2014 AGA Professional Qualifier

badukJr · **#21**

Thank you to xed for keeping the bracket up to date :bow:

Joaz Banbeck · **#22**

Here at the Normandie. First 15 moves are steady and uneventful. Sun gets a bit aggressive with 16.Lin looks alarmed for a second, sacs one stone, slides away.

4:22 Sun attaches, crowding the group. Lin looks concerned again, then slide away into the center.. Sun looks calm and focused, playing quickly.

4:26 Lin stops running, starts what could become a counter attack. Now Sun exibits first nerves, fiddling with stones.

Joaz Banbeck · **#23**

4:29 Sun was ahaed on time, now almost even. He finally moves, a thoroughly defensive move.
Lin studies it, then suddenly sits up straight, looking as if he has seen somethin important. He grabs a stone, pauses, puts it back in the bowl. Two minutes pass, he does it again.

Joaz Banbeck · **#24**

Move 32. Both have decide that there are more important things to do elsewhere on the board. Sun starts a group that has to run. He fiddles with a stone, places it. Lin attacks, gets some territory. He looks calm now, leaning back in his chair, as if he were master of all he surveys. Only the tapping foot under the table betrays his tension.

Joaz Banbeck · **#25**

Move 36. Sun using more time now. He is behind by 3 minutes.

Lin shuffling in his chair, yawning, waiting for Sun to move.

Joaz Banbeck · **#26**

Sun peeped to get some room, Lin answers, Sun runs some more.
Lin thinks a bit , chases.
Sun tenuous. Lin leans over the board, staring at the group that he has been chasing. Sun looks back at it too.
Sun is hiding in his collar a bit now, as he did when Gan got a better position against him on Saturday. He's worried.

Joaz Banbeck · **#27**

Lin looks at the target, then at the tenuki, obviously conflicted.
He sets his stone back in the bowl, starts scanning the whole board. His lips move a bit, silently. He's counting.

5:43. Lin commits, answering the tenuki

DrStraw · **#28**

How many people have qualified as professionals in NA? What are the benefits of achieving this level? If there are only a few of them then there can be no way they can make a living from it.

Just curious.

Joaz Banbeck · **#29**

Live at the tournament...
Sun has invested one more move to stabilize his weak group. Lin peeps twice to ruin its shape. Then he slides under, taking away eye space.
Sun ignores, tenukis again. Lin leans low over the target, slaps down a stone - louder than any stone played so far.

Joaz Banbeck · **#30**

Sun scrambles for eye space on the side, gets some, tenukis again. Lins shoulders slump as he looks at the resulting gain for Sun.
He eventually shrugs, plays for influence.

Sun invades a corner, Lin counts again, tenukis.

Sun appears to be ahead by a few, but his weak group is slowly being surrounded. Lin stares at it again, as if intending to kill it by sheer force of will.

Sun looks confident now, Lin looks worried. He chews lightly on his knuckle, then continues the attack.

msgreg · **#31**

DrStraw wrote:

How many people have qualified as professionals in NA?

The AGA has updated its website within the last few months with details on professionals and its process.
http://www.usgo.org/professionals

Quote:

The AGA's certification process, begun in 2011, is the certifying authority for the United States and Canada. The AGA is the 5th Go association which has its own professional system in the world after Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan. The AGA certified its first and second Go Professionals in 2012 and plans to certify one additional professional in the Second Pro Qualification Tournament in January 2-8, 2014.

There are links from that page to more information.

Joaz Banbeck · **#32**

The sun is setting here in Los Angeles. The nearby buildings have an orange glow slowly sliding up their sides.
We are on the second floor. Rush hour traffic rattles on the street below.

Sun defends, Lin continues the attack.

Joaz Banbeck · **#33**

It looks like Sun can defend easily enough, but getting two eyes leaves him in gote, according to my reading. Lin has gotten major influence while attacking.
Sun frowns, then pushes into the center, distaining the safety of the side.

Sun counter attacks. Lin gets safety by going for a moyo. Sun invades that.

Lin looks unhappy now, He frowns more, and his feet have begun twitching again.
Sun is as calm as Buddha. I think that he believes that he is winning.

Joaz Banbeck · **#34**

Lin plays yose move, Sun tenukis again. Lin is clearly aggitated, jittery, swaying in his chair. He pauses, counts again. His feet are twitching almost non stop now.

Both player's body language says that Sun is winning.

My battery is low and my thumbs are sore. Closing down for now.

Joaz Banbeck · **#35**

The tide may have turned. Sun may have tenukiedonce too many times. Lin's center influence has grown. Now he tenukis, going back to a corner that Sun left a bit loose.
Sun is jumpy, slapping his thigh, as if to beat some fighting spirit into himself. It doesn't work. He runs. Lin chases, making territory.
Lin's feet are still now.

Joaz Banbeck · **#36**

Lin's moves don't make sense to me. He had Sun on the ropes, then forced him into invading his own recently acquired territory. Sun lived, and now has sente.

Joaz Banbeck · **#37**

Lin is playing helicoptergo, letting his stone get to within an inch of the board, then lifting it again. His feet twitch all the time now. Sun now helicopters too, but stops six inches from the board.

Joaz Banbeck · **#38**

Sun wins. More later.

snorri · **#39**

Thanks for the dramatic coverage, Joaz. :bow:

daal · **#40**

Yes, thanks Joaz, that was fun!

2014 AGA Professional Qualifier

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