The 2024 North American Go Federation Pro Qualification Tournament is being held in Montreal,
Canada this week. Live game commentaries start at 10:30a ET daily on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Full event overview, including standings and game records here. Check out photos of the tournament on the AGA’s Facebook and X (@theaga) feeds. Here’s our second batch of player profiles.
Guanyu Song (top left) is a 23-year-old student and AI engineer who currently lives in Vancouver. He’s been playing Go for 17 years and his favorite thing about the game is that “Go is elegant in the way that infinite variations evolve from simple settings and rules.” Favorite food: Asian food, especially Sichuan food and Japanese food. Hobbies/interests: climbing, guitar, gym, traveling. Favorite art/culture: “Oppenheimer is definitely a gem.”
Michael Guyue Xu (middle) is a 10-year-old student who lives in Springwater, Ontario, Canada. He’s been playing Go for 7 years – “I got interested when I saw my brother play Go with my parent” – and his favorite thing is “Catching up when I was behind.” He loves pingpong, soccer, dumplings and Hikaru no Go (and, apparently, the lollipops and gummi bears which have accompanied him to the board at the ProQual.)
Eric Yoder (top right) is a 30-year-old Amazon Sortation worker who lives in Columbus, Ohio. He’s been playing Go for 12 years and his favorite thing is “Searching deep into the future to see a great move.” Faves include rock climbing, reading/watching manga/anime, cheesecake and March comes in like a Lion.
Sen Zhan (bottom right) is 30 years old, self-employed and lives in Toronto. Sen has played for 25 years and likes that one must “Keep judging the situation and make the correct decision.” Sen likes pho, gaming and Marvel movies.
Edward Zhang (bottom left) is a 44-year-old financial services executive who lives in Fairfax, Virginia. He’s played Go since he was 10 years old and his favorite thing about the game is meeting new and old friends, “and winning!” His favorite food is “vegetables cooked with some proteins” and his hobbies/interests include basketball, movies and science fiction. Favorite arts and culture include Favorite Cabrini by Francesca Cabrini, 3 Body Problem, Trouble Master, Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson. Interesting fact: “I have a 11-yr old child and I wish to set an example of living a fruitful life and competing in the worlds/national events.”