All Things Go Podcast

Alexander Qi and the New Wave of Western Go

[00:01] Travis: This episode is sponsored by BadukPop, SmartGo One, AI Sensei and Go Magic. Over and over again in this season and in past seasons, the topic of how to make go more visible and popular in the west has resurfaced. And a big part of that has been not only growing grassroots interest for beginners, but also thinking about how the top level play contributes to visibility for the game. And so I was able to connect with Alexander Qi, the 3-dan professional in North America, after his really exciting win at the 2025 World Youth Go Championship. And he was willing to chat. So take a listen to that conversation now. Alexander Qi, thanks so much for being here.

[01:14] Alexander Qi: Thank you for inviting me on the podcast and very excited to talk with you tonight.

[01:20] Travis: You know, the main focus I really wanted to have for tonight was this really breakthrough event that you had in Kuala Lumpur at the 2025 World Youth Go Championship. Maybe we could just start by first talking a little bit of sort of like setting the scene for how you were thinking about things going into the tournament. So give us the background on your preparations. What did your training regimen look like heading into that championship and did you make any special adjustments for it or was it sort of like business as usual, normal stuff?

[02:00] Alexander Qi: My typical training regimen is first with life-and-death and then is playing the AI for a huge number of games. But for this tournament, I made sure to specifically work on my end game. What I did was I took positions for my game or professional games that were very close. In the end game, one player had a slight advantage and I would play out the endgame against the AI and I would take the player with the small advantage, maybe two or three points and play out the last 50 moves or so to see if I could win the game. And I think this really helped me build my confidence, especially towards the middle game, because I knew that I was confident in my end game so I could play a very calm middle game and play very stably. And before the tournament, um, I was actually quite confident in myself and my training ability and my preparation felt like was very solid. I looked into most of the players that were playing there and I didn’t see myself as an underdog compared to these players from China, Korea, Japan.

[03:25] Alexander Qi: I was just going in there with the mindset that I’m just going to focus on each game individually and not try to think too much about the result.

[03:36] Travis: When you went into the tournament, what expectations did you have beforehand as one of a handful of North American professionals that are preparing for competition and this competition is traditionally dominated by Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, those sorts of things.

[03:55] Alexander Qi: Right. I saw this tournament as an opportunity to prove that the American go scene or the Western Go scene truly has potential to challenge these Asian powerhouses. I really wanted to inspire the younger generation that they could fight against these more traditionally powerhouses of countries. So that was what I felt going into the tournament and being able to win that win and have that opportunity was something that I found extraordinarily valuable.

[04:37] Travis: What specific themes or areas of your game did your teacher and I believe it’s Ryan Li, the 4-dan professional, have you focus on heading into the championship? Was it the end game like you were talking about? Was it life-and-death? What was it?

[04:54] Alexander Qi: Me and Ryan specifically worked on life-and-death and reading because we wanted to make sure that my game was very stable going into the tournament, which means that I didn’t make any game ending mistakes that in just one move my position completely collapsed and these simple errors were or miscalculations were really going to damage my ability to compete against the China and Korea Japan professional players. So being able to stabilize my game through life-and-death problems was something that helped me a lot.

[05:35] Travis: My understanding is that the time controls for the game was, was it 60 minutes of basic time and then you got an additional 10 minutes. If you use an additional 10 minutes you would get a two-point penalty I think is how it worked. How was that time format for you? Did you find that you were doing real time practice under those time constraints?

[05:59] Alexander Qi: I didn’t do any practice under those time constraints before the tournament, but during the tournament it was actually quite fast paced because before the tournament I’d recently just played in the U.S. Go Congress and those time settings are an hour plus 20 seconds per move and that’s really a lot longer. And the two-point penalties made a lot bigger differences than I thought they would. I know one of my games was basically decided by the two-point penalty and many other games were also controlled by this time system.

[06:41] Travis: Wow. Added even more, even more stress to the situation.

Sponsor Message

[06:47] Travis: This episode of All Things Go is brought to you by our sponsors, each of them helping you learn, study and enjoy Go in new ways. First up is BadukPop, the app that makes learning Go fun and accessible with interactive puzzles, bite sized lessons and an AI tutor to guide you step by step. It’s perfect for players on the move. You can download it or learn more at badukpop.com that’s b a d u k p o p dot com this episode is also sponsored by AI Sensei, your personal game review partner. Upload games and it instantly spots mistakes, offers stronger moves and helps you learn from each match. Give it a try at aisensei.com this episode is also sponsored by SmartGo One, the all in one go toolkit for Apple devices where you play professional games, solve problems and keep your SGF collection organized all in one elegant app. I also really enjoyed the library function and seeing dynamic diagrams of the actual game states in books.

