I'm not sure they're that similar. The whole professional Go world had to change to a more aggressive fighting style in order to dethrone Lee Changho, whereas Carlsen in a sense had to do the opposite to consistently take on the best GMs -- he was very aggressive when he was younger, now he is "nettlesome" which isn't quite the same thing.

"Go professionals"

With me knowing nothing about this particular pocket f the world, how does one live as a "Go professional"? Who pays for this? I don't imagine this is very attractive for sponsors, or do I underestimate how popular this is in Asia?

They are viewed the same sports professionals in China/Japan/Korea. Go news would share sports frontpage, and players are paid well. In China the national Go association is managed under the sports council, with dorms and national squads under the association.

As it's a game more popular amongst older demographics, there tend to be a lot of wealthy patrons and supporters (individuals and companies) who sponsor tournaments and teams. One of the highest-paying competitions is the Ing Cup with a prize of $400,000. Japan has nearly 10 major year-long tournaments every year, totaling over $2mil in prizes, many are sponsored by major newspapers.[1] China has domestic year-long leagues, where city teams each have their own sponsors. All the games I mentioned here pay a match fee whether players win or lose.

So yes, it is a popular game in Asia, however less so for the younger demographic and is unfortunately in decline. Most people just don't have the attention span, interest or time these days. :(

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_Go_tourna...

There are TV channels /dedicated/ to Go/Weiqi/Baduk.

The big tournaments all have their own huge sponsors, often media conglomerates.

Go is far more popular than western chess in China.

But not as popular as Chinese chess (xiangqi) as a game people actually play, though. Go might be more popular than xiangqi as a spectator sport; I don't know.

I have some doubt that Chinese chess is popular in Japan and Korea

I was responding to a comment specifically about China.

Actually Janggi, the Korean variant of Chinese chess (yes, there are some rule differences, but it's recognizably the same game - like Chess without castling and en passant) is very popular, though according to Wikipedia currently less so than Go.

That is not at all Carlsen's style. He plays very organically, accumulating small positional advantages over the course of the game.