World Student Oza: 2009 Selection Tournament

The World Student Oza: 2009 Selection Tournament

The World Student Oza is the de facto world university championship. Sponsored by Japanese publisher Nikkei Newspaper, this tournament brings representatives from universities in Asia, Europe and the Americas together for top-level competition. The selection tournament for a representative to the 2009 championship is now open for registration.

Eligibility

The selection tournament is being held online. To be eligible to compete players must be

be under the age of 30
be a resident (not necessarily citizen) of a North American country
speak basic English or Japanese
be currently enrolled in a full-time university program
have an AGA rating of at least 5.0 (or equivalent for foreign players)

American go players must have been continuous full members of the AGA for the past year; Canadian players must be members of the Canadian Go Association. Players may not be selected to represent the US or North America more than twice in international competition in a given calendar year.

Selection Tournament

The qualifying tournament is being held on the KGS go server over the weekend of November 1-2, 2008. The tournament format will depend on the number of players, but games have been tentatively scheduled as follows. Additional playoffs between tournament leaders will be scheduled if warranted by the size of the tournament field.

Round	Date	Time
1	November 1, 2008	6 am Pacific Time / 9 am Eastern
2	November 1, 2008	9 am Pacific Time / noon Eastern
3	November 1, 2008	noon Pacific Time / 3 pm Eastern
4	November 2, 2008	9 am Pacific Time / noon Eastern
5	November 2, 2008	noon Pacific Time / 3 pm Eastern

Games are played under Japanese rules, with time controls of 60 minutes + 25 stones/10 minutes Canadian overtime. KGS Nigiri will be used to determine who goes first.

In the event of a tie score, the tiebreaker will be the result of the head to head game between the players.

Players who wish to play in this tournament are expected to compete in all scheduled games and should be prepared to commit to representing North America in overseas competition should they win the selection process.

Registration

Tournament registration is open until October 19, 2008. Eligible players may register through the online tournament facility of the Houston Go Club. Players will need to create an account at the website and register for the tournament (two registrations total). Be sure to include your email address and phone number so we can contact you with tournament details. Players do not need to pay the Houston Go Club fees mentioned in the registration process. Questions about eligiblity or tournament registration can be sent to tournaments@usgo.org

Players

Name	Rank/Rating	KGS Username	Record
Jie Li	9.5	JLi	4-0
Yue Zhang	8.2	deathangel	2-2
Kwo-Ping Ho	6.4	pinpingho	2-2
Xingshuo Liu	7.3	xliu	1-3
Jeffrey Fung	7.5 (provisional)	jeffgo86	1-3

Game Results

Players	J.L	Y.Z	K.H	X.L	J.F	Result
Jie Li	-	B+R 11-02	B+R 11-01	B+R 11-01	W+R 11-02	4-0	1
Yue Zhang	X 11-02	-	W+R 11-02	B+3.5 11-01	X 11-01	2-2	2
Kwo-Ping Ho	X 11-01	X 11-02	-	B+R 11-02	B+1.5 11-01	2-2	2
Xingshuo Liu	X 11-01	X 11-01	X 11-02	-	W+R 11-01	1-3	4
Jeffrey Fung	X 11-02	B+R 11-01	X 11-01	X 11-01	-	1-3	4

The AGA would like to express its gratitude to the tournament directors for this event: Dennis Wheeler, Daniel Short, Oren Laskin and Lawrence Ku, as well as to Ian Davis (Javaness) for KGS support.