The U.S. Go Congress is the largest annual Go

Go (board game)

Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...

 event in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, first held in 1985 and now into its 28th consecutive year. It is organized by the American Go Association

American Go Association

The American Go Association was founded in 1935 to promote the board game of Go in the United States. Founded by chess master Edward Lasker and some friends at Chumley's restaurant in New York City, the AGA is one of the oldest Western Go associations...

, and is a week-long tournament and learning opportunity for Go players. Several hundred people generally attend, including a number of professional

Go professional

A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players are very large...

 players. A few major tournaments are incorporated into the week, including the U.S. Open and the North American Ing Masters (NAIM) tournament.

Past U.S. Go Congress and Winners

Year	Number	Location	Sponsoring Club	US Open winner	NAIM winner
1985	1st	Westminster, Maryland Westminster, Maryland Westminster is a city in northern Maryland, United States. It is the seat of Carroll County. The city's population was 18,590 at the 2010 census. Westminster is an outlying community within the Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA, which is part of a greater Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV...		Ho Suk Yi
1986	2nd	Seattle, WA		Ji Young Yoo
1987	3rd	South Hadley, Massachusetts South Hadley, Massachusetts South Hadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,514 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area....	Western MA Go Club	Chuang Zhuan Yu
1988	4th	Berkeley, California Berkeley, California Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...		Hong Soo Shin
1989	5th	New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...		Paul Hu
1990	6th	Loretto Heights Teikyo Loretto Heights University Colorado Heights University is an American university in Denver, Colorado, part of the Teikyo University Group. In July, 2009 it changed its name from Teikyo Loretto Heights University to Colorado Heights University. It opened in 1989 on the campus of the former Loretto Heights College.-Campus:Its... , CO		Jung Ho Lim
1991	7th	Rochester, New York Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...	Empty Sky Go Club	Si Yeon Li	Charles Huh
1992	8th	Salem, Oregon Salem, Oregon Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...		Woo Jin Kim	Dae Yol Kim
1993	9th	South Hadley, MA	Western MA Go Club	John Lee John Lee - Politicians and government officials :*John Lee, Baron Lee of Trafford , former Minister and Conservative Member of Parliament for Pendle, 1979–1992...	Charles Huh
1994	10th	Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....		Keun-Young Lee	John Lee
1995	11th	Seattle, WA		Danning Jiang	Thomas Hsiang
1996	12th	Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...		Danning Jiang	Jong Moon Lee
1997	13th	Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...		Thomas Hsiang	Keun Young Lee
1998	14th	Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...		Jie Li	Jong Moon Lee
1999	15th	San Francisco, CA		Danning Jiang
2000	16th	Denver, CO		Ted Ning	Thomas Hsiang
2001	17th	York, Pennsylvania York, Pennsylvania York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...	Baltimore Go Club	Yongfei Ge	Ke Huang
2002	18th	Chicago Chicago Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles... , IL		Jie Li	Jie Li
2003	19th	Houston, TX	Houston Go Club		Joey Hung
2004	20th	Rochester, NY	Empty Sky Go Club		Jie Li
2005	21st	Tacoma, Washington Tacoma, Washington Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...	Tacoma Go Club and Seattle Go Center	Xuefen Lin
2006	22nd	Asheville, North Carolina Asheville, North Carolina Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...	Triangle Go Group	Andy Liu	Zhaonian (Michael) Chen
2007	23rd	Lancaster, PA	Penn Go Society	Yongfei Ge	Mingjiu Jiang Mingjiu Jiang Mingjiu Jiang is a Chinese professional Go player.- Biography :Mingjiu became 6 dan in 1982, and 7 dan in 1987. He has played for the Zhongguo Qiyuan, but currently resides in and represents the United States of America...
2008	24th	Portland, Oregon Portland, Oregon Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...	Portland Go Club	Myungwan Kim	Yun Feng
2009	25th	Washington, D.C.	NOVA Go Club		Andy Liu
2010	26th	Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...	Springs Go Club		Huiren Yang
2011	27th	Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean... , CA	Orange County Go Club & LA Go Club

U.S. Open

The U.S. Open is a six round Swiss

Swiss system tournament

A Swiss-system tournament is a commonly used type of tournament where players or teams need to be paired to face each other for several rounds of competition. This type of tournament was first used in a Zurich chess tournament in 1895, hence the name "Swiss system". The Swiss system is used when...

