Cup is a tournament involving only very strong young players. The final match was Zhaonian Chen 7d (aka darkmage 9d from KGS) vs. Richard Liang 7d. It was a great game. Zhaonian Chen won. After the game I asked if I could sit in while they reviewed it, as I had a couple of questions. Darkmage said "yeah, sure." When they got to one part of the opening I said "here, where Richard attaches on top, I was looking at this kosumi (diagonal move), it protects the cut as well..." I got the best response ever. Darkmage goes "woah woah woah, what are you, 2 dan? Where'd you learn that? 2 dans aren't supposed to know about moves like this!" XDDD
Saturday, the final day of the Congress. I beat Gus (a 14 year-old whose badge said 1 dan, but who people estimate is actually 4-dan strength) in a self-paired game. Gus is going to Korea to study as an insei for six months starting in two weeks. I wish I were ten years younger and going to Korea to study at the Hankuk-Kiwon. I wish him the best of luck. I'll be disappointed if he's not 7-dan when he gets back. :)
Sunday morning, I asked Juan Pablo if he wanted to get some breakfast with me at the coffee shop down the street and he said "sure, hang on, do you mind if I ask my parents too?" We checked with them and they said "well, we were about to head to the hotel and pack up, why don't you come along, we'll stop at IHOP and then drop you off at the airport since we're driving north to visit Vancouver anyway!"
So at the IHOP Juan Pablo 4d and I played a game... and I won! Juan Pablo beat Keith Arnold 5d in the U.S. Open, and then beat a 6d as well! Probably he was just having a really bad day while I was having a really good one, but I'm still really happy about that win. :)
So that's my story, from the 21st U.S. Go Congress in Tacoma, WA.
So much cool stuff happened last week, it was awesome.
(Key for player's ranks for non-players: d == amateur dan level player, p == professional dan level player, k == amateur kyu level player (weaker than dan level). 1p is roughly equal to a strong 7d as far as playing skill goes, but the top amateur rank is 9d, so a 9d may be as strong as a 9p since the ranks are capped.)
(More go terms: komi == a number of points given to White to make up for the fact that Black has the first move.
tesuji == brilliant move or sequence of moves to accomplish a tactical aim.
moyo == large framework that has yet to become solid territory.
insei == professional go student. A person who studies and plays go every day with a group of other students to try to become a professional go player.
IGS and KGS == servers where you can play go on the internet.)
I didn't play in the U.S. Open, giving up my games there to help Chris Garlock record games at the top boards. I borrowed Shai Simonson's and Jeff Boscole's laptops at various times to simulcast the games on IGS (people in the hall were watching the top games on the closed-circuit TVs and rebroadcasting them on KGS as well). They're good people, although I have to say I greatly preferred using Shai's iBook G3 to Jeff's old broken Pentium 1. Can't discriminate against the Windows user too much though, at least he plays go. :P
Sophia and Tenshi, you should be jealous. One of the games I recorded was between two very hot young asian men (Lu Wang 8d and Takahiro Kitagawa 8d), and two more were between each of those and a Romanian guy with a sexy accent (Cornel Burzo 7d). Lu Wang (American, of Chinese descent) had his hair dyed red, and Takahiro Kitagawa (from Japan) had the most awesome haircut ever. Cornel just had the accent, but it was great. :P
Tuesday night, during the Ing match, we were watching the top board (Jie Li 9d vs Joey Hung 8d, I believe) on the closed-circuit TV when a late arrival came through the door. Myeong-wan Kim, a 7 dan professional from Korea (who looks like he's about 17 or 18 years old), walked in and immediately started commenting on the game. Somebody brought over a demo board and he began replaying the game and looking at variations. Things like "White should extend here now, Black must respond below and then... (20 move sequence in another corner) after this fight, there is a ladder breaker ready."
The Midnight Madness tournament went on all week, one round every night. I played in three rounds, winning two of them. The only downside to that was that I spent the night afterward hanging out with Chuck, Juan Pablo and Aria until 3 am or so then had to get up early to record in the Open. :)
Speaking of the Midnight Madness, Takahiro Kitagawa played every round and was undefeated in the Midnight Madness. He also won 5 out of 6 rounds in the U.S. Open, only losing to Xuefei Lin 1p. This guy is awesome. The Japanese don't hand out 8 dan amateur diplomas lightly. The only two ways to be awarded one are to win the Amateur Honinbo tournament, or the World Amateur Go Championship. He was insei at the Kansai Kiin from the time he was 12 until he was 18 (when the Kansai Kiin stops allowing kids to study there), then became insei at the Nihon Kiin for four more years, until he reached their age limit at 22. The Japanese professionals at the Congress treated him as though he were already a sensei, they basically consider him one of them. He will almost certainly pass the pro exam soon.
