Updated 8/8/2009

ANDY LIU DEFEATS 3RD PRO TO WIN ’09 ING MASTERS
BURRALL WINS NAIM BOARD AUCTION
KIM PREVAILS AGAIN IN MAN VS MACHINE REMATCH
WHY WE PLAY: A Few Of Our Favorite Thing About The Congress (And Go)
KIM AND CATALIN FAVORITES FOR EGC TITLES

ANDY LIU DEFEATS 3RD PRO TO WIN ’09 ING MASTERS: Mingjiu Jiang 7P was the third pro this week to go down to defeat at the hands of Andy Liu 7d as the eighteen-year-old amateur won the 2009 North American Ing Masters tournament. Liu’s 5-point win over Jiang capped his five-game sweep of the prestigious tournament funded by the Ing Foundation. His other wins were against Feng Yun 9P, Yilun Yang 7P, Eric Lui 7d and Xiao Han Huang 5d. Another record crowd turned out in person and online to watch the NAIM final as legendary go master Takemiya Masaki 9P provided running commentary, with the irrepressible Yoshi Sawada translating. U.S. Go Congress attendees crowded into the main playing hall as the E-Journal team simulcast the Board 1 game – as well as other top boards – to a worldwide audience of almost 700, as well as several hundred on EuroGo-TV-US.  Complete Round 5 results: Andy Liu d. Mingjiu Jiang; Feng Yun d. Yuan Zhou; Yongfei Ge d. Juyong Koh; Huiren Yang d. Daniel Gourdeau; Eric Lui d. James Sedgewick; Jie Liang d. Yixiang Zhou; Xiliang Liu
d. Gus Price; Zhongxia Zhou d. Richard Liang; Young Kwon d. Andrew Jackson; Lawrence Ku d. Eric Lee; Yinli Wang d. Xiaohan Huang; Yang Xu d. Martin Lebl, Ke Lu d. Keith Arnold. Click here for complete NAIM Round 5 results. Click here for the U.S. Open results crosstab through Round 5.

BURRALL WINS NAIM BOARD AUCTION: Longtime go player and organizer Steve Burrall won a fierce bidding battle in the auction for the board the North American Ing Masters final was played on, bidding a record $650 for the 2-inch thick katsura board donated by Shodan Imports. The money goes to the American Go Foundation, which provides support for youth go education in the United States, including scholarships to the annual go camps. The board was signed by both 2009 NAIM champion Andy Liu 7d and Mingjiu Jiang 7P, as well as Takemiya Masaki 9P. Last year’s auction winner, Andy Okun credited his 5-0 record in this year’s U.S. Open with practicing on his 2008 NAIM board. 
 
KIM PREVAILS AGAIN IN MAN VS MACHINE REMATCH: The Man vs Machine rematch Friday afternoon was anti-climactic, with Myeong-Wan Kim handily defeating Many Faces of Go, playing with a 7-stone handicap and running a 32-core processor. MoGo defeated Kim last year on 9 stones with an 800-core processor. Kim beat Mogo – playing with 7 stones on a smaller processor -- last fall at the Cotsen Open, narrowly defeating it at the very end. “Many Faces was very different,” Kim told the audience after the game. “It behaved more like a human, while MoGo was pure computer and very unpredictable. It was easier to play Many Faces -- though it may be the stronger program -- because I could predict what it was going to do. Many Faces made better shape, but MoGo had better reading. I’d really like to see both programs play each other and see what happens.”

WHY WE PLAY: A Few Of Our Favorite Thing About The Congress (And Go)
For 19-kyu Seth Bradley of Frederick, MD, it's the Self-Paired Tournament. Andy Olsen 3d of Austin, TX got to meet the pros he's been getting online lessons from. Debbie Siemon, who hails from Atlanta, GA, looks forward to catching up with old friends. Random interviews of a cross-section of new and returning U.S. Go Congress attendees revealed a range of favorite things about the 25th annual event, which wraps up tomorrow. "To have more than 400 go players in the same room is like finding the Garden of Eden," said Nick Sibicky 4d of Lynnwood, WA. He and Bradley were both Congress first-timers, while Siemon was attending her 23rd. Although Siemon, an environmental engineer, said she doesn't get much of a chance to play go during the rest of the year, "It's like language; you think you've forgotten it and then when you're around it for a couple of days it all comes back." New Yorker Mark Palmer, attending his 17th Congress, liked "being able to get game reviews from stronger players." Newbie Bradley, a mechanical engineer, says his favorite thing about the game of go is that "The rules are so simple, yet the game is so complex." Palmer, a building engineer who's been playing for 35 years, says that the game is "an opportunity to test and maximize my mental potential," although he ruefully says that his potential "seems to be shodan, at least for the past few years." And Olsen finds the complexities of the opening fascinating, while Sibicky is interested in the "different styles of play." Olsen adds that go "is the most elegant game there is."
- Chris Garlock; photos by John Pinkerton; collage by Phil Straus

KIM AND CATALIN FAVORITES FOR EGC TITLES: Kim Eunkuk leads the European Go Congress Open with an 8-1 score after a win against Hwang In-seong on Board One, while Taranu Catalin is now a strong favorite to repeat as European title-winner after defeating Alexandr Dinerchtein in the 9th round on Board 2. However, Dinerchtein still has a shot at the title if he wins Saturday and Catalin loses his game. Oh Chimin won the Rapid title with a clean 9-0 sweep; the tourney ended on Friday. Kim Joon Sang lost only to him and Kim Eunkuk finished 3rd, losing only to the top two. Over 200 took part.
- Peter Dijkema, EJ European correspondent, reporting from Groningen, The Netherlands.

OTHER U.S. CONGRESS TOURNEY REPORTS: As of 6:15 Friday, 302 games have been played in the Self-Paired Tournament.  William Phillips continues to hold the lead for many of the awards, but Kelsey Dyer and John Dew are now ahead in the race for the Champion award, each having 9 more wins than losses. 9x9: Matt Palumbo 7k beat Kevin Chin 5k, Andy Olsen 3d beat Gikyu Nderitu 1k, Kevin Shang 4d beat Ricky Zhao 7d. Lightning: Kevin Shang 4d beat Ian Davis, Eric Feiveson 5k beat Eileen Hlavka 8k.
- reported by Lee Huynh & Laura Kolb