[Seattle Go Center] Peter Nelson wins Pandanet Qualifier Tournament

Dear Members,

Peter Nelson, a recent arrival to Seattle from Minnesota, was selected Sunday for the Seattle 1 Pandanet-AGA  City League Team, after winning the Qualifier Tournament at the Seattle Go Center by a narrow margin.  Longtime Northwest player Edward Kim placed second at the tournament, with the same win/loss record, and will also join the team.  Returning first team members are Simon (Ximeng) Yu, and Ho Son.  Momoko Tsutsui has moved from Seattle, and will not be on our team this year.

The Seattle Pandanet-AGA team placed second last August in the A League competition, losing to the team from neighboring Vancouver B.C.  The board order for the teams in the  online tournament is determined by AGA ratings, so Nelson will probably have the alternate position.  Nelson had an AGA rating of 3 dan last month, and has a 4 dan rating at present.  However, he won two even games against a 7 dan at the tournament, plus a game against Xiaowu Li, who is a 5 dan in China, so observers expect his rating to continue to improve.

The open tournament was a challenge to both players and Tournament Directors Sonny Cho and Dennis Wheeler.  Due to "circular wins" four players had identical records after four rounds, necessitating a playoff round.  The tournament lasted 9 hours and some players had five games.  In addition to Peter Nelson and Edward Kim, Dong Baek Kim and Xiaowu Li were finalists.  This was the first Seattle event for Xiaowu Li, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington Law School, and former director of the faculty go club at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.  We look forward to seeing him at other events.

The Seattle Go Center thanks Sonny Cho for organizing this event, and we wish the Seattle City League first team continued success in the coming year!

Cheers,

Brian

Brian  Allen

Manager, Seattle Go Center

Nihon Ki-in Go Institute of the West

700 NE 45^th Street

Seattle WA  98105

206 545-1424 (Go Center)

206 370-1069 (Cell Phone)

206 632-1122 (Office at Home)

manager@seattlego.org (e-mail)

www.seattlego.org (website)