Guanyu Song will represent North America at the 22nd World Students Go Oza Championship in Tokyo, Japan in February 2024.



The World Students Go Oza Championship was founded in 2003 and continues to be organised by students as a way for top undergraduate university players around the world to meet and compete with each other and determine the world’s top student player.



Song won the North American qualifier in late December. The qualifier consisted of the eight highest-rated players among those registered and was a 3-round single-elimination tournament held on KGS on 23–24 December. The first round saw no upsets with the top four seeds, all 7d players, taking down their opposition. The second and third rounds were held the next day, both with an online proctor to ensure the integrity of the games. Guanyu Song 7d and Lambert Lee 7d took down Shang Zhou 7d and Brady Zhang 7d respectively, setting the stage for the final round. Lambert had won the qualifier last year, and winning the final game would qualify him to be the North American representative for a second year in a row. ‘However,’ reports Justin Teng, ‘Guanyu held strong and defeated Lambert by killing a large dragon, and overall Guanyu exhibited stable play throughout the tournament.’

Song is currently studying computer science at the University of Toronto and planning to pursue further education in the field of artificial intelligence. ‘I learned Go at a young age in China and moved to Canada when I was 14,’ he said. ‘Since then, I’ve been very active in the North America Go community through teaching and competing. I love to explore different cultures and meet new friends, which makes this championship an invaluable opportunity for me.’