The Iwamoto North America Foundation for Go (INAF) awards its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award to its founder, Thomas Hsiang, departing from its usual practice by granting the award posthumously to Hsiang, who died in February.

“Thomas’ record of productivity and beneficial influence throughout decades of promoting Go in North America is second to no one’s and it is with profound gratitude we recognize it today,” said INAF director and former American Go Association (AGA) president Andrew Okun. “It is sad we don’t still have him here to accept it.”

Hsiang, a powerful and enthusiastic player for many years, became as powerful an organizer in his later years, occupying posts from the AGA VP of international relations to Secretary General of the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) and VP of the International Go Federation (IGF). In those roles, he shepherded among other things a series of international multi-sport mind sports events over the course of a decade.

But he never forgot North America and was tireless in building institutions and playing opportunities in North America. In his AGA role, he was able to enforce the norm that the AGA, as the US member of the IGF, was to make US player selections for international Go tournaments, widening the eligible population of players greatly. He made sure the IMSA events gave North American and European players dozens of games to play in rather than the usual one game in international tournaments. He taught, encouraged, and advised many players from his Rochester NY home area not just to play but to become important Go organizers in their own right. And he maintained excellent relations with overseas Go associations on AGA’s behalf with a level of sophistication the organization would not likely have been able to deploy on its own.

A signal achievement was the creation of INAF itself. When the New York Go Center, one of four centers around the world, was failing as an operation, Hsiang initiated a proposal to the Nihon Kiin to sell the New York building and use the proceeds to endow a North American non-profit foundation to fund Go activities in North America. The proposal was accepted and after several years of work with lawyers, INAF was founded in 2014 with a starting endowment of $2 million. In the years since, numerous activities have been funded, first among the opening of a National Go Center in Washington DC. In the years since, the model Hsiang came up with has been followed to reorganize the Seattle and European Iwamoto centers.

“Thomas Hsiang was a strong proponent of a more integrated and collaborative North American Go community,” noted the Canadian Go Association president James Sedgwick. “From the formation of the North American Go Federation, the first North American professional championships in Toronto in 2022, and the World Amateur Go Championship held in Vancouver in 2025, his steady behind-the-scenes promotion made it all possible. The Canadian community will be ever grateful for the opportunities he enabled for us.”

In all these matters, Hsiang was able to combine tireless work, administration, and determination in sometimes thankless behind the scenes organizing with the vision to see the opportunities before us and make them real.

Please join INAF in recalling with gratitude the work and legacy of Thomas Hsiang.