AGA Professional System

Note: to see the tournament draw – and download game records – scroll down to “Results”

History

The American Go Association (AGA) in December 2011 signed agreements with Korea to promote a new professional players’ system in the U.S. AGA Board Chairman Andy Okun signed the agreements with the Korea Baduk Association and the Korean go server TongYang Online (Tygem) December 19th 2011 in Seoul, Korea. “With the generous support of the KBA and Tygem, we are off to a great start,” Okun said. “These partnerships will help grow go in the U.S. and produce players who can win at the international level. This may be a long road, but with our partners’ help it will be a successful finish.” Said KBA Secretary General Yang Jae-Ho, “The KBA wants the AGA to grow, and is hoping to see American professional players who defeat Asian players in an international tournament.” He added that “I hope to see even bigger tournaments than the Samsung and LG Cup in America.” And Tygem CEO Jeong In-Soo said that “I sincerely hope TongYang Online and the AGA will lead the globalization of baduk through our cooperation.” Tygem agreed to provide $30,000 annually to fund the AGA’s professional certification tournament, which will be broadcast exclusively via Tygem, which recently launched its English language website, and is seeking to expand its player base outside Asia. Under the KBA Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU), as part of its cultural mission to spread go around the world, has agreed to allow AGA-certified North American professionals to compete in five major Korean tournaments and to provide them with low-cost training. Kim Myung-Wan 9P, the KBA representative to the U.S., will continue to support the AGA’s efforts, and will chair a committee designing the certification system and developing pro activities. Okun credited the two agreements to Kim’s “hard work and perseverance.” Click here for the Tygem MOU.

Qualifiers

2012

Qualifiers and their winners:
Cotsen Open: Calvin Sun and Curtis Tang
Maryland Open: Andy Liu
Seattle Prelim: Edward Kim
Tygem Online: Soo-il Kim, Matthew Burrall, Eric Lui, Bill Lin, Will Gan, Andrew Lu, Justin Teng, and Ben Lockhart
Canadian Selected Players: Gansheng Shi and Jing Yang
American Selected Players: Hugh Zhang and Yuan Zhou

Finals

Rules

Full Rules

The tournament director shall be the arbiter for this event. Questions about rules and disputes shall be brought to the tournament directors attention immediately.

All players and alternates must meet the following requirements: 1. Each must be citizens of either the United States or Canada. A copy of proof of citizenship (birth certificate, front page of government-issued passport, naturalization documentation or similar) must be presented prior to participation in the ATPF. These will be kept on file with the AGA Pro System Committee.
2. Each must have participated in certified qualifying rounds or been invited and passed the requirements for invitation.

There will be two rounds per day. There will be eight rounds of play during the finals.

The following outlines the AGA Professional Rules to be used in the Promotional and Exhibition Leagues:
1. All games will be played by official AGA rules, except as noted below, which take precedence over published rules.
2. All games will be played even (no handicap).
3. Time control: 1:30 main time with 5 periods of 40 seconds overtime. The clocks are not stopped except when needed for meal breaks. The player whose move it is will seal their move with the TD until play resumes. The board will be covered during breaks and neither player may view the board or game record during this time.
4. Japanese style counting will be used for ALL games. The only exception will be in the event of dispute over prisoners when the TD may call for Chinese counting.
5. Players are presumed to understand the use of the “pass stone” in AGA Tournament games and play accordingly. Players are to fill in all dame as appropriate with this rule.
6. Illegal moves: Any illegal move, such as retaking a ko out of turn or playing two moves in a row will result in an immediate FORFEIT.
7. Players choosing to resign should make their decision clear and unambiguous. After resigning, please ensure that the opponent has clearly understood the intention.
Resignation may be indicated by either:
a) placing 2 stones simultaneously on the board, or
b) saying clearly, “I resign”

Format

The finals will be run as a 16-player Modified Double Elimination tournament.

1. Seeding: Players will be seeded into the tournament by their AGA or equivalent rankings. Players will be listed in order from 1 (highest rank) to 16 (lowest rank) with best estimates made for unranked or non-AGA rankings. Seeds from prior years must be interspersed per their ranks and are NOT automatically placed at the top of the list. Every attempt will be made to createa fair and accurate dispersal of players into the initial order. This list will be published prior to the event and any disputes must be made prior to the first round of play

2. Pairings: Players are promoted based on the results of MATCHES with opponents. A match may consist of either a single game or a Best-of-Three (Bo3) competition, as given in the full rules.

