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| Report of the Lot-Drawing Meeting |
| The Ricoh Cup Professional Pair Go Championship 2006 will be held soon. It is the 12th Championship which is a colorful event played by 32 male and female, 16 pairs, of the top professionals. As a customary event at the end of the year in the Go world, this championship is well known among professionals and Go fans. Not only the exciting games but also what attracts people is the pairing. On the 11th of October, at Hotel Edmont in Iidabashi, Tokyo, the lottery to decide the pairing was held. |
The one who first came was Ayumi Suzuki 3dan. `I came too early.’ She said scratching her head and looking a little nervous. On that day, there were many male professionals who were absent because of the Meijin Title Match and the World Tournament in China but female professionals, Kaori Chinen Women’s Honinbo Women’s Kisei and Kikuyo Aoki 8dan who was the winner last year and others started to arrive. All of them said `I want to draw by myself.’ and they seemed to be very spirited.
Masaki Takemiya 9dan, who will do commentary of the 1st and 2nd rounds and Akiko Tsukuda 4dan, the assistant, joined and all the stars were there. |
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One MC was, this year too, Ms. Mika Takanishi, a TV announcer from Nihon TV.
Before the lottery, at first, Ichiro Yoshikuni, the honorary president of the Japan Pair Go Association, made a speech. |
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| Yoshikuni said, `I’d like to thank Ricoh Company for the cooperation. This is the 12th championship. Same as the twelve zodiacal signs, I believe that it has come full circle. New members joined and I hope to see the interesting pairings so I am looking forward to it.’ |
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Next was a toast. Mr. Hiroshi Hamada, a top advisor of Ricoh, made a speech for the toast.
Mr. Hamada said, ` This championship, which we can hold for the 12th time, is possible because of the cooperation and support from all the professionals. The number of fans has been increasing and last year, 2,600 people gathered at the championship. For a lot of fans, they don’t have much chance to see professionals. And at this championship, it is wonderful that they can not only see professionals but also they can actually see them playing. I hope you all can show the great games to fans.’ |
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| Then, Mr. Hamada said, `One more request’ and when he added ` The pair, Kikuyo Aoki 8dan and Tomoyasu Mimura 9dan, who were the winners last year are strong. Please other pairs break the record of them winning again.’ Aoki 8dan smiled with composure (?). |
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