-McMahon Go tournament with the longest time limits of any North American tournament. The Open is the largest Go tournament in North America. In 2006 and 2007, the tournament's top prize was $2000. The prizes for the 2008 tournament have not yet been announced.

Players are grouped by strength

Go ranks and ratings

Skill in the traditional board game Go is measured by a number of different national, regional and online ranking and rating systems. Traditionally, go rankings have been measured using a system of dan and kyu ranks...

 into different sections. These range from beginners (33kyu - 30kyu) to the advanced open section (7 dan and above).

High dan players (4 dan and above) receive a base time of 120 minutes with 5 - 30 second byo-yomi

Byoyomi

is an extended time control in two-player games, specifically Shogi and Go. The word is borrowed from Japanese; the term literally means "counting the seconds," or more generally, "countdown."...

 periods. All other players receive a base time of 90 minutes with 5 - 30 second byo-yomi periods.

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Third Place	Fourth Place	Fifth Place	Sixth Place
2009
2008	Myungwan Kim	Kuo Yin	Yongfei Ge	Bi Jang	Mingjiu Jiang Mingjiu Jiang Mingjiu Jiang is a Chinese professional Go player.- Biography :Mingjiu became 6 dan in 1982, and 7 dan in 1987. He has played for the Zhongguo Qiyuan, but currently resides in and represents the United States of America...	Eric Lui
2007	Yongfei Ge	Mingjiu Jiang	Guangjiong Chen	Zhaonian Chen	Eric Lui	Jie Liang
2006	Zhiyuan Liu (Andy)	Mingjiu Jiang	Seung Hyun Hong	Curtis Tang	Zhaonian Chen	Dal Soo Kim
2005	Xuefen Lin	Takahiro Kitagawa	Yongfei Ge	Haifeng Liu	Lu Wang Lu Wang Lu Wang may refer to:*Lu Jiuyuan , Chinese scholar and philosopher*Wang Yangming , Ming Chinese idealist Neo-Confucian philosopher, official, educationist, calligraphist and general*Jiang Ziya, Chinese historical and legendary figure...  (Jeffrey) & Zhaonian Chen
2004	Jie Li Jie Li Jie Li is a strong amateur Go player. He is one of the strongest go players in the United States, playing at an equal level with many American professionals.- Biography :...	Lu Wang	Yongfei Ge	Xuefen Lin	Minshan Shou	Mozheng Guan

Other Events

Other events include:

• The Redmond Cup
• Self-paired, play anytime, handicap tournament
• Private Lessons from Professionals
• Professional Game Review and Analysis
• Simultaneous Games
• Pro Clinics
• Lightning Go Tournament
• Pair Go
• Die Hard Tournament
• Midnight Madness
• 9x9 and 13x13 Tournaments
• Special Events
• Crazy Go
• Lots of onsite Go publications, equipment and materials
• The Chuck Robbins Challenge

See also

• Go at the 2010 Asian Games
  Go at the 2010 Asian Games
  A Weiqi tournament was held at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou for the first time at an Asiad. The three events in the competition - men's team, women's team and mixed doubles — were held between 20 and 26 November 2010 at the Guangzhou Chess Institute....
  
  
• Go competitions
• International Go Federation
  International Go Federation
  The International Go Federation is an international organization that connects the various national Go federations around the world. It is usually referred to as IGF.-Role of the IGF:...
  
  
• List of Go organizations
• List of professional Go tournaments

External links

• 2009 US Go Congress webpage
• General US Go Congress webpage
• US Open history