I think for most competitive activities you will find a continuum of players that tends to blur the amateur/pro divide. The public at large tends to be shielded from this unless they go out of their way to follow the sport. There's no question that basketball has players who join the NBA and make an impact immediately (the corollary is that there must be some amateur players performing as well or better than some professionals). Likewise in golf the line between weak pro and strong amateur can be highly blurred.

When we hear "pro vs amateur" outside of go what we might be thinking is "random guy of the street vs Roger Federer" (embarrassing mismatch) but the reality is much more like "Top collegiate athlete vs. #235 on the ATP tour" (much closer to parity)

Hi Krama, if you already knew that Go pros fall into that category, then, your original question:Was it rhetorical ? Or, were you genuinely trying to find an answer ?
As hyperpape pointed out, I took it as a literal question.
And what I subsequently wrote was not just philosophical,
but a start to help answer your question.

So now we have to specify if our questions are rhetorical or not?

Not sure if I should answer or not...

I'm not sure anyone brought this up.

http://www.eurogofed.org/cego/

CEGO is a 2p from China training Europe's top amateurs. The games are interesting to look through.

I have to say, I have been thinking about the *exact* same thing! I think that this would be extremely effective for helping any player hoping improve his game for many reasons, I don't know why there isn't more of a focus on these type of game reviews. I found some commented games on 361points.com, featuring a western C class insei who many games played against or commented by pros (some of whom are now well known). Apart from that, it's seems to be hard to find commented pro v amateur games, especially ones with a lower-dan player (the ones we really need).

Rather than flood the board, I'll just copy a two posts I made on go4go (lazy, I know):

"

I'd just like to compare the strength difference between various insei leagues, I know a little about Japanese insei, however I'd like to find out how strong the bottom of the E league is in EGF DAN's (around EGF about 3 Dan?) and the top of the A league (can't decide betwee EGF 7 or 8 Dan) and everything in between. I suspect the Korean and Chinese top class insei are 0.5~1 stones stronger than top class Japanese and Taiwanese
http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/insei ... 201407.htm
Note: In short, rank, in reality, is just a number in front of a name that shows the most likely level of decision making in a go game compared to other players, and because the arbitary and semi-absolute value of rank, it can be tricky to discuss rank.
I use the EGF standard when talking about Dan grades above.

"

"

Does anyone know where I could find commentary of amateurs playing against top pros? Not just Insei, but also Non-Insei and European Amateurs.
If they're any on Go4Go, please let me know.
I'd also appreciate some commented games of top Japanese pros against top Korean and Chinese pros, thanks.

"

_________________
On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.