Editing Go professional (section)

== European Professional System ==
A European professional system was established by the [[European Go Federation]] in 2014, with sponsorship from "CEGO", a partnership of Chinese investors interesting in promoting the game of go in Europe. The aims of the system are to "give the strongest players a chance to compete on the same level as the Asian pro players", "attract more media attention and therefore also attract more sponsors."<ref name=":0" /> Any player holding a European passport and having been a citizen of an EGF-member country for at least 10 years is eligible, providing they are not already a professional player belonging to another professional association.<ref name=":1" />

The EGF also supports an "EGF Academy" that provides high-level training to the strongest young players in Europe. The Academy is a collaboration between the EGF, CEGO and the Ge Yuhong Go Academy in Beijing. Tuition is provided by both European and Asian professionals, and includes exchange programs allowing students to travel to China to study.<ref>{{Cite web |title=EGF Academy |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/academy/ |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>

The first Pro Qualification Tournament was held in three European cities in the same year as the system's launch, and resulted in first Pavol Lisý of Slovakia and secondly Ali Jabarin of Israel emerging as the most successful players and thus the first two European professional players. A summary of all Qualification Tournaments is given below.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Professional Qualification Tournaments
!Year
!Location
!Tournament Format
!Players Earning Professional Status
|-
|2014
|Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Vienna
|Three-stage, 6-round, double knockout tournament. First player with 4 wins and subsequent player with only one loss become professional.
|Pavol Lisý and Ali Jabarin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1st European Pro Qualification 2014 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2014.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2015
|Pisa, Italy
|6-round double knockout tournament. First player with 4 wins and subsequent player with only one loss become professional.
|Mateusz Surma and [[Ilya Shikshin]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=2nd European Pro Qualification 2015 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2015.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2016
|Baden-Baden, Germany
|6-round double knockout tournament. Overall winner becomes professional.
|Artem Kachanovskyi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=3rd European Pro Qualification 2016 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2016.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2017
|Vienna and Pardubice
|6-round double knockout tournament. Overall winner becomes professional.
|Andrii Kravets.<ref>{{Cite web |title=4th European Pro Qualification 2017 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2017.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2019
|Strasbourg
|6-round double knockout tournament. Overall winner becomes professional.
|Tanguy le Calvé.<ref>{{Cite web |title=5th European Pro Qualification 2019 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2019.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2021
|Leksand, Sweden
|4-round, single knockout tournament. Overall winner becomes professional. All matches played as best-of-three.
|Stanisław Frejlak.<ref>{{Cite web |title=6th European Pro Qualification 2021 |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2021.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|-
|2023
|Brno, Czechia
|Two-stage, 3-round single knockout tournament. Overall winner becomes professional. All matches played as best-of-three.
|Jan Šimara.<ref>{{Cite web |title=7th European Pro Qualification 2023 |url=https://eurogofed.org/proqualification/index_2023.html |access-date=2023-04-17 |website=eurogofed.org}}</ref>
|}
Professional players in Europe receive various benefits. They gain automatic qualification to prestigious European tournaments, including the Grand Slam that has the largest prize pool in Europe (the overall champion won €10,000 in 2021). Furthermore, they are provided with opportunities to compete in Professional Go Leagues organised by the EGF since 2020, which are reserved only to professional players and also offer high prize pools. During major European tournaments, professional players are also paid to provide live commentary of games.<ref name=":0" />

=== Professional Players of the EGF ===
Seven qualification tournaments have resulted in nine European players being awarded professional status by the [[European Go Federation|EGF]]. Promotion details of each player are given below.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Professional Players of the EGF<ref name=":0" />
!Player
!Nationality
!Year Became Pro
!Promotion History
|-
|[[Ilya Shikshin]]
|Russian
|2015
|Promoted to 2p in 2018, to 3p in 2019, to 4p in 2021.
|-
|[[Artem Kachanovskyi]]
|Ukrainian
|2016
|Promoted to 2p in 2018.
|-
|[[Pavol Lisy|Pavol Lisý]]
|Slovakian
|2014
|Promoted to 2p in 2018.
|-
|Mateusz Surma
|Polish
|2015
|Promoted to 2p in 2019, to 3p in 2023.
|-
|Ali Jabarin
|Israeli
|2014
|Promoted to 2p in 2018.
|-
|[[Andrij Kravets|Andrii Kravets]]
|Ukrainian
|2017
|
|-
|Tanguy le Calvé
|French
|2019
|
|-
|Stanisław Frejlak
|Polish
|2021
|
|-
|Jan Šimara
|Czech
|2023
|
|}