Kim Sooyoung and Park Jongwook of Korea Win Amateur Pair Go Championship
Andy Okun | Published on 12/4/2016
A Korean pair won this year's 27th International Amateur Pair Go Championship in Tokyo, besting a Taiwanese team in the finals. Kim Sooyoung and Park Jongwook of Korea beat Pai Shin-Hui and Huang Wei of Taiwan. Pai and Huang had paved the way, however, by beating a strong Chinese pair in round one of the 32-pair five round event. The US team of Jeremy Chiu and Gabriella Su (right) ended with a solid 3-2 record, losing in rounds one and three to a Japanese pair and the team from China, but beating Germany and Austria before facing a strong Russian pair, Grigorii Fionin and Elvina Kalsberg, also 2-2, in the final round. In the 3rd edition of the World Students Pair Go Championship, North American pair Amira Song of Canada and Andrew Zalesak of North Carolina went 1-3, beating the Mexican pair but failing to beat the percentages in their other games against a Japanese pair and not one, but two, Korean university pairs. A Japanese pair took first. - report by Andy Okun (standing in photo); photo by Thomas Hsiang