Asian Games Go

Go's appearance as a medal sport at the Asian Games — first at Guangzhou 2010, then Hangzhou 2022 — is the closest the game has come to formal recognition as a sport on the international stage. The decision was the result of decades of advocacy by Chinese, Japanese and Korean associations, all attempting to fit a 4,000-year-old board game into the institutional language of modern athletics. Because the games come only every four years and gold medals count toward national medal tables, an Asian Games title carries a national-team weight unlike any open or invitational world cup.