1st World Youth Goe Championship

Sponsored by Ing Foundation
The event took place in Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)
14 - 16 July 1984.

The first ever World Youth Championships were held in July 1984 in Taiwan. The event was the centre of a slight diplomatic rumpus in the Go World. Given the political status of Taiwan, mainland China not surprisingly refused to participate, while the Japanese only decided to take part at the last minute. This they probably regretted since they had difficulty finding a strong team (the schools had not yet broken up in Japan) and the best they could manage was eighth place.

The event was initiated and sponsored by the father figure of Taiwanese Go, C. K. Ing – a wealthy businessman who has lavished a fortune on promoting go in general and his own set of rules in particular. (He also sponsored the European Championships in Porrentruy by donating 250 sets with special bowls for checking that each side starts with 180 stones).

The final line up included 5 Taiwanese, 3 Koreans, 3 Japanese, 3 Europeans, a Brazilian, an American and a Canadian. Entry grades were wide ranging and inconsistent, because of the different systems the countries use.

Winner of the event was Kim Young Hwan, aged 13, from Korea, who defeated Taiwanese Yang Chia Jung, aged 12, in the final round. Both these two were trainee professionals, but from 1985 the event will exclude all professional players. Lee Chang-Ho from Korea was third, destined to be a top professional too.

Pn Name                Gr Yr Cy    1    2    3    4    5  W
 1 Kim Young Hwan      3d 13 KR  +18  +13   +7   +5   +2  5
 2 Yang Chia Jung      2d 13 CT  +11   +4   +6   +3   -1  4
 3 Lee Chang-Ho        2d  8 KR   +5  +12  +16   -2   +8  4 
 4 Ryu Si Han          3d 12 KR   +9   -2  +13   +6  +10  4 
 5 Chen                1d 14 CT   -3  +10   +9   -1  +11  3  
 6 Kan                 ?  12 HK  +15   +8   -2   -4   +9  3 
 7 Cheng               1k 12 CT  +10  +14   -1   -8  +12  3  
 8 Nagano Takashi      5d 13 JP  +17   -6  +15   +7   -3  3
 9 Kim J               5d 14 US   -4  +11   -5  +15   -6  2 
10 Jorge Sasaki        4d 14 BR   -7   -5  +12  +14   -4  2 
11 Lee H               3k 13 CT   -2   -9  +17  +13   -5  2
12 Wim de Schryver     1k 14 NL  +14   -3  -10  +16   -7  2 
13 Bernd-Jan Buit      1d 14 NL  +16   -1   -4  -11  +18  2
14 Takabayashi         2d 10 JP  -12   -7  +18  -10  +17  2  
15 Yu                  3k 13 CT   -6  +17   -8   -9  +16  2 
16 Kure                2k  8 JP  -13  +18   -3  -12  -15  1
17 Leigh Rutland       4k 14 UK   -8  -15  -11  +18  -14  1 
18 Edward Mayer Hofer 10k 15 CA   -1  -16  -14  -17  -13  0