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Amateur Pair Go report

Korean pair Jeon Yujin-Song Hongsuk won the 26th International Amateur Pair Go Champion in Tokyo held December 5-6 at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont. Amy Wang 4D and Danny Ko 7D represented the United States. It was the second time the two had represented the US. "Amy represented in 2013 and I represented in 2014, so we pretty much knew the drill," says Ko. There were 32 teams including 12 Japanese pairs. "We drew a difficult first round match-up and fell to one of the strong Japanese pairs (7 Dan male and 6 Dan female) on Saturday morning (Dec 5). The game was somewhat competitive but we fell behind after a mid-game fight and lost about 10 points." 

After the first round, players and guests prepared for the goodwill game wearing national costumes. "Amy and I decided to wear 'old western' costumes. It was a great chance to meet other players and guests. I paired with a 6 Dan Japanese lady and played against Hajin Lee 3P and a Japanese 6-dan male player (left). It was my first time to play Hajin although we have been good friends for many years." "Sunday morning, we played Indonesia in the second round. We led the game with comfortable margin and won the game by resignation," Ko told the E-Journal. "We drew the one of Japanese pairs (7-dan male and 5-dan female) again in the third round. The game was very competitive and both teams had many chances throughout the game. We pretty much lost the game at the last fight and lost about 5 points." In the 4th and 5th rounds, the US team played Mongolia and Finland. winning both games in less than 100 moves by resignation. Their 3-2 result  resulted in 16th place for the US. "The result was a little disappointing since we were hoping to win four games," says Ko. "But we played very competitively against two Japanese pairs so it was not a bad performance. Click here for complete results.