1995 North American Masters Tournament

The first North American Masters Tournament was held in 1995. It was an historic event, as it was the first professional tournament held in North America, and the first professional tournament conducted, in part, on the internet. The Tournament Director was Chendao Lin, who created the tournament with Jeff Shaevel, with technical assistance from tweet and tim of IGS.

The format for the tournament consisted first of a Challenger Round, in which all participants played a round robin. The top two players from that round (Zhu-jiu Jiang and Jimmy Cha) then played a best-two-out-of-three Title Match at the U.S. Go Congress in Seattle, WA. Zhu-jiu Jiang won the title.

Participants

Six professionals residing in the United States and Canada participated in the 1995 NAMT. The country listed in the table below is the country of professional certification.

Name Rank Country Location
1) Zhujiu Jiang Nine Dan China San Francisco, CA
2) Yilun Yang Seven Dan China Los Angeles, CA
3) Xiaoren He Five Dan China Montreal, Canada
4) James Cha Four Dan Korea Los Angeles, CA
5) James Kerwin One Dan Japan Minneapolis, MN
6) Janice Kim One Dan Korea New York City, NY

Click on a player name above for biographical information and photo, if available.

Challenger Round

Players are listed in seed order.
W indicates a win for the player on that row
L indicates a loss for the player on that row
Click on a result to download the game record.

Help is available on setting a game viewer application.

(1)
Z. Jiang		 (2)
Y. Yang		 (3)
X. He		 (4)
J. Cha		 (5)
J. Kerwin		 (6)
J. Kim		 Wins
(1)
Z. Jiang		 - W W W W W 5
(2)
Y. Yang		 L - W L W W 3
(3)
X. He		 L L - L L W 1
(4)
J. Cha 		L W W - W W 4
(5)
J. Kerwin 		L L W L - L 1
(6)
J. Kim		 L L L L W - 1

You may also download a compressed tar file containing the complete collected games, including Title match.

Commented games

Commentary is available for some games, or portions of games:

Title Match

The title match was played in Seattle, WA, at the 1995 Go Congress between the top two finishers in the the Challenger Round: Zhujiu Jiang and Jimmy Cha. In a best of three match, Zhujiu Jiang emerged victorious with a 2-1 record, making him the first North American Masters champion.

Game records are available:



See also information on the current North American Masters Tournament.



©1996 American Go Association
Please send comments and corrections to Jeff Shaevel, page maintainer.