Editing Go professional (section)

==Reaching professional level==
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Professional dan rankings are normally awarded in Japan, China, South Korea or Taiwan, through one of the professional Go associations. The attainment of professional qualification differs in different countries:
* In China, a few amateurs are given the 1p grade as probationers, on the basis of success in amateur tournaments.
* In Japan, student professionals are called ''insei'', and have to play in internal insei competitions to qualify; mostly they are adolescents, and must decide whether to continue based on their chances of a career in Go, or go to university. Insei rarely take part in amateur events, but some of the top amateurs are ex-insei.
* In South Korea, four amateurs become professional every year, at the top of a ferocious league system of 80 aspiring pros. Once within the professional system, promotion is based on game results.
* In Europe, the strongest players qualify or are invited to compete in a Qualification Tournament, with the top one or two players being awarded the rank of 1-dan professional. Seven such tournaments have taken place since 2014 with nine players having been granted professional status.<ref>{{Cite web |title=European Pros - Competitions |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/pros/competitions.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=European Pros |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/pros/ |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref> Professional players can advance in rank by earning so-called "low dan points" and "high dan points" for beating other professionals in tournaments, competing in international tournaments and winning titles.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=European Pros - Rules & Regulations |url=https://www.eurogofed.org/pros/rules_regulations.html |access-date=2022-02-26 |website=www.eurogofed.org}}</ref>

Most professional players begin studying Go seriously when they are children, commonly reaching professional status in their mid to late teens. Some rare students achieve professional status at a much earlier age, such as [[Sumire Nakamura]] and [[Cho Chikun]].

In order to qualify as a first-dan professional (1p), one must have deep resources of game experience and study. In local positions, professionals are often on close ground with each other, understanding good [[Shape (Go)|shape]], [[tesuji]], [[life and death]], [[fuseki]] and [[joseki]] patterns. However, in global positions they often differ in ''positional judgement''—the global impact and interaction of josekis and differing importance of various parts of the board during the opening and middle game.