Ninety enthusiastic Go players from all over the U.S. spent the beautiful weekend of November 9-10 gathered in the large playing hall of World Journal newspaper HQ building in Monterey Park California to compete in the First Eternal Cup Southern California Go Championship tournament, featuring what organizers say was “the largest cash award for a regional North American Go tournament.”
The 22 players in the Open Section included 6 7-Dan players, ten 6-Dan players and six 6-Dan players. A highly competitive event, no one finished the six-round tournament without a loss. Shuaiheng Tao 7D took top honors, while in second place was Ninghan Duan 7D and Yifan Wu 7D was third.
For the other sections, from the high dan to beginner section, each section had chosen four winners to receive trophies and cash prizes, and all players did their best to bring something home.
Enrique Garcia, head of San Diego Go club, volunteered to do top board online broadcasting and between rounds, he did some off-line game reviews and Q/A with prizes for the young players.
The winner list is as follows:
Champion Shuaiheng Tao 7 dan (5 wins, 1 loss)
2nd place Ninghan Duan 7 dan (5 wins, 1 loss)
3rd place Yifan wu 7 dan (4 wins, 2 losses)
4th place Shang Zhou 7 dan (4 wins, 2 losses)
5th place moxuan Liu 6 dan (4 wins, 2 losses)
6th place Mike Sato 6 dan (4 wins, 2 losses)
High Dan section
1st place Liam Liu 4 dan 5 wins
2nd place Seowoo Wang 5 dan 4 wins
3rd place Christophe Humbert 4 dan 4 wins
4th place Stephanie Tan 3 dan 4 wins
Low Dan section
1st place Igasho Yin 2 dan 5 wins
2nd place Peter Chen 1 dan 5 wins
3rd place Zhengwen Bi 2 dan 4 wins
4th place Xuewei Chen 2 dan 4 wins
Strong Kyu section
1st place Olive Long 6 wins
2nd place Dongsheng Guo 5 wins
3rd place Ruoyu Wen 5 wins
4th place Roger Abrhansson 4 wins
Mid kyu section
1st place Guo Jinlin 5 wins
2nd place Zizhou Zhang 4 win
3rd place Juwon Choi 4 wins
4th place William Fang 4 wins
Beginner section
1st place Chelsea Pan 6 wins
2nd place Jaylene Chang 5 wins
3rd place Alex loo 4 wins
4th place Chloe Fang 4 wins