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TANG WENHUA 6D MOST CAFFEINATED IN SANTA MONICA COFFEE CUP

Tang Wenhua 6d (r) claimed top place in the 2010 Santa Monica Coffee Cup’s Espresso Division last Saturday after a tense final-game win over the Santa Monica Go Club's own Yixian Zhou 7d, the 2009 US Open 6d Division winner.  In addition to a pound of dark roast and the eponymous hand-painted coffee cup -- in this year's theme color of avocado green -- Tang was awarded certification as a 6-dan amateur by the Hankuk Kiwon, courtesy of the Kiwon's go ambassador, Myung-wan Kim 9P (center). Other winners topping the 50-player field were Tyler Oyakawa 2d in the Java (2k-2d) Division, Alex Lee 3k in the Mocha Division (3k-4k), Ezana Berhane 7k in the Arabica Division (5k-9k), David Whiteside 10k in the Cappuccino Division (10k-14k) and Jerry Lu 15k in the Decaf (15k and under) Division. The Espresso Division also served as an NAMT qualifier and eligible players will receive points toward an NAMT invitation for Congress.  

Joe Cepiel was tournament director. "Fifty players is a lot for the UnUrban Coffeehouse but the cool June weather made it nice and some folks took their equipment outside to play in the open air," said organizer Andrew Okun (at left in photo at left). Next year's theme color will be purple, Okun adds. - photos courtesy Andy Okun