[07:53] Travis: check them out at smartgo.com and then finally Go Magic, the interactive learning platform that makes Go come alive with structured video courses, exercises and lessons from top teachers. It’s an incredible way to accelerate your Go journey. I personally love their Ghost mode in the puzzle section of the website. It’s really great to try to practice moves without seeing them. You can find them at gomagic.org that’s G O M A G I C dot org. So we get to the actual tournament. Maybe you can just describe the atmosphere, your mindset. You said you were confident going in. What was it feeling like? What was the situation as you kind of headed into your first match?

[08:44] Alexander Qi: So before that tournament I was actually on a 20 hour flight. Yeah. Then from Singapore I took like an hour or so flight to Malaysia. So I was traveling for 24 hours.

[08:58] Travis: Oh my goodness.

[09:00] Alexander Qi: So getting there and we had a few hours to rest so I was really tired.

[09:07] Travis: Do you think it was at a very strange time of day for you to start the first match considering you had been traveling for 24 hours? So was it like at a very odd time for you?

[09:19] Alexander Qi: The game started at around 9 in the morning and Malaysia is 12 hours ahead of the US so it was basically starting at 9pm and going till like 12 or 11 in the morning.

[09:33] Travis: Oh my gosh. So your brain is like getting ready for bedtime and you have to play this pretty important game?

[09:40] Alexander Qi: Yeah, the first one was actually quite intimidating because I was there, I was ready in the first round. I thought it would be maybe an easier opponent. But then my first round was against the Taiwanese professional and I actually ended up losing that game. So right off the bat I knew that I had to play intensely and clinch every game.

[10:07] Travis: And is that something where obviously you never go into a game saying, oh, like I’m not going to try to play my best. Right, of course you are. But when you look back on it, are you saying you were a little bit caught off guard, like oh wow, they were just playing better than expected or I mean, what’s your sense?

[10:28] Alexander Qi: I was Definitely caught off guard by pairings. And my opponent, the Taiwanese player, did play exceptionally well, and I think I could have performed a bit better if I hadn’t been traveling for so long, of course. So a combination of things that surprised me and I haven’t anticipated before the tournament.

[10:56] Travis: Got it. It was an intense first game, and then was there a particular match or moment during the tournament where you felt a major shift in momentum or in your confidence? Was it after that first game or. Tell us about that.

[11:18] Alexander Qi: The biggest shift was in the semifinals. I played against the Chinese professional player, and it was because the previous game in the group stage, I just lost to him. And that loss was quite, quite devastating because I was going into the game very confident and knowing that if I did win this final group stage match, I would definitely make the semifinals. But luckily, even after losing that game, I did end up getting that fourth and final semifinal spot. And playing Lee again was very interesting experience because I had just lost to him the day before, and being able to beat, I think he was definitely the favorite at that time was something that really boosted my confidence and helped my mindset stabilize into that final match.

[12:24] Travis: You mentioned in a recent interview that your style has evolved over time under Ryan Li’s mentorship and that it’s actually shifted from being more aggressive to being a bit more balanced. Were there key moments in the tournament that exemplified that shift in your style of play where it was very conscious and you’re like, oh, yeah, I really am noticing my more balanced style.

[12:52] Alexander Qi: Yes, definitely. I think my more balanced style definitely helped me against players from Malaysia and Singapore that didn’t have quite the punch of the professional players from Japan and Taiwan and China. Because if I had started out with a blitzkrieg and I started attacking and creating these complex fights, it would have created a lot of opportunity for me to make a really big mistake. So being able to play more balance and calmly, again, the confidence in my end game helped me stabilize these fights and made sure that the position didn’t get too complicated so that there was a possibility that I could make these big mistakes.

[13:48] Travis: You have spoken in the past that you actually have certain rituals that you have and also kind of superstitions during matches. So one was, I think you mentioned that you would. You had a great experience with wearing a blue suit to an event in, I think, New York and. And did well. And you’re like, hey, why would I want to break this streak, right? Like, let me wear the blue suit. So my question is, did you wear the blue suit? What was your routine there? Did any other superstitions or rituals come into play?

