Japan's Go Association has founded the 'World Go Championship' that will kick off for four days in Osaka next year.

The championship pits Deep Zen Go, an artificial intelligence program developed by Tokyo University, against top masters of the chess-like game from Korea, China and Japan.

Deep Zen Go beat professional Go player Cho Chi-hun in a recent match.

The World Go Championship, held as a round-robin tournament, will award the winner with 30 million yen, or about 300 thousand U.S. dollars.

The inaugural match in March will be the first of its kind where AI will take part against several human masters.