OSAKA -- The first World Go Championship featuring three representatives from Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as four people using artificial intelligence (AI) Go software, got underway here on March 21.

Hosted by the Nihon Ki-in (Japan Go Association), the first matches of the Championship took place on Tuesday at the organization's Kansai general headquarters in Osaka's Kita Ward.

The tournament will last three days in total, and will consist of league matches involving all of the players and software. The respective representatives from Japan, China and South Korea are ninth-dan Yuta Iyama, ninth-dan Mi Yuting and ninth-dan Park Jeong-hwan, while the name of the AI Go software is DeepZenGo.