The cherry blossoms may have faded, but the competition was in full bloom at the National Go
Center’s annual Cherry Blossom Tournament in Washington, DC last Saturday.
Thirty players took part, with a three-way tie at the top: Yuan Zhou 6d, Yiyu Zhang 6d, and Chang Xu 4d all finished 3–1, splitting the top prize. The standout performance of the day came from Ian Lee 9k of the University of Maryland Go Club, who posted the event’s only perfect 4–0 record.
Other strong finishes included Austin Robison 1k, Patrick Sun 3k, Caroline Li 5k, David Chen 13k, and John Hitchner 14k, all with three wins. The University of Maryland Go Club was well represented throughout the field.
All participants received passes to the upcoming DC Labor FilmFest, courtesy of the Labor Heritage Foundation.
The tournament followed a busy week for the NGC at the annual Sakura Matsuri festival, where volunteers introduced hundreds of visitors to Go. A new addition this year—a Go-playing robot—has been touring local schools and proved a hit with festivalgoers.
- report by TD Gurujeet Khalsa, photos by Patrick Sun (tourney) and Betsy Small (Sakura Matsuri)