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Choi Chulhan

White:  CHOI Chulhan (Korea) 9p
Black: KANG Dongyoon (Korea) 9p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

This is an all-Korean final for the 2012 SAWMG Men’s Individual title. The players are top Korean players who have confidence in their reading abilities, which are on full display in this exciting game…

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Li He (left) vs Rui Naiwei

White:  RUI Naiwei (China) 9p
Black: LI He (China) 3p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Rui is a strong fighter, as well as a tenacious player. She’s been at or close to the top of the women’s game for quite a while now. Li, on the other hand, is a new young player who’s recently become very prominent in women’s go…

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Russia (left) vs Canada

White:  SHA, LIN (Canada)
Black: KOVALEVA, SHIKSHIN (Russia)

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock. 

This game is a good example of the players consciously using Pair Go tactics and techniques, such as setting each other up or the use of forcing moves to allow one’s partner to make a strategic choice…

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Murakawa Daisuke, who was born near Osaka, made professional shodan with the Kansai Kiin at age 11. He has been a frequent member of the Japanese team at the International New Stars tournament, where he has played alongside such current greats as Iyama Yuta and Xie Yimin in competition against young professional teams from China, Chinese Taipei, and Korea. This year, just before the World Mind Games began he earned a place in the Japanese Meijin League, and he celebrated his 22nd birthday during the individual competition in Beijing.

Ranka: How did you get started playing go?
Murakawa: At home, my father and grandfather played go, so I got interested and started playing when I was five year old. Then when I was eight, I became an insei.

Ranka: You’re also known as a student of the Korean language. How did you get started at that?
Murakawa: I go to Korea three times a year to take part in the preliminary rounds of international tournaments. I thought it would be nice to know the language, so I started studying it. I also buy Korean go books. But I’m still in the process of learning the spoken language, and I can’t read the books at all.

Ranka: Are there any particular Korean players whose games interest you, or with whom you have made friends?
Murakawa: I’m interested in the games of Park Jeonghwan, who played here, and Kim Jiseok, 8-dan. As for making friends, quite a few Korean pros can speak Japanese, so I’ve gotten to know them that way.

Ranka: How did the World Mind Games turn out for you as whole?
Murakawa: Although I wasn’t able to beat any of the Chinese and Korean players, the bronze medal in pair go made it come out all right in the end.

Ranka: Thank you.

Murakawa Daisuke (left) and Mukai Chiaki

Though not a title winner in Japan, Mukai Chiaki has challenged for women’s titles six times, and was promoted this year to 5 dan. She has frequently represented Japan in international competition, and has done well in team and pair competition at both SportAccord World Mind Games, earning three bronze medals. Ranka spoke with her after the individual competition, in which she defeated Su Sheng-fang of Chinese Taipei in between losses to Rui Naiwei of China and Choi Jeong of Korea, and again after the pair competition.

Ranka: How do you feel about the games you played in the individual competition?
Mukai: Aside from losing two of them, I’m dissatisfied with the way I played. I wasn’t playing well.

Ranka: And the pair competition?
Mukai: I’m glad that we were able to win a medal. I only wish we had been able to do a little better. Overall, I hope I can put my experience here to good use the next time I compete.

Ranka: How do you compare the team competition last year with the individual competition this year?
Mukai: There wasn’t that much difference. In a team tournament each individual game is a factor in whether the team wins or loses, so regardless of whether it’s a team tournament or an individual tournament, you have the same feeling as you play. But with a team tournament, there’s an additional sense of team spirit.

Ranka: Given the opportunity, do you want to play in the SportAccord World Mind Games again next year?
Mukai: Yes, I do.

Ranka: Thank you.

Natalia Kovaleva (left) and Ilya Shikshin

Natalia Kovaleva began competing in tournaments in the far east in 2004, when she and Alexei Lazarev won three games at the International Amateur Pair Go Championship in Tokyo. A high point in her career so far came at the World Mind Sports Games in Beijing in 2008, where she won a game from a Japanese professional opponent. For the past couple of years she has been working for the Russian Go Federation. Ranka spoke with her after the first pair round, in which she and Ilya Shikshin lost to Japan’s Mukai Chiaki and Murakawa Daisuke.

Ranka: Please tell us about the place where you grew up and how you learned to play go.
Kovaleva: I was born in Chelyabinsk, which is a city of about a million people in the Ural moutains, already in Asia. I lived there until two years ago, when I moved to Moscow where I live now. So Chelyabinsk is where I started to play go, when I was seven years old. I began because my older brother played go. At first I saw go as a game that children play, and then it became a way for me to travel.

