| Players in the Waiting Room before the Games |
| In the waiting room, participant players gathered and enjoyed chatting over lunch. |
| It may be natural for a paired man and woman to sit next to each other. However, the players were roughly divided into a men's group and a women's group probably because they felt embarrassed about being seated close to their partner's side. |
| Among them, only Ms. Kusunoki and Mr. Yoda were seated close and earnestly talking with each other. This pair is last year's champion and considered as the favorite in this year's tournament as well. As Mr. Yoda always says, "Communication is essential in pair Go games," they may have already begun to play by having a discussion. |
| On the other hand, the player seated alone away from the others was 7-dan Mr. Keigo Yamashita. His partner, Women's Honinbo Ms. Izumi Kobayashi was seated next to her father and pleasantly chatting with him. "Our pair is all right. We have already discussed our strategy," said 7-dan Mr. Yamashita. He told that he had asked a favor of Ms. Kobayashi. "I asked her not to use any difficult josekiccbecause I am not confident to handle it." |
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| Women's Kisei Ms. Chinen was enjoying lunch. "I like pair Go because I can feel I have become more skilled in Go." Asked which pair would win the championship, Ms. Chinen replied, "Except us? (laughing) Well, it might be the pair of Ms. Inori and Mr. Choc." |
| At that moment, Ms. Chinen's partner, 9-dan Mr. Imamura, appeared. "A strategy has struck me in the rest room now," said Mr. Imamura. As he whispered something to Ms. Chinen, she chuckled. I wondered what kind of strategy he told her. |
