2006 North American Ing Cup

Game Results

Player Biographies

	ZHAONIAN CHEN has been playing go since he was 7. The 17-year-old high school student lives in New Jersey and also likes to play soccer, watch sports and play various games. Chen's key to being a top player: beginning young, taking lessons and playing frequently.
	Ge Yongfei
	Ji Lie started playing go at the age of 11 in his native China. Now 25 and a recent UC San Diego graduate, Jie is perhaps the winningest amateur title-holder in the United States, with multiple wins in the U.S Open (youngest winner at 17), Ing Cup, Texas Open, Cotsen Open, Toyota Oza, Tokyo Semitsu and he was the first amateur player to win the North American Master's Tournament. His other interests include reading, traveling, teaching "and playing anonymously on the Internet." Adds Jie, "Go is very hard. The more I learn, the less I know about it."
	Yuan Zhou lives in Germantown, MD where he's Client Relations Manager for Institutional Shareholder Services. The 31-year-old has been playing go since the age of 6, when he was taught by his father (AGA member Xin-Li Zhou) in China, where he also received professional training at Tianjin. Zhou has won 23 tournament titles in U.S. go. Zhou's interests include go history and go people, reading, movies and tennis and he holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of MD. His favorite thing about go is "endless learning through go." Yuan Zhou's key to being a top player? "Study hard!"
	Lianzhou Yu, originally from Beijing, China, now hails from St. Louis, MO. He started studying when he was "10, 11, something like that," and has been playing for more than 30 years. Yu also enjoys studying physics and computer science, and has recently taken up poker. Yu has won university, state and internet go championships, in addition to the Texas, Atlantic and Chicago Opens. Yu calls go "the double-edge sword" and says "Go is like drugs... it's very addictive. Some people spend too much time studying it and not other things... It can be good in discipline and critical thinking ability."
	Trevor Morris has been playing for 25 years. The 37-year-old computer programmer hails from Germantown, MD. He took 2nd place in the 1 kyu division at the 2nd U.S. Go Congress, won the 1991 Quebec Open, the 1991 and 2005 NOVA Cherry Blossom Tournaments, and 2nd place in the 6 dan division at the 20th U.S. Go Congress. He competed in the 2006 Spring NOVA Pair Go tournament with his 5-year old daughter Abigail. Trevor's favorite reason for playing go: "It's fun and challenging."
	Eric Lui is 17 years old and has been playing go for 12 years. He lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, where he's a high school student and a go teacher at the Chinese Language School of Columbia. Eric has won the New Jersey Open, Nova Cherry Blossom tournaments, the Redmond Cup as well as Children's Handicap Tournaments at the Congress in 2003 and 2004. Eric finished 2nd at the 2005 and 2006 Maryland Opens. His hobbies include the violin (he is a member of the Maryland All-State Orchestra), sports, reading, and painting. Eric says his favorite thing about go is playing in a strong field with other top youth players. The key to being a top go player is to review pro games, do tsumego, and participate in tournaments.
	Seung Hyun Hong
	Jin Chen has been playing go for thirteen of his nineteen years. He hails from Riverview, MI, and his hobbies include soccer and video games. He'll be a junior at the University of Michigan in 2006. He has won both the 1d and 4d divisions at the US Open. "My favorite thing about go is the infinite variations and the infinitely varying values each stone can have." Chen's top tip "would be to realize that go isn't about winning and losing. Rather, it's about two players working together doing their best to create a beautiful piece of artwork, and each game should be played to that purpose."
	Norman Chadwick
	I-Han Lui is 48 years old and has played go for 30 years. A software engineer, Lui lives in Howard County, near Baltimore, Maryland. I-Han has won several titles, including the NJ Open, Maryland Open, Mid-Atlantic, Cherry Blossom and Eastern Championship. "Besides playing go, I love reading, classical music, and traveling." I-Han says his favorite thing about go is "Winning, of course, especially winning a game from behind." Lui's key to being a top go player? "Playing more tournament go and study games."
	Guthrie Price is a home-schooled 17-year-old high-schooler from Los Osos, California. Price has been playing for just over three years and was first introduced to the game by his brother. His current sensei is Li Ang 3P from China. Price also likes to play ping pong, tennis and computer games in his spare time.
	Jon Boley manages the Seattle Go Center. Boley began studying go two decades ago, when he was 21. "I studied for 9 years. I played for a year, than stopped, then started again." Boley's hobbies include "dancing... I play classical guitar... and I enjoy writing really bad haiku." Boley is also a software programmer on the side, although his priority is the Go Center and the game he calls "a never ending challenge. No matter how much you study, the game stays beautiful, and as you get stronger it gets more beautiful."
	Ned Phipps has been playing go for 33 of his 50 years. He learned go while studying math and physics at Cal and is now a software engineer, recently winning an Academy of Motion Pictures award for his work. He represented the U.S. in the 2nd World Amateurs and World Amateur Pair Go, won the San Francisco Cup, played in many North American Fujitsu qualifiers and Ing Cups; his best results have been 3rd places in the U.S. Open, Ing and Fujitsu. Phipps enjoys playing violin in local orchestra and chamber ensembles and currently has "a renewed interest in analyzing gravity." To get strong in go, Phipps says "One must have a desire to get to the bitter end of tantalizing problems. Dive in and keep at it. Find the key elements. Remember the reasons."
	Juan Pablo Quizon
	Matthew Burrall
Photos and biographies courtesy of Chris Garlock, AGA E-Journal