Ranka: Please tell us about your job with the Russian Go Federation.
Kovaleva: I help to organize tournaments, master classes, and other events like that.

Ranka: Who teaches at the master classes?
Kovaleva: I do. I also have time to study the game myself and learn more about it.

Ranka: Are you enjoying the World Mind Games?
Kovaleva: Yes, of course, of course. Except for the weather it has been a very good tournament. I like having so many different games here: chess, bridge, and the other games. It’s interesting to talk with the players of these other games. It’s also been very good as a go tournament because so many very strong players are here, and it’s turning out very well for me.

Ranka: What has been your best game here?
Kovaleva: I guess the pair-go game against the Japanese pair. It was a very interesting game, and I like to play pair go. In my opinion pair go is more interesting than playing single.

Ranka: Thank you.

Three-time European champion Ilya Shikshin comes from a go-playing family that includes his sister Svetlana, who has played professionally in Korea. A short English-language biography of Ilya can be found on Svetlana’s website.
At the World Mind Games he lost to Japanese and Chinese opponents in the first two rounds of individual competition to earn a five-day break, after which he partnered with Natalia Kovaleva in the pair competition and took fifth place, best among the pairs from outside the far east. Ranka talked with him after the first round of the pair event.

Ranka: Are you enjoying the World Mind Games?
Shikshin: Oh yes, but given the length of the tournament, I thought there would be more programs planned, perhaps some entertainment.

Ranka: Please tell us about where you live in Russia and how you learned to play go.
Shikshin: I was born in Kazan and I still live there. Kazan is a big city with a population of about one million people, sometimes referred to as the third Russian capital. My father started teaching me to play go when I was five. He taught at a chess school, but he had his own go class there. He had lots of pupils and I made fast progress because I was able to play with other kids who were at the same level.

Ranka: And you’ve also studied in the far east. Please tell us about that.
Shikshin: I’ve been to Korea many times, most often in the summer. I think I’ve lived there about one and a half years. I first went in 2002, staying for two months. The next time was in 2003, and then in 2006. In 2008 I stayed for nine months. I visited many Korean go schools and trained a lot. I played many games with Korean kids. One school in particular that I attended was the Golden Bell, located near the Korean Baduk Association in central Seoul. It was a small school with only eight students, but I hear that now it has grown quite big, and that some of its students have become professionals.

Ranka: Is there any particular professional player whose games you particularly admire?
Shikshin: Of the professionals here at the World Mind Games my favorite is Choi Chulhan. I think he is one of the strongest players in the world, maybe the strongest after Lee Sedol. I really like to watch his games. I played against Murakawa Daisuke from Japan in both the individual and pair competitions, and both times I felt that there were chances to win. I think European players might be able to reach his level. My feeling is that if European players studied harder they could compete with the Japanese, but not with Choi Chulhan.

Ranka: Thank you.

Rita Pocsai (left) and Csaba Mero

Ranka interviewed the Hungarian pair, Rita Pocsai and Csaba Mero, after their loss to the Chinese pair in the first round of the pair-go competition at the World Mind Games.

Ranka: Please tell us how you began playing go.
Pocsai: I got into the game easily because my father was very active in it. He taught me to play when I was six or seven years old, and then we started going to tournaments together.
Mero: I also learned from my father, when I was twelve or thirteen. He was about 3 kyu. It took me perhaps a year to overtake him. I started going to tournaments in 1994, I think, but that was a long time ago and I don’t remember the details.

Ranka: Have you studied go in the far east?
Pocsai: Not at all.
Mero: After winning the European Championship I really wanted to go to Japan to study. Finally in 1999 I was invited by Kobayashi Chizu, and spent two and a half years in Japan as an insei.

Ranka: An what are you doing now?
Pocsai: I’m a university student, studying special education. This came from teaching go to children in schools. I taught at many schools. I got the feeling that I liked being with children, and I got the idea of using go as a form of therapy. I don’t know how it will turn out; we shall see.
Mero: I’m working for a multinational company, doing statistical programming. That’s something like data science. You’ve got a lot of data, you have to clean it, you have model it, make predictions, that sort of thing. Not much connection with go.

Ranka: Are you enjoying the World Mind Games?
Pocsai: Yes, I am. I’ve lost all my games so far, but it’s been very nice to watch the other games and play against some strong players.
Mero: It’s nice to be here again.

