The 44th World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) is being held on 19–22 May in Tokyo, Japan, at the Japan Go Association headquarters in Ichigaya. 60 players from around the world have assembled to compete for the title of the amateurs’ world champion. The tournament coincides with a celebratory event for the Japan Go Association, which turns 100 years this year.

One day prior to the start of the tournament, on 18 May, participants played goodwill matches against Japanese insei and amateur players. This was followed by the opening ceremony and then an exhibition match by the legendary Japanese professionals Ōtake Hideo and Takemiya Masaki. Finally, participants teamed up to play rengo matches against Ichiriki Ryō Kisei, Michael Redmond 9-dan, Yūki Satoshi 9-dan, Tsuruyama Atsushi 8-dan, and Rin Kanketsu 8-dan.

Ōtake Hideo, honorary Gosei (right), playing Takemiya Masaki 9-dan (middle), with Antti Törmänen 1-dan (left) recording

Two rounds of games were played on the following day, 19 May. Because of recent developments in go AI, players were required to deposit their mobile phones during the games and had to go through body scans by metal detector.

The championship is played with the Swiss system, spanning eight rounds. Usually, early rounds of such a tournament will see players of comparatively differing levels play each other, but on the second round of the tournament there were already high-level match-ups such as Japan playing Czechia, one of the strongest participating European countries. More heated matches are expected tomorrow on day two, and day three may already see the main winning candidates start knocking one another out.

The tournament results can be found on the tournament website. Some records of the games played are also available for download.