The North American Ing Masters (NAIM) Championship is the North
American continental championship. Featured in a variety of formats over the years, this year’s tournament — which kicked off Sunday night at the U.S. Go Congress — is a 16-person, 4-round Swiss tournament that will determine the North American Masters Champion. This tournament is invitation only, and participants are determined by qualification tournaments played over the six months before Congress begins.
Qualification: All players must be rated 4 dan or higher, be eligible to represent the US internationally, and have earned enough points through qualifier competitions to be listed in the top 16 eligible, interested players.
Top row: Mingjiu Jiang 7P; Zi Yang Hu 1P; Huiren Yang 1P; Calvin Sun 7d
2nd row: Daniel Chou 7d; Dae Hyuk Ko 7d; Yongfei Ge 7d; Guozhong Zhuang 6d
3rd row: Kuo-Ruey Han 6d; Vincent Zhuang 6d; Zhaonian Chen 7d; Juyong Koh 7d
4th row: Curtis Tang 7d; Kevin Chao 5d; Philip London 4d; Yuan Zhou 7d
photos by Steve Colburn; collage by Chris Garlock
