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South Sound Go Club holds first tournament

South Sound Go Club held its first AGA-rated tournament on Sunday, May 20, at Terracrux Games. Ten players participated, including two new to the AGA. Mike Malveaux directed. “TerraCrux Games  is an independent games store located at 760 Commerce Street in Tacoma, WA,” Malveaux reports. “They do a brisk trade in games like Magic The Gathering, Warhammer, X-Wing, and many other games; and the owner, Doug, lets SSGC use the playing area as a weekly meeting spot.” There were three rounds, and nobody won all three. Three players won 2 out of 3 games, creating a three-way tie for first place.

“Since there were no prizes or trophies, we didn't need to declare a singular winner.” Winning two games: Steve Zhang (5k), Joel Simpson (8k), Katherine Harmon (20k). Furthest travelers: Andrew Zhang (1k) and Steve Zhang (5k) drove over 200 miles from Corvallis, OR. Newest AGA members: Kathleen Dorsett (20k) and John Evans (12k). The most common player name was Steve (30%); the second most common player name was Kate (20%). Closest game: In the 2nd round, Steve Stringfellow 5d played Andrew Zhang 1k at 5 stones handicap. Both players were deep into byo-yomi before the dame were filled. When the counting was done, Steve had squeaked out a 1.5 point victory. South Sound Go Club is hoping to make this a quarterly event, and planning is underway for a tournament in August.

photo (top right): Left: Steve Jones from Olympia, WA, vs. Joel Simpson from Everett, WA; Left background:  Steve Zhang vs. Andrew Zhang (both from Corvallis, OR); Center foreground: Katherine Harmon vs. Kathleen Dorsett (both from Tacoma, WA); Right background: John Evans (formerly Tacoma, now from Portland, OR) vs. Tom Cruver (Tacoma; president of SSGC).
photo (bottom left): Andrew Zhang and Steve Stringfellow