Evanston, Illinois - November 2, 2024: The Evanston Go Club’s 2024 Chicago Rapid Tournament crowned Haoran Wang 7D champion after five intense rounds. The event drew 110 players from across the country, marking the club’s fourth consecutive event with more than 100 players. Wang went undefeated, winning all five games on Board 1 and once again plowing to victory following his first-place finish in the 2024 Chicago Open in May. He said he struggled to maintain his composure against runner-up Xingke Sun 7D in Round 3. “Even to the last 10, 20 seconds, it was a hard game,” Wang said. “Xingke is a very good player. He beat me last May in a tough game.” But Wang became determined to clinch the game. “Today, I made sure to stay calm,” Wang said. “I was behind, but I complicated the game and managed to win, luckily.” He said flipping the odds brings him back to playing Go. To Wang, tournaments like the Chicago Rapid strengthen his playing. “It’s great having the opportunity to play in person,” Wang said. “The environment, surrounded by familiar faces and strong opponents, makes me more focused to play better. I’d like to thank the organizers for the time and effort they put into organizing these events.” Reflecting on their match, Xingke Sun expressed his frustration. “It was a pretty exciting game,” Sun said. “But in the endgame, I made a mistake. I didn’t have enough time to calculate. After the loss, I felt so distressed.” However, Sun was able to recover and finish with a 4-1 record, claiming second place. He credits his success to his reputation as a “rapid game” player, noting his history of strong performances at Evanston Go Club’s Chicago Rapid events. “To tell the truth, I’m a 7-Dan all because of this tournament. I played four times in this tournament, got second three times, and first once. I’m a rapid game player, but I do (trash) in the Go Congress.” Sun said he enjoys coming back to the Rapid each year, but this time was especially meaningful as he came with several members from his local club. “In this year’s Rapid, our Madison Go Club had six players come here for the first time,” Sun said. “Last year, there were only two players, including me. This time, I shared the information with our club and told them all to come, so we could play and meet new friends.” Thomas Gehrt 1K, a champion from the Main section, placed first in the 1-2K division after going undefeated. A former Chicago resident, Gehrt traveled more than 2600 miles from Tacoma, Washington to attend the Chicago Rapid for the first time in five years. He expressed his feelings of nostalgia yet amazement. “It’s great to see all the old people from the club I used to play with,” Gehrt said. “I remember when there used to be 20 or 30 people, and now there’s over 100. To go from what I used to know to the largest weekend tournament in the country is really something.” Part of the expansion has been led by Evanston Go Club’s Youth Director Xinming Guo, who continued to organize the Youth Beginner’s Tournament in this year’s Rapid. As a long-time Go teacher and promoter, Guo said the event represents his passion for passing on the game to the next generation. “Different people have different ways to love this game,” Guo said. “I like to share this game and teach this game. My love for Go is about spreading Go.” In addition, the 2024 Chicago Rapid featured a fun Josekle challenge with prizes, where players attempted to guess josekis from colorless arrangements of stones. Peter Leung 6K, who designed the event, explained how he found inspiration in search of friendlier Go content for everyone. “There aren’t many ways to interact with Go more casually. I wanted fun Go content, without needing to be fully mentally engaged,” Leung said. “My favorite part of designing my different games is trying to come up with a balanced scoring system, so that Go players of different ranks can all compete together.” A fan of Josekle was found in Alex Ehrlich 17K, who spent her free time inbetween rounds working on the problems. “I’m having a lot of fun trying to solve these,” Ehrlich said. “For the ones I don’t know, I’m just doing my best at guessing.” Despite some of their difficulty levels, the nine-year-old girl went on to win the double-digit Kyu category. Daniel Park 14K, a friend of Alex Ehrlich who worked with her to solve the Josekles, said the Rapid was his first Go tournament since moving to America. Unlike Ehrlich, he had different priorities. “My favorite part of the tournament is the clocks and clicking them,” Park said. “The clocks, lunch, and milk tea are the best. These are all very different from China.” Another attending youth, Timothy Biel 18K, was one of last year’s Youth Beginner’s Tournament winners. This time around, Biel challenged himself by joining the Main section. Despite winning three games, he said he learned the most from losing. “While the glory of winning games is nice, I’m very glad that I lost some games because losing is good. When you lose, you can learn from that, and then you can get better at the game,” Biel said. Besides improving, Biel stated that his favorite part of Go is the people, a sentiment many can relate to. “I really like meeting the people who play Go, and meeting the people I play against. Playing Go, it’s good,” Biel said. The players ended the night with a catered dinner from Reza’s Restaurant, complete with a whole lamb. The success of the 2024 Chicago Rapid could not have been achieved without the immense support of volunteers, partners, and sponsors. The Evanston Go Club extends gratitude to all volunteers, including Sungsoo Kim, Evan Lerner, and all the players who pitched in with set-up and clean-up. Special thanks go to Nick Prince, president and co-founder of Leago, for his assistance with the pairing system and Peter Leung for hosting the Josekle challenge. Jeremiah “Jae” Donley from the Baduk Club, an Ohio-based Go service, gave up competing to coordinate the livestream featuring commentators Amy Guo, Katie Oh, Ragnarr, Eric Yoder, Sen Zhan and Michael Zhou. Visit the Baduk Club Twitch channel here. Our partners and sponsors—American Yunguseng Dojang, Baduk Club, Online Go Server, Tealicious Bubble Tea, Tsumego Dragon, and Yellow Mountain Imports—made this event possible. The Evanston Go Club thanks Yellow Mountain Imports for generously donating prizes. President Mark Rubenstein thanked Yellow Mountain Imports for their decade-long partnership and continued support, stating: “This year, they donated more prizes than ever, with four beautiful Go sets, a lovely set of stones and bowls, and a magnetic travel set. Furthermore, all attendees are eligible for 10% off any order until December 2.” Yellow Mountain Imports offers a wide selection of high-quality equipment for traditional games including Go, Mahjong, and chess here. The 2024 Chicago Rapid also marked the first time the club used Leago for automated pairings and results. Tournament director Albert Yen testified to its usefulness. "Switching to Leago made our transition between rounds much faster as players have access to results and pairings live,” Yen said. “We as tournament directors feel less stressed about recording results because players can check the crosstabs themselves. We plan to incorporate Leago in our future tournaments.” Looking ahead, the Evanston Go Club aims to keep fostering a strong and inclusive community. We invite players of all ages, ranks, and experiences to join us for the 2025 Chicago Open over Memorial Day weekend, May 24-25, 2025, at the Holiday Inn Chicago North-Evanston! Organizing Team Aaron Czarnecki - Chief ArtistXinming Guo - Youth DirectorMark Rubenstein - President, Tournament DirectorQi-Mei Jamie Tang - Outreach DirectorCheuk To Tsui - Tournament SupportAlbert Yen - Organizing Director, Tournament Director Media Team Nicole Chen Jason Cheng Caleb HansenLilian Lee Kartik SarafStephanie Tan About Evanston Go Club The Evanston Go Club, co-founded by Mark Rubenstein and David Whiteside in 1996, is the largest American Go Association chapter in the Midwest. Our mission is to provide a place that is open to the public for people to play, learn, or just watch the game of Go. For more details, visit our website here.
