AMERICAN GO E-JOURNAL: News from the American Go Association August 9, 2003 In This Edition: JIE LI ONE AWAY FROM REPEAT SHI/GUAN WIN 2003 PAIR GO VU JUMPS INTO LEAD IN SELF-PAIRED CONGRESS HIGHLIGHTS - Youth Pair Go - Children's Handicap Tournament CHAPTER ASSEMBLY HIGHLIGHTS JIE LI ONE AWAY FROM REPEAT: Jie Li 6d continued his quest to repeat as U.S. Open Champion, winning his fifth straight Open game in Friday morning's next to last round. Other five-game winners: John Stephenson 3d, Andreas Hauenstein 2d, Tommy Slater 1d, Hoa Shen, 2k, Alan Perrin 3k, Vincent Tam 7k, Yao Guo 8k, Cherry Shen 9k, David Montoya 10k, Tom Xo 12k, John Eckelkamp 14k, James Li 15k and Shenxiong Xie 23k. - reported by Joe Carl SHI/GUAN WIN 2003 PAIR GO: Gina Shi 4d and Mozheng Guan 7d won the 2003 Pair Go Championship Thursday night and will represent the U.S. in Japan in the World Amateur Pair Go Championships. Shi and Guan defeated Thomas Hsiang 8d and Debbie Siemon 2d (ck with Jeff). -reported by Mike Heinich VU JUMPS INTO LEAD IN SELF-PAIRED: With 300 games played in the ever-popular Self-Paired Tournament, Christopher Vu 20k has taken the lead in the volatile Champion category. Vu has 10 more wins than losses. Tied for second are Steffen Kurtz 5k and Joel Turnipseed, also 5k. Each has six more wins than losses. Perennial rivals Martin Lebl, 1k and Horst Sudhoff 3d are tied for the Dedicated award, each with an impressive 27 games played. "It's fun to have bragging rights, even if some of the awards are sort of dubious," Lebl told the E-Journal,"But I'd probably play just as many even if there weren't any awards.. You don't get many opportunities to play so many different people." Playing a lot opf games in the Self-Paired is also an opportunity to rack up enough losses to compete for the Philanthropist award. Sudhoff leads with 19 losses, but Lebl isn`t far behind with 15 defeats. Lebl is also the current Straight Shooter, having defeated opponents from 10 consecutive ranks. Leading in the Hurricane category is! Dan Micsa, 3d, with 14 total wins. Thirteen of those wins were against kyu players, giving Micsa the lead in the Keith Arnold (aka "Kyu Killer") category. Micsa also leads in the Sensei, with 22 games against weaker players. "It was premeditated," Micsa explains."I seek them out. It's my goal, to play fast qames against kyu players. I want to teach them respect." Nipping at Micsa`s heels for the Hurricane is David Frankel, 1k with 13 wins against dan level players, enough to not only give Frankel the lead as the Giant Killer, but at this stage of the Congress, it may well be enough to have it locked up. His closest competitor, Yoshitomo Nakata, 1k, has just 3 victories over dans. Still leadinq as the Conqress Grasshopper is Chelsea Dinhofer, 20k, whose provisional rank has improved by seven stones. Justin Chiang, 14k, remains the Optimist; his provisional rank has dropped two stones. A new face, 1k Bob Hearn, takes the lead as most Faithful, gaining just 0.04 stones in strength. - reported by Jeff Miller CONGRESS HIGHLIGHTS Youth Pair Go: Sixteen young pairs competed in the unrated Youth Pair Go Tournament Thursday. Table winners were: Kristen Burrall 1d/Justin Bazzano 8k; Cherry Shen 9k/Gary Shen 2k; Jackie Yuan 17k/Mark Fraaser 10k; Crystal Yuan 27k/Sidney Yuan 1d. Children's Handicap Tournament: Dan: 1st: Eric Lui; 2nd: Jin Chen. High Kyu: 1st: William Zhou; 2nd: Stephen Sun. Mid-Kyu: 1st: Tom Xu; 2nd: Justin Chiang. Low Kyu: 1st: Stanley Sun; 2nd: Shenxiong Xie. - reported by Mike Heinich CHAPTER ASSEMBLY HIGHLIGHTS: At Friday night's well-attended National AGA Chapter Assembly, chapter representatives debated a full agenda, giving up an evening of go-playing to help shape the organizaton's future. The hottest topic, a proposal to institute membership voting rather than chapter voting, was sent to the Governance Committee for further study over the next year. The proposal to elect all AGA Directors at-large (without regardto regions) was withdrawn. Rochester, New York was approved as the site of the 2003 Go Congress. Full minutes of the Assembly will be posted on the AGA website soon. E-JOURNAL GO CONGRESS EDITION STAFF: Chris Garlock, Bill Cobb, Bob Barber, Joe Carl, Mike Heinich, Jeff Miller. FORMATTING NOTE: We apologize if there are formatting problems with the Congress Edition of the E-Journal, which is filed from a Palm PDA.