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At the Honmaru Palace within Nagoya Castle in Nagoya, Japan on September 27th, Ichiriki Ryo 9p and Fujisawa Rina 8p from Japan prevailed over Xu Haohong 9p and Yang Zixuan 6p to win the 2026 Pair Go World Championship and claim the 5 million yen top prize. The Ichiriki/Fujisawa pair navigated the game smoothly from the beginning, and a decisive cut quickly led to a Xu/Yang's large dragon being slayed and the game concluding after only 146 moves. In the 3rd place match, Wang Xinghao 9p/Yu Zhiying 8p from China defeated Iyama Yuta 9p/Ueno Asami 6p from Japan. This was the first professional international Pair Go competition held since 2019.

Meanwhile in central Nagoya, the two US pairs battled valiantly in the final two rounds of the 35th International Amateur Pair Go Championship, which took place at the Nagoya Tokyu Hotel. Going into the fourth round, both pairs stood at a respectable 2-1 record. However, they faced stiff competition with the Eric Lee 6d/Annie Wagner 3d pair facing off against Hu Yuqing 8d/Chen Si 7d from China (the 2025 champions), and the Edward Zhang 5d/Yinli Wang 5d pair facing off against Hino Daichi 8d/Baba Tomoyumi 6d from Japan. Both US pairs were defeated, and after a lunch break came up short in the final round against the pairs from Germany and Singapore respectively to finish the tournament at 17th and 18th place.

After the tournament concluded, there was a casual friendship match between all of the competitors from the IAPGC, Matsuda Cup (World Students Pair Go Championship), Araki Cup (Pair Go tournament for local Japanese players), guest officials, and the 16 pros who competed in the Pair Go World Championship. The pairs were chosen mostly randomly, so this was a rare opportunity for international players to connect with local Japanese players and those from other countries, but also for select lucky players to pair with or play against some of the top professional players in the world.

Happening just before the friendship match at the same venue was the Neo Human (NH) Pair Go Exhibition Match, a new event consisting of the champions and runner-ups of the Pair Go World Championship against the respective champion and runner-up of the Pandanet Cup NH Pair Go Tournament, which was held earlier in the year. The event commemorates the launch of the "Ai Research Group Using Pair Go as a Platform", which explores the collaboration between humans and AI as the world continues to move towards increasingly advanced technology. Iyama Yuta 9p and Shibano Toramaru 9p were the respective champion and runner-up of the domestic tournament that consisted of several qualifiers in which professional players would play Pair Go with AI as their partners. In the exhibition match, both NH pairs defeated the purely human opposing pairs.

The result itself may appear unsurprising to most, but one of the unique features of Pair Go is being able to play in harmony with your partner to launch a coordinated strategy, and the stronger pair on paper does not always win. This initiative by the Japan Pair Go Association seeks to examine how humans and AI can complement each other in a positive way that will benefit the future of human society.  Interested readers can learn more about this initiative here.

The Pair Go World Festival concluded with a banquet and award ceremony thanking the many sponsors who made the event possible and celebrating the winners of each event, including the best dressed traditional national costumes selected by prestigious fashionista Koshino Junko. Kim Jungseon 7d/Chae Hyungi 6d from South Korea went undefeated to claim top honors in the IAPGC, while Tang Zhenghe 6d/Xu Huier 5d from China were crowned champions of the Matsuda Cup.

This event is one of the few opportunities each year for Go players from around the world to engage in cross-cultural exchange and share their love for Go through Pair Go. While the game of Go has been around for thousands of years, Pair Go was invented only 36 years ago in 1990, and remains a novel lens for people to interact with the game through, build connections with each other, and promote the game to a wider audience.

The full results of all tournaments at the Pair Go World Festival can be found here.