Tune in to the AGA’s YouTube Channel Sunday morning starting at 10a ET for the 2024 North American
Go Federation Pro Qualification Tournament, which is being held in Montreal, Canada this week. Here’s our first batch of player profiles.
Tianyi Chen (top left) is a 26-year-old Business Analyst who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He's played Go since he was seven years old and his favorite thing about the game is that "The handicap system allows me to play with various levels of opponents." His favorite food is rice and his hobbies/interests are his work. He recently rewatched the Hikaru no Go Chinese remake and says "I hope I can be 9D online one day."
Joel Kenny (top middle) is a 32-year-old software developer who lives in New York City. He's played Go for 16 years, says his favorite thing about the game is winning and his other hobbies/interests include programming, video games (currently playing Baldur's Gate 3), and traveling. His favorite food is vegan and asked about his favorite recent movie, TV show, book or musical artist says "Recently I've been listening to a lot of The Smile, Daughter, Frightened Rabbit, and The National." Another interesting fact about Joel: "I'm Canadian. I grew up near Toronto, and moved to the States five years ago."
Bill Lin (top right) is a 27-year-old Institutional Sales Trader who lives in Vancouver, BC Canada. He's played Go 22 years but notes he "went on hiatus since Covid, only playing once a month online via AGA City League, just came back to play IRL tournaments in 2023." His favorite thing about the game "is that every game is completely different, the unpredictability of this game, at least to humans, makes it so fun to play." Favorite kind of food: Chinese and Japanese. Recent favorite show: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Interesting fact: "I attended the first two Pro qualifiers, early exit in the first one, and was runner-up in the second and missed my chance, after that I didn't think I would want to try again but this year I want to try again."
Stephen Lin (bottom left) is a 28-year-old engineer who lives in Madison, WI. He's played Go about 15 years and his favorite thing is that "Go is sometimes called 'hand talk' in some cultures (and) to an extent, players are able to communicate through their moves." Hobbies/interests: Mahjong, tea drinking, reading. Favorite kind of food: Taiwanese; Japanese and Chinese are close seconds. He's a fan of the Japanese pop music duo YOASOBI.
Ben Mantle (bottom middle) is a 30-year-old Go teacher and content creator (BenKyo Baduk) who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He's played Go for 18 years and has many favorite things about the game, including "The way age, education, ethnic background, 'status' and other things have nothing to do with Go strength...The freedom and creativity afforded to us on the board and...the flexibility of making plans and then throwing them away for new ones in an instant." His other hobbies/interests include anime, video games, live-streaming & content creation, entrepreneurship, writing, social media, watching YouTube videos, listening to music, and AI. His favorite food is sushi/sashimi/other Japanese food and all of his favorite movie, TV show, book or musical artists "are Japanese or Go-related."
Nate Morse (bottom right) is a 24-year-old Go teacher who lives in Rochester, New York. He's been playing for seven years and says his favorite thing about the game is "I like that both players get to tell the story of the game together - and the awesome stories keep me hooked!" Hobbies/interests: "I like music a lot. I have arranged a lot of music for Carillon and recently arranged one of my favorite pieces for piano. I also enjoy almost every form of sports and activity, particularly tennis." Favorite kind of food: "I adore cannoli's. Excluding deserts, phở is the best." His favorite book recently read is Mistborn; "I liked Oppenheimer too." Interesting fact: "I'm a crack shot when it comes to oyster cracker throws."