Ranka: What are your future plans?
Pocsai: Well, the first step is to get my university degree.
Mero: I’ll keep on playing go, of course, but conditions in Europe are not very good for a go player who has a family to support. You can’t make a living at it. For that matter, even if I could make a living by playing go professionally, go would then become a job rather than the pleasure it is now, and maybe a different job would suit me better. If it became possible to play professionally, I suppose I would give it a try once in my life, but by the time it does become possible I suppose I’ll already be too old.

Ranka: How often have you been to China and what is your impression of the country?
Pocsai: I think this is my fifth time. I like China very much, but for me, although Beijing is a nice city, it seems very crowded and noisy and the buildings are huge. I prefer to visit smaller and more natural places. For example, last month I was in Suzhou for a women’s world championship (the Bingsheng Cup). It was up in the mountains and it was beautiful.
Mero: I’ve been to China three times, always to Beijing. I’m dying to see other parts of China as well.

Ranka: Thank you.

Vanessa Wong (left) and Jan Hora

During the gold medal individual matches, Ranka had a chance to speak with European women’s champion Vanessa Wong.

Ranka: Where were you born, and when did you move to Great Britain?
Wong: I was born in Hong Kong, but when I was starting middle school, I came to England to go to boarding school. My parents thought the British schools were better than the schools in Hong Kong. I went to the Shrewsbury School. Shrewsbury is a small town, far from London, close to Wales.

Ranka: Do you like boarding school?
Wong: Yes, I do. You learn to be independent, and there’s less parental control.

Ranka: And when did you start playing go?
Wong: When I was a schoolgirl in Hong Kong. My father liked to play, so he taught me. He’s 2 dan in Hong Kong, but he’d be about shodan or 1 kyu in Europe. It took me a year or two to catch up with him.

Ranka: How have you been doing in European tournaments?
Wong: I’ve finished second twice in the European Youth Championship, second last year and first this year in the European Women’s Championship, and 22nd this year at the European Go Congress.

Ranka: Have you studied go in the far east since moving to Shrewsbury?
Wong: I went to China to study go in 2008, and spent three months in Korea in 2009 at the Chong-am Dojang. That’s the go school that produced Lee Sedol.

Ranka: Who are your current rivals?
Wong: Lukas Podpera in Czechia is my main rival. He’s the same age as me, so I guess we were born to be rivals. Mateusz Surma in Poland is another rival, although actually we’re all three good friends.

Ranka: What are your future plans?
Wong: I hope to go to a university, and to play go professionally. I want to reach a level of go that I can be satisfied with. I’ll probably play professionally in Europe, because that’s where I have the most contacts.

Ranka: What are your outside interests and hobbies?
Wong: None in particular. I spend my time on my school studies and on go.

Ranka: You seem to be a serious girl.
Wong: Yes, I like to take things seriously.

Ranka: Thank you.

China (left) vs Korea

White:  LI, WEIJIE (China)
Black: CHOI, CHOI (Korea)

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock. 

This is another high-level pair go match that’s virtually indistinguishable from a regular one-on-one game. As in the second-round game between China and Japan, the outcome of the game is determined by the fight in the center, and, also as in that game, there’s a late-stage turn of fortune that’s decisive….

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China (left) vs Japan

White:  LI, WEIJIE (China)
Black: CHIAKI, MURAKAWA (Japan)

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock. 

This second-round match featured the Chinese team playing the Japanese team for a berth in the finals. With only two minor exceptions, the game is virtually indistinguishable from a top one-on-one match, showing how seriously Pair Go is now taken….

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The final round of the pair go competition started promptly at 9:30 a.m. on December 19 with chief referee Hua Yigang presiding. Only three boards were set up in the playing room at the Beijing International Convention Center. Befitting pair go, each board was attended by either a female referee and schoolboy game recorder or a male referee and schoolgirl game recorder.

Korean pair signing a commemorative go board

At board 1 the Chinese pair were playing the Korean pair for the gold and silver medals. Television cameras were set up to broadcast their game to a live television and YouTube audience around the world, with Michael Redmond and Chris Garlock providing commentary in English. Li He took a handful of white stones and Choi Jeong guessed even/odd correctly; the Korean pair would play black. At board 2, where the Japanese pair was playing the pair from Chinese Taipei for the bronze medal, Mukai Chiaki took a handful of white stones and Joanne Missingham guessed incorrectly, giving the Japanese pair the black stones. At board 3, where the Canadian and Russian pairs were playing for fifth place, Irene Sha’s wrong guess gave the Russian pair the black stones. Opinions are still divided as to whether playing black is an advantage or a disadvantage. Statistics seem to indicate that with the 3-3/4 stone (7.5-point) compensation the game is just about even, but at least black has the better chance to plan the opening.

