Promoting Go in the UK and beyond

Each year the BGA gets to nominate one player to represent us in the World Amateur Go Championship. For the representative this entails an all-expenses-paid trip, 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 BGA Council. For example someone becoming British Go Champion for the first time might receive a priority invitation the next year.

Current points

This table gives the points earned each year, and the current accumulated points. A list of past representatives is below.

Only currently active players are shown above.

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.