For the first time since the pandemic, the Cincy Tri-state Go Tournament held on August 26, 2023. “We
thank all the players, sponsors and volunteers for making this tournament a success after it was interrupted in the last several years,” said organizer Frank Luo.
It was decided to have five divisions instead of the originally planned four, so that each division would have about eight players, and Ragnarr Marksen 2K from Columbus generously donated two more trophies for the additional division. Sponsors Ying Gao, Bingzhi Shi and Fred Hansen each kicked in over $100 to support the tournament and future activities. With the help of the tournament sign-up fee and additional donations, all players received a Go-themed T-shirt featuring one of the AlphaGo Zero vs AlphaGo Lee games.
After four rounds and a total of eight hours of brutal battle on board, the tournament produced winners of each division as follows.
Division A: Paige Lemaster 7D (4-0) and Jeremiah Donley 5D
Division B: David Frankkel 1K (4-0) and Manny Jauregui 2K (2-2, Youth) Division C: Katie Oh 5K (4-0) and Ian Hogan 5K
Division D: Xuegong Zhu 12K (4-0) and Iraj Nelson 13K (3-1, Youth) Division E: Noah Wu 19K and Ethan Shi 25K
The tournament also featured young violinist Angela Tang, who performed a violin solo before the winner-deciding last round.