More than 70 players gathered over the Thanksgiving weekend for “the biggest and best California State Go
Championship,” a fitting end to TD Ted Terpstra’s long career as a tournament organizer in San Diego. “Ted has been an inspiration to us all,” said AGA president Gurujeet Khalsa, “we appreciate his dedication and tireless enthusiasm.”
Competition in the Open section was fierce, where 20 players battled, including four 7-dans and nine 6-dans. In the fifth and final round of the two-day event, two titans, both 4-0, squared off, as Kevin Hong 7-dan of Cerritos, CA took on Shuaiheng Tao of Santa Barbara, CA. In a hard-fought game, Shuaiheng prevailed to become the 2023 California State Go Champion, earning the right to add his name to the perpetual championship plaque with previous winners including Calvin Son, Kevin Yang, and Moxuan Liu.
The California State Go Championship was hosted by the San Diego Go Club at the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park. Selected Open games were broadcast over the internet for the first time for SDGC using the AGA channel. Competitors and spectators were treated to breakfast and lunch on both Saturday and Sunday, thanks to the hard work of new SDGC president Erique Garcia. “An impressive pile of 34-pizza boxes was all that was left after lunch,” reports Terpstra.
Winners of the Open and three Handicap sections not only received trophies and cash awards but thanks to
the work of Christophe Humbert, various gifts from six sponsors: Yellow Mountain Imports, Rubio's Coastal Grill, Yunguseng Go Academy, AI Sensei, SmartGo One, and GOMAGIC. “A tip of the Hat to GoClubs.org which for the last decade made tournaments run smoothly with its 1-stop software package to do everything from registration, emails to players, check-in, pairings, and sending off the results to the AGA,” says Terpstra. “Hats off also to the AGA and its 50States program which encourages all states to host championships.”
Following a long tradition of SDGC tournaments, a trophy was given to the youngest person competing in the handicap section. This year the trophy went to 4-year-old May Zhang 12-kyu, who went 3-2 in the 18-player double digit kyu section. The SDGC encourages young go players to compete in tournaments by keeping entree fees below the break-even point: $10 for the weekend and $5 for just Sunday (including meals). More than half of the players in the tournament were in the "youth" category with several in the Open.
A separate 4-round Beginners' Go Tournament was held on Sunday with Hai Li, Chinese Go Pro, acting as tournament director/go teacher. Douglas Zhang won the Beginners Tournament, going 3-1.
Photos: (left) Open winners; Handicap Section 3 (top left in collage); Handicap Section 2 (top right); Youngest Player (bottom right); Beginner’s Tournament (bottom left); Handicap Section 1 (middle left)