The 2026 U.S. Open concluded Saturday, August 1, with champions crowned across every
division, from the Masters bracket to the beginner ranks, led by Masters champion Hyuk-Joon Kwon.
Kwon captured first place in the Masters Division, followed by Michael Chen, Bill Lin, In-Su Ryu, Ye Sun, and Xingzhi Shen. Chen also won the North American title, ahead of Bill Lin and Alex Qi. Jasper Liu finished fourth, Daniel Gourdeau fifth, and Kevin Yang sixth.
The Masters Division featured one of the tournament's most unusual finishes. Michael Chen, Bill Lin, and In-Su Ryu finished tied on wins, SOS, and SODOS. Head-to-head results failed to break the deadlock: Chen defeated Lin, Lin defeated Ryu, and Ryu defeated Chen. Under AGA tournament procedures, the final standings were therefore determined by chance. The placement affected only the order of finish; cash prizes were unaffected, since prize money is pooled and divided according to the number of wins.
In the dan divisions, Hao Sun won the 5-dan title, with Linghua Meng second and Nate Morse third. Jingzhao Yuan topped the 4-dan field, Brandon Ho won the 3-dan division, Dima Kamalov prevailed among the 2-dans, and Maxwell Green captured the 1-dan championship.
The kyu divisions also produced a full slate of winners. Kenneth Koester led the 1-kyu division, Andrew Liu won the 2-kyu title, and Stephen Leone finished first among the 3-kyus. Xilin Wang won the 4-kyu division, followed by Luca Bove (5-kyu), Jeffrey Xu (6-kyu), Logan Buckley (7-kyu), David Rieth (8-kyu), Richard Newman (9-kyu), Ethan So (10–11 kyu), Mingguo Fan (12–14 kyu), Yuyang Fan (15–20 kyu), and Jason Li (21–30 kyu).
Final standings, along with round-by-round results, including top-board game records, are available here. photo by Chris Garlock