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Ben Hakala Wins Portland Tourney

Ben Hakala took top honors in the October 29-30 Portland Go Tournament. Twenty six players -- including three 6-dans and a 7-dan -- participated in the tournament, held on the campus of Lewis & Clark College. While organizer Peter Drake laments that “the award for top female player was not awarded, as all 26 players were male,” he reports that Akane Negishi did stop by long enough to offer KGS Plus memberships to the top single- and double-digit kyu players.” Other prizes -- books, boards, etc.-- were supplied by Yellow Mountain Imports and Slate & Shell, both of whom offered generous discounts. David Fotland also donated a copy of The Many Faces of Go. “Plans are already forming for next year's tournament,” Drake adds. “The strong players inquired about the possibility of an open division. There is also the possibility of increasing the number of rounds from five to seven -- more than the US Open, crammed into two days. That would be a brutal feat of mental endurance, but why not?” Drake also notes that “The tournament tools at www.goclubs.org were enormously useful, especially in reporting results quickly to the AGA.”
 photo by Weitian Liu

Winners: 
Dan division (first to third): Ben Hakala, Nicholas Jhirad, Vincent Zhuang
Single-digit kyu division: Louie Liu, Trey Cundall, James Moore
Double-digit kyu division: Roger LaMarche, Johnny Sajo, Cooper Stevenson
Youth: Louie Liu