On board 1, Choi Jeong’s and Choi Chulhan’s opening plan seemed to be to build a gigantic framework embracing the lower-right third of the board while leaving a weak group floating in the top left. No sooner had their framework been mapped out than white invaded it. Soon both sides had weak groups and the fighting was on.

Japanese pair

On board 2 Mukai Chiaki and Murakawa Daisuke used the same Chinese opening with which they had come close to defeating the Chinese pair the previous day. After fifteen moves today’s game was off on a different course as white first let black into the bottom left corner in order to frame the left side, and then let black into the left side in order to take the initiative elsewhere.

On board 3, Natalia Kovaleva and Ilya Shikshin placed the first two black stones on the star points in the top right and bottom right corners. Following some skirmishing on the left side they occupied the third star point on the right side. White promptly invaded the right side, but black cut the invaders apart and then skillfully sacrificed three black stones to chase white to safety while amassing a huge amount of secure black territory.

The Russian’s main remaining problem was in the bottom left corner, where white started a ko. The ko was indirect for white, however, and although white eventually won it and removed the black corner group from the board, black’s ko threats were enough to win the game by 2-3/4 stones (5.5 points). The Russian pair takes fifth place, as Natalia Kovaleva had already done in the individual competition.

Chinese Taipei pair

Meanwhile, on board 1 both sides were nipping away at each other’s weak groups. After assuring the safety of their top left group by linking it with the lower side, the Korean pair felt bold enough to invade the bottom left corner and form a new living black group there. In retaliation, the Chinese pair started a ko for the life of a black group on the upper side. To win this ko black had to let white kill the bottom left corner, but black then took seven stones in the center in return, and with this the game began to resolve itself into a win for the Koreans. The Chinese pair played on for nearly sixty more moves, exhausted the possibilities of the endgame, and then resigned, Li He adding a silver medal to her individual gold, Jiang Weijie winning his first SportAccord medal. Choi Jeong and Choi Chulhan added the gold medals to the gold and bronze medals that they had won in individual competitions.

The game between the pairs from Japan and Chinese Taipei was the last to finish, continuing for 316 moves and ending in victory for the Japanese pair by a bare 3/4 stone (1.5 points). It had been close all the way. ‘There were times at which we seemed to be a little behind,’ Murakawa Daisuke said afterward,’ but in the endgame my partner took risks to go for victory, and it worked out.’ Murakawa now has his first SportAccord bronze medal and Mukai Chiaki has her third, after winning two in the team and pair events last year. Joanne Missingham and Lin Chi-han receive an honorable mention for fourth place, and on all three boards, it was black that won.

Pair Go Award Ceremony

The medals were awarded at an afternoon ceremony in the Beijing International Convention Center. Mr Zhang Fengchao, president of the Beijing Dynamic City Development Foundation, placed the bronze medals around the necks of Mukai Chiaki and Murakawa Daisuke, the silver medals around the necks of Li He and Jiang Weijie, and the gold medals around the necks of Choi Jeong and Choi Chulhan. The audience stood, the Korean national anthem was played, and the two Korean gold medalists put their hands on their hearts while the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese flags were raised.

Though smaller than the rewards for the individual competition, the monetary prizes in the pair competition are still substantial: $24,000 goes to the gold medal pair, $16,000 to the silver medal pair, and $8000 to the bronze medal pair. It should also be noted that in both the individual and pair events, prize money was set aside for all players, even for those who lost all their games. In pair go the 4th-place pair from Chinese Taipei will return richer by $6000, the 5th- and 6th-place pairs from Russia and Canada richer by $4000 per pair, and the 7th- and 8th-place pairs from Hungary and the European Union richer by $2000 per pair.

In the go competition at the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games, whether you count prize money, number of medals, or number of golds, the Koreans came out on top overall, with China second. But if you look at the games as a whole, Chinese athletes won medals in bridge, chess, go, and xiangqi–every discipline except draughts. Not only does this incredible country deserve high praise for hosting this incredible event; they deserve equally high praise for their performance in it.

