Youwhan Kim 7d, former Korean insei and winner of last year’s Cotsen Open (10/26 EJ), will be sipping his coffee from the 9th annual Santa Monica Coffee Cup.  Kim (right) took top honors by going 3-0 in the one-day tournament, beating fellow Korean visitor Seunghee Ryu 7d in the final.  Ryu and Kim were the strongest of a strong “Espresso” section; eight of the 48 competitors were 5d or stronger.   Other 3-0 winners were Tyler Oyakawa 3d in the Java Section, Jeff McLellan 4k in the Mocha Section, Greg Kulevich 8k in the Latte Section and Jeremy Cook 17k and Ryan Kim 23k in the Decaf section.  In addition to hand-painted mugs and tiles for first through fourth place, winners and placers got bags of organic Peruvian light-roast coffee ground and packed by owner Pam Stollings of the UnUrban Coffeehouse.   Players with no wins received a portable go board courtesy of the Korean Baduk Association as a consolation prize.  TD Joe Cepiel also awarded one of the KBA boards to the youngest player attending, six-year-old Oliver Williams (at left, with Andy Okun and Myungwan Kim 9p), who completed a game in good form.  The turnout, close to the Coffee Cup’s highest, was boosted not only by visitors from Korea, but by large contingents from San Diego and Arizona and a player from Hamburg, as well as the cool, sunny weather.
– report/photos courtesy Andy Okun

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June 13: Arlington, VA
NOVA Congress Tune-Up
Gary Smith gary@novagoclub.org 703-254-6429

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British Youth Postponed: Originally planned for May 31, the British Youth Go Championship has been pushed to the fall of 2015. The UK Go Challenge Finals (13×13 boards) is going ahead though on Saturday 18th July in Letchworth Garden City. All young players are welcome to attend.

Challengers’ League: This year’s Challengers’ League, played between the top 8 available players coming out of the Candidates’ Tournament, took place at the Goddard Arms in Swindon on May 23-26. Andrew Kay (the reigning British Champion) won all of his games to lead the field, followed by Andrew Simons who won all of his games except for his game against Andrew Kay. Charles Hibbert, playing in his first Challengers’ League, finished with 4 wins in third place. Andrew Kay and Andrew Simons will now go on to play for this year’s British Championship title.

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The three American Go Association (AGA) regional Board of Director seats are up for election and with just over two weeks to go, no candidates have been nominated. The current terms of office expire this September. Nominations, including self-nominations may be made by full members for the region in which the member resides and must be received by June 15, 2015. Nominations and questions must be emailed to elections@usgo.org. Click here for complete election information and qualifications.

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Lee Hajin 3p, popularly known on YouTube as Haylee, will record one of her signature play-and-explain games at the US Go Congress, the AGA announced.  Though the exact format is still to be determined, her opposition will include fellow YouTube broadcaster Nick Sibicky, possibly as part of a team, said AGA VP of Operations Andrew Jackson. “The idea is we stream Hajin in one room telling us about her game while the opponents are debating their fate in another room, probably also recorded.  We’ll edit the two videos together later to put on YouTube.” This year’s Congress runs August 1-9 in St Paul, MN.

In her videos, Hajin records as she plays a random player on Tygem, explaining her moves and thinking as she goes along.  In Haylee’s gentle but disciplined playing style, games usually proceed rather quietly until her opponent — generally a very strong player — makes a modest mistake and their game disintegrates like an airplane whose rivets turn out to have been made of putty. Lee, a frequent Go Congress attendee, does the Haylee videos as a sideline to her current job as Secretary General of the International Go Federation.  She has more than 2,800 subscribers and 214,000 views for her 90 videos.  Nick Sibicky started his YouTube channel with recordings of his DDK lessons at the Seattle Go Center, and they have grown in popularity, reaching nearly 9,000 subscribers with more than three quarters of a million views.
– Andy Okun

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The 42nd annual Maryland Open, which was played last Saturday and Sunday, was entered into the ratings system the next day and ratings updated before the players returned to work Tuesday morning, report American Go Association staff.  “Our compliments to organizer Keith Arnold, TD Todd Heidenreich and the other volunteers who manage the event every year,” said AGA president Andy Okun.  “We received an error-free ratings report on Sunday night and quickly confirmed that all the players had memberships.  You can’t ask for better than that.  We should all take inspiration from their example.” photo: Arnold (right) at the MD Open; photo by Steve Colburn

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Sweden: The Swedish Championships 2015, played from 5/15-17 in Gothenburg, Sweden, were won by Fredrik Blomback 6d (left). Second came Charlie Aakerblom 5d and third was Yang Huang 5d. Result table.

