1978 American Championship

Tournament Report

From the American Go Journal: For the first time, the United States Go Championships were held simultaneously on both coasts. Labour Day weekend, 1978 saw 86 U.S. Go players hard at work at their favourite pasttime.

The Western tournament was a strong follow-up to last year's gathering in Berkeley. The site was the comfortable Rafu Kiin club in Los Angeles. It drew 34 players and a particularly tough top section, the chance for a place on the U.S. Team to the World Championships presumably acting as a large magnet. The event was run entirely by west coast organizers. Special congratulations should go to Richard Dolen for his successful handling of the organizational demands of a large regional McMahon style tournament.

The climactic game came in the 3rd round between Shigeo Matsuhara, a perennial competitor for the Southern California Honinbo title, and Ryo Myung Kim, the strongest Southern California Korean player. Shigeo won the tough battle and went on to a perfect 6-0 record, including wins over the two other American-born competitors: Blain Walgren of Seattle and Bill Spight of New Mexico, who finished tied for third.

Shunichi Hiroki of San Diego won the Western Kyu Championship with his fellow San Diegan, Les Lanphear, second and Woon S. Yang 3rd. The Handicap novice section was won by William Margulies, a 6k. Second was Phil Thompson.

The Eastern Championships were held once again in the comfortable Empire room of the Hotel Lexington. 52 players participated and enjoyed the tough even game play of the McMahon style tournament.

As in the west, the prize to shoot for was the trip to Japan for the Amateur Championships. The principle contenders were Shin A. Kang, Eastern Champion for the past two years, Takao Matsuda, five time U.S. Champion, Young Kwon, returning to tournament form after several years absence, and a newcomer to the top echelon, Ron Snyder. The climatic rounds were the 4th and 5th, when Kan played and beat Matsuda and then beat Kwon in a close game. Kang finished with a perfect 6-0 record by beating a long time nemesis, Yoon Paeng of Pittsburgh. Two Canadian players participated: Se Ju Lee (now Canadian Open Champion) and Pat Thompson, 1-kyu (who won the Eastern Kyu Championship).

The tremendous list of prizes is the result of the generousity of corporate Go supporters in the community and the legwork of Masao Takabe, AGA Vice-President and Dr. Mikio Kamiyama, AGA liaison with JAL.

Western Championships

Prize Winners

Tournament Grid

  Player Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6  
1 Myungwhan Ahn 6d 4 3 6 10 - -  
2 Hyo Myung Kim 6d 5 16 3 6 7 10 2nd
3 Shigeo Matsuhara 6d 7 1 2 5 6 9 1st
4 Shunichi Takeuchi 5d 1 8 11 7 17 -
5 Blaine Walgren 5d 2 9 8 3 10 7 3rd
6 William Spight 4d 16 10 1 2 3 11 3rd
7 Minsoo Yook 4d 3 15 16 4 2 5  
8 Paul Goodman 3d 12 4 5 15 - -  
9 Min Suk 3d 13 4 14 10 15 3  
10 William Crowther 2d 14 6 17 1 5 2  
11 Milo Wolff 2d 15 17 4 12 14 5  
12 Paul Dubois 1d 8 14 18 11 13 -  
13 Martin Poon 1d 9 18 15 17 12 14  
14 Doug Wolff 1d 10 12 9 16 11 13  
15 Jeff Knox 1d 11 7 13 8 9 17  
16 Tetsuo Inoguchi 6d 6 2 7 9 - -  
17 David Wong 1d 18 11 10 13 4 15  
18 Henry Kiyomi 4d 17 13 12 14 - -  
21 Chong Shin Cha 1k 26 25 22 23 27 28  
22 Shunichi Hiroki 1k 27 28 21 25 23 26 1st
23 Les Lanphear 1k 28 29 28 21 22 25 2nd
24 Ray Tayek 1k 29 27 30 26 30 27  
25 Woon S. Yang 1k 30 21 29 22 28 23 3rd
26 David Dows 3k 21 30 27 24 29 22  
27 Bob Rutherford 3k 22 24 26 28 21 24  
28 Herb Doughty 4k 23 22 23 30 26 30  
29 Michael Yellin 3k 24 23 25 30 26 30  
30 Steven Duff 4k 25 26 24 29 24 29  
40 Mike Oakamoto 5k 43 42 44 45 41    
41 Phil Thompson 5k 44 43 45 42 40   2nd
42 William Margulies 6k 45 40 43 41 44   1st
43 Mary Goodell 7k 40 41 42 44 45    
44 Hal Womack 11k 41 45 40 43 42    
45 Otto Cenzao 7k 42 44 43 40 43    