3. Matches: Each match is considered independent of prior play. The balancing of the players seeks to prevent repeat pairings as much as possible, but there is the possibility in the second bracket for this to occur. The determination of who moves on is solely determined by the winner of the current match (single game or Bo3).

4. Standings: The chart in the full rules shows the progress through the tournament and the positions won at the end. The results of the finals will result in two players being promoted to the rank of Professional 1 Dan and two players selected as seeds into next year's finals.

2012

Tournament Director: Jeff Shaevel

Schedule Game schedule (Sunday 29 July - Saturday 4th Aug; Eastern time):

*Sun 9am 1A-H
*Sun 4pm 2A-D (game 1)
*Mon 9am 2A-D (game 2), 2E-H
*Mon 4pm 2A-D (game 3, if needed)
*Tue 9am 3A-B (game 1), 3C-F
*Tue 4pm 3A-B (game 2), 4B-C
*Wed 9am 3A-B (game 3, if needed)
*Wed 4pm 5A-B
*Thu 9am 4A (game 1), 6A (Game 1)
*Thu 4pm 4A (game 2), 6A (Game 2)
*Fri 9am 4A (game 3, if needed), 6A (Game 3, if needed)
*Fri 4pm 7A (game 1)
*Sat 9am 7A (game 2)
*Sat 4pm 7A (game 3, if needed)

Players

Results

Seed Player  1 A-H   Sun am   2 A-D   1 Sun pm   2 Mon am   3 Mon pm  best of 3  3 A-B   1 Tue am   2 Tue pm   3 Wed am  best of 3  Final   1 Thu am   2 Thu pm   3 Fri am  best of 3  First Pro  1 Andy Liu Liu W+r 1 - Liu ( B+r ) 2 - Liu ( W+r ) Liu wins 2-0 1 - Liu ( W+r ) 2 - Liu ( B+r ) Liu wins 2-0 1 - Liu ( W+10.5 ) 2 - Shi ( W+r ) 3 - Liu ( B+r ) Liu wins 2-1 8 Edward Kim 5 Calvin Sun Jianing W+2.5 13 Jianing Gan 7 Sooil Kim S. Kim B+r 1 - S. Kim ( W+r ) 2 - Lui ( W+r ) 3 - Lui ( B+3.5 ) Lui wins 2-1 15 Ben Lockhart 3 Eric Lui Lui B+r 11 Mathew Burrall 4 Curtis Tang Zhang W+8.5 1 - Zhang ( W+12.5 ) 2 - Zhang ( B+17.5 ) Zhang wins 2-0 1 - Shi ( B+2.5 ) 2 - Zhang ( B+7.5 ) 3 - Shi ( B+8.5 ) Shi wins 2-1 12 Hugh Zhang 8 Yuan Zhou Zhou B+17.5 16 Justin Teng 6 Gansheng Shi Shi B+r 1 - Yang ( W+r ) 2 - Shi ( W+6.5 ) 3 - Shi ( W+0.5 ) Shi wins 2-1 14 Andrew Lu 2 Jing Yang Yang B+r 10 Bill Lin
	Player from Round 1  2 E-H   Mon am   3 C-F   Tue am   4 B-C   Tue pm   5 A-B   Wed pm   6   1 Thu am   2 Thu pm   3 Fri am  best of 3/5  Final   1 Fri pm   2 Sat am   3 Sat pm  best of 3/5  Second Pro  Lui Lui ( W+r ) 1 - Gan ( W+t ) 2 - Gan ( B+t ) Gan wins 2-0 1 - Shi ( B+r ) 2 - Shi ( W+r ) Shi wins 2-0 (-1A) E. Kim Sun B+r Yang ( W+r ) Yang ( W+20.5 ) (-1B) Sun Yang (-1C) Lockhart Lockhart ( W+r ) Zhou ( W+r ) (-1D) Burrall Zhou Zhang Gan ( B+11.5 ) (-1E) Tang Tang ( W+r ) Tang ( W+r ) Gan ( W+0.5 ) (-1F) Teng S. Kim (-1G) Lu Lu ( W+1.5 ) Gan ( B+r ) (-1H) Lin Gan Shi

Exhibition League