[14:22] Alexander Qi: Unfortunately, I did not wear a blue suit. Okay. But before every game, I made sure to do some life-and-death problems on my phone to just warm myself up and get my calculation, my reading going so that in the end game, I could play my game and if I wanted, I could start a fight and ideally not make any calculation errors.

[14:53] Travis: Let’s now shift to talking about after the tournament or sort of the end of the tournament. Describe the moment in your final game where you realize you had clinched the championship. What were you feeling? What was going through your head?

[15:09] Alexander Qi: So I remember my final game was against this Korean insei, and we had played maybe 150 moves and we were nearing the end of the game, and I realized that I had a huge lead, maybe like 20, 25 points. Oh my gosh. Inside of my territory, he had this dead group, okay. And then he played this super awesome local tesuji. And because it was nearing the end of the game, I already had taken like a four point penalty. So my time was running quite low. So I knew I had to play this area precisely in order to win. And I was reading in the local area and I realized that I couldn’t find any solution to solve this awesome move that he played. But I realized that in another area of the board, the center, I actually had a sente move that helped me in this fight. So then I played it, and then he ended up destroying my maybe what was like 40 points of my territory, but then I managed to get back like 40 points in the center. So it ended up being a pretty even trade. And that was really the.

[16:43] Alexander Qi: The moment when I realized that I was going to win this World Youth Go Championship. And it was really surreal because I felt like this was a manifestation of all the hours I’d put into doing life and playing games online and studying with my teacher. So I was really excited. But of course I still had to finish out. So after that exchange was really when I knew that I was going to win this tournament.

[17:25] Travis: Wow. How many more moves do you think you had after that whole Exchange? Was it 20 moves, 30 moves, something like this?

[17:31] Alexander Qi: I think it was around 30 moves, but those moves were just end game moves, maybe five or six points each. So really, with my 20 or 25 point lead, there was not much that you could do. One thing that happened in Endgame was that I actually got really nervous because I was like, I have this huge lead. This is the finals of the World Championship. Better not Mess this up.

[17:58] Travis: Oh, my God.

[17:59] Alexander Qi: I actually lost a few points, but I was able to secure my lead and ultimately win.

[18:07] Travis: Amazing. So you have this huge moment. You discover that you have won. What’s the first thing you do? I mean, when you get up from the board and you’re done, I mean, are you just. Is your brain going haywire with just like, oh, my God, I did it, I did it, I did it, or are you feeling more like just kind of shocked?

[18:30] Alexander Qi: After the game, I was actually incredibly, incredibly nervous because in the game itself, I was like, oh, my gosh, I’m winning this game. And this is super intense. And my coach, Mingjiu Jiang, 7-dan professional, who usually accompanies the US players to the World Youth Go Championship, he was talking to me and I couldn’t comprehend a thing that he was saying. I was in shock. My mind was just completely out of it.

[19:07] Travis: Your brain was just completely in this state of like, oh, my goodness, I did this.

[19:14] Alexander Qi: Yes. I was happy, nervous all at the same time.

[19:20] Travis: Wow. So, all right, so that happens. You’re in this state of shock for I don’t know how long. When you go back, you get back home, it really starts to settle in what you just did. And what do you think was unexpected in terms of your reaction or the reaction of your win from friends, family, or even the Go community in general?

[19:48] Alexander Qi: I didn’t expect the reaction to be so big, but I know my phone was blowing up with congratulation messages from people I hadn’t spoken to in years. And I was really happy to see that the Go community was so engaged and so excited that I won this tournament. I actually got contacted by one of the newspapers called World Journal and they did an interview, but that was a really exciting experience for me and people were celebrating. And one of my previous teachers, his name is Zhongfan Jian, he’s a very strong amateur player in China. He posted a story on his WeChat saying that congratulations to me, the first American World Youth Go champion. And I was really proud to see that my teachers and my mentor was happy with my results.

[21:03] Travis: What does it mean to you to be the first youth champion from a non Asian country? How do you see this as a landmark win? How do you see it influencing Go in North America and beyond?

[21:15] Alexander Qi: I think that this is a really landmark win because I hope it catalyzes the growth of US Go or Western Go in general to challenge these Asian countries that traditionally dominate the game. And I hope that this is the first win of many. Hopefully next time it’s not just a youth tournament. It’s a real professional international tournament with the top, top players. I hope this inspires not only the younger generation, but people who can help guide younger players and really teach them that it is possible to win against China, Korea and Japan.