France: In France several national championships took place in the commune of Cachan, in the weekend of 5/9-5/10.
The French Championships in the category of Under 12 was won by Lexiang Sun 7k. Second came Ismael Fathallah 11k and third was Thibault Morel 16k. Result table.
The French Championships – Under 16 – was won by Guillaume Ougier 1k who managed to beat his rival and big talent Isaac Scribe 3k in the thrilling finals by half a point. Third place was claimed by Leo Teychenne 7k. Result table. Photo: final game of Under 16 in France (left) Isaac Scribe, (right) Guillaume Ougier, with Toru Imamura Cornuejols 4d reviewing
The French Championships – Under 18 – was won by Ariane Ougier 1d (left), big sister of Guillaume. Second place was for Sylvain Bousquet 3k and on third place finished Julien Dartigues 6k. Result table.
The second stage of the Main French Championships were played a week later from 5/16-5/17 in the city of Orsay. The victor was Mathieu Daguenet 3d, with Julien Miralles 2d in second place and Stephan Kunne 1d trailing in third place. Result table.
Clearly investing in their youth players, the French also recently organised the Pau Youth Tournament, played on the 17th of May in Pau. It was won by Kim Schott Dedieu 15k. Second came Jade Rindlisbacher 20k and third was Axel Chadeau 20k. Result table.

Russia: Another country that has recently been organising many local youth tournaments.
On the 16th of May the third stage of the Youth Moscow Grand Prix took place in Moscow. 36 youngsters competed in the tournament, which was won by Anatolij Khokhlov 12k, with Roman Kolgushkin 14k in second place and Ivan Afanasjev 17k in third place. Result table. In the city of Tolyatti, the Cup of Tolyatti took place on the 17th of May. It was won by Robert Gorbunov 5k. Second came Nikita Semenov 9k and Nikita Allin 6k was third. Result table. The Children’s Group of the same tournament had sixteen kids fighting for the crown. Ivan Peshkov 10k came out as the winner, with Stanislav Arefjev 15k as second best and Alexandr Gurevich 15k in third place. Result table.
The Championships of the Crimean Federal District, played from 5/15-5/17 in Simferopol, was won by Gleb Kajro 1k. Second came Demjan Zavgorodnij 2k and third was Nikolaj Zareckij 3k. Result table.

Romania: The 6th Radu Baciu Grand Prix – stage 3, played from 5/16-5/17 in Bistrita, Romania, was won by Viorel Arsinoaia 2d. Second came George Ginguta 2d and third was Adrian Nedan 1k. Result table.

Turkey: Turkey has been rapidly developing as a go country over the past few years, with more and more tournaments seeing the light of day and a big group of students playing the game. The 10th Hacettepe Tournament, played from 5/16-5/17 in Ankara, Turkey, had a total of 76 participants. The best of them all was Engin Serkan Solmazoglu 1d who won all his games. Second place was claimed by Fatih Sulak 2d and third was Ilyas Tanguler 1d. Result table.

Switzerland: The Veyrier-Ko Go Club Tournament, played from 5/16-5/17 in Club de Bridge des Bergues (CBB), Switzerland, was won by Chunyang Xiao 2d. Second came Semi Lee 2d and third was Longteng Chen 2d. Result table.

Austria: The Go7 Samstagsturnier, played on Sunday the 16th of May 16-05-2015 in Vienna, Austria, had professional player Baolong Zhao competing as well as top Austrian player Lothar Spiegel 5d. As is often the case with handicap games, it does not mean that the strongest players automatically win. The tournament was won by Christian Bernscherer 5k who used his handicap stones to their maximum efficiency, with Alexander Huber 8k in second place and Lisa Mayer 3k in third place. Result table.
– Kim Ouweleen, European Correspondent for the E-Journal, based on reports from EuroGoTV

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Mexico City triumphed over Portland, OR in a friendly children’s tourney held May 16th on KGS, reports organizer Peter Freedman. Each city fielded a team of six children, ranked from 10-21k. They participated in a three-round tournament using 19×19 boards and KGS handicaps. “Luke Helprin’s parents hosted the Portland team at their house, and his dad Ted graciously provided snacks and helped with Spanish,” said Freedman.  Portland got off to a good start in round one by winning 4 out of 6 games.  Round two was a tie with each team winning 3 matches, setting the stage for a decisive showdown.  In the third round, Mexico City came up from behind by winning 5 out of 6 matches. -Austin Freeman with Paul Barchilon.  Photo by Siddhartha Avila: Members of the Mexican team Skyping with Portland.  

Winners Report: Overall Wins: Mexico 10, Portland 8; 3 game winner: Luke Helprin 20k; 2 game winners: Hikaru Saito 10k, Diego Ali Manjarrez 14k, Leonardo Valdovinos 14k, Daniela Luciano 22k, Almudena Espinosa 21k.

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Nearly Complete Set of Go World Magazine For Sale: All issues of Go World, except #13 and #23.  #5 is missing its cover and #129 (last issue) is still in the unopened envelope as mailed from Japan.  There are also some extras that could be used to trade. Conditions are generally near perfect, though some of the earlier ones show some wear.  Will entertain offers (including, perhaps, donation to a non-profit of some sort). Located in western Colorado, could possibly be delivered to Denver area. Fairly heavy (roughly 45lbs) so shipping will be somewhat pricey. Contact jake@edge2.net for more information.
Go classifieds are free; send yours to journal@usgo.org

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