By Matthew Swart
The Japanese Gardens in Portland are known for their peaceful walks, beautifully designed gardens, and idyllic koi pond. In the Fall it takes on a whole new life as the trees erupt in brilliant oranges and reds, changing the palette of the whole space. It's a beautiful metaphor for the peaceful silence surrounding the furious battles on the Go board during the annual Peter Freeman Memorial Oregon State Go tournament, held this year November 16-17.
Steve Zhang 2D of the Corvallis go club was the returning champion this year, but he had fierce competition from Jimmy Choi 4D, rumored to be the strongest Go player in Portland. To make things even more interesting, we had a newcomer on the scene: Chao Wang 4D had only recently been introduced to the Portland Go Club and this was his first tournament.
With six players in the Open section this year, it was played round robin style. Steve Zhang had two heartbreaking losses on the first day, a half-pointer to Adam Miller 3D and another to Chao Wang by a single point. Chao Wang and Jimmy Choi won their first two games, and the two 4-dans faced off in the third round at the end of Saturday play, which Chao ended up winning after a close fight. He then secured his victory with two more wins the following day, sweeping first place with five wins, while Jimmy Choi took second with four wins, and Adam Miller was third with a pair of wins and the head-to-head tiebreaker against the other 2-win player Michael Kurrels 2D.
In Division 1 of the handicap section, there was fierce competition between Eugene Zhang 1D, James Acres 1D, Bradley Fujan 1k, Leif Weibe 3k, Jim Levenick 1D and Peter Drake 5k. Peter Drake was the only player undefeated going into Round 5, with the other players all tied at three wins. Leif Weibe and Peter Drake were matched for the final round and Leif was able to pull off 
the win. Eugene, James, and Bradley all won Round 5, which left five players tied at four wins, so strength-of-wins ended up deciding the standings, with third place for Leif, while Eugene Zhang and James Acres took first and second respectively. It was tight between the two front runners, but Eugene had won the head-to-head matchup in Round 1 against James.
In Division 2, Zack Finch 10K came in as the favorite and did not disappoint, taking first place with five wins as the only undefeated player. The surprise newcomer was Mason Oltmann 20k, securing four wins and taking second place. Father/daughter duo Jonas Acres 11k and Lyra Acres 11k battled it out for third, each with three wins, but Lyra was victorious in the head-to-head matchup and secured the third spot. Also fighting hard for that spot with three wins were Enjie Fan and Rook, but the strength-of-wins ended up putting Lyra ahead. Enjie had battled both Mason and Zack in the third and fifth rounds, but was unable to secure the win either time.
It was a fantastic tournament, leaving us with just one burning question: Do we have a new strongest player on the Oregon Go scene? Hopefully we'll get a chance to see all these players battle it out again next year.
photos: (l-r, top right) Zack Finch 10k - Div 2 winner, Chao Wang 4D Open Winner, and Eugene Zhang 1D Div 1 Winner; (l-r, bottom left) Mason Oltmann 20k on the left (2nd place Div 2) and Lyra Acres 11k on the right (3rd place div 2)