Wednesday was the "day-off", when people get to go on sightseeing tours of the area the Congress is in this year. I was one of the people who stuck around and played in the Diehard Tournament instead. :P
I took Chuck's advice and self-promoted to 3-dan, but I wasn't having a very good day. I lost all my games. Other sad news came this day, but you'll read about that in the next post.
My first game in the Diehard was quite amusing. I was paired against Horst, a 3 dan from Germany. I made a critical reading error early on in the game and spent the entire middle game trying to catch up. In the early endgame I noticed a tesuji to split a thread of stones reducing my moyo from his weak corner group. It would force him to defend one or the other. If he defends the reduction, the corner would die, and if he lives in the corner, I would no longer have a moyo, I would have territory with a lot of dead white stones in it. I play most of the way through the sequence, then right before cutting through I re-read and go "Oh, it doesn't work. That sucks." Then play elsewhere. Immediately his hand flashes a stone into place to protect the cut. I'm startled, then I re-read the sequence again. If I push through the cut one direction it doesn't work... if I push through the other way, it DOES work. I was so startled that I actually put my hand over my mouth and gasped audibly! I've never seen anybody do that in real life before, but I was so shocked by the situation that I actually did it. I looked at Horst, and we both cracked up laughing. We laughed for about four minutes solid (on MY clock time) then he said "it's good you can laugh. you will get stronger soon because you can laugh about it."
Thursday brought a surprise! After seeing Jie Li 9d play in the Ing Cup, Myeong-wan Kim 7p wanted to play him. Ron Snyder 7d acted as a go-between to arrange the match, and eventually the news was that there would be a no komi game between Jie Li and Myeong-wan Kim (apocryphal tale: Legend says that when Jie was offered a no komi game by the professional, he said "A teaching game is fine, but we'll see who the student is."). The game was broadcast on IGS and transmitted downstairs into one of the lecture halls, where Feng Yun 9p did the commentary. After two brutal ko fights in the mid-game, White ran out of ko threats. By this time both players were in byo-yomi, and we were all watching in the lecture hall, waiting breathlessly for the next move. Feng Yun's understated comment was "this is tough for White," and we watched and waited, and finally realized.. no next move was coming. Myeong-wan Kim had resigned the game.
Thursday also heralded the day that every single drink machine on the campus ran out of drinks. Even the automated coffee machine was out of mocha, french vanilla, cappucino and hot chocolate. You could only get Maxwell House Regular.
Thursday night I got to record the final game of the Redmond Cup. The Redmond Cup is a tournament involving only very strong young players. The final match was Zhaonian Chen 7d (aka darkmage 9d from KGS) vs. Richard Liang 7d. It was a great game. Zhaonian Chen won. After the game I asked if I could sit in while they reviewed it, as I had a couple of questions. Darkmage said "yeah, sure." When they got to one part of the opening I said "here, where Richard attaches on top, I was looking at this kosumi (diagonal move), it protects the cut as well..." I got the best response ever. Darkmage goes "woah woah woah, what are you, 2 dan? Where'd you learn that? 2 dans aren't supposed to know about moves like this!" XDDD
Saturday, the final day of the Congress. I beat Gus (a 14 year-old whose badge said 1 dan, but who people estimate is actually 4-dan strength) in a self-paired game. Gus is going to Korea to study as an insei for six months starting in two weeks. I wish I were ten years younger and going to Korea to study at the Hankuk-Kiwon. I wish him the best of luck. I'll be disappointed if he's not 7-dan when he gets back. :)
Sunday morning, I asked Juan Pablo if he wanted to get some breakfast with me at the coffee shop down the street and he said "sure, hang on, do you mind if I ask my parents too?" We checked with them and they said "well, we were about to head to the hotel and pack up, why don't you come along, we'll stop at IHOP and then drop you off at the airport since we're driving north to visit Vancouver anyway!"
So at the IHOP Juan Pablo 4d and I played a game... and I won! Juan Pablo beat Keith Arnold 5d in the U.S. Open, and then beat a 6d as well! Probably he was just having a really bad day while I was having a really good one, but I'm still really happy about that win. :)
So that's my story, from the 21st U.S. Go Congress in Tacoma, WA.