Stomping Grounds

I absolutely love go tournaments and this was my second time participating in the Cincinnati Tri-state tournament. Last year I was able to become the champion of Division A, and this year, I returned to defend my title. I even got to be a t-rex trainer with my camera man chasing closely by to capture the exciting moment.

Just kidding, though it certainly felt like a wild adventure! This time, I secured second place, and while I didn’t repeat my victory, I’m still proud of my performance. You can find the results here.

This year’s tournament was a noticeable step up from last year. One of the major issues I had with last year was the noise level in the playing area. It wasn’t a huge problem for me I grew up with a lot of siblings, so I’m used to noise but I can only imagine how distracting it must have been for others. Thankfully, this year, the organizers made a clear effort to manage the noise, and while it wasn’t completely quiet, it was better managed. Plus, we were treated to Costco pizza, which was as delicious as ever.

The top bracket this year was also more competitive than last year, having good players like Soren Jaffe, Xukun Jiang, David Fang, Jerry Chen, Stephanie Tan, and myself. When I was registering, I was a little nervous about what the competition would look like and it definitely did not disappoint.

In Round 1, I faced Xukun Jiang. This match was particularly important to me because I had lost to him earlier this year at the Midwest Open. Xukun is very talented, especially considering he’s only 7-8 years old and already competing at such a high level. Fortunately, I was more prepared this time around. I managed to split his stones into three weak groups while maintaining the strength of my own, and I emerged victorious with a lead of over 30 points.

Round 2 was against Soren Jaffe, who ultimately went on to win the tournament. I was confident going into the game, but I made a mistake early on by fumbling a joseki. Fortunately, Soren didn’t capitalize on it. My strategy was similar to the first round. I wanted to split my opponent into multiple groups and launch large-scale attacks. Unfortunately, I got too caught up in the attack and neglected defending my own groups. Also even though it felt like it was going well I wasn't as confident trying to push Soren around the same way I was able to with Xukun. In the end I lacked the defence and got punished for it losing the game. You can check out the SGF here.

In Round 3, I faced Jerry Chen, a fellow Columbus player who I’ve battled in several events. Our games are always exciting and full of complicated fights. This match was no exception, as we ended up in a pinwheel fight in the center, despite not starting at tengen. I managed to come out on top by keeping my groups strong and capitalizing on sente. I also tend to play faster than most of my opponents and Jerry has it harder under time pressure which made the game more manageable for me later on. Ultimately I won the game by quite a bit filling in every piece of my opponents territory with dead stones.

My final opponent in Round 4 was Stephanie Tan. Initially, I thought she would be my easiest opponent, but she surprised me by building a moyo, which I tend to struggle against. I usually know how to handle moyo games, but I sometimes misjudge the size of the territory and invade too deeply. This time, I held back and reminded myself that defending a moyo from the outside can be challenging. By poking and reducing her moyo bit by bit I gained an advantage. Eventually she a big misread while we were filling in dame, allowing me to kill a large group, leading to her resignation.

Overall, I had a blast with my friends and getting to meet some friends I have only met online. The atmosphere in tournaments never cease to amaze me and I am glad I got to step into the world of go outside of online servers. You can also find a stream of the event on Clossius twitch channel here. You will also catch a glimpse of MidnightTheBlue having the time of his life. I can't wait till next year.