The 25th Canadian Open Go Championship
The 25th edition of the Canadian Open was held in Richmond, British Columbia. The fifth time
that this national event has been held in this west-coast province.
Organized by and directed by Ken Chou and Kunio Aihara and held over the Labour Day weekend of
August 30 to September 2, this event attracted 106 players, the second highest attendance since
1987 when 109 players attended the Canadian Open when it was held in Toronto. A party of 20-odd
Japanese players made a special trip to attend this event, including two well-known Japanese
professionals, Reiki Magari and Isamu Haruyama.
This six-round event was divided into five sections. The first-place winners of each section
were: Juyong Koh 5-dan (from Korea), Charles Chang 3-dan, W. Kopczuk, Wes Wang 2-kyu, and Andrew Liang 6-kyu.
The Canadian Open is used to select the players who will represent Canada at various international events.
Because Juyong Koh is not a Canadian citizen, a playoff was held to determine Canada's representative at
the World Amateur Go Championship. This honour went to John Yoon from Toronto. The national
representatives for the Pairs tournament went to Charles Chang and Selina Chang (father and daughter),
both from Ottawa. (The winners of this event were Mr. Cao and Ms. Lei, but because they are not
Canadian citizens, they could not represent this country.) The Junior champion was Richmond Liang
from Windsor, Ontario; he won the same title at last year's Canadian Open.
The 26th Canadian Open (2003) will be held in Montreal on the Labour Day weekend of August 30th to September 1st.
Ontario's Major Tournaments of 2002
The Toronto Open was held on May 18-19. A total of 104 players participated: 64 in the main event,
and 40 in the Under-18 and Under-12 sections. The first-place winners of the seven sections were:
Ge Yongfei, Fu Yi Ping, Jun Xu, Ying Qing Zhao, Charles Chang, Johnny Lin (Under-18 section) and
David Liu (Under-12 section).
Quebec's Major Tournaments of 2002
The 21st Montreal Honinbo was held between January and February and was won by Yong-Chang Park
5-dan who beat Eric Côté‚ in the best of five games. This annual event was organized by André
Labelle and the Montreal Go Club.
The 23rd Winter Tournament was held on February 23rd and was won by Jun Li 5-dan from Ottawa.
This three-round event, sponsored by the Consulate-General of Japan and organized by the
Association québécoise des joueurs de go, attracted 48 players. The tournament director was André Labelle.
The winners of the remaining five sections were: Liqun Wong (Ottawa, 3-dan), Robert Laflèche (Sherbrooke,
Quebec, 2-dan), Haruna Okano (Montreal, 4-kyu), Harumits Aida (Montreal, 6-kyu), and Ze Shan Yao
(Montreal, 12-kyu).
The 24th Quebec Open, held on May 18-19, was won by Miho Hayashi 5-dan from Montreal. This six-round
event, which is organized by the Association québécoise des joueurs de go with Steven Mays as tournament
director, drew a total participation of 28 players and was divided into five sections. The first-place
winners of the remaining four sections were: Jun Li (Ottawa, 5-dan), Liqun Wong (Ottawa, 3-dan),
George Hogan (Montreal, 5-kyu), and Yao Gio (Montreal, 6-kyu).
In Memoriam
An oversight in last year's report to Ranka was a notice on the untimely death of Sung-Hwa Hong,
who died on September 21st (2001) of a stroke at the young age of 51. A strong player (he twice
represented Canada at the World Amateur Go Championship: 1989 and 1995), Sung-Hwa was well known
in the North American go community. He was instrumental in organizing, in cooperation with the
Korean Go Association (Hankuk Kiwon), two good-will tours of Canadian players to Korea. Sung-Hwa
will also be remembered for his novel First Kyu.
(Report by Steven J.C. Mays) |
