News / Articles

An “exhausted” Guanyu Song prevailed over the tenacious Eric Yoder Thursday night at the National Go Center to become the newest professional Go player certified by the North American Go Federation (NAGF). Complete tourney results here.

The decisive second-round match stretched nearly four hours, went 257 moves, and featured multiple complex battles—mirroring the intensity of the morning’s three-hour, 229-move game. Michael Redmond 9P provided live commentary for a large and appreciative audience on YouTube and Twitch, also reviewing the morning round and several semi-final highlights.

Following the victory, AGA President Gurujeet Khalsa presented Song with his NAGF professional certificate, congratulating him on his achievement in the weeklong tournament. Song also collected the $2,000 top prize, while runner-up Yoder took home $1,000.

Song credited his preparation to playing extensively and studying joseki. “I wound up messing up a lot of them,” he admitted with a smile. Asked what advice he’d give aspiring players, Song drew a comparison to his work as a machine learning engineer: “Definitely play more games. When we train models, if you get more data, if you spend more time training, it will get better.”

Looking ahead, Song said he feels confident about facing most pros in North America and is eager to compete in professional tournaments. For him, the attraction of Go remains profound: “Like math and physics, it is very elegant. It has a real beauty.”