Joanne Missingham
Joanne Missingham (Chinese name: 黑嘉嘉, Hanyu Pinyin: Hēi Jiājiā) is an Australian-born 7 dan professional player of the Taiwan Qiyuan. As of the 2023-12-22 rating list, she is the #1 ranked female player and #26 overall in Taiwan, #39 female and #475 overall in the world.
Joanne Missingham was born in Brisbane, Queensland on 26th May 1994, to an Australian father and Taiwanese mother, Hei Nanping. Her ancestors came from Heihuawa Village, Zhaoji Town, Dengzhou City, Henan Province. There are only two surnames in this village: 黑 (Hēi) meaning Black and 白 (Bαi) meaning White.
Joanne Missingham or Hei Jiajia has a sister two years older, Hei Xuanxuan. Missingham plays professionally under her mother's maiden name and Chinese given name, Hēi Jiājiā. Missingham moved with her family to Taiwan when she was four years old, and started to play Go at the age of six. Two years later she passed the amateur 1-dan milestone. Studying under Zhou Keping, Missingham continued to progress in Go, while also pursuing her interests in gymnastics, music (piano and pipa), Chinese calligraphy, and swimming. In 2005 she moved with her family to San Diego, California, USA. Her first language is Chinese, and she also speaks English.
Missingham studied with Ruan Yunsheng for two months in 2007, and took the Chinese professional exam that year, but without success ( ref).
In April 2008, Joanne and her mother moved to Tianjin, China, where she studied with Wu Kai until her promotion to professional shodan in July 2008. She thus became the first Australian-born professional go player. Missingham is one of only five western-born female go players to become professional (with Janice Kim, Svetlana Shikshina, Diana Koszegi and Mariya Zakharchenko).
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Life events
- 2004 Represented Taiwan in the Amateur Pair Go Championship.
- 2005 Represented Taiwan in the Ing World Youth Goe Championship in Barcelona, Spain.
- 2006 Oceania Toyota and Denso Cup Open 3rd place.
- 2006 Taiwan National Female Champion.
- 2008 Oceania Toyota and Denso Cup Open Champion.
- 2008 Took second place in the Chinese professional qualifying tournament in July, and was awarded professional status, the first Australian citizen to achieve this.
- 2008 Represented Oceania in the World Oza tournament, the youngest player ever to do so.
- 2008 Represented Australia at the World Mind Sports Games in Beijing. Reached the quarter-finals of the Women's Individual Go tournament, where she lost to Park Jieun 9p of South Korea, the eventual bronze medal winner.
- 2009 In October, chosen to represent Taiwan at the 2010 Asian Games, with 8 wins and 2 losses in the selection tournament.
- 2010 In January, became a 1-dan member of the Taiwan Qiyuan.
- 2010 In September, representing Oceania, was runner-up in the inaugural Bingsheng Cup, defeating Aoki Kikuyo 8p, Li He 3p and Zheng Yan 2p, but lost the final game against Park Jieun 9p.
- 2010 - In October, one of eight Taiwan representatives at the All Asia New Star, scoring 2:1, which included the only Taiwanese win against Korea. Qualified for the 3rd Taiwan Qisheng, winning the preliminary league with a score of 5:0.
- 2010 Promoted to 2 dan on 31st October, after 20 victories as 1 dan, including international games and domestic tournaments.
- 2011 Promoted to 5 dan on 5th January for her performance in 2010 Bingsheng Cup.
- 2011 League participation in the 4th Taiwan Qiwang (finishing 3:4)
- 2011 League participation in the 7th Taiwan Guoshou (finishing 5:2, tied with 4 other players for 1st place but, by previous performance, played the play-off for 4th place, defeating Zhou Junxun).
- 2011 Qualified for the 4th Taiwan Qisheng, winning the tie break against Zhou Pingqiang who shared 3-2 score.
- 2011 Ranked no.6 of the Taiwan Qiyuan, winning 64 games (most wins in the year in Taiwan) and losing 34.
- 2011 Led a boycott of female players at the Qiandeng Cup? when they learned that male players were paid 2000 Yuan (US$886) per game while female players were paid nothing.
- 2011 Tied for second place in the first Taiwan Women's Mingren
- 2012 Promoted to 6 dan in 2012-05-27 (70 wins as 5 dan).
