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David Glekel 3d & Eric Hookway 10k Top Restructured 9x9 Tournament

David Glekel 3d and Eric Hookway 10k came out on top Sunday night as the dan and kyu champions of the 9x9 tournament directed by Audrey Wang. As the tournament began, she reviewed the new double elimination structure, faster time settings (5 minutes basic time and 1 period of 10 seconds sudden death byo yomi), and adjusted komi structure. The completely new format -- which was designed to complete the tournament in one evening rather than several sessions over the week of the Congress as in past years -- caused some confusion for longtime players used to simply being lined up and split into tables, and "could improve in terms of overall efficiency," said assistant TD Si Chen. "If we do double elimination again, there are definitely some things we could improve on."  Overall, "it was a really good tournament," said Dan Champion David Glekel, and players had a good time. The new time settings and komi structure were received well, and the champions were chosen without further playoff games needed during the week. - report/photo by Karoline Li, Congress Tournament Liaison