< The Awards Ceremony >

Masatakeshi Matsuda, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Japan Pair Go Association, presented the diplomas, trophies, and prizes to the winning Xie/O pair and the runners-up, the Suzuki/Yuki pair.

Xie: 'I didn't know who was ahead in the half-pointer, but the player beside me seemed confident, so I thought that we just might have won.'
O: 'Actually, I had miscounted. I hadn't thought the game was so close. I was astonished. Though, that may have been just as well.'
Xie: 'I had never won a Pair Go tournament, so I'm really happy to finally do so. It's thanks to O Sensei.'
O: 'Until now, I was thinking about my partner while I played, but since I was paired with Xie I relaxed. I just worried about myself. [Laughter] In this game, I played the bad moves, but Xie managed to pull it off.'
Xie: 'It was a difficult game. I don't understand what happened. I was just playing by instinct. I wasn't confident in my counting either, but I think it was just luck we ended up half a point ahead.'
O: 'I was rooting for Xie in the Asian Games, and I studied various ways of playing. I'm relieved to have won.'

Suzuki: 'I played an awful move at the most crucial vital point of the decisive fight. In fact, two or three awful moves.'
Yuki: 'It can't be helped. In a sense, we lost in the Asian Games because of me.'
Suzuki: 'Thanks for letting me study with you for half a year. I absorbed a rigorousness from you that I don't have, and I hope to make use of it in individual games.'
Yuki: 'You were stronger than I expected, and I admired your play. In Pair Go, you're liable to become emotional about the moves your partner plays, but that didn't happen at all this time. It's not that I've suddenly become an adult, but that you played solidly. Thanks to you, I was able to immerse myself in go. I'm the one who should be thanking you.'

Final comments by the commentators:
Ishida 9-dan: 'The lead didn't change just a couple of times, but perhaps around ten times. Rather than an alternation of crises and interesting scenes, it was just a series of crises, making it a fierce game. That's how difficult the game was, but both sides played good go. It was really a splendid game.'
Ogawa 6-dan: 'This was a suitable game for the final. I'm really impressed with how strong Suzuki and Xie are.'