I played the New York Institute of Go tournament today. I’d written previously about Stephanie Yin’s school. They’ve since moved to a new location and this tournament was the inaugural event. The new NYIG space is considerably larger and nicer than before and I think that’s pretty clear from the photos.

I drove to the tournament and arrived around 9:40am. Parking was relatively easy as the surrounding area off the main street was residential. As I was parking, I noticed quite a few faces from the Mostly Go meetup walking up.

Inside I munched on a bagel I’d picked up for the excursion while chatting with Andrew McGowan, a Mostly Go regular rapidly approaching AGA 1 dan. Eventually the first pairings were called and my first round was against a 7 kyu I’d been paired with in other tournaments. I won decisively without any complications.

Calm before the storm

The second round was a considerably more challenging game against a 5 kyu. It was a long round and I felt evenly matched. The endgame was played almost entirely in byo-yomi by both of us so it was probably a bit sloppy. By the time we both passed I had no sense of who was winning, I only knew that it was going to be incredibly close - observers around the table agreed. After the tally, I was ahead by just 3.5 points. Of all the rounds, this one was the most interesting to me and I wish I’d recorded it.

After the second round there was a lunch break and I hung out in the tournament room chatting with Andrew. There was another fellow with him and we all decided to grab a bite to eat together. We walked next door to a Turkish place and ordered a quick meal. I asked Andrew’s friend’s name, he said Stephen. I asked him what his KGS handle was - Twprcntmlk. I smiled, one of In-seong’s students!

Lunch break

We immediately started talking about AYD and how much we loved it. This was the first time I’d ever met a fellow AYDer in the flesh before! We all knew we were in good company and the conversation flowed naturally towards all things Go. It sounded like both Stephen and Andrew would be making the Stonybrook tournament in a couple of weeks. I asked them if they were planning on attending US Go Congress - and they both thought it would be unlikely. We talked Hikaru No Go and our favorite pros before rushing to pay the bill to get back for rounds 3 and 4.

Howard, fellow AYDer

Round 3 was against a 10 kyu. This was a 3 stone handicap game. As the game progressed it became increasingly obvious that my opponent was not a 10 kyu. I won by sheer luck as my opponent ran out of time. Afterwards my opponent admitted he was a KGS 7 kyu. Given that I’m technically a KGS 3 kyu maybe the handicap was fair after all. However, the more I play tournaments the more I think that tournament anxiety and tournament time controls work very effectively as a leveler. Perhaps this is yet another reminder that ranks don’t amount to much and one should stay focused on learning.

Awards time!

The final round was a two stone game against a 3 kyu. I started off quite well in the opening, but I failed to reinforce a weak group and the remainder of the game was a long struggle. While this wasn’t the most interesting game, it was a good reminder that simple mistakes can easily ruin a game that’s going pretty well.

Still I ended the tournament 3-1, so I didn’t have much to complain about. While everyone waited for the boards to finish, I listened in on Stephen’s review. His opponent was another AYDer, Howard. It’s hard not to smile widely when listening to two players happily go over a game and recount the story.

Awards were given out and I said my farewells. I had to head out a bit early, but I said that if we ever ended up in NYIG again together we should definitely recount our victories and losses over a delicious Flushing Korean meal.