Bill Lin leads the A Division 2-0 in this week’s NAGF Pro Qualification Tournament, while Tianyi Chen and Sen Zhang are co-leaders in the B Division. Note that because this stage of the tournament is a round-robin, wins/losses is a key stat, rather than SOS.
Round 3 starts at 9:30a ET Monday morning, with all games expected to be relayed on OGS (look for ProQual 2024) and live game commentaries starting at 10:30a ET on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Full event overview, including standings and game records is here. Check out photos of the tournament on the AGA’s Facebook and X (@theaga) feeds.
The tournament launched Sunday morning with a brief welcome and rules review by TD Jean-Sébastien Lechasseur and an overview of the Iwamoto North American Go Foundation (INAF) and the North American Go Federation (NAGF) by longtime organizer Thomas Hsiang. “You have proven yourselves the strongest among strong players in North America. At the end of the week, one of you will become the next North American Go professional, starting a career competing against professionals from around the world. You will regarded as sensei’s to us amateurs and we look forward to you sharing your knowledge and ethics.”
Special thanks to Sunday’s game recorders -- Micaël Bérubé, Vincent Binette, Antoine Boisvert, Philippe Carphin, Benjamin Cérat, William Léchelle and Zhongwei Zheng – and to Jae Donley, the EJ team’s online producer.
Report/photos by Chris Garlock, EJ team leader