- James Davies

Michael Redmond (left) and Sun Naijing

White:  Michael REDMOND  9p
Black: SUN Naijing 6d

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

Sun, an amateur 6-dan, played very strongly in this limited-time exhibition game on Sunday, December 16; his play in the opening was professional level and he showed great fighting spirit. Sun was the winner of the Pandanet-SportAccord Online Go Tournament and an official guest at the World Mind Games in Beijing…

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Li He (left) and Chen Yaoye

The second round of the pair-go competition started at 3:00 p.m. Deputy tournament director Michael Redmond presided over the start of the round, and then moved to join Chris Garlock in the live commentary booth to report on the China-Japan game to a worldwide YouTube audience. In this game China’s Li He and Jiang Weijie were playing white against Japan’s Mukai Chiaki and Murakawa Daisuke. On the adjacent board Korea’s Choi Jeong and Choi Chulhan were playing black against Chinese Taipei’s Joanne Missingham and Lin Chi-han. In the fifth-place play-off, the Russians (Natalia Kovaleva and Ilya Shikshin) were paired against the Hungarians (Rita Pocsai and Csaba Mero), while the Canadians (Irene Sha and Bill Lin) were playing the British-Czech pair representing the European Union (Vanessa Wong and Jan Hora).

The two playoff games were the first to end. Both featured the comparatively peaceful construction of large territories. In the game between the Hungarian and Russian pairs the white Russian territory turned out to be larger, making the 3-3/4 stone compensation unnecessary. With only a few moves left to be played, the Hungarians resigned.

In the game between the Canadian and European pairs, it was black (Canada) that had more territory, and the margin was larger than the compensation. Not only that, but at the very end of the game, when the liberties were filled, it transpired that some black stones that had seemed dead inside one of one of the white territories had a ko left in them. Facing the loss of roughly eighty points in the ko fight, the European champions resigned.

The China-Japan game was the next to end, in a tragedy for Japan. After two hours of play in which they had given up ten stones in the center of the board, the Japanese pair seemed on the verge of proving the soundness of the sacrifice when an avoidable ko broke out in the top left corner. Had the ko been avoided, the Japanese pair would have been nearly ten points ahead. Instead, they won the ko fight, but at a disastrous unforeseen cost in the lower left, and resigned at 5:20.

The fourth game was played out to the end and counted, but it was not close. No large groups died, but the Korean pair captured seven more stones during the game than their opponents from Chinese Taipei, and this proved to be essentially their margin of victory: they won by 6-3/4 stones (13.5 points).

Tomorrow morning the Chinese and Korean pairs play for the gold and silver medals while the pairs from Chinese Taipei and Japan contend for the bronze medal. Both games promise to be spectacular. Simultaneously, the Canadians play the Russians for fifth place, and since the Canadians have just defeated the European champion pair, this game should be spectacular too.

- James Davies

Hungary (left) vs China

The pair-go competition in the 2012 Beijing SportAccord World Mind Games was held, like the men’s and women’s individual competitions, on the second floor of the Beijing International Conference Center. Michael Redmond, deputy tournament director, gave the opening instructions for round 1 at 9:30 a.m. on December 18. Ms Taki of the Pair-Go Association was also in attendance. Four far-eastern pairs were paired against four pairs from outside the far east: Li He and Chen Yaoye (China) were playing Rita Pocsai and Csaba Mero (Hungary); Choi Jeong and Choi Chulhan (Korea) were playing Irene Sha and Bill Lin (Canada); Mukai Chiaki and Murakawa Daisuke (Japan) were playing Natalia Kovaleva and Ilya Shikshin (Russia); Joanne Missingham and Lin Chi-han (Chinese Taipei) were playing Vanessa Wong and Jan Hora (Great Britain and Czechia, the European champion pair, representing the European Union). The Russian pair drew white. On other boards the far-eastern pair got white.

Vanessa Wong (left) and Jan Hora

In the China-Hungary game the Hungarian pair started out with a diagonal opening, which has become somewhat unusual. Their game was the first to end, when White 106 revealed that an eyeless group of about ten black stones in the center of the board was about to be cut off. Csaba Mero raised his white card to propose resignation and his partner raised her white card to indicate assent.

The other three games also ended in victory by resignation for the far eastern pairs, but they were closer, all lasting over 200 moves and concluding without the death of any large groups. The young Canadian pair came the closest; they were some five stones (10 points) behind when they resigned to the Koreans. The Canadians also sacrified more stones during their game than the European pairs, demonstrating even in defeat that sacrifice can be a sound strategy.The far eastern pairs now move on into the afternoon round of the knockout, while the other pairs move into the first round of the playoff for fifth place.

