World Amateur Championship

Each year we nominate one player to represent us in the World Amateur Go Championship, based on results in the British Championship; normally the player with the most points in this table who has earned points in the last 5 years and is also an Association member. More details are here and a list of past representatives here. Details prior to 2000 are here.

No points awarded in 2020. In 2021 points were awarded for the British Open (after awarding half a MM point for forced byes).

Player Total 23 22 21 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Matthew Macfadyen36            9 9 99 8 9 9 9 9 9 9
Alistair Wall 32    42 2        2   2 1   1
Andrew Simons 26½    7759  4                 
Bruno Poltronieri 24 7   3                          
Charles Hibbert 23½     466                         
Nick Krempel 22½            774 3              
Hui Wang 21               8               
Young Kim19                            5 8 6
Boris Power (Mitrovic) 18½    4                          
Piers Shepperson17½                      4        
Alex Rix 15    63 25         5 5 7 3 3    
Alex Kent 13         76                       
Quentin Mills 11                           5   3  
Richard Hunter 10½                              
Harry Fearnley10   1                          
Jon Diamond 10                     4        
Simon Shiu                                 
Ho Yeung Woo 9 9                                
Gaoge Wang 9  9                               
Daniel Hu 9   9 9                             
Andrew Kay 9    9  89982                     
Sam Aitken 9     9      0     1             
Junnan Jiang 9       9                          
Bei Ge 9                 9 9            
Scott Cobbold 1                               
Vanessa Wong                               
William Brooks 6                            
Matthew Cocke 6              65  6 7 8 8 6 7
Andrew Jones 6                          1 4      
Des Cann 6      1501    34 4 8 7 57 8
Alex Selby            0   7            
Felix Wang                                 
Jim Clare                                 
Alan Thornton 5            1                   
Peikai Xue                                 
Jun Su                                 
Tik Wai Cheung                                 
Zhan Shi                                 
Toby Manning  3                              
Gong Cheng                                 
Sam Bithell 4     4                            
Matthew Crosby 4               4               
Charles Matthews 4                             40
Kiyohiko Tanaka 3         1   1         1         
Stuart Barthropp 3                3                
Christian Scarff                                  
Joanne Leung 2      2                           
Matthew Scott 2              2                 
Mike Charles 2                             2    
Alain Cheung                                 
Gene Wong                                 
Gokul Ramanan Subramanian                                 
Richard Wheeldon                                 
Michael Kyle                                 
Jim Clare                                 
George Zhou 1 1                                
Paul Christie 1                    1             
John Hobson 1                          1      
James Hutchinson 1        1                         
Francis Roads 0         022          3            
Tim Hunt 0 1151 1   4          2     1  

Some players are known to be ineligible to represent the UK in the World Amateur (under the current rules). Their names are shown like this. (They still accumulate points in case the rules (or their status) ever change).

The points awarded to the player who went to the World Amateur in a given year are displayed like this. Often in the past the Challenger’s Tournament took place at the same time as the World Amateur Tournament so the representative could not take part in that year’s British Championship unless they were defending champion.

For some years until 2005, a defending champion who lost the title match got 5 points. It used to be 4 points. From 2006 the defending champion takes part in the League, scoring points according to placing.

Past Representatives

Note: The WAQ points system did not exist when the first four representatives were selected.

There was no WAGC in 2020 or 2022, due to travel restrictions associated with Covid. The 2021 event was held as a mixed face-to-face (in Vladivostok) and on-line event.

YearRepresentativeResult
2023Tim Hunt35th/46
2021Alex Kent (playing on-line)33rd/57
2019Andrew Kay27th/59
2018Daniel Hu26th/61
2017Alex Rix41st/50
2016Andrew Simons21st/55
2015Des Cann35th/57
2014Francis Roads44th/54
2013Andrew Kay24th/56
2012Sam Aitken30th/56
2011Alex Selby43rd/57
2010T Mark Hall41st/60
2009Matthew Cocke33rd/66
2008Matthew Macfadyen20th/68
2007Bei Ge16th/68
2006Des Cann30th/68
2005David Ward44th/65
2004Alex Rix20th/64
2003Matthew Macfadyen—World Amateur Baduk Championship, in Korea19th/58
2002Matthew Cocke22nd/61
2001Des Cann39th/56
2000Charles Matthews32nd/55
before 2000

Selection Details

We say normally because the final decision of who to send lies with the Board For the representative this entails an all-expenses-paid trip (but recently excluding plane fares), usually to Japan, courtesy of the event’s sponsors. The representative needs to abide by the IGF Code of Conduct, which can be seen on the IGF Members Documents page.

The process is defined by Section 6.10 of our Policies, but a guide is:
The eight highest-placed players in the British Go Championship receive points. Normally the person with the highest accumulated total, who has earned points in the last 5 years (amendment by Council 21st February 2010), is nominated as our representative. That player’s accumulated points are then reset to zero. We say normally because the final decision of who to send lies with the Board of the Association. For example someone becoming British Go Champion for the first time might receive a priority invitation the next year.

Last updated Thu Jan 25 2024.
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