North American Professional Championship

The North American Professional Championship is the top individual title among the professionals certified by the North American Go Federation, the body the American and Canadian Go Associations created to run a professional system of their own. For most of Go's history on the continent the strongest players were amateurs, and the few professionals who lived there had earned their rank in Japan, Korea or China. The championship brings the region's home-grown professionals together with those established players, and the American Go E-Journal relays its games live so the wider North American Go community can follow along. The field is small by East Asian standards, but it marks North American Go growing a professional scene it can call its own.