This is the season of the Ricoh Cup Professional Pair Go Championship 2008, the dream event in the Go world at the end of the year and new year. This championship which gathers 32 male and female top professionals, 16 pairs, is celebrating its 14th year, this year. During the 14 years, the appeal of ‘Pair Go’, which combines the fascination of Go and the excitement of thrilling games by professionals, has spread all over the world among amateur Pair Go fans. But, when it comes to the most splendid tournament of Pair Go, the Ricoh Cup must be the best in the world. The attraction and popularity of Pair Go among fans have been increasing. Now, before the exciting games, what we are interested in is the pairing. The lottery to decide the pairing was held on the 9th of October at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Iidabashi, Tokyo.

The ones who first came while looking nervous were Chiaki Mukai 2dan and Aya Okuda 2dan who are participating in this championship for the first time. And also, Imin Shei Woman’s Saikyo who is participating for the 2nd time is still a teenager. Three of them became professionals in 2004 and they still look innocent, but in fact, they are called the ‘3 strong girls’ among professionals who are afraid of them. At the colorful event, we must take notice of how they play their games.
From the Kansai area, Kimio Yamada 9dan who was the winner last year, Toshiya Imamura 9dan (Kansai Ki-in), Kazuko Konishi 8dan (Kansai Ki-in), Hideyuki Sakai 7dan (Kansai Ki-in) who is participating for the first time, and Akiko Tsukuda 5dan who was the assistant at the commentary last year came all the way to participate. The atmosphere of the hall started to heat up.