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Special Cooperation / East Japan Railway, HITACHI, Japan Airlines
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| Scenes from the Tournament |
November 15th (Sunday) Award Ceremony
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Next, a surprise event. A commemorative plaque jointly signed by representatives of the International Go Federation, the American Go Association, the Asian go community, the Australian Go Association, the Canadian go Association, the European Go Federation, and the Federación Iberoamericana de Go was presented to Hisao Taki, the inventor of Pair Go, and his wife Hiroko Taki, who supported the development of Pair Go for 20 years, to honour their great achievements. A warm round of applause greeted speeches by Mr. and Ms. Taki looking back on the two decades of Pair Go.
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Mr. Thomas Hsiang, Vice President of the International Go Federation,
presents a commemorative plague to
Mr. and Mrs. Taki, who invented Pair Go
The plaque was presented to Mr. Hisao Taki,
Advisor and Councilor of the Japan Pair Go Association,
and Mrs. Taki, Director and Secretary General of
the Japan Pair Go Association.
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Shinji Yazaki, Vice President of the Japan Pair Go Association, proposed the toast, after which the audience chatted for a while. Next, there was a succession of fun events.
Special awards for the oldest and youngest pairs.
The oldest pair, Takako Shiozawa and Tetsuya Ishigaki, had a combined age of 160. ‘Eh? I thought the total was 140. Recently I don’t know my age,’ said Ishigaki with youthful humour. The two received a present of yokan (bean jelly).
The youngest pair, Haruhi and Ozora, received wrist watches.
The best-dresser awards, another regular feature of the tournament, were also presented.
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A Toast : Mr. Shinji Yazaki and Mrs. Yazaki
Special Awards for the oldest and youngest pairs
The Best Dressers
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The fun lotteries, in which luxurious products are to be won, started at 7 o’clock. The various professional players at the party came up on stage one by one to draw the lots.
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The drawing of lots : Mr.Noboru Ishikura 9-dan
The drawing of lots : Ms.Sachiko Hara 4-dan
The drawing of lots : Ms.Yoko Kuwabara 5-dan
The drawing of lots : Mr.Michael Redmond 9-dan
The drawing of lots : Mr.Tsuyoshi Sasaki 5-dan
The drawing of lots : Ms.Akio Izawa 4-dan
The drawing of lots : Mr.Taiki Seto 7-dan
The drawing of lots : Mr.Seiken Takanashi 8-dan
The drawing of lots : Ms.Akane Ishii 1-dan
The drawing of lots : Mr.Naoki Hane Honinbo
The drawing of lots : Mr.Kimio Yamada 9-dan
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We interviewed some of the players at the party about their impressions of the tournament.
Ondrej Silt of Czechia, who was formerly an insei at the Nihon Ki-in and who also attended Satoru Kobayashi’s study group: ‘We ended up in 18th place. It was a lot of fun – that’s the main thing. I was happy to be able to meet so many people. It was Pair Go, so the content of the games can’t be helped.’ At this, Seiken Takanashi 8-dan, who was with him at Kobayashi’s study group, took him to task, saying: ‘You have to say something better than that.’ Silt laughed: ‘I’ve forgotten Japanese.’
Noriko Horimoto, who hails from Western Honshu, said emotionally: ‘I’ve been looking forward to taking part for five years since I became old enough to, but I just couldn’t win my way into the main tournament. I was finally able to play and it’s been a lot of fun and a valuable experience.’ Whereupon, Mitsunari Horimoto, professional 2-dan, who was beside her, took her to task: ‘How conventional.’ Noriko countered: ‘But I’m just telling the truth. It really was fun.’
Benjamin Teuber of Germany: ‘This was my second time, so I wasn’t as surprised as I was the first time, not knowing what would happen. But it’s a high-standard event, and I had fun this year.’
Finally, the time came to end the party. We would like to close this report with the words of the MC Yoshiko Inaba.
Inaba: ‘All the staff will work hard to make the next tournament more rewarding and to enable more people to take part. We would like to request all of you to do your best to popularize Pair Go. While hoping to have a chance to meet all of you again, we would like to bring the 20th International Amateur pair Go Championship to an end. See you next year!’
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Winners : Ye Seul Song and Sang Heun Lee (Korea)
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