[22:08] Travis: One thing that you also mentioned in that interview you did with Vadim over at Go Magic was that you talked about how there’s such a difference between Asian players and non Asian players in terms of lifestyle and the fact that you’re doing this, but you’re starting at the age of 8. Many of these players started at the age of 5 and spent many more hours at it. And if you’re in the Korean system, you actually would have curtailed your number of hours of school and would have gone and done this. You articulated that’s a big difference, right? And so until there’s some, some way that non Asian countries have their talent, devote more time or be able to devote more time in the early part of life, it may be challenging. Do you think you would get as far as you have on the professional Go side of your life if you didn’t have the other things in your life that are also counterbalancing it? Right. Like you play clarinet, you do other things. You’re a, you know, an American teenager. What’s your sense there?

[23:20] Alexander Qi: I think that if I didn’t have all these other commitments in school, in music, I think I definitely could have gone to the next level and maybe won some games in adult professional international tournaments. But I think this is a limitation that most Western countries face. And until that limitation is lifted, for example, maybe when players in North America or players in Europe can actually make a living from winning tournament prizes or teaching students, then we can really see a lifestyle change where they can dedicate most of their time to the game. And I think that is when we are going to be able to challenge these Asian countries.

[24:19] Travis: What’s next for you, Alex, when you think about your Go career? And then I also want to ask what’s next for you on your non Go side of things in life?

[24:29] Alexander Qi: In terms of go, I think I have two major goals. The first one is to win U.S. Masters at the U.S. Go Congress. I want to be the best player in North America. And my second goal is to win one game in an international tournament against the best of the best. Because in the international tournaments, a large majority of the players have won world championships or national championships in their respective countries. So winning a game on that stage is going to be very rewarding. In my non go career. Right now I’m applying to college. I think I have around 40 essays to write for application, Wow. Yeah, I haven’t had much time to do go or really anything else lately. Right now I’m thinking about going into finance, so I hope that I can find a career there.

[25:50] Travis: I might be dating myself, but when I applied, I think I did two reach schools, two schools I thought I was evenly matched for and then two schools that were safe. So it may be my particular family’s, you know, expectations, I don’t know. But yeah, that’s. Wow, that’s amazing.

[26:09] Alexander Qi: One school I really want to go to is Princeton because they have a really good Go culture with the Princeton Go club and John Nash. I don’t know if you know who John Nash is, but he was a mathematician that did a lot of work on game theory and he was very inspired by the game of Go and he also went to Princeton. So I think Princeton is one of those colleges that I would be very happy to go to. Not only because it’s an Ivy League, but because it has such a rich Go community and history.

[26:51] Travis: That’s awesome. I happen to actually grow up in Princeton and it’s so funny you mention John Nash. When they were filming the movie Beautiful Mind, there was one point where they were trying to get extras to be in the movie, right? Like you could just be standing in the background. So everybody had to stand on the campus in this certain part of campus to try to see if you could become an extra. You were standing right in the part of campus where they actually show the scene where, you know, John Nash’s character is walking through the campus and there’s like that Go board, right? They’re playing Go and they’re looking at it together and these sorts of things. So I’m wishing you the best of luck. And then maybe the last question is, if you think about where your Go journey has taken you so far and everything that’s transpired even recently, what’s one lesson from Go that you most value in life outside of the game?

[27:50] Alexander Qi: One lesson is working on different areas of my game and building little habits that are going to incrementally improve each aspect of how I play. Because for example, you do life-and-death, you do end game problems to target a specific problem. And this I think can be applied to all areas of life where you have to reflect on yourself and your habits and get rid of the bad ones and then build habits that are going to very slowly build up something that you want to create or a trait that you want to instill in yourself. And this lesson, out of all the lessons that I’ve learned from playing the game of Go, I think is one of the most impactful.

[28:52] Travis: Well said, Alex. I really appreciate the time and thanks so much for having the conversation. And again, congratulations on the big win. And also we’re excited to see what comes next for you, not only in the in go, but also just in your life with college and things like that.

[29:12] Alexander Qi: Thank you, Travis. I really had an excellent time here tonight and thank you very much for having me.

[29:38] Travis: After talking with Alexander Qi, I couldn’t help myself in my conversations with Gazza White. What do you think about this type of victory for a North American professional like Alexander Qi in this kind of event? And he was able to just give us a couple of thoughts and I thought it was worth sharing. So take a listen to that.

