25th U.S. Go Congress in Fairfax: day 1
First day at 25th anniversary US Go Congress in Fairfax VA: I took a ‘bye’ in the first round of the US Open in order to get a full night’s sleep (I woke up my dorm roomie at 3:30 a.m. after a 4-hour delay on my United airlines flight from Seattle to Dulles). Got registered, oriented, saw fellow northwestern go players Bill Chiles, Lee-Anne Bowie, George Schmitten and Gordon Castanza.
I played my first friendly game against Francis Rhoades, a 4D from London. It’s his 8th US Go Congress which makes my 5 lame in comparison, especially considering that I’ve never attended a European Go Congress. Hope to change that eventually. Rhoades won after I played a cothreat which turned out to be non-threatening. I had a nice board position in the middle game, until I misread the cothreat and resigned. That’s why they call them dan players.
I signed up to record the first round of tonight’s Ing Masters tournament at 6:15. The staff person peppered me with questions until I told him I wanted to be a recorder because my friend Josh did it last year and spoke highly of the experience. “Josh was great,” the staff person said, immediately smiling and signed me right up.
Returning to my dorm room to shave and pick up my laptop I was greeted with an overpowering aroma of dirty socks — yuck! The window doesn’t open — yikes! Cranked the AC & propped the door open w my laptop case.
Recording the Ing game was very interesting. I ended up on table 6, broadcasting Jie Li 9d and Yang Xu 5d to KGS. Jie Li drew white and maintained a small lead at the start, established a bigger lead in the middle, and during the yose decided to kill one of his opponent’s big groups, forcing black’s resignation.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Man o man, I bet you’re having a blast!! I’m going to try and make it to next years in Colorado.
Man, Jie Li, that would have been a fun one to record for sure.. Are you signing up to record more games?
Have a great time Frank, hope to see you in Portland on October (18th?)
August 8th, 2009 at 7:14 am
It will be a sad Monday when I return to work. It was very cool sitting next to Jie Li and recording his game. I didn’t record any more Ing Masters rounds; while I liked it I decided to use the time to play and attend lectures instead.
Didn’t see hide nor hair of Oregon players this year (although LeeAnn said Akane’s here).
See ya in Portland dude!