World Amateur Go Championship
The International Go Federation World Amateur Go Championship (WAGC) has been held every year from 1979 onwards. Each participating national Go association sends one player, typically the amateur champion of the country concerned. The tournament has grown from 44 countries and territories in 1995 to 65 in 2006.
In its early years the WAGC was a knockout tournament, but nowadays it's an 8-round Swiss. (In 1984 and 1985 it was a 7-round Swiss). The time limits in 2006 were 90 minutes per player with 10 minutes/15 moves Canadian byo-yomi.
In 2006, Korea also started holding a world amateur championship. See Korea Prime Minister Cup World Baduk Championship.
The following is a list of winners to date:
1st 1979 Nie Weiping (China) 2nd 1980 Imamura Fumiaki (Japan) 3rd 1981 Shao Zhenzhong (China) 4th 1982 Cao Dayuan (China) 5th 1983 Ma Xiaochun (China) 6th 1984 Wang Qun (China) 7th 1985 Wang Jianhong (China) 8th 1986 Chan Ka Yui (Hong Kong) 9th 1987 Imamura Fumiaki (Japan) 10th 1988 Zhang Wendong (China) 11th 1989 Che Zewu (China) 12th 1990 Chang Hao (China) 13th 1991 Imamura Fumiaki (Japan) 14th 1992 Kikuchi Yasuro (Japan) 15th 1993 Sun Yiguo (China) 16th 1994 Hiraoka Satoshi (Japan) 17th 1995 Hirata Hironori (Japan) -17th WAGC 18th 1996 Liu Jun (China) -
18th WAGC 19th 1997 Liu Jun (China) -
19th WAGC 20th 1998 Kim Ch'an-u (Korea) -
20th WAGC 21st 1999 Yu Chae-seong (Korea) -
21st WAGC 22nd 2000 Sakai Hideyuki (Japan) -
22nd WAGC 23rd 2001 Li Daichun (China) -
23rd WAGC 24th 2002 Fu Li (China) -
24th WAGC 2003 not held due to SARS outbreak. 25th 2004 Kang Wook Lee? (Korea) -
25th WAGC 26th 2005 Yu Qing Hu? (China) -
26th WAGC 27th 2006 Hiraoka Satoshi (Japan) -
27th WAGC
27th WAGC IGF report
See also
List of winners on Nihon Ki-in site
Incheon World Amateur Baduk Championship.
Amateur to Professional
The level of play at the WAGC is obviously quite high, and many of its amateur winners have gone on to become successful professionals:
- Cao Dayuan (9-dan)
- Chan Ka Yui (9-dan)
- Chang Hao (9-dan)
- Che Zewu (7-dan)
- Kim Ch'an-u (3-dan)
- Ma Xiaochun (9-dan)
- Nie Weiping (9-dan)
- Sakai Hideyuki (7-dan)
- Shao Zhenzhong (9-dan)
- Wang Jianhong (9-dan)
- Wang Qun (8-dan)
- Yu Chae-seong (2-dan)
- Zhang Wendong (9-dan)