The North American Go Federation has been invited yet again to another exciting tournament; The Quzhou Lanke Cup World Weiqi Open Tournament! The event is sponsored by the Chinese Weiqi Association, the Quzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Quzhou Municipal People's Government, supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Weiqi Association, the Quzhou City "World Go Holy Land" construction work team, Quzhou Sports Bureau, Quzhou It is organized by City Dayuan Construction Investment and Development Group Co., Ltd. and co-organized by Quzhou City Urban Construction Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Quzhou Lanke Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd. Last year the NAGF sent Alexander Qi 1P (as reported by Edward Zhang in this AGA E-journal article) but he was defeated in the first round by Li Weiqing 9D (see the game below thanks to K2SS) This year will see 48 players in total. There are 14 seeds, and the quotas are allocated to the top 2 from the previous session, 4 from China, 2 from South Korea, 2 from Japan, 2 from Chinese Taipei, and 2 as wild cards. The qualifiers are selected by each country and region. The quotas are divided into 14 people from China, 9 people from South Korea, and 5 people from Japan (with these three countries each agreeing to send 1 female and 1 "senior" Go player (45 years or older)), 2 people from Chinese Taipei, 2 people from Europe, and 2 people from North America. The 16 bye players in the first round of this tournament will allocate their places according to the top 16 of the previous session. The competition adopts a single-elimination elimination system from the first round to the semi-finals, and the final adopts a best-of-three games system. The top 48, top 32, and top 16 of this tournament are planned to be held in Quzhou, Zhejiang in April 2024 to determine the top eight. The top 8 and semi-finals are planned to be held in Wush, Xinjiang in June 2024. The final three games are planned to be held in Quzhou, Zhejiang in August 2024. Prizes this year will also be generous with the losers in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds taking earning $2,800, $4,200, $7,000, and $14,000 respectively. The semi-finalists and runner-up will earn $28,000 and $84,000 and the Champion will receive a whopping $250,000! This year the NAGF player selection will begin the first weekend of March. NAGF Executive Director Hajin Lee sent all of the professionals in North America an invite to compete in the Qualifiers but it seems the same 4 pros from our Chunlan Cup Qualifiers were the only ones to reply. These qualifying matches will be double-elimination to select two NAGF pros, using AGA rules, played on OGS with a live proctor, using 1 hour main time and 5 sets of 60 second byo-yomi. Round 1 of the Qualifiers will take place Saturday March 2nd at 12pm EST and will be between Ryan Li 4P who will be hoping to avoid mis-clicking against Alexander Qi 1P as well as between Mingjiu Jjiang 7P and newly minted NAGF pro Michael Chen 1P. Game 2 will take place on March 3rd at 5pm EST between all for players with someone securing a spot with a 2-0 record and someone being knocked out with a 0-2 record. Both rounds will be broadcast on the BadukClub Twitch and can also be observed on OGS where they are being played. Round 3 to decide the second player to represents the NAGF will take place at a yet-to-be-determined date and time. The European Go Federation sent Ali Jabarin 2P who was also knocked out in the first round. Shengyi Gu Zihao (China) bested Shin Jinseo (Korea) 2-1 in the final of Quzhou Lanke Cup to achieve a personal double crown. I will post any game links and event updates at the top of this article.
