Website of The International Go Federation

The European Professional Go League has evolved into the Transatlantic Professional Go League (TPGL) in the current season, with two American professionals joining: Calvin Sun 1p and Ryan Li 3p. Two European amateur players have got their chance to compete with the professionals: after passing the preliminary tournament, Oscar Vazquez 6d and Remi Campagnie 6d joined the League.

Due to a larger number of participants, the system of the League has been changed: all the players were split into two groups, each group consisting of one American professional, three European professionals, and one European amateur. Players of each group battle in a round robin, and two highest finishers from each group qualify for the play-off to determine the winner of the League.

In each of the groups, three matches are still to be played. It is not clear yet which of the participants will enter the play-off; here are the players who still have a chance do it:

• Group I: Ilya Shikshin 4p, Artem Kachanovskyi 2p, Calvin Sun 1p.
• Group II: Ryan Li 3p, Ali Jabarin 2p, Tanguy le Calve 1p.

You can find the tournament table, game records, and all the other details on the TPGL web page.

Below you can find the record of one the two games between Ilya Shikshin 4p and Calvin Sun 1p.

Report by Artem

On May, Sunday 27th, the 1st Round of the 1st Mexican Internet Go League kicked off with the participation of 58 players from eight countries. Although most of the players are Mexicans, half of the players in the top group are foreigners. You can see the full participant list behind this link.

The new feature in this tournament compared to previous Mexican internet tournaments is that players are divided in groups by strength, and within each group a round-robin tournament is played. Players were divided in seven groups, out of which four groups had eight players and three had nine players.

The number of rounds to play depends on the number of players in each group. Eight-player groups play seven rounds and nine-players groups play eight rounds on nine different dates, caused by the odd number of players. You can see out the pairings for the full league here.

The winner of each group receives a prize of a game board and books provided by the Chinese Weiqi Association.

At the time of writing, three rounds have been played in the league. You can view the current standings here.

Report by Emil García

Directors from Latin America and China

On April 27, the signature ceremony of the ‘Strategic Cooperation Agreement’ between Ibero American Go Federation and the Chinese Weiqi Association CWA took place through an online ceremony.

Latin American directors Treasurer, Diego Guerrero from Venezuela, Secretary, Luciano Salerno from Argentina, and President, Emil García from Mexico connected via Voov, which is China’s Tencent video conference platform in its International version.

CWA officers were physically present in Beijing, with the presence of CWA’s Secretary General Wang Yi, Vicepresident Chang Hao and President Lin Jianchao among others.

During the ceremony, pre-recorded speeches from Latin American National Association’s Presidents were given by both Chinese Weiqi Association and Ibero American Go Federation presidents, where it’s worth pointing out Mr Lin Jianchao’s words: ‘The cooperation will focus on the practical difficulties and needs encountered in the development of weiqi in Latin America … The Latin American region has made significant progress in weiqi and has become one of the regions with the most potential for the development of weiqi in the world.’

The 3-year agreement aim is to promote the development of go in Latin America, and to deepen exchanges and cooperation between China and Latin American people through go. It is based on seven main points:

1 Weiqi Equipment Support Program
Go Equipment and electronics will be provided from China to develop local gameplay in Latin America

2 Weiqi Cultural Forum
A platform for exchanging cultural perspectives between both parties where topics of shared interest will be discussed.

3 Latin American Go Congress
Its organisation will be supported by the CWA along with the participation of Chinese professional players both online and onsite.

4 Latin American Weiqi Championship Circuit
Supported by the CWA, assistance will be provided to organise National Weiqi Championships held by each National Go Association taking part in the Circuit, which must be no less than four countries per edition. Winners of each of the Championships in the Circuit will play in a final match to decide the ultimate Circuit Champion.

5 China-Latin America Series
Team matches between China and Latin America are divided in four categories: Youth, Female, Mixed Doubles and Open.
This has already started as an online match and has the expectation of becoming a live match either in China or a Latin American country in the near future.

6 Development of Youth and Women
Competitions, training, and exchanges are forecasted.

7 Talent Training Program
Assistance to train players, trainers and referees with the assistance of Chinese players, trainers and referees will be given as a seminar during the Latin American Go Congress.

As of now the 1st Female Latin America-China Series has taken place and the Youth Series will be played in July. It’s also worth mentioning that five countries have proposed themselves to be part of the 1st Latin American Weiqi Championship Circuit for this year, these being: Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

This seems to be a very promising scenario for Latin American Go, so we expect to hear more about this agreement soon.

Report by Emil García

The European Professional Go League has been held three times. The participating players were the European professional go players with exception of the second season: Ryan Li 3p (at that time 1p) joined the League and was victorious.

On 15 May a new season of the League starts. This time with the support of the North American Go Federation, two American professional go players are participating: Ryan Li 3p and Calvin Sun 1p. The League changes its name to Transatlantic Professional Go League (TPGL).

In addition to the American players, eight Europeans are playing as well:

• Ilya Shikshin 4p
• Artem Kachanovskyi 2p
• Pavol Lisy 2p
• Ali Jabarin 2p
• Andrii Kravets 1p
• Tanguy Le Calvé 1p
• Oscar Vazquez 6d
• Remi Campagnie 6d

The two latter amateur players were selected via the online preliminary for amateur players, which took place on 8–9 May.

The League starts on 15 May with a match between Andrii Kravets 1p and Calvin Sun 1p. On 16 May, Pavol Lisy 2p plays against Remi Campagnie 6d. The games will be commented live on the EGF Twitch channel. Traditionally, the live stream starts at 18:00 CEST each weekend.

For more details see the web page of the TPGL.

Report by Artem

World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is an annual go event organised by the International Go Federation (IGF). Each IGF member country nominates one representative, and in total usually there are around 70 participants.

The WAGC is held since 1979. In 2020, for the first time in go history, the tournament was to take place in one of the European countries – Russia, Vladivostok city. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the tournament was postponed till 2021. The new dates for the 41st WAGC are June 2–10, 2021. The location remains the same.

Unfortunately, the pandemic doesn’t seem to get any better even despite the vaccination. Due to this reason, the organisers of the 41st WAGC decided to allow online participation for those representatives who are not able to arrive in Vladivostok. In that case, national federations whose representatives play online must ensure the presence of a referee or an official of the federation in the playing-room and/or video monitoring of the competition process. More information on this aspect will be announced by the organisers later.

Representatives from 77 countries are invited to participate in the 41st WAGC:

1. Asia: 17 countries and territories
   Brunei, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia,
   Mongolia, Nepal, DPR Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
2. Near and Middle East: 3 countries
   Iran, Israel, Turkey
3. Europe: 37 countries
   Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
4. Africa: 3 countries
   Madagascar, Morocco, South Africa
5. North & Central America: 7 countries
   Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, United States
6. South America: 8 countries
   Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
7. Oceania: 2 countries
   Australia, New Zealand

In case you are an official of the national go organisation in one of the listed countries, and you have not received an invitation yet – please use the following email address to contact the WAGC organisers: n.kovaleva@gofederation.ru (Natalia Kovaleva).

For more information see the 41st WAGC website: https://wagc2020.org/

Report by Artem