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| ＜ Ricoh Cup The 3rd Game and The Semifinal ＞ |
| This year, too, the ‘Ricoh Cup Professional Pair Go Championship 2008’ has started. On the 15th of December, the quarterfinal and semifinal were held at Ebisu, The Garden Hall. |
| 1 week, from the first day of the tournament, is not enough to cool down the excitement, and the hall was filled up by many fans on the day. I would like to report about the top professionals hot and serious games along with them at the backstage. |
Same as last year, 3 groups of ‘father or mother and a child reporter’ who were chosen from the Pandanet home page were interviewing enthusiastically from morning. At the waiting room, it seemed very impressive that to the child reporters, the professionals were trying hard to think of the right words to answer.
Sota Takenaka (a 4th grade boy) from Nagano is a big fan of Chikun Cho Judan. In front of Cho Judan, he said, ‘Oh~ great…’ His voice was trembling with happiness. |
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Sota said, ‘When you were in the 4th grade, how strong were you?’
Cho Judan said, ‘Are you in the 4th grade?’
Sota said, ‘Yes!’
Cho Judan said, ‘I was told that I was a genius till 6th grade. From the 7th grade, I became an ordinary person.’ |
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Sota said, ‘I was so excited to meet real Cho Judan!’ He seemed as if he could not calm himself down.
On the other hand, Cho Judan answered a question with his joke but after Sota was gone, he said, ‘I am getting hot.’ He was nervous. |
Hayato Yanagida, (a boy) from Tokyo, who is in the 4th grade, goes to Kazunari Fujisawa 8dan’s children’s class. His mother said, ‘Hayato went up to 4 kyu but went down two kyu. Now, he is 6 kyu. Going to the Go class once a week is not enough.’ Hayato was asking questions to all the professionals one by one, ‘When you were a child, how did you study Go?’
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| ‘At that time, there was no internet so I used to go to Go club.’ said Kumiko Yashiro 5dan who did commentary with Michael Redmond dan on this day. |
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Koichi Kobayashi 9dan who was in the time of ‘no internet’ but long before Yashiro 5dan said, ‘I was brought up in Asahikawa, Hokkaido but the Go club was far. There were not many Go books so I used to go to Go club once a week, only on Sundays. But I played Go from morning till evening on Sundays. (laughed)’ |
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| Kotaro Kurihara (a boy) who goes to children’s Go club in Sendai is in the 5th grade and is 1 kyu. Imin Shei Womens Honinbo who was asked how she felt about the games a week ago said, ‘At the 2nd game, I played many bad moves. At the 9X9 board game, we finally won by the help from Kono sensei’s good judgment.’ |
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Kotaro is big fan of U Cho Meijin and Shinji Takao Honinbo. Both of them lost on the first day of the tournament so he could not get to meet them but he said with a big smile, ‘I was happy to ask questions to the professionals’. |
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‘The game will start soon! Reporters, please finish the interviews!’ said one of the staff and the professionals in the waiting room were in a fighting mood.
Ayumi Suzuki Women’s Saikyo said, ‘I will do my best to proceed to the next day.’
Yukari Umezawa Women’s Kisei said, ‘With Ko kun, I’d like to enjoy playing the games.’
Narumi Osawa 3dan said, ‘Last week, the both 2 games were in the fierce competition. (laughed) Today, I have no idea what kind of Go it will be. I will leave it up to Cho sensei.’ |
When going through the door from the waiting room to the tournament hall, Iso Ko 7dan said to Umezawa Women’s Kisei, ‘After you.’ Umezawa Women’s Kisei said, ‘No. I’ll follow you.’ Then, Ko 7dan said, ‘I will follow you.’ They were offering to each other. Now, they left to battle! |
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