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KIDS SCORE BIG IN GO CONGRESS YOUTH ROOM

Congress-going youth have had an exciting week in the Youth Room, with pro simuls, mini tournaments and prizes, prizes, and more prizes.  Thanks to the generosity of Winston Jen, every kid at the Congress has won a free set of all seventeen volumes of the Hikaru no Go manga.  DVD sets of popular series like Hunter x Hunter and Fruits Basket, piles of Hikaru no Go merchandise, Audio Go Lessons from Guo Juan, and donations from Art of Problem Solving.com and Wolfram Mathematica rounded out the prize pool as well.  Eight-year-old Aaron Ye 2d (center, in photo at left) enjoyed his game review with Yilun Yang 7p, and so did the crowd that gathered round to watch. Youth also got to play six-on-1 and 8-on-1 simuls with top pros from Korea, China, and Japan.

Mini tournaments were held most days, with prizes for 9x9 table winners, 13x13, and Lightning.  Youth Adult Pair Go remains one of the most popular events, with 44 youth and adults playing this year, paired as one youth and one adult of opposite genders, with a few same-gender pairs thrown in for good measure. The Youth Team Tournament, modeled after Hikaru no Go, was also popular, with nine teams competing.  Top honors went to Keiju Takahara, Oliver Wolf and Takashi Hoshi in the dan division, and Anurag Varma, Albert Hu, and Alvin Hu in the Kyu division. Both teams are playing in the photo at right, while Winston Jen (third from left, standing) observes the match. - Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor, photos by Paul Barchilon (top left) and Chris Garlock (bottom right).