From 8th to 10th of August, an extraordinary Go event took place in Osaka, Japan, right in the heart of World Expo 2025. Several competitions were held in parallel, both amateur and professional.
Traditionally, the World Pair Go Championships are played in Tokyo every December: the World Amateur Pair Go Championship and the Student World Amateur Pair Go Championship. In recent years, the World Pair Go Official Handicap Tournament has also gained popularity. This time, however, Osaka introduced something new: for the very first time, young players were invited to compete in the U15 Pair Go World Tournament. At the same time, the Professional Pair Go Championship took place right next to the amateur events, featuring some of the biggest names in the Go world, including Iyama Yuta 9p, Ichiriki Ryo 9p, and Risa Ueno 3p (winner of the 2025 Senko Cup).
Austria was proudly represented in the Handicap Tournament by Bin Hu (2k) and Cherry Hu (3k), who achieved an outstanding result! The pairings were based on Pandanet ranks, which had to be verified before the tournament. Sixteen pairs were split randomly into two groups, each playing three rounds. Bin and Cherry dominated Group A, winning all their games (3/3) – an amazing achievement, congratulations!
In the U15 Pair Go World Tournament, Europe was represented by Lilly Hu (1d) and Stjepan Medak (5d) from Croatia. They faced seven strong pairs from Asia and North America. Lilly and Stjepan started strong with a win against one of the Japanese pairs, but then faced tough opponents from China and Taiwan, losing the following two rounds. In the end, the Korean pair took first place.
This was not the end for Lilly and Stjepan. The next day, they joined the Araki Cup, a traditional handicap Pair Go tournament in which Li Ting 1p also participated many years ago. They played brilliantly, winning all their games (4/4) and finishing second in their group! Considering their young age, this is only the beginning of their Pair Go journey.
