American Go E-Journal

China’s Yu Zhiying and Ke Jie (right) have won the 2016 Pair Go World Cup, defeating Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham and Chen Shih Iuan in the final on Sunday afternoon in Tokyo and collecting the top prize of 10 million yen ($100,000 USD). The two finalist teams earned their berths by defeating Korea’s Choi/Park and Oh/Choi (also Korea) in the semifinals on Sunday morning. Korea’s Choi Jeong and Park Junghwan took third place. Click here for complete standings and details. The tournament field was comprised of 32 players in 16 teams, three teams from Japan, two teams each from China, Korea, Taipei and Europe, and one each from North America,  Central/South America, Oceania/Africa, Asia and one team made of the winners of the 26th Amateur Pair Go Championship (who are from Korea).

The remainder of the field participated in a unique Friendship Shuffle Match on Sunday, in which partners were randomly shuffled and brand new pairs formed. As on Saturday, hundreds of local go fans packed the hall to watch the matches and game commentaries.
– report/photos by Chris Garlock. Photo at left (l-r): Ko Rei Bun, Francisco d’Albuquerque, Nei Wei Ping, Takemiya Masaki and Michael Redmond study one of Sunday morning’s matches.