In mid-2023 conversations started about hosting the World Amateur in North America in 2025. A few months later we started looking closely at Vancouver, and soon thereafter a venue contract was signed, and planning kicked into high gear. With key organisers in the USA, Toronto, Japan, and Vancouver the planning was complex, but as the date approached all the pieces fell into place.
On 16 May 2025, 52 players from around the world arrived in Vancouver. The usual Asian powerhouses were as always top favourites, but North America had two of their top amateurs in Brady Zhang (Canada) and Alan Huang (USA) hoping to contend, and Europe was lead by Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia (France, qualified to turn pro this summer) and Lukas Podpera 7d.
After an afternoon of friendly play with the community, a lovely opening ceremony and banquet, the fireworks kicked off on the morning of the 18th. The early rounds were a test if any of the ‘hoping to contend’ group could score a win over Japan, China, or Korea. In the end it did not happen, but there was a really dangerous moment for China in the first round against Lukas Kramer 6d from Germany.
In the position above Ma Tianfang (China) playing white needed to defend at A or B. A looked natural, and perhaps not enough thought went into the choice. But afterwards Black has a really powerful attack follow up at D. To make D work black needs to get the exchange of C played. If white will ignore C then black should play it as soon as possible. Presumably black judged it to be always forcing, but wound up leaving it too late. If played early black would have taken a large lead, but with the game timing the position reverted to even. Perhaps thrown by the missed opportunity Lukas lost focus, and the game slipped away. (Full records of the games can be found at the end of this article.)
There were many tough games, but no real excitement at the very top until China and Korea faced off in round 5. This was a long difficult battle; the game approached its climax in the late middle game fighting.
In the position above, Ma Tianfang playing black needed to defend against one of the threats at A or B. In the game he chose to protect against A. But when Saewoo Kim pulled out his stone at B there was no effective defence, and the loss was too large. Korea was looking like the tournament favourite.
Round 6 had the fateful meeting of the only two undefeated countries remaining, Japan and Korea. In this game Korea did not find any chances, smothered by solid play from Japan. Was the tournament theirs?
Round 7 would answer that question. Japan had to face China. If China won (as they did) we would be thrown into a wild tiebreaker scenario. The middle game fighting was fierce, and the following position came up.
White (Minoru from Japan) needed to defend at A or B. Perhaps judging that A provided useful power against the left side three stones he chose A, but B with its increased centre power and eye shape was much better. Ma Tianfang did not let his opportunity slip away and closed out the game smoothly from here.
This left us entering round 8 with Japan, China, and Korea all 6-1. They closed out their final games without issue, and waited anxiously for the results. In the final game record entered to Leago, Turkey earned one SOS point for China, and put them one ahead of tied on SOS Japan and Korea. Japan then took second on SOSOS. The TD had been trying hard to ensure equal SOS opportunities, but perhaps regretted their success with this crazy close finish!
Full results and game records can be viewed on the tournament page (see the ‘matches’ section for the SGF records). Chief referee Michael Redmond 9P had been diligently reviewing the recorded games from each round with the AGA E-journal broadcast team. You can see all of them on Youtube in the WAGC playlist here.
With the matches over the players headed out on a tour to explore scenic Vancouver. The grey skies we had seen most of the week cleared up, and we got a lovely tour of a multitude of top Vancouver sites. Then it was off to a grand banquet at a local Chinese restaurant, and the players started to dream of next year.
We are very grateful for the support of our key sponsors of the International Go Federation, the Iwamoto North American Foundation, and the American Go Association, as well as support from private donors and Pandanet that made the event possible. We believe this is another major step to the WAGC as a world event, where it can be hosted around the globe.
Report by the Canadian Go Association