Eastern Championships

Prize Winners

Tournament Grid

  Player Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6  
1 Shin A. Kang 6d 2 17 13 7 4 5  
1 Se-Ju Lee 6d 1 11 10 5 13 4  
3 Moon H. Cha 6d 4 6 9 10 8 15  
4 Takao Matsuda 6d 3 9 7 11 1 2  
5 Yoon S. Paeng 6d 6 7 11 2 9 1  
6 Takahiko Ishikawa 6d 5 3 16 17 23 19  
7 Young K. Kwon 6d 8 5 4 1 12 13  
8 Jeff Rohlfs 6d 7 10 21 18 3 14  
9 Bruce Wilcox 6d 10 4 3 13 5 12  
10 Harry Gonshor 6d 9 8 2 3 17 18  
11 Bob Ryder 6d 12 2 5 4 14 17  
12 Kuan C. Kuo 6d 11 16 17 15 7 9  
13 Ron Snyder 6d 14 15 1 9 2 7  
14 Hirsuo Horiguchi 6d 13 18 15 19 11 8  
15 Katsuma Nishiyama 6d 16 13 14 12 18 3  
16 S. Matsuzawa 3d 15 12 6 22 21 23  
17 John Maier 4d 18 1 17 6 10 11  
18 Don Wiener 3d 17 14 19 8 15 10  
19 Tako Onishi 2d 20 23 18 14 26 7  
20 Deborah Osborne 2d 19 21 24 26 32 25  
21 Yas Nankawa 1d 22 20 8 23 16 27  
22 Milton N. Bradley 1d 21 24 23 16 25 26  
23 David Relson 1d 24 19 22 21 6 16  
24 Franklin K. Shore 1d 23 22 20 52 36 37  
25 Yoshiaki Tamura 2k 26 27 32 35 22 20  
26 Pat Thompson 2k 25 29 28 20 19 22 36
27 Matthias Thim 2k 28 25 41 32 52 21  
28 John Exter 3k 27 31 25 36 35 34  
29 Frank R. Bernhart 3k 30 26 35 33 31 44  
30 Arthur M. Silverstan 3k 29 35 31 38 33 -  
31 Jerry Pinto 3k 32 28 30 39 29 35  
32 Wolfgang Freese 3k 31 33 25 27 20 36  
33 Ed Downes 3k 34 32 25 29 30 52  
34 Mort Schwartz 4k 33 36 38 41 43 28  
35 Garland Stern 3k 39 30 33 25 28 31  
36 David Gawley 4k 40 34 29 28 24 32 26
37 Harry O'Sullivan 5k 38 40 51 42 41 24  
38 John D. Moses 5k 37 41 34 30 42 51  
39 James R. Payette 5k 35 51 44 31 40 45  
40 Phil Traci 5k 36 37 43 45 39 46  
41 John Goon 5k 42 38 27 34 37 51  
42 Paul Magriel 6k 41 44 45 37 38 43  
43 Roy Laird 7k 44 45 40 51 34 42  
44 Bill Hewitt 7k 43 42 39 29 47 51  
45 Benson Jay Bernstein 9k 46 43 42 40 48 39  
46 Joel Elfman 11k 45 47 - 50 49 40  
47 Armond Acosta 13k 48 46 50 49 50 44  
48 Vincent Falci 15k 47 50 49 - 45 -  
49 Barbara Calhoun 15k 50 - 48 47 46 -  
50 Robert H. Rusher 15k 49 48 47 46 47 -  
51 Jonathan Nagy 6k - 39 37 43 38 41 44
52 Shigeru Noguchi 2k - - - 24 27 33  

Game record

Eastern Championship Game: Shin Kang vs. Young Kwon
US Championship Game 1: Shigeo Matsuhara vs. Shin Kang
US Championship Game 2: Shin Kang vs. Shigeo Matsuhara

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