The Mexican Youth Go Championship 2012 – Under 12 was held on February 11th in Mexico City. There was participation of 44 kids divided in three groups . The kids had a great time at Ekoji Buddhist Temple where the tournament took place, a special thanks goes to Rev. Todaka and the Temple’s staff for kindly hosting the event. Before the tournament we could see some kendokas training at their dojo, with them and the garden, the altar, statues, tatamis, japanese style rooms, the Go boards, bowls and stones, the atmosphere took us for a moment in a trip to ancient Japan.

This year Santiago Dimayuga, a 6 year old child with autism played in Section C reaching 4th place, he has been playing for just a couple months with the support of his Teacher Ana María who taught him the basics, so this is a great achievement, he seems to like Go very much.
In Section A there was a tie between Lilian Zavala 9k and Ogam Shakti 15k each with 4-0 records, the final will be played soon. Vicente A. Cortez 14k came in third place.

Omar Zavala 13k won Section B, followed by Hans Torres 20k and Fernando López 20k. Section C was topped by Leonardo Pineda 24k, second place went to E. Amélie Zdeinert 24k and third place to Ximena Tejada 25k.

(Reported by Siddhartha Avila, Youth coordinator)