- 2012 League participation in the 5th Taiwan Qiwang (finishing 3:4)
- 2012 League participation in the 8th Taiwan Guoshou
- 2012 Reached the semifinal in the 5th Taiwan Qisheng.
- 2014 Illness (leukemia) and death of her mother Hei Nanping. Jiajia's grieving over her mother, also her manager, companion at tournaments, and encourager, meant less play and success.
- 2015 Promoted to 7 dan due to winning the 1st Women's Zuiqiang
- 2016 Highest ranked female player in Taiwan, winner of 2nd Women's Zuiqiang
- 2017 Winner of 3rd Women's Zuiqiang
- 2018 Second place at 1st Senko Cup
- 2019 Winner of 5th Women's Zuiqiang
Head-to-head scores against current female rivals
(Based on Hei Jiajia, Go Ratings and game list), as of 4 June 2024
- Choi Jung, 9p, current Korean and World #1 female: 215
- Yu Zhiying, 8p, #4 female in world, #1 female in China: 316
- Kim Eunji, 9p, #2 female and #1 female teenager in world, #2 female in South Korea: 00
- Zhou Hongyu, 7p, #3 female in world, #2 female in China: 10
- Ueno Asami, 5p, #5 female in world, #1 female in Japan: 10
- Lu Minquan, 6p, #6 female in world, #3 female in China: 11
- O Yujin, 9p, #7 female in world, #3 female in South Korea: 11
- Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #8 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 34
- Kim Chaeyeong, 9p, #9 female in world, #4 female in South Korea: 14
- Li He, 6p, #10 female in world, #4 female in China: 27
- Wu Yiming, 4p, #11 female and #2 female teenager in world, #5 female in China: 00
- Cho Seunga, 6p, #12 ranked female player and #304 overall, and #5 ranked player in Korea: 01
- Tang Jiawen, 6p, #13 female in world, and #6 female in China: 01
- Wang Chenxing, 5p, #16 female in world, #8 female in China: 15
- Rui Naiwei, 9p, #20 female in world, many years #1 female in world: 16
- Ueno Risa, 2p, #21 female and #4 female teenager in world, #4 female in Japan: 00
- Gao Xing, 4p, #18 in world, #9 in China: 30
- Kim Hye-min, 9p, #25 female in the world, #8 female player in Korea: 20
- Kim Dayoung, 5p, Kim Chaeyeong's younger sister, #27 ranked female in the world and #9 female in Korea: 01
- Nakamura Sumire, 3p, #14 ranked female and #3 female teenager in the world, #3 ranked female in Japan, #6 ranked female in Korea: 00 (Hei won a friendly exhibition game with Nakamura aged 9, just before Nakamura became a pro. Hei played White with no komi)
- Xie Yimin, 7p, #30 ranked female in the world, #5 ranked female in Japan (#1 for many years): 63
- Nyu Eiko, 4p, #34 ranked female player and #304 overall, and #7 ranked female player in Japan: 11
Personal Life
In 2016 she signed a record deal with Taiwanese record company Seed Music (種子音樂) to appear in adverts and television productions. She is also an actress, and played a post officer in the award winning Taiwanese romantic comedy My Missing Valentine (2020).
Links
- New Zealand Go Society webpage (archived version of April 2013)
- American Go Association eJournal report dated 28 July 2008
- Ranka Online interview dated 6 October 2008
- Four page article in Weiqi Tiandi October 1st, 2010 issue.
- Joanne Missingham Stands up for Gender Equality in Go, webpage, American Go E-Journal, 7 Nov 2011.
- Meng-Hsuan Yang, Taiwanese Go Champion Joanne Missingham: I Only Finished Middle School, But I Am Who I Am webpage, CommonWealth? Magazine (Taiwan), vol. 685, 12 Nov 2019.
Videos
- Taiwan team preparing for Asian Games 2010. YouTube link
- Taiwanese news feature on Asian Games 2010 trials. YouTube link
- Taiwanese news segment from Pair Go World Cup in 2022 on her and Xu Haohong defeating the Japanese pair. Youtube link
- 'Quick questions and answers' interviewed by Fan Weijing in October 2023. bilibili link
Pictures
hei jiajia female zuiqiang 2019 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)
jiajia asian games 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)
jiajia asian games 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)