The North American Masters Tournament

History

Sponsored by the Ing Foundation, the North American Masters Tournament was the first "real" online tournament, and remained the largest Internet-based tournament until it was discontinued in 2003. It was revived again in 2005 as the US Masters, but will be combined with the North American Ing Cup beginning in 2007. With up to ten certified professional players living in or hailing from North America, the NAMT gave them a rare opportunity for competitive play. Starting in 2000, the winners of the US Open and the North American Ing Cup entered the field. The best-of-three playoff was a prominent highlight of each year's US Go Congress.

The first NAMT 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 almost exclusively on the internet.

The NAMT is a tournament for professional Go players in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Unusually for a professional tournament, most of it is played over the Internet (on IGS). The final best-of-3 match was played over the board at the U.S. Go Congress until 2006.

The North American Masters Tournament is brought to you by the American Go Association, with generous financial support from the Ing Chang-Ki Weichi Educational Foundation and indispensable technical and logistical support from INET, NKB, Inc., and the Internet Go Server.

Purpose

There are three major goals for the NAMT:

To promote and to provide a base for North American resident professional competitive activites.
To provide and cultivate a base for a future American Professional system.
To promote Go activities, AGA sponsored tournaments and to expand the appreciation of and participation in GO.

Selection Criteria

Participation is by invitation, rating and eligibility.

Eligibility requirements

For any player to participate as an American Professional in this tournament, the player must meet the following criteria:

Be a certified professional from a recognized national Go Association,
Hold membership in the AGA,
Be a US citizen or a permanent resident, and
Have physically resided in the United States for at least seven of the last twelve calendar months.

For any player to participate as a non-professional in this tournament, the player must meet the following criteria:

Hold full AGA membership,
Be a US citizen or a permanent resident,
Have been physically resident in the United States for at seven of the last twelve calendar months, and
Played at least ten AGA-rated games in the prior year against other AGA-rated players who each held an AGA rating of at least 6 Dan at the time of each game.

The AGA may ask players to present proof of any or all of the above criteria before the player begins to play in the Tournament and players shall cooperate with such requests in a timely manner.

Current Event

Note: The North American Masters is also the selection tournament for the US representative to the Fujitsu Championship.

We are now soliciting bids from chapters interested in hosting qualifier tournaments for the 2010 North American Masters. We will sanction up to 8 qualification tournaments, with the expectation that there will be two in each region (East, West, and Central) and two on line tournaments. The bids must meet the qualification criteria specified on the application form (Click here). As the Ing foundation is no longer providing financial assistance, the former practice of providing funding to enhance the prize funds for qualification tournaments is no longer possible. Email tournaments@usgo.org for more information.

Qualifiers will compete in a 5 round tournament at the US Go Congress in Colorado Springs, July 31 through August 7. Qualification is based on points received by placing in these qualification events. The points available at each event depend on the average strength, and the number of participants. (Click here to see details of how the point system works.) Invitations to compete in the finals will go in the following order to: American Professionals, Seeded players (from high placement in the 2009 event), representatives of other countries (Canada 4, Mexico 1), any clear (untied) winner of a qualifier, and those receiving the highest point totals in the qualifiers.

Past Champions

Year	Champion
1995	Jiang Zhujiu
1996	Jiang Zhujiu
1997	Jiang Zhujiu
1998	Jiang Zhujiu
1999	Jiang Zhujiu
2000	Jiang Zhujiu
2001	Jiang Zhujiu
2002	Jiang Zhujiu
2005	Jie Li
2006	Jie Li

Next Event

This event was followed by the Ing Masters.