■Ricoh Cup First and Second Rounds

Silverly Shining Pair Wins the Best Dresser Award

As a festival-like event, the Ricoh Cup features the best dresser award. Meijin Mr. Norimoto Yoda, who is always in full dress on special occasions, participated in this event in kimono, showing his eagerness to win this award.

	As a result of the vote by fans, the pair of Ms. Mika Yoshida and Mr. Hiroaki Tono became the best dresser pair by obtaining three votes more than the pair of Ms. Kaori Chinen and Mr. Masaki Takemiya.

Both Ms. Yoshida and Mr. Tono were dressed in gray, which created a calm tone in an entertaining atmosphere of the hall. Such calmness seemed to touch the hearts of the voters.

Competition Between the Surviving Pairs

The quarterfinalists were matched as shown on the table. I am not sure at all which pairs among them could advance to the finals. After the second round, I interviewed some players, whose messages for their fans are as follows.

The 25th Honinbou Chikun displayed good partnership with 4-dan Ms. Izumi Kobayashi: "(With the reduced number of my titles,) I feel as if I could not win by myself any more. I wish I could always play with Izumi."

Nine-dan Mr. Masaki Takemiya won the two games and looked enjoying a sociable atmosphere of this event: "I am very glad to pair with Ms. Chinen as I have hoped to pair with her. We won the first game mostly due to her play. And we were lucky in the close game in the second round." (Mr. Takemiya continued smiling during the interview.)

Ten-dan Mr. Koichi Kobayashi has been recently defeated by hanmoku for three consecutive games in the Five Matches for the Tengen Title: "I lose many games by only hanmoku these days. When I lost the second game by hanmoku today, I felt I could not win any more. But under the new rule, we were able to win by hanmoku. I think I am getting along nicely with Ms. Yashiro." He looked relieved.

Six-dan Ms. Tomoko Ogawa looked most delighted: "I am participating in this event for the fourth time. In the previous tournaments, I have not won any games. The other day, I even dreamed that I won a pair Go game. I am very glad I really won the second game today."

The players frankly expressed their own feelings in the interview. In particular, I felt the male players' eagerness to win the championship. How earnestly they played is shown on the records of the first and second round games. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held on December 9 at the TFT Hall. They will be literally the last games of the Japanese pro Go world in the 20th century.

by Takeshi Yokouchi,Jurnalist