- James Davies

White:  LIN Chi-han (Chinese Taipei) 9p
Black: KANG Dongyoon (Korea) 6p

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

The winner of this game goes to the final, against Choi Chulhan 9P, with the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games title and $100,000 on the line…

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Su Sheng-fang

Su Sheng-fang, the 16-year-old pro from Chinese Taipei, was one of the eight unseeded players in the women’s division. She came to the World Mind Games with her mother, who lent moral support during the following interview with Ranka.

Ranka: First, please tell us about the three games you played here against Irene Sha, Park Jieun, and Mukai Chiaki.
Su: All three of them were very strong. In the last two games I tried hard to win, but I wasn’t able to.

Ranka: How old were you when you started to play go?
Su: I was eight. I was a noisy child and I wasn’t good at arithmetic, so Mother started sending me to a go club. She thought it would do me good.

Ranka: And then?
Su: A year or so after that I became an insei, and then last year I made professional shodan.

Ranka: What tournaments have you won so far?
Su: Quite a lot of amateur tournaments. I was women’s champion in Chinese Taipei three years in a row.

Ranka: Have you played in other international tournaments before this one?
Su: Yes, seven times, six times in China and once in Korea. But this is my first SportAccord event.

Ranka: Is there any professional player that you particularly admire?
Su: Lee Sedol.

Ranka: What are your outside interests and hobbies?
Su: Singing and dancing. I like street dancing, sort of like what we saw at the Opening Ceremony.

Ranka: Thank you.

Natalia Kovaleva

White: Joanne MISSINGHAM (Chinese Taipei) 6p
Black: Natalia KOVALEVA (Russia) 5d

Commentary by Michael Redmond 9p, transcribed by Chris Garlock 

I saw Kovaleva (Russia) in Japan recently at the Pair Go Championships, where she and her partner were among the stronger pairs, and she did well here this week in the SportAccord World Mind Games Women’s Individual event.
In this game against Joanne Missingham 6P of Taiwan, Kovaleva’s attack backfires when Missingham counter-attacks with a devastating ko…

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Mu Ying (standing)

December 17 dawned clear and cold in Beijing, excellent weather for a group of World Mind Games players and officials from China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, and North America to pay an afternoon visit to the Shuang Huayuan campus of the Beijing Chaoyang Fangcaodi International school to take on thirty-three primary schoolchildren in simultaneous games. Upon arrival, the visitors were ushered into the gymnasium, where 33 young opponents, uniformed in blue and white trainers, were seated at go boards waiting for them. Ms Mu Ying, the school’s principal, welcomed the group with a brisk speech in which she explained that the school had 450 teachers and 4400 students, including 800 foreign students from countries all over the world. The students are distributed over eight campuses so that almost all of them can walk to school. Since 2003 the school has had a sports club program that includes chess, xiangqi, and go. The go club boasts nearly 100 members, who meet to study and play go four days a week. They also play online and participate in provincial tournaments, including an annual Fangcao Cup that is attended by 600 primary school players.

Play began immediately after the welcoming speech. The schoolchildren, dressed in blue and white trainers, put nine stones down on their boards. Sixteen World Mind Games players and officials, including vice tournament director Michael Redmond and women’s gold medalist Li He, set to work. While they were playing, Ms Xie Yujuan, who leads the youth club program at the school, explained that the strongest of the school players were a pair of 2-dan boys, who were taking on China’s Tianyuan Chen Yaoye and Chinese Taipei’s bronze medalist Lin Chi-han.

Both of these boys played well but lost large groups of stones. The three boys who played Li He found their groups getting into similar trouble. ‘We’re totally outclassed,’ one said to another. On other boards the story was generally the same, but Japan’s Mukai Chiaki saved the day for the home team by making sure that one of her two opponents won his game. Win or lose, it was clear that, as Ms Xie said, these kids love to play go, and their enthusiasm was infectious; the visiting players were having a good time too.

Most of the players had finished their games by the time the end of the match was announced. The visitors presented the home team with souvenirs, which were received by two of the shoolchildren, and Ms Mu presented the visiting officials and organizers with letters of thanks. And then the visitors bundled themselves onto the buses that took them back to the Beijing Continental Grand Hotel in plenty of time for dinner.

- James Davies