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The final of the Ricoh Cup Professional Pair Go Championship 2006, which fans are paying attention to, was held at Ebisu, The Garden Hall, the same as the 1st and 2nd rounds.
The pairs who fought through to the final are Ayumi Suzuki 3dan and U Cho Meijin Oza pair and Izumi Kobayashi the Strongest Women Player and Keigo Yamashita 9dan pair. Both pairs won 4 games with no loss. They did not play the consolation game of the 9X9 board and they won through with overwhelming destructive power and luck of defeating.
We were told that the door opens from 12:30 but an hour before that, by 11:30, there was already a long line of people at the reception. The cold weather could not stop fans who expected an exciting game from coming. |
At first, Tomoko Ogawa 6dan who was an assistant at the commentary arrived then followed by Hideo Otake Honorary Gosei, a chief judge, and Ayumi Suzuki 3 dan. Suzuki 3dan saw the game room which looked completely different from the semi final and said with exclamation.
`It is great. I’m surprised.’
The line of fans at the entrance was getting longer and longer, and it was not good to make them wait in the cold outside for a long time so the opening time was moved 20 minuets earlier and the reception opened at 12:10. Eagerly waiting fans voted the quiz of guessing the winner and they started to be seated at good places to watch the big Go board. The number of people who came to observe on the day was 1100 people. The big hall was quickly full and even some people had to watch standing. |
At 12:15, U Cho Meijin Oza and Izumi Kobayashi the Strongest Woman Player arrived together. Later, I heard from Cho Meijin that they, the husband and wife, were talking `It doesn’t matter who wins but let’s play with fun and have a great game.’
They went into the same waiting room together. The Kobayashi and Yamashita pair had a waiting room next to it but 3 of them, U Cho Meijin Oza, Izumi Kobayashi the Strongest Woman Player and Ayumi Suzuki 3dan are members of a society for the study of Go and since Keigo Yamashita 9dan had not arrived, 3 of them had lunch peacefully in the Suzuki and Cho pair’s waiting room.
At 12:50, Keigo Yamashita 9dan arrived. He had just come back from the 2nd round of the Kisei Title Match the day before. Because 3 players were gathered in the same waiting room, Yamashita 9dan, too, went into their room. After they finished interviewing with the reporters, till the game started, the 4 of them, calmly reviewed the game of the Kisei Title Match. |
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