[29:56] Gazza White: Now. I would say the main hope is that this sort of sheds more light on Go just in North America because obviously there are enthusiastic communities and stuff, but it, it’s still a niche sport in the Western world and I think any sort of accomplishment that can hopefully raise awareness and provide more resources would be helpful because I, I certainly think it would be difficult for someone like Alexander Qi to be able to do this full time at the level that the Chinese and Korean professionals are able to dedicate all of their time to go. Yeah. But now that he’s demonstrated, well, even more demonstrated his potential, we can hope that he is able to get the resources to continue his growth and continue his journey because he might actually be able to challenge the top dogs in a couple of years.

[30:53] Travis: Well, we are, believe it or not, at the end of the season,

Season Four Wrap-Up

[30:56] Travis: instead of doing the normal takeaways that I’ve done the last couple seasons, I just wanted to give a couple comments about the interviews and the people I was able to connect with. And again, it always starts with people being willing to connect me to others, to then get in touch with these people. So I’m very grateful for all of you. Thank you for doing that. I have to say that there were some interviews that you expect to go a certain way, and then there were other interviews where I just went into it not knowing, you know, what was going to happen. Talking to Jake Kim at the beginning of the season was really fun because it was very refreshing. It was a very different take. Seeing a young person really going out there and doing what they think is important, but using it through their hobby, through go, was really inspiring. So I hope Jake goes A far distance, and I’m sure he will. I had really wanted to connect with Tiger Hillarp Persson, as I said, and he did not disappoint. He was really interesting,

[31:55] Travis: had a lot of different thoughts, and he was in very stark contrast to the conversation with Peter Doggers about Go and what should be done with go. I mean, Tiger really thinks that it’s a game that’s beautiful and should be preserved and shouldn’t move to faster time formats and these sorts of things. And kind of chafed at the idea of trying to emulate chess in a lot of ways. Peter was a little more neutral, but he was just saying, hey, if you want to become more popular, these are probably some of the things that you want to do. And also just try stuff, right? Just trial and error. The one that I think I got the most value out of was my conversation with Nikola on the Go rating systems. He was really nice to reach out. That was actually from a post that I had put out asking about the Go rating system. And he articulated incredibly well. I was really grateful for that.

[32:49] Travis: Sometimes people know things really, really well, but their ability to speak to them in a way that’s clear and easy to understand doesn’t always come through. I mean, that’s a skill in and of itself. So I was really appreciative to Nikola for doing that. I’ve wanted to connect with the North American professional, Ryan Li, for some time, so it was really great to get to connect with him and just hear about his story. It’s also nice, kind of to connect as young fathers. That’s always something that is nice to see when I can relate to other people. The Go equipment conversations were also really fun, something I’ve really wanted to get into, but didn’t know who to talk to. It’s amazing how much Solomon could pick up from his years of just finding equipment, refurbishing them, doing all these things. That was really fun. I feel like I just scratched the surface with Naoki Kumasu and the Kumasu Go Board Shop.

[33:50] Travis: I feel like there’s a lot more questions that could have been asked, but it’s challenging, right? With the real time logistics of having a translator, preparing questions ahead of time, translating them and doing all of that. So who knows, maybe it’ll be another opportunity. So, yeah, I mean, hopefully that was enjoyable. It’s been a lot of fun making it. It’s funny. The editing process for this podcast is at times a bit heavy. That’s the part I like least. But the actual conversations and doing. The interviews are just incredible. So much fun to hear about these people’s experiences in the Go world. Yeah. Hopefully I will catch you next time. So thanks so much for listening and this is All Things Go. I want to give one final thank you to our sponsors, Go Magic, who creates interactive courses, Go problems, lessons and lectures on the Game of Go.

[35:00] Travis: Everything you need to know to learn the Game of Go online at gomagic.org AI Sensei where you can play Go against the strong. KataGo AI, Analyze your uploaded games, discuss moves with the community and turn mistakes into go problems. Also SmartGo One, your complete app for the Game of Go. Learn to play, practice against the computer, study master games, solve problems, and read Go books. Free to download in your App Store. And finally, BadukPop Learn the rules of the Game of Go with a fun interactive tutorial. Sharpen your Go skills with daily random Go problems at your choice of difficulty. Play games online or with a variety of AI opponents, each with its own unique playing style and strength at badukpop.com that’s b a d u k p o p dot com.