History of the Event
In 2004, Chin Sin Voon of Brunei and Christopher Vu from the United States met at the inaugural Iwamoto Amateur Online Championships, held by the Chilean Go Association. Competing in the same division, they faced each other in the eight and final round to determine who would win a medal and who would have to wait another year.. The end result? A friendship that would spur their respective national go clubs to join forces.
Five years later, to celebrate their friendship, the American Go Honor Society and the Burnei I-Go Society established the “Brunei Friendship Cup” in remembrance of all that the two founders went through to establish their respective clubs.
The United States squeaked out a narrow victory in the 1st and 2nd edition.
Now Southeast Asia wants revenge. This year Canada is also joining the mix, looking to take the crown. They’re coming to our home turf, let’s defend!
CALL TO ARMS FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL BRUNEI FRIENDSHIP CUP
This competition is open to all youth go players who reside in the United States or Mexico and are enrolled in a secondary school or is under the age of 18.
Qualifiers - To be held on February 9th and February 10th
All competitors interested in entering will be entered this qualifying tournament. This will be a maximum of four-rounds event. Players who win their divisions will qualify for the AGHS team. Runner-ups to each division will be reserve players on the AGHS team and will play if the qualified player is unable to for whatever reason. If there is a vacancy in pair go, the top reserve male and female dan/kyu players who express interest in pair go will be selected as pair go members of the AGHS team.
The Divisions will be broken into the following:
High Dan (5d+)
Low Dan (1d-4d)
Low-Mid SDK (1k-4k)
Mid-High SDK (5k-9k)
Double-Digit Kyu (10k-30k)
Dan Pair Go (one male, one female, both dan level)
Kyu Pair Go (one male, one female, both kyu level)
Tentative Schedule:
ROUND 1 11am PT / 12 pm MT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET
ROUND 2 2pm PT / 3pm MT / 4pm CT / 5pm ET
ROUND 3 11 am PT / 12pm MT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET
MAIN EVENT - To be held on February 16th
There will be one American team of nine competitors and up to nine reserve players. Canada will send its own team and Brunei/Malaysia will send two teams to bring the total to four teams in this competition.
In each round, 5 individual games and 2 pair go games on each side will play in team format. The team who wins a majority of the boards will be champion for that round. This stage will be conducted in a round-robin format, and the team who holds the most wins will be crowned champion.
USA TIME SE ASIA TIME
ROUND 1 16th February 7:30am PT/10:30 am ET 16th February 11:30 pm
ROUND 2 16th February 12pm PT / 3pm ET* 17th February 11:30 pm*
ROUND 3 16th February 6pm PT / 9pm ET 17th February 10 am
* Note: These two times are not the same. This match will be US1 vs. CA1 and BRU vs. MAS, to account for time zone difference and to be played at a time that is suitable for everyone.
GAME FORMAT
Qualifiers Main Time 45 minutes, 5 periods of 30 seconds byo-yomi
All games are the qualifiers are handicapped, Japanese rules and komi = 6.5 points in an even game, 0.5 in a handicapped game. Qualifiers will be held in the AGHS Tournaments Room room on the KGS go server.
All games in the main event are even, Japanese rules and komi = 6.5 points.
Tournament Directors
United States Qualifying Event: Andrew Huang
Canada Qualifying Event: James Sedgwick and Tyler Reynolds
Southeast Asia Qualifying Event: Chen Xinwen
Main Tournament Andrew Huang and Chen Xinwen
Questions? Want to register? Fill out the form here!