An important metaphysical question: is Andy the first AGA pro because his qualification was determined earlier than Gansheng, or are they collectively the first two professionals, with no implied temporal ordering? Alternately we might ask on what day each player qualified or was certified as a professional.

The nitpicker in me needs to know.

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This sort of question has been discussed before, when the first Western players were certified as pros in Japan. Manfred Wimmer from Austria was the first, qualified at the Kansai Ki-in, and James Kerwin qualified at the Nihon Ki-in a short time later, both in 1978.

if you ask the TD or any of the other officials... they are collectively the first two professionals.

However, Andy completed his rounds on Friday morning (beating GanSheng 2-1), and GanSheng completed his on Saturday morning.

GanSheng also lost a game each to Jing Yang and Hugh Zhang, whereas Andy only lost the one game to GanSheng. Does that imply an ordering?

I think they will be officially Certified in September -- though they are already being treated as certified pros in the US Go Congress this week.

I would vote they are the first two AGA professionals together with Andy Liu having qualified earlier.

In competitions in Asia, there are people who become pros together at the same time but qualified through the tournament at different times.

I like the official answer.

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Occupy Babel!