A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players are very large. For example, the Honinbo Tournament has a grand prize of about $350,000.
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in the same calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam playing together or a player may achieve it with different partners. Winning all four major championships consecutively but not within the same calendar year is referred to as a "non-calendar-year Grand Slam", while winning the four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a "Career Grand Slam".
Maria Esther Andion Bueno was a Brazilian professional tennis player. During her 11-year career in the 1950s and 1960s, she won 19 Grand Slam titles, making her the most successful South American female tennis player in history, and the only one to ever win Wimbledon. Bueno was the year-end number-one ranked female player in 1959 and 1960 and was known for her graceful style of play.
Lee John Westwood is an English professional golfer. Noted for his consistency, Westwood is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on five continents – Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania – including victories on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. Westwood has also won tournaments in four decades, the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Westwood was named European Tour Golfer of the Year for the 1998, 2000, 2009 and 2020 seasons. He has won the 2000 European Tour Order of Merit, and the renamed 2009 and 2020 Race to Dubai. Westwood has frequently been mentioned as one of the best golfers without a major championship victory, with several near misses including three runner-up finishes.
Anna Olehivna Muzychuk is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a FIDE rating of at least 2600. She has been ranked as high as No. 197 in the world, and No. 2 among women. Muzychuk is a three-time world champion in fast chess, having won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship once in 2014 and the Women's World Blitz Chess Championship twice in 2014 and 2016. In classical chess, she was the 2017 Women's World Championship runner-up.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship for men players under the age of 20, organised by FIFA. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when it was hosted by Tunisia, under the tournament name of FIFA World Youth Championship until 2005. In 2007 the name was changed to its present form. The current title holder is Ukraine which won its first title at the 2019 tournament in Poland.
The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The current champion is Brazil, which won its fourth title at the 2019 tournament on home soil.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship, and returned in 2005, four years after the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), which became the most important factor of the cancelled 2001 tournament. Thereafter, it has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Qatar. Views differ as to the cup's prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2819, Vachier-Lagrave is the seventh-highest rated player in history.
Sport in France plays an important role in French society, which is reflected in its popularity among the French people and the nation's strong sporting history. Various types of sports are played and followed in France, the biggest one being Cycling, also one of the most popular, is football. Moreover handball is one of the most successful team sport, totalizing height victories in World championships, four olympic titles and being four times European champion.
American Football Association of Finland is the national governing body of American football in Finland. It was founded in 1979 and it is a founding member of the European Federation of American Football, EFAF and International Federation of American Football, IFAF. Since 2000, American football has grown steadily. In 2006 there were 27 clubs playing the sport with over 100 teams and over 1400 players. In 2012, the association's competitions fielded over 150 teams with more than 2200 licensed players.
The World Junior Teams Championship is a bridge competition for zonal teams of players up to about 25 years old.
The European Go Championship or Congress (EGC) is the annual and main event of many organised by the European Go Federation for players of the board game Go. It consists of a 2-week open competition, one round per day, making a total of 10 rounds with a champion ultimately emerging - the player with the most wins. The congress has taken place in a different European city each year, since the first contest in 1983. During these two weeks, the best Go players in Europe fight for the title of European Champion. Entry in recent years has ranged from a low of 290 to a high of 718 players.
The European Youth Go Championship (EYGC) is a championship for young players of the board game of Go. It is held annually, and first started in Băile Felix, Romania in 1996. Some winners of the various age groups, such as Diána Kőszegi, have since progressed to become professional Go players.
Viktor Axelsen is a Danish badminton player. He is the 2017 World champion and the 2020 Olympic champion. He won the 2010 World Junior Championships, beating South Korea's Kang Ji-wook in the final to become the first ever European player to hold the title. Axelsen was crowned the European men's singles champion in 2016 and 2018.
Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt is a retired Brazilian professional basketball player. He is also commonly known as Oscar Schmidt in Spain, where he played for Fórum Valladolid for the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, and simply Oscar, or Mão Santa, in his homeland. Schmidt primarily played the shooting guard and small forward position, was 2.05 m tall and weighed 110 kg (243 lbs). He was born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
Andrij Kravets is a 1-dan professional Go player from Ukraine; member of numerous international amateur competitions and previous Ukrainian Champion.
Antti Törmänen is a professional Go player from Oulu, Finland. He currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.
Mgr. Pavol Lisý was the first professional go player certified by the European Go Federation.
