1981 Eastern Championship
Tournament Report
From the June 1981 issue of the American Go Journal: The US Championships were the most successful ever, drawing a total of 163 players (102 in the East and 62 in the West). There was a Korean Professional player at both events. Two newspapers and two TV stations covered the Westerns; a British Broadcasting Company spent 5 hours filming at the Easterns for a documentary to air next year. There was-once again-a full array of prizes and plenty of surprises, too. In the West, 3 time US Champion Kyung Kim was beaten in the first round. Kim won the next five games, but lost his titles to Charlie Huh of Seattle on the Sum of Opponent Scores tie breaking method.
Competition at the Easterns was also keen. After Round 4, 4 players weretied at 4-1. New York's Ron Snyder too the Championship on SOS tie breaks beating out Gun Han, a new Korean Player in the East. Both Snyder and Han finished at 5-1, but Han lost in round 1 to Dr. Zeng, a top player who recently arrived in the Washington area from mainland China. Ron lost only to Jong Moon Lee (1980 Eastern Champion) while defeating such strong oriental trained players as Sung. Y. Cho and Dr. Zeng as well as Hawaiian born, perennial contender, Takao Matsuda. Ron's showing is an encouraging sign for all native American players.
The Eastern Contender for the '82 World Amateur Championship US team is Bruce Wilcox beating out Young Kwon. The Western contender is Sidney Kobashigawa, 5 dan from Hawaii now living in Mountain View, California.
From the Sept. 1981 issue of the American Go Journal, story by Terry Benson: The final best-of-three match of the United States Go Championship was held Saturday December 5th at the New York offices of the Championship sponsor, Japan Air Lines.
Charles Shin Huh of Seattle, Washington beat Ron Snyder of the Manhattan Go Club to take the 1981 title. Mr. Huh is a 31 year old Korean-American 6-dan; he graduated from the University of Washington last year and now works as a certified public accountant for a timber firm in Seattle. Last September he upset 4 time US Champion Kyung Kim of San Francisco to win the Western Championship.
Eastern Champion Ron Snyder is a native New Yorker, 31 years old, and a student working towards a business degree. Ron finished 7th in the 1981 World Amateur Go Championship in Tokyo and beat the toughest competition ever in the 100 player Eastern tournament on Labor Day. Ron is also the first non-oriental to play in the finals in the 13 year history of the US Championship.