First Day of Go Congress!

 Today was the first day of go congress and that means the first day of the main US Open tournament!

I woke up around 8:00 and had some raisin bran in oat milk while watching the ducks out in the river, yum! These are some pictures of the main playing room, over 600 people are playing in the event. This is the largest go tournament ever held in the US!

People sitting down, getting ready for the first round!

This was a cool purple house with a purple fence we saw while walking around the area!

Getting a lunchy wrap!

The "Angry Bird Wrap", excellent!

 The rest is some go stuff about the first game if you're curious or feel free to skip!

At 9:00am it was time for the first game. I played as black against another 1 dan named Josh. This is the score estimator from after the game:

 The game got very complicated right from the beginning. While reading out variations during the first big fight I thought I had seen all the possible options but missed one, which to my shock white immediately played! Luckily they promptly made an even bigger mistake and I was able to take a sizable lead and simplify the game. Since there were no more complicated areas the game coasted to the finish line where I was up by about 30 points.

 This was the start of the first fight. Black needs to choose between A and B. Option B is simple and just takes some solid points on the left side. Option A asks if black can have even more points. I thought I knew what I was getting into and chose A, who doesn't want more points?

However white cut at B on the very next move and a huge fight broke out.

 This was the critical moment. Black has three groups trying to live on the left side and white also has three groups trying to live. White needed to play at B13 and capture the single black stone to connect their groups together. Instead white defended the group on the outside and black was able to take the initiative.

 

White played at the marked triangle point and black got the key point at B13. Now the white A group has been surrounded and will die. When the white A group dies, it connects all three of black's groups together meaning black has no more weak groups to worry about for the rest of the game. Meanwhile the white B group has to run home and in the meantime black will have time to consolidate the lead and simplify everything.

 

 This was the final position where white resigned because there were no other places where they could make up the points they needed. I made it through the first day 1-0!